House

[mamadeb]

Is there anyone out there who wouldn't be surprised if House and Wilson actually did kiss already? I mean, they're already acknowledging that Wilson is in love with House, and House was so totally jealouos - and there's just no way to spin it that he wants to sleep with Amber.

I don't buy that Amber changed in three weeks.

And, while I do know people who jumped into being religious (btw - she was NOT a convert) very quickly, six months is too soon to get married - it needs time to solidify.

However - the wedding was beautifully Chasidic, complete with the solid bedecken (the heavy lace cloth over her face) and the separate seating/dancing. I did quibble a bit about her head scarf- I've slept with scarves, and a knot in back is not comfortable. A pre-tied bandanna or a snood would have worked better, if not as soft and pretty.

There's no reason to give up rock music - there's always Piamento, for example. It's the words that are the real problem, not the music itself.

And there are Chasidishe drug addicts...No religion is a cure all, and no group is perfect.

However, her route in was not unusual, and she may have been looking for something her entire life, and this lifestyle clicked with her.

Some people expressed confusion as to why neither she nor her husband insisted on 13 being her only doctor, and there's a simple answer for that - touching/looking for professional reasons is perfectly permitted. It's why I could have a male martial arts instructor. It's also why he didn't want to look at her "bare" but had no problems with Taub doing the same.

BTW, that three date thing? If you make it to three, you're already being compatible. :) That said, I don't know many who have done that.

And then there was the whole Shabbat thing, and...it *WASN'T* Shabbat. To delay surgery was completely wrong, and once her rabbi told her that, that should have been it. Also - Aishet Chayil? Is sung just beforer kiddush, which is *after* candle lighting. Also, we were laughing at his pronunciation. The actor is named Eyal, which is Israeli. So his (and her) consonants were Israeli, but he tried to use Chasidishe vowels, and it just sounded funny. (House and Wilson, btw? Just *fine*. House knows everything, doesn't he? Hey, maybe he took a couple of classes on Judaism to get closer to Wilson? Or to have more ability to get him?)

I also questioned lighting candles in a hospital by somone getting oxygen. Most women light on electric candelabra in hospitals.

I liked very much that they treated them both with respect, once they got it out of their heads that her trip to tshuva was not a mental aberration. But then, I'm a BT myself.

Comments

[dungeonwriter.livejournal.com]

What was with the fake beards? Couldn't they have the guy grow a real one?

About the shabbos thing, she thought she was dying. She didn't want to die on the table without having a shabbos meal with her husband. But the candle thing? No way would that be allowed, any rabbi would say to use electric, oxygen tanks do not like fire.

Having interned at CBS, I saw what a tough, grueling lifestyle it was. I could see someone in show business, who was just wasted, searching for meaning and finding Judaism. A lot of BT were and are successful in their chosen career, but wished to find something spiritual. Someone like you!

[dungeonwriter.livejournal.com]

PS, I thought they made a good attempt on Ayshes Chayil. I mean, for my non-Jewish/non religious friends, I'm sure it sounded spot on.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Indeed.

But then I think about actors like Joshua Malina, who could have sung it with correct consonants, too.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

At first, I thought it *was* Shabbat, and she wanted a whole one with Yonatan. See, that made sense. That she wanted to light two candles and hear Aishet Chayil sung to her - okay, I can see that, but. You don't postpone surgery until Shabbat. You just *don't*.

(And telling her it was dark - well, then it would be too late to light. But that's a subtlety that wouldn't be easy to convey to a non-Jewish audience, so that doesn't bother me.)

I wasn't stressed or particularly successful before becoming religious. It's just where I think I always knew I wanted to go. I just needed to find a way in.

But, yes. And so could she be, if she chose - maybe not as a rock music producer, but there's no reason she couldn't produce religious music records, since *she's* not singing or alone with the musicians.

[jonbaker.livejournal.com]

Takes a long time to grow a full beard like that. My hair grows about 1/2" a month, and that would have to grow in to maybe 8" or more. And there's no guarantee that any individual's beard really will grow in that full, or will be more wispy, or whatever.

Real Chasidim (tm) never shave, so what you see is the result of a full lifetime's growth.

And the shabbos thing - whoof! it's all wrong! She wants to have a friday night with her husband? She should have the surgery sooner rather than later! ALthough, delaying allowed them to get to the correct diagnosis, so was necessary for puzzle-plot reasons.

Meanwhile, on the romance-plot side, it's clear that Amber didn't change. That's the take-away from the whole interplay in the restaurant - she took the masculine role, he had the feminine role. Her body language with the maitre d' was very much the "pushy guy". Now, in restaurants, we'd probably do the same thing, but that's more because I'd be afraid of losing control in front of the maitre d', thus making a scene. Thus Debbie is more the "Speaker-to-Humans" for me.

[iroshi.livejournal.com]

I'm almost disappointed. I was hoping there would be ranting about *something*. I love it when you rant. :) I told Chris I had to go read your journal to see the rant, and then was disappointed to see you'd not been home that evening and hadn't written a rant yet. *giggle*

However, I'm also very glad to know that you were relatively pleased with the way they handled things. And Chris was rolling his eyes at me before the episode was half-way over, at how much I was squealing how the slash fen were going to LOVE this episode! *grin* SQUEEE!

I don't buy that Amber changed in three weeks.

Pshaw. Nope. She's got some angle. Of course, that doesn't mean that she's not *also* enjoying the relationship. Because come on, she is a female House, and House loves Wilson...it only makes sense that Amber would like him, too. But love? WAY too soon for someone like Amber to let down her guard enough to love. I knew for sure there was something else going on when she used the word love.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I rant when there's something rant about. Seeing Orthodox Jews on television portrayed sympathetically, respectfully and almost accurately - that's such a rare thing that even with a few nitpicks, it was wonderful.

(On the other hand, my husband is completely convinced that Wilson and House are in love and should just kiss already, darn it! And has been since the first season.)

[iroshi.livejournal.com]

I rant when there's something rant about. Seeing Orthodox Jews on television portrayed sympathetically, respectfully and almost accurately - that's such a rare thing that even with a few nitpicks, it was wonderful.

Yes, but I've no way to know how accurately they're portrayed, and usually when TV tries to show stuff like that, they screw up so badly that you rant. :) Like I said, almost disappointed. Happier that you were happy with it, though.

(On the other hand, my husband is completely convinced that Wilson and House are in love and should just kiss already, darn it! And has been since the first season.)

In my personal opinion, based on the way they act and the looks on their faces...House thinks Wilson is straight. With a capital S. And Wilson, being Wilson, is just clueless. He was so *sincere* in the whole "you're not going to lose me as a friend" spiel. And he totally missed the look on House's face which seemed to say that Wilson didn't *get* it. But House just looks so content on those rare occasions that he gets away with saying something sweet to him, ya know?

Now, whether Wilson thinks Wilson is straight or just doesn't realize House is interested...that I'm not so sure about.

on the topic of Amber

[jacquez.livejournal.com]

We watched Sunday's _House_ and this one right in a row. After Sunday's, I turned to nlanza and said "Wilson's dating the female House!" and he said "I KNOW!!!"

Watching House realize that was HIGH-LARIOUS.

Re: on the topic of Amber

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Yes!

And that would have been a perfect time for a kiss, too...

Re: on the topic of Amber

[jacquez.livejournal.com]

I am trying to convince myself that I imagined House staring at Wilson's mouth.

Has to be wishful thinking on my part. Has to be.

[rosehiptea.livejournal.com]

The whole debate about whether you have to be crazy to be frum was painful for me to watch, for reason you know that I won't get into. (I know lots of people who considered three dates the right number, but I never actually asked any of them if that was what they did. And now I'm the one who's divorced... but then again so are some of them.)

But even though I don't exactly ship House/Wilson per se (not saying it's not there, just that it's not something I'm really into) I definitely wish House would kiss him rather than stalking him.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

You were closer to that part of the Orthodox spectrum than I am, so yeah.

I didn't like that discussion, but it ended up with Roz winning.

Either that or Wilson should think, "Why bother dating a fake House with the real thing right here? That way, I'll only have one of them in my life."

Because, really, who needs two of them?

[rosehiptea.livejournal.com]

I actually thought the couple had a charming relationship, even if they had three dates, so I liked that part of it. Also, I don't remember if either of them specfically said they had three dates anyway, though it does happen. (The Shabbat thing was messed up and made no sense, and her Hebrew pronunciation was a little off which it shouldn't have been even though she was new... but most of it was OK.)

Because, really, who needs two of them?

*snerk* Yeah, I'm starting to wonder why that hasn't occurred to Wilson yet myself.

[jonbaker.livejournal.com]

Debbie said that his actor-name was Eyal, hence Israeli. Which made his weird pronunciation reasonable. He mostly read in Israeli pronunciation, with kamatz & patach sounding the same (rather than "az der rebe ler'nt 'Kleine kinderlach, kumitz alef aw.'"), and taf/taf not taf/saf, but tried to add a chasidic fillip by pronouncing cholam as "oy". The result just sounded awkward.

And shabbos candles in a hospital? Around an oxygen feed? What were they thinking? When we were stuck in a hospital when Debbie's father was ill, we benched on the ceiling lights, and made kiddush on apple juice from the vending machine. You gotta do what you gotta do, as Leela says.

[rosehiptea.livejournal.com]

I didn't even notice his pronunication that much to be honest. I was referring to hers... she didn't even say that many Hebrew words but what she did say sounded off (in the way she accented the syllables in particular). If she was supposed to have learned the words from a book I'd buy it but she was supposed to be Chassidic herself, even if not for very long. Maybe it was just me.

But yeah... I've knows people who thought they could light candles in the hospital but the hospital would never have let them. And the whole idea that she postponed the surgery was just ridiculous. Even though they tried to make it clear it was her thing and not a religious thing, I just didn't find it plausible at all. (But House as a show does that; they need to throw up artificial obstacles about the treatment.)

[jonbaker.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't expect her pronunciation to be anywhere close to accurate. Six months after becoming a BT? My mother and Debbie still have difficulty even after years of Hebrew classes, Talmud classes, Parshanut classes, etc. Hebrew reading is difficult if you come to it as an adult, for most people.

[rosehiptea.livejournal.com]

Yes, but she wasn't reading from a text, in which case I'd certainly expect it. (I don't even know if I could do that anymore at all...) She was pronouncing "baalas teshuvah" which presumably she learned to say by listening to other people say it, so the fact that she said it wrong really stuck out to me.

[nosebeepbear.livejournal.com]

Thanks for spelling out what they got right and what they got wrong - I don't know enough to tell, but I wondered. Especially given how bad their medical facts sometimes are :).

I don't buy that Amber changed in three weeks.

I didn't see it as "change" so much as a chance to see her in a personal role rather than a professional one. Someone that manipulative is likely to be so in personal situations too, but it's possible she would be less so or at least differently so. That said, I'm not sure I buy that she's not playing games either :).

[chaos-wrangler.livejournal.com]

G twigged to the open flame + oxygen just before I did, we both went "huh?" re postponing the operation, and we both thought at first that she was trying to push it off to after shabbat (counter to halacha, as her husband told her) before realizing they meant push it off to on shabbat (even more counter to halacha). The "Friday night" scene had so many details off that I just suspended all disbelief for the duration.

One other thing - early on I commented that she should have had the sheet covering her lower body when she was talking to the doctors and not being examined below her waist (the gown she was wearing wasn't that long and I think it didn't even cover her knees), but such was completely ignored until later in the episode. I did like the speech they gave the husband on not treating his views of modesty/propriety as nonsense/archaic.

[hannahsarah.livejournal.com]

Aaagh, you make me wish I had TV again. Right now it's only hooked up to the VCR for Rivka's videos.