Flashppoint's back! Yay!

[gwyn]

Even though I've felt really crappy this past week (my mind is coming up with all kinds of hypochondriacal notions of what could be wrong), having Flashpoint on my TV again after all this time being gone makes me feel tons better. Oh, Ed. Oh, Greg. Oh, team! I've missed you. Even if you are using one of my most hated devices in all of film, the nonexistent land mine that you can step on without it blowing up, as long as you don't step off.

Today is Day 05 - A show you hate on the 30 Days of TV meme. Wow. How do I answer this without pissing off all the friends I have who love whichever show I hate? Because boy do I have a lot of potential answers for this, but I think each one has at least one or two friends who love it, if not more.

Um. So, I think I would pick...oh, my, there are so many possibilities. I guess I'd go back a few years and say House. There are so many things I hate about it, from the ridiculous medicine and science presented on the show that is so utterly absurd I can't believe they're not filled with shame at what they present, to the misuse of a favorite performer of mine (Hugh Laurie), to the fact that it presents a despicable example of medical doctors at their absolute worst as entertainment and amusement. Anyone who's ever gone through the nightmare of American medicine and dealt with hideous medical personnel who view you as a piece of crap in their way has to question the sanity of finding that entertaining. I don't understand how so many people I know, who are otherwise thoughtful and caring, find his misanthropy and criminal maltreatment of sick people something they value.

I have seen some amazing vids for it that almost make me forget how very much I loathe the message that it sends. But then I'll see a commercial for it and just... I'm back at the hospital trying to get someone, anyone, to actually do something for my mom or my sister, and realizing that no one gives a shit about them as people, and they're dying because no one cared enough to treat them properly, and I can't do anything about it, and somehow I just don't find that at all entertaining.

Comments

[ratcreature]

But in House patients rarely die of this kind of crap treatment, but are actually saved by the doctors who are brilliant and know stuff even as they treat patients like a dehumanized puzzle. The ones that die are usually Wilson's cancer patients in the background, and we only see them when House interrupts Wilson treating them like human patients. So I guess in a way it is a wishfulfillment fantasy giving a narrative to the experiences with doctors, i.e. the doctors may treat the patients like crap and try a ton of stuff that doesn't work and harms the them at first and makes them suffer, but then they aren't clueless after all but find the right thing through that trial and error procedure and medicine triumphs.

[klia]

To say I have ISSUES with House would be the understatement of the decade. It's one of those shows I watched on occasion to see favorite actors I rarely see (like Martin Henderson and Michael Weston), but it pretty much always made me insanely angry. In the MH ep, it wasn't House who was a total asshole to him (because House had experience with chronic pain and could actually *gasp* empathize), it was Foreman who was belittling people dealing with chronic pain, saying the usual BS that they were all drug addicts wanting painkillers, or it was all in their heads. I wanted to rip his fucking face off.

[belmanoir.livejournal.com]

OMG I feel the same way about House! I mean I can't really watch hospital shows in general because I'm squeamish, but even if I could I don't think I could swallow House's awful behavior. And it sucks because Hugh Laurie is SOOOO FABULOUS!

On the other hand, I am always amazed by how many of my friends love police shows about cops who break all the rules in pursuit of justice for the same reason...

[anoel.livejournal.com]

Well for one, I see it as entertainment, I don't take it seriously as actually hospital treatment. Of course I'm not usually at hospitals so I don't have any experience in it. But also because I'm not one of those people who want a caring and sympathetic doctor, I'd rather have the BEST doctor who spares no kindness in telling me exactly what's going on and then goes onto give the best treatment possible. As long as caring about the puzzle of the illness means enough to do it right, I don't care. And I don't take the medicine on the show seriously (or pay attention to it) so I' free to enjoy my House/Wilson and ignore that.

That being said, I gave it up because the plots bored me so there you go.