Often content to be the Dr. Watson to House's Sherlock Holmes that reverses tonight when an old friend of Dr. Wilson's comes to Princeton‑Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. House is convinced that friend is suffering from a rare form of cancer but Wilson isn't willing to hand out a death sentence. The tension is all the more heightened by the fact that Wilson's specialty is cancer.
In the show's history it is House's dialogues with Wilson towards the end of the story that allow House to alight upon an answer to the case of the week. That all changes tonight.
In an interview with Kelowna.com Robert Sean Leonard said,“Wilson is not any different in this episode. You see my assistant, who you’ve never met. You see the oncology floor. You see where I work. My office next to House’s is just my office;there’s a whole other floor in oncology where I work. I have my own patients, my own staff, my own day that doesn’t include House. You basically follow Wilson around for a few days and see what his life is like.”
Dr. House played by Hugh Laurie has always been a misanthrope with deliberate parallels to Sherlock Holmes, last season he checked himself into a mental hospital as a result of a long standing drug addiction. House's drug addiction flies in the face of American convention derived from Puritanism in which sobriety is the only means to truly view the world otherwise the mind is muddled.
Since the shows debut in November of 2004 Dr. Gregory House has been cemented as a type of anti-hero preforming good acts while remaining a horrible person and pushing away those closest to himself. Like a professional soldier seeking a challenge House takes the hardest to figure cases and leaves aside any human interest in the patient.
Hugh Laurie as a British actor brings to life for American audiences a character not well known in the native arts, the cynic. Closely allied with the skeptical school of thought, the cynic sits in a clay tub and barks at people. Though his harsh method is not nice he does produce results and cuts through problems that would have held up a genteel personality.
It will be a great change of pace to follow Wilson and the diagnostic team while House is pushed to the background. Who will crack the case first: the inductive and cold House or the warm hopeful Wilson. Watch tonight's episode at 8 PM EST on Fox network.
Written by Seamus Esparza
Posted November 30th, 2009 by Seamus Esparza
