After about six months (with kids it's difficult to binge watch) I have finally finished watching all eight seasons of "House, M.D." from beginning to end. For a few years during it's broadcast run, it was my favourite show on television and I wasn't alone -- it was the most watched TV show in the world for a period thanks to international broadcast rights. At the time, I started watching during Season 2, watched religiously during Seasons 3, 4, and 5, but my interest started waning during Season 6 (spurred by a specific "jump the shark" episode, but we'll get to it). Frustrated by a frankly ludicrous ending to Season 6, I gave up on the show and never watched any of Seasons 7 and 8 (outside of clips of the finale).
The show debuted twenty years ago this week, so there have been a number of articles about it on entertainment sites recently. All of them focus on the influence "House" had on a number of "edgy" shows with flawed, but brilliant anti-hero main characters. Virtually none of them talk about the music in the show. And since this is a music blog, I figured I'd pay tribute to my half-year label of love and talk about "House"'s use of music. This is not a discussion of the soundtrack album released in 2007 as a cash cow tie-in, or an attempt to provide a definitive, comprehensive list of the top ten or twenty musical moments in the show's history. It's an excuse to write some words about "House" by framing it through a sampling of songs (out of the seven hundred that featured over its eight seasons) that stuck with me for various reasons.
Massive Attack, "Teardrop". The theme song (but not in most international markets), backed by an intro video with computer generated anatomical diagrams of spidery blood vessels, dissected brains, and x-rayed rib cages all floating through the screen in suspended animation. The intro is a perfect match for the music and the combination is much beloved by pretty much everyone, but oddly enough it does nothing to prepare you for the style and pacing of the show or the sharp, acerbic personalities of many of the characters.
Gorillaz, "Feel Good, Inc.", S3E1 ("Meaning"). Season 2 ended on a cliffhanger, with House getting shot and subsequently rushed into the OR for life-saving surgery. Season 3 begins with a complete turnaround, skipping forward to a few months later with House transformed into a hardcore fitness freak, jogging through parks and up flights of stairs, his life completely rejuvenated by a risky ketamine treatment as a side benefit to his surgery.
Mazzy Star, "Into Dust", S3E3 ("Informed Consent"). This plaintive, blissful track plays for a full three minutes at the end of the episode, soundtracking the devastating reveal of a fatal diagnosis, a likely euthanasia, and the most genuine and affecting House-Cameron moment of the series. It's an exquisite pairing of music, scenery and dialogue, seemingly stretching these agonizing few minutes into what feels like an hour.
"Georgia on My Mind" (Hugh Laurie on Piano), S5E22 ("Saviors"). Anything with Hugh Laurie on piano (or guitar) was gold. The last minutes of the episode are a montage of different characters finding joy and happiness, which cuts to House at the piano in his apartment, jamming alone in his without a care in the world, celebrating his apparent emancipation from drug-induced psychosis. But the mood turns on a dime with a slow exhale into a harmonica and a surprise hallucinations. Jubilant, and then chilling, all within a few seconds.
Norman Greenbaum, "Spirit In the Sky", S4E9 ("Games"). This song bubbles up after House's new team members are revealed. "House" featured a lot of classic rock, but was always framed as a "let the good times roll" moment or used for comic effect. This is a rare poignant moment set to fuzzy guitar. There's little doubt that whoever chose the song went for the full ironic effect due to its equally famous 80's cover by Dr. and the Medics (get it ...)
Bon Iver, "Stacks", S416 ("Wilson's Heart"). The song works as the farewell to Amber, and especially at the very end when Wilson returns home to read her heartbreaking note. This really makes the list because the "House's Head"/"Wilson's Heart" finale were likely the two best episodes of the entire series, and this was the song that capped it.
Hugh Laurie, "Cuddy's Serenade", S5E15 ("Unfaithful"). Composed and played by Laurie during the final minutes of the episode, this touching little piece was the peak of the Cuddy/House storyline, in which House deals with his inability to reveal his feelings to Cuddy by retreating to the safety of his home and expressing his emotions at the piano.
Rolling Stones, "As Tears Go By", S5E24 ("Both Sides Now"). "You Can't Always Get What You Want" appeared in about three episodes, but "House"'s best use of a Rolling Stones song was in the Season 5 finale. The elation of Chase and Cameron's wedding is blended with the devastating uncertainty of House's trip to a psychiatric unit, having pushed his drug addictions over the edge into full blown psychosis. This was the logical end point of House's addiction, which had been tolerated and enabled for years by his colleagues and even turned into something of a running joke. There was no way to get more extreme than this, and as a result House's behaviour was far more subdued in the next season. But the showrunners tried to top it at the end of Season 7, trying for shock and awe to recover the show's edge (I guess), and failing.
Radiohead, "No Surprises", S6E1 ("Broken"). The only episode that didn't use "Teardrop" as a theme song (outside of a handful that featured a cold open without any music), this coupled House's brutal detox from vicodin addiction with Radiohead's claustrophobic masterpiece. Arguably the best minute of television the series ever produced.
Prince, "God", S6E4 ("The Tyrant"). I would never have guessed that this snippet of stirring, neo-classical ambience was a "Purple Rain"-era b-side. Taken at face value (Foreman burns the log with proof of Chase's guilt), the music works. The episode is the jump the shark moment of the show that irrevocably destroyed my devoted fandom at the time. As I watched the entire series, compressed into a shorter time span, it became clear that this was easily the worst episode of "House" to that point, and likely the worst of the series. A fiercely apolitical show suddenly developed a moral conscience with each character inexplicably virtue signaling, and breaking with their established character arcs. In the narrative presented on the show, this should have touched off a major international incident. Instead it led to weeks of crybaby Chase, the laughably dumb break-up of his marriage to Cameron, and then the whole thing was mostly forgotten about. As an eerie coincidence, James Earl Jones (who played the dictator) died in real life the day after I watched this episode. I don't have the space or the gumption to provide a detailed overview of the preposterous premise behind this whole storyline, it was an experiment in political posturing that never should have been attempted.
Funkadelic, "Maggot Brain", S6E11 ("The Down Low"). There is hardly a context in life or in art that isn't suited to hearing "Maggot Brain". Here, an undercover cop dies in horrifying agony in the hospital while the criminals he spent months pursuing meet their own ignominious ends at the hands of law enforcement.
LCD Soundsystem, "No Love Lost", S7E10 ("Carrot or Stick"). This serves as the motivational music during a boot camp scene. But it really makes the list because I had no idea this Joy Division cover existed, and was startled to hear it pop up during a random Season 7 opening scene.
House and Cuddy sing "Get Happy", S7E15 ("Bombshells"). Now here's an experiment that passed with flying colours. I never wanted to see House and Cuddy get together and there were many, many cringe-worthy moments in Season 7 as I watched them try to conduct a semblance of a serious relationship. You know what "Huddy" needed more of? More FUN, more outlandishness, more camp! This "Material Girl" meets "Rocky Horror" take on a Judy Garland number was a home run, a dream sequence to remember in an episode based upon increasingly bizarre dream sequences.
Warren Zevon, "Keep Me In Your Heart", S8E22 ("Everybody Dies"). Chosen by Hugh Laurie himself as the penultimate song of the series, providing a glimpse into all the principal characters' lives post-House. I'm not a Zevon fan, but the music fits and the final scenes of the series are nothing if not memorable.
No comments:
Post a Comment