If anyone deserves a post on this blog, it has
to be Hugh Laurie.
Some things are obvious and don’t need any explanation. Some
things are not obvious but easy to explain. But then some things are like
Gregory House, no matter how much you try and comprehend them or try and rationalize
their behavior and actions, you just can’t.
There’s this famous saying that some critic once said for
House “The most complex anti-hero in the History of Television”. That’s probably the most precise definition
one can use to describe him.
The thing about that character is, it’s just not possible to
sum it up into words. You think you know him, you think you understand what goes
behind that Genius of a brain of his, you think you know what pain resides
behind that apparently black heart of his, yet with each new episode, he will
prove you wrong. He will show you a side of his that you didn’t knew existed,
and yet somehow all these innumerable sides collaborate to fit together
magically like a jig-saw puzzle and conclude something which you never could
have seen coming. He will reason out all his deeds even when he doesn’t say a
word.
It’s actually the understanding of the Human mind and the
mysterious ways in which it works which stands the show apart. Maybe the reason
I read too much into that character is because I relate to it at more levels
than others do. I’m not saying I’m the loner genius who’s almost always right,
can read people better than Sherlock, don’t give a crap about the rules of the
society, a drug addict and incapable of showing emotions. No I’m not there yet.
I’m simply saying that at a very basic and minute level, I can associate my
view of the world to his vindications and account for his behavior which others
might find unreasonable. So it’s
possible you won’t like the show simply because his radical behavior is too
radical for you to accept.
I’m in no way justifying his actions or the lack of them. No,
he is definitely not the example I would suggest anyone to follow. As Wilson
rightly pointed out in one of the episodes, “Intentions don’t count, what’s in
your heart, doesn’t count, caring doesn’t count.”
But what is this thing about being “miserable” as they say
about House?
Is it about being in pain and not letting others know about
it? Is it about making people hate you because you are afraid of attachments? Is
it about being selflessly devoted to your work and still pretend you don’t
really care? Or about not knowing what you project to the world is what you deserve
and not what’s inside you? Expecting too much out of a world that does not work
the way it should? About finding faults
in others because you are too afraid to look at your own self? Finding answers to reason out everything else
around you except your own life? About
knowing what is right and not letting the world teach you otherwise? About admiring
yourself because that’s all you have left so you cling to it? About being so
afraid to change, you’ll lose what makes you special? About manipulating people
because you can’t handle any kind of real relationships?
I can go to still deeper depths into this character and yet I
would have enough adjectives left to fill out another page but I guess you have
the gist of it now. Watch House MD for the sheer genuineness in which the show has been made, watch it because of the insights it will give you into
knowing people and not judging their actions, watch it for the awesomeness of
the dialogues and their resonance within you even days after an episode ends
and above all, watch it for the effort Hugh Laurie has put in to live up to
this challenge, because all though he always says “Everbody lies”, currently
I’m not.
PS: This post is a result of just one of the several
withdrawal symptoms that I’m going through since the show ended.
its the show of which i've watched maximum episodes of..
ReplyDeleteall 6680 minutes of ingenuity..
:) Once every couple of months you do somehow land up here!
ReplyDeleteThat i do.. :)
ReplyDelete