House: Broken
2009, Universal Media Productions
Rating: 4.5
Revelation and inspiration are two intriguing doctrines that are the focal point of the development of my understanding of dogma right now. This first episode of House hit me hard when I watched it last week. It continued and spurred a series of questions relating to the importance of emotional and psychological health and the living of a ‘worthwhile’ existence.
The frame from which most of society centers its basis for living is ‘happiness,’ more accurately described as ‘satisfaction.’ Happiness happens when a person has very few ills with individuals in his or her community, yet maintains an active social community life, and that person is satisfied with his or her current position in the social and financial hierarchy. If one of these sections of a person’s life is managed emotionally and psychologically improperly, it can result in a person being labeled ‘unhappy’ and therefore incomplete and part of an outcast culture, which is supposedly undesirable. However, so many people exist in this paradigm that very few people attain a happiness that they can be satisfied with continuing to live, and therefore feel alone and like a failure.
I’m not entirely sure it is essential to your well-being to be happy. I don’t even think that it is necessarily a healthy affair. Now, I would never endorse a large bit of intense suffering, but adversity never hurts anyone in terms of ultimate ends, while it may seem like its rendering that person undesirable for now.
Our society is built upon the hallmarks of comparative advantage and free-market capitalism, both cutthroat places where rapid changes can take place and very little is ever stable. And while corrective forces do make the market swing and sway, lessons are learned and deception can be rapidly rooted out. This is not the case in more highly developed systems. In fact, correction can be relegated to regulation, which rids the ability of the system to attain its ultimate ends. A system without ultimate ends is ultimately just rules and regulations, which correct but never develop. This is problematic for advocates of happiness.
Broken, the first episode in a new series of House, examines happiness through the lens of the emotional and psychological ills of Dr. Gregory House, who has recently begun hallucinating. House checks himself into a mental institution where he rebels against the hospital staff to regain his freedom and where he learns that only in the process of wellness will one gain a firm footing on what is a ‘sane’ life, which moves toward happiness.
The reason why I bring these issues up within the context of this review is simple: the House writing team honestly examines the relationship between happiness and sanity like no other group I’ve ever seen. This episode opened up a wealth of questions geared at society’s new morality and the dishonesty of adult sanity, which can hardly be explored through a review, but are entirely the stuff of good conversation.
I’d recommend getting a few people together and watching this episode with one another. A bit of brief back story is necessary, though anyone who has seen a few episodes can provide a quick character dossier on Dr. Gregory House and his exploits. The format of the episode is in an almost film-like form, which sets the story within itself, with essentially House being the only regular character.
Ask the question: is happiness really what we’re looking to attain in this life?
via Hulu
Community: Pilot 2009, Sony Pictures Television Inc. and Universal Media Studios I think Joel McHale is the funniest man on television. However, thinking of him outside of The Soup made me nervous; so much could go wrong on a sitcom with someone who basically does stand-up comedy. Then I saw that Chevy Chase was cast in a role on this show. This seemed an omen worse still. What good could come from Chevy Chase rehashing an acting career right now? What good could come from Chevy Chase playing a supporting role? This is all I really knew about the show. Had anyone told me that this show was going to be about life in a community college I probably would have lost all hope in the success of this series. Glee was succeeding at far too many levels for me to conceive of any real success from this genre. Each of these ingredients so charmingly defy convention I can hardly believe it. Community is a sarcastic, witty, heartfelt look at the life of a Community College. I cannot more highly recommend this pilot episode to anyone. From the subject matter, to the casting, to the actors themselves, they all play their parts so complimentary to one another that their identities simply melt away. The characters are incredibly real and honest to the Community College experience without seeming dumb. There is real dignity in their character development and real honesty about their humanity. via Hulu
Defying Gravity: Love, Honor, Obey
Defying Gravity plays like some strange remix of Lost episodes and morality plays. It plays with character, epistemology and mystery in ways that only a New Calvinist would love. This episode, Love, Honor, Obey is perhaps its most exciting yet, with the crew of the Antares getting insight into their hallucinations.
This reveal, for me, ditched the series seeming mimicry of Lost, which had always held the show back from any major breakthrough. The show is told in a ‘past foreshadows the present’ type style that Lost has made so successful during its run on ABC.
I look forward to seeing what the writers of the series come up with next and I remain hopeful that it will push itself into new philosophical ground, trying to connect Ron Lingstone’s postmodern American cowboy further, revealing that in his simplicity, he may be the wisest of sages.
via Hulu
