Just watched Season 2 Episode 1 and thought I'd write a bit on it, got to do something constructive considering how many hours of TV DVD I have to/do watch. Warning - Spoilers Ahead
Acceptance
Notable Guest Stars
LL Cool J as Clarence
Marshall Bell as The Warden
The teaser opens up with a death row prisoner organizing his last meal and other sundries with the warden, you then get a little jail house banter between this prisoner and another, called Clarence. Clarence is then led to the exercise yard, really no more than a large storage area with a basketball hoop, but alas no ball. He appears to psyche himself up and the proceeds to play a little one-on-none b-ball, using an imaginary ball. After a few seconds he is mentally assaulted by some apparitions, four imaginary people to compliment the make believe basketball, four people we later learn he murdered and is the reason he is on death row. Then he collapses. The camera zooms out and up, we see his prostrated body convulse and we cut to the opening credits. Now whether this was done deliberately or not, this scene made me chuckle, house has often been described as a medical 'whodunnit' and a common trope of the mystery realm that this medical drama draws on, is the locked room mystery and so to have the medical mystery start in a locked room appealed to my nerdish sensibilities. It also asks the question whether it was a knowing nod to the genre or just my overactive brain drawing erroneous conclusions.
And after the opening credits, we open to see the title character, Dr. Gregory House, looking in a hurry, despite his (character defining?) defining limp. He walks into a room and sees Dr Lisa Cuddy and an old flame, Stacy Warner, talking. He stops and pops a pill, which besides his walking stick is the other crutch in his life, the painkiller Vicodin. Was it the sight of Stacy, the exertion from his brisk, determined, hobbling march to see Cuddy or just simply his notable addiction that made him dose himself this time? We get a brief funny scene with Cuddy's new assistant/secretary, which instantly reminded me of what a great comic actor High Laurie is - those who haven't yet had the pleasure must watch Blackadder series 3 & 4, Laurie is superb. A quick, barbed conversation with Stacy and then House reveals the reason behind urgency getting to the door, he wants the case, the Death Row case. A bit of bargaining is done and the amusing revelation that House knows Cuddy's password is partypants, which is both intriguing and disturbing at the same time and House gets his way. We have a small preachy-ish scene whilst being re-introduced to House's team, Dr Eric Foreman portrayed by Omar Epps, Dr Alison Cameron, played by Jennifer Morrison and lastly Dr Robert Chase, but known to millions of Britons as Billy Kennedy from Neighbours, also known in real life as Jesse Spencer. This quick scene discusses the patients rights, who should be treated and for what, it comes across as a slight dig at the American system, but I may be wrong. This is followed by another quick scene with the warden, played by Marshall Bell, who to me is a cut-price Rutger Hauer and involves one of the best lines in the episode, then we have the start of the (slightly whiny) B-plot, involving Cameron and a patient she gets a little to emotionally attached too.
House "You know how some people say you can't live without love, Oxygen is even more important".
During the next scene, you learn that House, ever the manipulator, has both played Stacy and tied Cuddy's hands in one foul swoop, but he has his way, had to close down a whole wing, but House has his patient, his puzzle and his meddlings have clearly irked the two women. Cameron and House then have a scene in which House brings up the 5 stages of grief, Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and the episode title Acceptance. Cameron is more than a tad earnest & annoying in this scene, deliberately so I feel, not just to increase the emotional distance between herself & House, but as a way of giving the character some depth & a role to fulfill. I'm not disliking the character at all, even in this, for me purposefully irritating, slightly grating portrayal. We then have our first, for this season, differential diagnosis, filled with some more social commentary, which is not as in your face as it can be in some shows and in a nutshell covers the blatant discrepancy in the ratio of black to white on death row. Drugs is the first guess, a few tests later is wiped off. The 2nd DD ( I'm not typing differential diagnosis every time...) begins, House is perturbed to see a cross Stacy, waiting in his office and so shuts the blinds. He orders more tests & tries to sneak out, but is confronted by Stacy, who you feel is really trying to reach some common ground with House.
Stacy "I'm a lawyer, you're a jerk, there is going to be some overlap".
House "God, I hope that was a euphemism".
Stacy "Cuddy just reamed me".
House "I hope that one means what I think it means".
After a bit of black on black tension between Foreman & Clarence, we start a 3rd differential. Drugs are brought back to the table, but this time we think they weren't the drugs Clarence may have thought they were but prison popping placeboes and House sends Chase to interview Clarence's cell block. Next we have a brief seem discussing the merits of TV for coma patients as Jiminy Cricket, sorry I mean Dr James Wilson tries to give House some social interaction training and then a scene I really don't care for, as it seems out of character. Foreman leaning against a wall, letting a patient die, it just seems wrong and also like something that would have you up in front of the medical review board. House phones Chase to check on the interviews, slightly miffed that all Chase is doing, is searching Clarence's cell. As House listens to Chase, he has a Eureka moment, all done wonderfully by Hugh Laurie, with just eye 'acting'. We then have a bottle of Scotch, House and Clarence scene, a little more B plot forwarding and then House asks Clarence, "Why would a death row inmate try to kill themselves?", and reveals that rather than a last drink for a condemned man, the scotch was the cure for the copier toner Clarence had imbibed in his death bid.
A blurred image, Stacy chirps a shrill "Morning", as a sunglassed & clearly hungover House enters the hospital, Stacy asks when Death row patient can be sent back, House tells Stacy that she thinks he is still sick.
House "Can I interest you?"
Stacey "You used too".
We have a fourth DD, House states he thinks the problem is in the head, we have another Clarence/Foreman scene in which Foreman seems to soften up a little with his attitude followed by more whiny Cameron, as House notes she seems to be suffering the stages of grief herself and had quickly transitioned from anger to bargaining. Cuddy threatens to send the patient back to jail, then we cut to her with a screaming Clarence, of whom she asks, "Is it a shooting pain, a stabbing pain or an imaginary pain?". House doesn't think he's faking and removes the bed sheet and sees he is both bloody and bloodily right. This leads to a 5th DD, though instead of ruminating over symptoms, House questions why he killed his fourth victim. A chat with Clarence and then Foreman & Chase and a scene that shows that Heavy Metal prison ink tattoos and MRI machines don't mix, House has the solution to this weeks puzzle. In-betwixt though was a quick Jiminy Cricket & Whiny Cameron scene.
One last social justice/injustice scene with House and Foreman and we cut to closing montage to the strains of Hallelujah we finally end on House, finishing off the Whisky. He stands and walks to the whiteboard, you see him rub off the 1st three stages of grief and then acceptance, but you don't see him wipe off depression, which for me was an important point of the scene and we cut to end credits.
I know that I talked a lot about the preaching & the whining, but I really think this is a very strong season opener, some intelligent scene work and a nice balance between the comedy & drama. If I had to mark it, this episode would definitely get a 5/5 from me.
On a side note, I really enjoyed writing this an would appreciate some discussion about the episode, as well as feed back and I may very well do an overview review of S2E2 Autopsy tomorrow, whether people are willing or not.
