Season 2 General Discussion
Your general thoughts on Season 2 belong here.

Quite possibly my favorite season. 3 was ruined by Tritter, 1 was an introduction, but 2 was just right. Good ammount of tension between Hosue and Stacy and I enjoyed that arc, even thought Stacy bugs the heck out of me. Wilson was present and accounted for, mentoring wihtout preaching and being an awesome friend. Cameron was consistant-er with her morals, Chase was dressed fairly well, Forman almost died! (kidding, but he was getting annoying there for a few episodes) wat do you think your favorite epeisode would be?

wat do you think your favorite epeisode would be? Autopsy, without a doubt. It's my favorite episode ever of the show.

wat do you think your favorite epeisode would be? Safe. It's my second favorite episode of the series. It just epitomized everything I love about this show.

Autopsy :wub: I'm so very happy that I'm not alone thinking that Autopsy is the best episode ever! *waves to GG*

Picking out one favorite is hard for me, because my opinions change depending on my mood. But, right now, it's a toss up between Deception and Daddy's Boy. I found House just fun in Deception and I liked Anica, and hearing him sing. And, I love just about all of Daddy's Boy, even though that episode was enough to make me hate John House. But, the whole bike thing and testing Wilson's friendship, and even the dinner itself was just enjoyable to watch and analyze.

No Reason, without a doubt. It's my favorite episode of all three seasons. It becomes even more devastating after each viewing. Every scene with HL and Elias Koteas was wonderful.

I find No Reason painful to watch. My votes are for Autopsy and All In.

House vs. God A good patient who was, in a way, a formidable adversary for House Great House/Wilson - I think it was the first time we saw that even mid-fight, they'll instantly drop it if need be. And the poker game was great. Good Chase - loved his keeping score and also thought the way he dealt with Boyd when he was wandering the hospital, singing, was right A reasonable amount of Foreman. I would have liked more Cuddy (who only had one line) and wouldn't even have minded a little more Cameron (who's part was about the same size Chase's is in most episodes).

Oooh. Replying to myself (5 months later). We don't have a Stacy thread, and probably don't need one, but the subject of Stacy's character came up in the Failure to Communicated one. That arc could have been developed a lot differently, and better use made of the Stacy character. As it is, she came off looking really bad, wanting to have her cake and eat it too. I'd have expected more for the supposed great love of his life - she just seemed selfish. As Stacy is selfish too, that didn't bother me. But I would have liked it if she had a little more humor and a lot more lightness -- by which I mean that everything was grounds for a fight to her and a reason to blame House for something. A little more self-awareness would have been nice too. House can be an ass, but he admits it. He even gives himself "credit" for being one more often than he actually deserves. Stacy, on the other hand, seemed to have an unshakable feeling that she was always right. For example, in Spin she tells him, in front of his employees, that the has the ethics of a 4-year-old (despite the fact that there was no reason why he would have called the newspaper and House always has a reason.) But in The Mistake, she marches into an exam room without knocking, yells at House and punches him on the arm in front of a patient. Don't call him unprofessional when you are just as bad, lady.

I'm glad to see the love for No Reason. At least until Don't Ever Change, it was my favorite episode of the show and to me it's always seemed puzzlingly underrated by fans (I like Three Stories but to me No Reason is just so much better and more meaningful). Because the episode takes place in House's head, I find it's the one episode where no matter often I watch it again I continually discover something new about his character. Almost everything I think I know about House's psyche comes from that episode.

Sorry, I can't choose just one. I love all these and many more. Each one is my favorite depending on my mood. I adore All In, one that I can and have and will watch much like listening to Penny Lane: when it gets to that trumpet bit I wait for it and feel vindicated when it hits the high note and thrilled with the brief denouement; in All In, it all builds to the shock of House hitting the wall, his being right against everyone else's common sense and prudence, and then hearing Oscar Peterson's "Hymn to Freedom" being played, seeing that it's House playing it (what a gorgeous response to what has gone on before) and the final cigar and barnacle moment. Gold: every bit of it. I love Autopsy for the brilliant bookended musical themes (of course, especially Elvis Costello's soaring, gently sad take which was the exact right tone: wondered if he grew up on ABoF&L et al, so was happy to do this for HL), for House's learning about the child's bravery and his vastly respectful and compassionate scene with her and that young actress's performance and the jazz dance choreography of the OR rehearsal, the "gruesome" line, the motorcycle and that he didn't crap out by hugging her back, but that he was there: just the exact right balance of withholding and caring that the little girl understood perfectly. I love No Reason because it shows that as long as House has two brain cells firing, he's trying to figure out what's going on and it's amazing that we go along with his brain processes as he experiences ever-weirder disconnects, eventually diagnoses himself as being in a coma and then figures out how to break the spell and not succumb, but rather to choose life, to look for meaning: all the great conversations he has with the shooter (himself) teach us so much about who he is and why his living or dying is important, and for all of us, our living or dying, are meaningful. In a way, it's like the Hamlet's soliloquy for House. Anyway, I could go on and on with this: each viewing yields a deeper view into the fluctuating prism of House. I love 'em.

Boffle, re: Autopsy: Don't forget "I’m not gonna kiss you, no matter what you say." :lol: I love that line. I could rewind and watch it over and over ad nauseum. I think season 2 is my favorite of all 3.5 seasons thus far. But I'm not certain why exactly, because I have found compelling stories in every season. I just think, as an overall season, this was the best.

But I would have liked it if she had a little more humor and a lot more lightness -- by which I mean that everything was grounds for a fight to her and a reason to blame House for something. This is exactly the aspect where I think the botox was a player in the room and not a welcome one. That sounds so mean, and I do not usually sit about trying to determine if someone has had some work done. But that's because it's not usually germane to the performance I'm seeing. Maybe I'm just seeing the past through rose coloured glasses, but I've liked lots of Sela Ward's past work and I think of her as someone who can manage that balancing act between toughness and humour and love. She usually can play the undertones as well as the main notes. But in the Stacy arc, though her voice was usually projecting all those things, her face did not. I took me a while to put my finger on what was bothering me, because I do like Sela Ward, and I finally realised I didn't think her expressions matched her intonations, and that was offputting. I think it made the character appear much more judgemental and humourless than the role called for. Occasionally (as in the attic scene in Hunting), everything came together and worked. But not enough to offset the rooftop scene or to make me have a lot of sympathy when House stepped back from the relationship. I wanted him to back off.

I've always viewed Stacy as frustratingly self-centered myself, Poeia. I can sympathize with her, but also see her as having a Type A personality that always wants to be the center of attention -- and believe that hers and House's relationship would have imploded sooner or later because of that. (The inability to realize or recognize her own mistakes is a part of that.) The infarction merely pulled ahead the breakup that would have shown itself sooner or later, since now House and House's issues were the most important thing -- or at least should have been -- but instead she seemed to turn it all back onto herself. It wasn't her decision that led to the breakup, in her mind, instead it was House's reaction to her decision. There is a part of me, though, that wonders how much of House's self-loathing issues are reflected in picking Stacy as the "love of his life." Perhaps he feels that he never deserved anything better, and thought Stacy was the best he'd get. As Stacy put it in "Three Stories," maybe he thought he didn't really deserve happiness, and Stacy was good enough.