I read over some of the early pages of comments on this one -- with many people expressing their feeling that the suicide was done solely as a cheap exploitative trick -- and I do wonder what people think now that the rest of the season has played out.
I suspected early on that it would have more of an impact of House, but never would have believed the extent of the impact. I think this is one of the episode that plays better and stronger in retrospect than it does when first aired.
I most definitely see now how the episode "fits", but I'm still not too overly impressed with the episode itself. Even understanding how House himself grieves, the death of Kutner still seemed like an underplayed afterthought. It didn't quite convince me, because in "real life", I would guess that someone's co-workers would react more strongly and it would be more over reaching than it was portrayed on the show. I know if one of my co-workers killed themselves, even if I wasn't particularly close to them, it would effect me a lot more than the way it was portrayed in this episode.
It still just has a feel to me of being thrown together...
I read over some of the early pages of comments on this one -- with many people expressing their feeling that the suicide was done solely as a cheap exploitative trick -- and I do wonder what people think now that the rest of the season has played out.
I suspected early on that it would have more of an impact of House, but never would have believed the extent of the impact. I think this is one of the episode that plays better and stronger in retrospect than it does when first aired.
I most definitely see now how the episode "fits", but I'm still not too overly impressed with the episode itself. Even understanding how House himself grieves, the death of Kutner still seemed like an underplayed afterthought. It didn't quite convince me, because in "real life", I would guess that someone's co-workers would react more strongly and it would be more over reaching than it was portrayed on the show. I know if one of my co-workers killed themselves, even if I wasn't particularly close to them, it would effect me a lot more than the way it was portrayed in this episode.
It still just has a feel to me of being thrown together...
I somewhat agree. I actually liked the episode for how it caused House to react. However, while it did wonders for House's character it did nothing for Kutners and remains, still, a symbol of how much they completely wasted that character, that actor and the audience's time. While I think things played out believably through the course of the season, I also think it was a pretty random decision made from unexpected circumstances that, yes, felt a little just thrown in there.
(As a side note...if I'm not mistaken, KP hasn't even started working for the White House and has no start date even planned, correct?)
KP hasn't even started working for the White House and has no start date even planned, correct?
KP is moving there this summer, with a start date around the end of the summer/early fall, from what I recall. They intentionally wanted some open time between his Hollywood career and Washington career to provide separation between the two, especially because of the suicide angle on the show.
From a report earlier this month:
The exit of Penn’s character, or rather the reaction to it, is, according to the White House, why the pause button has been hit on Penn taking up his new position.
"The suicide of his character on House was quite shocking," Inouye says, "so everyone thought there should be a bit of timely delay before he takes up work for the administration
The Wrap
I know he also had previously-scheduled speaking engagements at colleges, and did a mideast tour as well, so he's been busy on the non-actor side.
