Is anybody watching "House" tuesday night on Fox?
It's a doctor show, starring Hugh Laurie as a disagreeable, cantankerous, annoying, lazy, scruffy (in otherwords, hollywood's notion of "colorful") diagnostician in a New Jersey hospital. Mary and I were curious to see Laurie in a dramatic roll, having only seen him as a looney comic in the British comedy series "Blackadder."

He's quite good! The show's format is that a patient comes in with a problem that completely stumps all the doctors, so House and his staff of Bright Young Attractive Specialists take over. The case always takes sudden and unexpected turns, the diagnoses always bounce around like a Superball, and of course House always figures out what the problem is by the end.

The main conclusion I've come to is that I never want to be in this hospital!! Where in NJ is this place so I can avoid it? Every week, the poor patient is tortured by experimantal treatments, made worse by incorrect drugs for an incorrect diagnosis, and occasionally dies - several times - before the real cause (usually the most obscure disease the writers could find) is finally discovered and treated. Half the time I think I'm looking at a medeival torture session!

Despite that, we're enjoying the show. Laurie is indeed a good actor, and makes us like the cantankerous old cliche character despite itself.

Like you, I started watching because of Hugh Laurie. I've kept watching because I think it's darn good.

Darn..Thought you were talking about the movie with William Katt...

I had mercifully forgotten about that one. :freak:

Cantankerous? :confused:

John P, you should guest star as a rival cantankerous doctor. :jest:

I rather like the show and started watching because of Hugh Laurie. I've never seen "Blackadder"; I remember him from "Jeeves and Wooster" - the series adapted from the novels of P.G. Wodehouse. Mr. Laurie fakes a pretty good American accent, I might add. And the show is "Sherlock in a hospital," a format that I quite enjoy.

Everyone should see Blackadder. Except for a slow first series, it's one of the most sharply witty TV shows to come out of Britain. Atkinson's Mr. Bean is sophomoric tripe in camparison. It's hard to believe he went from such genius to such lowest-common-denominator crapola.

Everyone should see Blackadder . . . It's hard to believe he went from such genius to such lowest-common-denominator crapola.

Yeah! That's what I was trying to figure out. The Blackadders that have been showing recently on BBC have been very funny. Never cared a whit for his Bean character.

Blackadder III was my favorite, with Hugh Laurie as the idiot prince.

I still have fun making up bogus words to tease people with just like in the "Dictionary" episode.

Loads of fun!

Atkinson's Mr. Bean is sophomoric tripe in camparison. It's hard to believe he went from such genius to such lowest-common-denominator crapola.Ah, there's the difference between the American and the British sense of humor. I always got the impression that Bean was a little too weird for most Americans. How can you not laugh at a man who paints a room by masking everything and then blowing up a paint can?

I love Black Adder but I just happen to prefer Bean.

Jim

I don't care what you say. No one can convince me the actor playing Dr. House is the same guy who played George on BLACKADDER.

As for BEAN, did anyone else see that special Atkinson did about physical comedy a number of years ago? It played on PBS over here. It really gives you a sense of how much thought and craft goes into that sort of humor.

As for the "lowest-common-denominator crapola" comment, do you feel the same way about Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton?

The critics were really laying it on thick, just before "House" premiered.
If it hadn't been for the critics, I probably wouldn't have even know about it (who watches FOX???)
Anyhow, I like the titular character but the show IMHO fails him.

I still get a kick outta Shaloub's seemingly one joke character Monk tho'.

If anyone enjoyed and remembers Denis Leary's "The Job", you must find "Rescue Me" on cable.
Not as funny as "The Job" but whaddya gonna do?

Kat's HOUSE is too damn good for you Febert & Dopers. How can anyone dislike that movie?! Ridicule BEAN? (in my best Dr. Smith impression) How daaaarrre you sir! Ha and double Ha!

Os

House sounds good, I'll give it a shot. And Rescue Me is a great show.

Gotta speak up for Bean - the invocation of Keaton and Chaplin is perfect.

Both shows ae frekin' hilarious, but it's an unfair comparison. Bean is a family showw, quite pointedly, and of a different kind of humor - pure absurdist and very physical. We seem to be defining "lowest common denominator" differently, as I always thought that included pandering to the basest tastes with the lowest humor...and while Blackadder has much more to offer (that's only a portion of some very witty writing) it does exactly that in spades. There's no tasteless, pointless gag about sex or scatology Blackadder won't stoop to, much of it extraneous and of the same level that you got sick of in second grade. Some of it works well in context ("Head"), but plenty of it makes me itch to switch the channel. Too bad, 'cuz everything else about Blackadder is terriffic.

If I were forced to choose between them, it would be Bean. It's endlessly inventive and skewed. The humor may not be to everyone's liking (the childishness of the enigmatic man-child Bean, pointedly family viewing) but the artistry involved is unassailable. Both succeed, but Bean takes the more difficult path. (IMO, of course, because it's much harder to do absurdist humor and pure physical comedy combined without the aid of spoken word, and to do it consistently for an entire series.)

Well put dreamer. I happen to like Pee Wee Herman Ruebens and his TV series and Big Adventure. I also like Keaton's Returns batsuit but I bet it's the underdog of batsuits. I think Keaton looked best in the batsuit and Clooney next best.

Os

Good points, Jeff. Made me think.