House vs. NCIS

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Sunday, October 4. 2009

I have read some negative reviews of the new season of "House" lately. Apparently he went to rehab for his Vicodan addiction, and is no longer as difficult of an attending physician as he used to be. Well, let's hope he relapses.

I also learned that Laurie's character was inspired by Sherlock Holmes (Holmes-House). How did I miss that? Holmes, you recall, was an addict too.

What has been fun about ex-Marine Special Agent Gibbs in NCIS and Dr. House is that they are both cranky, tough, non-PC SOBs who are always alert to interesting females, and that they get away with it because they are so good at what they do. Gibbs, of course, has a military sense of honor, decorum, and dignity which Dr. House seems to lack.

Posted by Bird Dog in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 11:57 | Comments (9) | Trackbacks (0)

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NCIS is one of my favorite TV programs, mostly because of the quirky characters and the way they have developed during the course of the show. [The lovely and lethal Ziva is fascinating.]Character development has been singularly poor or missing in most modern TV series, which is why I love it when I can find old episodes of Barney Miller [an always rich source of comedic talent] and Frasier, who is sometimes irritating but mostly amusing and endearing.

I think that the kids who were obsessed with TV games have taken over many of the TV concessions today, so most of the scripts are obsessed with blowing things up, spraying the landscape with bullets from ever more lethal artillery, and other childish pleasures. I thought that Boston Legal was entertaining for a while, but then the scripts became an excuse for liberal preaching about the flaws of our country, and the character delineation deteriorated into whether Bill Shatner was in love with that other guy, or with just any female passerby. All of which became old and boring.

Gibbs remains in my mind as the iconic figure of NCIS -- non-PC, and with honor and decorum, two qualities strangely lacking in today's society except among our military, and some of us cranky old folks. And maggiesfarmers, of course.

We need more heroes like Gibbs, and they're harder and harder to find.

Marianne

#1 Marianne Matthews on 2009-10-04 15:12 (Reply)

I'm dying to know what y'all think of the new NCIS: LA. It's gotten great ratings the first couple of weeks, but is there too much gunfire?

#1.1 FeeVert on 2009-10-04 15:44 (Reply)

NCIS: LA? My 2 cents worth: It's a decent cop show, but it's not as good as NCIS. Not yet. I say give it time. Two or three episodes just isn't enough time for the cast to gel yet. NCIS ran nine episodes before McGee joined the team full-time, completing that dynamic.

Oh, and one other thing: the little middle-aged lady with the eyeglasses who fills the "Q" role is an absolute dead ringer for Edna Mode ("E") from The Incredibles. I don't believe for an instant that the resemblance is a coincidence. She's E, in the flesh.

#1.1.1 wolfwalker on 2009-10-04 22:09 (Reply)

That little lady with the eyeglasses was 'middle-aged' when she played a secret communist agent in one of the James Bond films when Sean Connery was still young enough to play Bond. And that was a while ago. I can't off-hand remember which film it was, but I do remember she had a neat little knife-blade which she could activate out of the toe of her shoe, and she almost did for James.

So the middle-aged lady is almost as old as I am. And that is old. She's still pretty peppy though.

Marianne

#2 Marianne Matthews on 2009-10-04 22:41 (Reply)

The role of that "little lady with the eyeglasses" was Yoda, as far as I could see.

I'm willing to follow most of these until the episode where some key member of the team is kidnapped by a crazed serial killer. Once they do that, it is obvious that the writers don't have any more imagination left for the characters they created.

#2.1 Douglas2 on 2009-10-04 22:58 (Reply)

Marianne, I think you're thinking of Lotte Lenya as Rosa Klebb, in From Russia With Love (1963). Unfortunately, Lotte Lenya died in 1981. IMDB says that the actress in NCIS:LA is Linda Hunt, whose filmography only goes back to 1976 and doesn't include any Bond films.

#2.2 wolfwalker on 2009-10-04 23:12 (Reply)

wolfwalker ... I yield to your superior knowledge. I think it was From Russia With Love I was thinking of. But this character in NCIS:LA greatly resembles her.

As far as the new series is concerned, I've been watching since it began, and so far I'm not impressed. But series programs shouldn't have final judgment passed on them too quickly, I find. They need to get their feet under them to show what they will have once they get going. Most of the time, they need one impressive anchor figure to moor them and give them coherence. Mark Harmon does that for NCIS. Without him there would be no NCIS. I don't yet see such an anchor figure in the new series.

Marianne

#3 Marianne Matthews on 2009-10-05 11:37 (Reply)

"I have read some negative reviews of the new season of "House" lately."

If you're referring to that insipid piece of trash on Pajamas Media, please add it to the long list of insipid pieces of trash coming from what has to be the most amateurish 'professional' site on the planet. The moron who wrote that thing should be taken out to the street and publicly flogged.

"Apparently he went to rehab for his Vicodan addiction"

It's "Vicodin".

"and is no longer as difficult of an attending physician as he used to be."

He friggin' QUIT in the very next episode. Just how "difficult" would you like him to be?

"Well, let's hope he relapses."

By the grace of God (or godlessness, in his case), he assuredly will. Long-time enthusiasts of the show know they just love screwing with our heads. Witness the two episodes at the bottom of this page.

"I also learned that Laurie's character was inspired by Sherlock Holmes (Holmes-House)."

More info here.

"Holmes, you recall, was an addict too."

Holmes was an occasional user, not an addict. He mainlined morphine and did snuff occasionally, and even ingested that foulest of drugs, pipe tobacco, but then he'd sit there staring at the wall for three days without a drug in sight as he solved the case through his remarkable powers of observation and deduction. Overall, drugs were very rarely mentioned in the books. I think one of the movies made a big deal out his cocaine use, but that's Hollywood for you.

Back to 'House', third episode airs tonight. Past episodes can be seen after 8 days on Hulu.

#4 Dr. Mercury on 2009-10-05 11:58 (Reply)

Holmes used morphine? I remember him using pipe-tobacco and cocaine, and a variety of alcoholic drinks, but never snuff or morphine. What stories are those two in?

#5 wolfwalker on 2009-10-05 13:41 (Reply)

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Sunday, October 4. 2009

House vs. NCIS