Wednesday, March 28, 2007
"House" Is "Holmes"
"Why?" you ask.
Because they're both British. (No American could play Gregory House. Hugh Laurie plays him with an American accent, but Hugh Laurie can be seen in many episodes of JEEVES AND WOOSTER, playing a twit straight out of Graham Chapman's twitbook.)
Because there's an undeniable Transatlantic thing going on. (Sherlock Holmes may have been a British literary creation, and the actor who played him the way everybody imagines him may have been English -- Basil Rathbone -- but Hollywood was where the classic Sherlock Holmes movies were filmed, and it's where HOUSE is shot.) And speaking of shot:
House dies.
Holmes dies.
Holmes is brought back to life when readers demand his return.
House returns to life at the beginning of the next season.
Both deaths are murders.
House walks with a cane.
Sherlock Holmes carries a cane. Is that similarity too superficial? Get ready for this:
House is a drug addict.
Sherlock Holmes is addicted to cocaine.
Sherlock Holmes merely looks at somebody and deduces extraordinary things about that person.
House merely looks at somebody and deduces extraordinary things about that person.
Sherlock Holmes constantly amazes and exasperates his highly educated assistant.
House constantly amazes and exasperates his highly educated assistants.
Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote the Sherlock Holmes stories, based Holmes on a doctor he'd worked for as a young man. Therefore, Sherlock Holmes is actually a caricature of a medical man.
Sherlock Holmes is always pissong off the authorities.
House is always pissing off the authorities.
Everybody who likes to read or watch movies loves Sherlock Holmes.
Everybody who watches TV loves House.
Nobody really understands how Sherlock Holmes comes to his conclusions but they read the stories in one sitting if they can.
Nobody really understands how House comes to his conclusions but when HOUSE comes on, they sit watching the show for the whole hour.
I was in a diner tonight getting take-out when I heard the waitress say, "Oh! I'm not going home now. This is a new one!" She was looking at the TV above the counter. HOUSE was on.
When I got home with my take-out, I put HOUSE on.
Back to HOUSE's simultaneous Britishness and Americanness: Hugh Laurie's British show JEEVES AND WOOSTER is based on stories by P.G. Wodehouse, an Englishman who spent most of his adult life in the United States, whose main character, Bertie Wooster, is, by Wodehouse's own admission, based on the American conception of "an English dude." ("Dude" in the sense of a man-about-town, not in the "Do you have some pot, dude?" sense.)
More to the point, Gregory House and Sherlock Holmes both wear tweed.
And they're witty.
Practically superhuman.
And completely entertaining.
Because they're both British. (No American could play Gregory House. Hugh Laurie plays him with an American accent, but Hugh Laurie can be seen in many episodes of JEEVES AND WOOSTER, playing a twit straight out of Graham Chapman's twitbook.)
Because there's an undeniable Transatlantic thing going on. (Sherlock Holmes may have been a British literary creation, and the actor who played him the way everybody imagines him may have been English -- Basil Rathbone -- but Hollywood was where the classic Sherlock Holmes movies were filmed, and it's where HOUSE is shot.) And speaking of shot:
House dies.
Holmes dies.
Holmes is brought back to life when readers demand his return.
House returns to life at the beginning of the next season.
Both deaths are murders.
House walks with a cane.
Sherlock Holmes carries a cane. Is that similarity too superficial? Get ready for this:
House is a drug addict.
Sherlock Holmes is addicted to cocaine.
Sherlock Holmes merely looks at somebody and deduces extraordinary things about that person.
House merely looks at somebody and deduces extraordinary things about that person.
Sherlock Holmes constantly amazes and exasperates his highly educated assistant.
House constantly amazes and exasperates his highly educated assistants.
Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote the Sherlock Holmes stories, based Holmes on a doctor he'd worked for as a young man. Therefore, Sherlock Holmes is actually a caricature of a medical man.
Sherlock Holmes is always pissong off the authorities.
House is always pissing off the authorities.
Everybody who likes to read or watch movies loves Sherlock Holmes.
Everybody who watches TV loves House.
Nobody really understands how Sherlock Holmes comes to his conclusions but they read the stories in one sitting if they can.
Nobody really understands how House comes to his conclusions but when HOUSE comes on, they sit watching the show for the whole hour.
I was in a diner tonight getting take-out when I heard the waitress say, "Oh! I'm not going home now. This is a new one!" She was looking at the TV above the counter. HOUSE was on.
When I got home with my take-out, I put HOUSE on.
Back to HOUSE's simultaneous Britishness and Americanness: Hugh Laurie's British show JEEVES AND WOOSTER is based on stories by P.G. Wodehouse, an Englishman who spent most of his adult life in the United States, whose main character, Bertie Wooster, is, by Wodehouse's own admission, based on the American conception of "an English dude." ("Dude" in the sense of a man-about-town, not in the "Do you have some pot, dude?" sense.)
More to the point, Gregory House and Sherlock Holmes both wear tweed.
And they're witty.
Practically superhuman.
And completely entertaining.
# posted by Fredwemyss @ 12:20 AM 
