What Geek Media Do You Refuse To Partake In?

[jian]

@jian Totally get you’re always gonna hate House, which is fine. But it sure seems like you’re stuck on, this is a totally nonsensical way for a medical professional to behave. It is, there’s a whole normal hospital going on in the background, and then this guy.

Yeah, but is it that laughable of an approach to the human condition? Does maybe everyone have some blind spots in understanding themselves and things the don’t want anyone else to know?

And his underlings take them. And the show’s general quest is to find out what they didn’t say…what people don’t say about themselves is often the most revealing in what the show is actually about, which is not medical diagnosis. In a practical medical setting, probably no, don’t have to break into there homes to discover if what they are saying is true.


You can identify with him if you also, on some level, also believe that the people around you are idiots ignorant of themselves and reality. It’s a show for cynics.

If you float through the world believing most people nice, honest with themselves and others, then you can identify with his friend Dr. Wilson, who House loves, but torments. You sound much like that character on the show.

Edit: compliment, not a criticism there. He is the good guy on the show.

I’m not stuck so much on his being a bad doctor, it’s that he’s a bad doctor but he’s a successful one in terms of diagnosing and treating his patients (mostly) despite his actively doing things that would make that less likely. It’s like Atlas Shrugged, it’s polemical science fiction where the rules of reality are just different from ours, but never acknowledged as such.

As for it being a show for cynics - sure, why not? Plenty of doctors are cynical, it’s a reasonable response to their daily life. I’ve definitely been there, the NHS is made of cynicism. But House acts like being cynical is a reason to stop being empathic or compassionate, which is just wrong. If you’re so burned out you don’t care about people, you’re going to hurt them. Stop working and get help.

(And yes, thank you, I do appreciate being compared to Wilson, he seems like a great doctor and person.)

 

[Smackpixi]

But House acts like being cynical is a reason to stop being empathic or compassionate, which is just wrong.

Yeah. I think if you watched the entirety of the show one step back, it actually agrees with you in its themes. Also, pretty much none of his diagnoses are arrive at by doing actually medicine, that merely confirms the rest of the story.

Pretty sure if anyone managed to make a successful comedic drama about my profession I’d be saying, that is not how insurance contracts work at all.

 

[jian]

Yeah. I think if you watched the entirety of the show one step back, it actually agrees with you in its themes. Also, pretty much none of his diagnoses are arrive at by doing actually medicine, that merely confirms the rest of the story.

Pretty sure if anyone managed to make a successful comedic drama about my profession I’d be saying, that is not how insurance contracts work at all.

I’m pretty certain all his diagnoses come from him doing medicine? By which I mean gathering information, ordering tests, trying treatments, and educated guesswork. He seems to come up with the correct diagnosis and treatment in most episodes (with a few missteps along the way, of course) despite being an objectively bad doctor. It’s not about whether it’s realistic - of course it’s not - it’s that it’s basically copaganda but for medicine.

 

[trappedslider]

it’s that it’s basically copaganda but for medicine.

short of outright saying "Don't do this job" or focusing only on the negative aspect every tv show centered around an occupation is propaganda to various degrees.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Television and Movies. The mediums. That includes streamers like Netflix, that includes genres like Anime and horror and rom coms and cringe humor and reality tv and and and.

I used to be into it - my wife and I went to the movies multiple times a month. And then my kids were born on each side of the turn of the millenium; and I stopped watching TV and movies - except I guess their power ranges dvds and disney vhs on loop All. The. Time. Once they got old enough where I had time again to watch stuff - I found I wasn't really interested. I'd go to stuff with them, like the various fantasy and super hero tentpoles. But gradually as they got older and wanted to engage with these properties in their own way and with their friends/girlfriends, I watched less and less. Last movie I saw I think was Black Widow in 2021; and last TV show I finished was Tiger King - but mostly because we watched it as a family during the pandemic.

I just wouldn't choose to engage with a TV show or a movie as "something to do" for myself.

I DO watch sports highlights, comedy clips, and music videos on youtube. I mean, that's a rabbit hole all on its own.

 

[jian]

short of outright saying "Don't do this job" or focusing only on the negative aspect every tv show centered around an occupation is propaganda to various degrees.

Yes, that’s basically true, depending. I compared House to copaganda because it isn’t just saying “doctors are awesome” but “bad doctors are awesome”. Which I hate, because perpetuating harmful stereotypes about my job - and leading people to think that’s what good or effective doctors are actually like - is both unnecessary and harmful. But yeah, I’m sure it happens about a lot of jobs on TV, not least police officers.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

bad doctors are awesome

Why do you consider House a "bad Doctor" when someone who is good with patients but a lousy diagnostician (something I have plenty of personal experience of) is considered a good doctor? I would suggest that the system that insists House does something he knows he is bad at, rather than letting him do what he is good at, is the thing that is bad. Is it any wonder that he gets angry? If I point out that like Holmes, House clearly shows signs of neurodivergence, would it make a difference?