Quick ...permalink
House and Fringe
-
Sky are running new episodes of House and Fringe back to back at the moment and it's interesting to see how they're dealing with disability.
In House, House has finally had to seek treatment for his long-term painkiller abuse, but the solution seems to be to make him go completely cold-turkey on pain control: no pills but not any of the non-drug based treatments either. So he's still in chronic pain, but they aren't doing anything for him (and ironically the rest of the team spent the episode dealing with someone whose symptoms started with pain and they were actually considering CRPS as a potential diagnosis at one point). House was initially told to find himself a good hobby, and yes, distraction works, but, obsessing as usual, he turned himself into a world-class cook in the course of the episode and then got bored with it, finally dealing with his pain by diagnosing the patient via the back door. Yes, distraction works, but if your drug-abusing chronic pain patient is in so much pain he's on the verge of going out to score something on the street, then don't you at least try things like TENS, meditation and accupuncture?
In Fringe, Olivia is dealing with the aftermath of being thrown headfirst through the windscreen of her car, which left her with head injuries, partial amnesia, coordination problems and a dislocated hip. This being Fringe, treatment consisted of the guru at the bowling alley getting her angry enough to forget she was disabled..... -
Apparentl CSI:NY has someone recovering from an SCI at soap opera speeds. Over on Medium Alison has just about recovered from the hemiplegia her stroke caused (in the space of 4 episodes). And on Bones Booth woke up from his coma at the end of last season with no idea who Bones was. By the start of this season he was back at work and the only memories he hadn't recovered were that he likes his "cocky" belt buckle and brightly coloured socks.
Then the new FlashForward has an allegedly autistic boy whose autism seems to be rather intermittent.This is a reply to this message.
-
I've never seen any of those programmes, but surely they can't recover faster than British characters.
I think the record is jointly held by Mike 'I'm going to be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life' Dixon on Brookside or that doctor in Casualty who was seriously injured in a helicopter crash but a couple of weeks later was back on duty with no side-efects at all.This is a reply to this message.
-
>> Apparentl CSI:NY has someone recovering from an SCI at soap opera speeds. Over on Medium Alison has just about recovered from the hemiplegia her stroke caused (in the space of 4 episodes). <<
I'm not up to speed with CSI:NY at the mo and I don't follow Medium, but you're right about Bones and Booth's rapid recovery, the story line wrapped into that about him thinking he loved her as a side effect from the alternate universe story that played out inside his head while he was unconscious was quite interesting, though again rapidly disposed of. As a lasting, though minor, side effect he seems to have forgotten how to do plumbing.
>> Then the new FlashForward has an allegedly autistic boy whose autism seems to be rather intermittent. <<
True. And on SG:U the colonel continues his rapid recovery from spinal shock, while Doctor Rush has just had the fastest nervous breakdown and recovery, all in the space of an episode, on record.This is a reply to this message.
-
I think the record is jointly held by Mike 'I'm going to be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life' Dixon on Brookside or that doctor in Casualty who was seriously injured in a helicopter crash but a couple of weeks later was back on duty with no side-efects at all.
The current winner is Maria in Holby City. Two weeks ago she was unable to walk at all (took a few steps between the parallel bars at the end of the episode), last week she was walking using two crutches and last night she was using one.
I foresee her being back nursing next week!This is a reply to this message.
-
Hurrah for Holby. It's just like real life there.
This is a reply to this message.
-
One I forgot to mention is Supernatural.
Sam and Dean's father-figure Bobby sustained an SCI at the start of this season. 7 episodes down and he's still a paraplegic! He's even asked an angel to heal him (he couldn't) and tried his hand at poker against a witch hoping to win the use of his legs again (he didn't).This is a reply to this message.
-
Credit where credit is due, I noticed that the autism played a much bigger part in last night's Flashforward and I thought they made a reasonably good job of it. And I thought Walter's extreme reluctance to enter the hospital room of someone in restraints in this week's Fringe was a nicely played allusion to his own back story in psychiatric care.This is a reply to this message.
-
And I thought Walter's extreme reluctance to enter the hospital room of someone in restraints in this week's Fringe was a nicely played allusion to his own back story in psychiatric care.
Have I seen that one? Remind me what else happened.This is a reply to this message.
-
>> Have I seen that one? Remind me what else happened. <<
This week's ep; they arrive in Seattle and are told the doctors have only just managed to wake the attacker up. They walk along the corridor to a windowed wall onto a large hospital room. The attacker is on the bed with restraints at wrists and ankles. Walter stares through the window, looks distressed and says "Peter, I don't want to go in there. Please don't make me go in there' (or something very close to that). Peter and Olivia go in to interview the attacler, he tells them about seeing everyone as monsters, then starts convulsing, which means Walter has to go into the room anyway. The attacker manifests REM with his eyes wide open and his hair turns white, then he drops dead just as his wife comes into the room.
I'm hypothesizing that it was the reminder of his own back story that distressed Walter into wanting to stay outside, but I can't see anything else that fits. The only thing out of the ordinary from any number of people they've interviewed in hospital (including Olivia) was the restraints.This is a reply to this message.
-
The one where she was collecting business cards from anyone wearing red?
This is a reply to this message.
-
and wasn't there Nick Cotton in Eastenders who was pushed from a building and broke his back but was back walking in a few weeks
Jim in Corrie as well home from hospital in a week or so after falling from a building
oh well at least Corrie have Roy with Aspergers -This is a reply to this message.
-
>> The one where she was collecting business cards from anyone wearing red? <<
Yes.This is a reply to this message.
-
Booth has apparently realised something else his coma made him forget: Whether or not he likes brown sugar on his porridge.
This is a reply to this message.
-
I just caught up with that Bones episode and beside the Booth thing it sort of crystallized a feeling I've had for the last few episodes. Since they no longer have Zack as a character, are they playing up the Aspie side of Brennan's character? There seem to be more prominent instances of her being unable to read people or emotions. It's always varied a little from script to script, some emphasizing the rationalist scientist aspect, others that there's a whole layer of interaction she needs Booth or Angela to interpret for her, but lately there seems more of the second than when Zack was around.This is a reply to this message.
-
I think the writers are just getting sloppy. She's also been more mean this season than she ever has been before.
This is a reply to this message.
-
>> She's also been more mean this season than she ever has been before. <<
Is she being mean, or is she just unable to comprehend that people won't interpret things in the same strictly rationalist way that she does?
If you look at this episode you saw it in the (admittedly played for comedy) segment with the Woodchuck pack. Was she being mean telling them off for recovering the body without informing the authorities, or was she simply unable to see the consequences of her actions? It's also there in the stuff with Angela and the pig, where they fight, but she has no idea why they are fighting.This is a reply to this message.
-
I was thinking back to the first couple of episodes of the season when she really was quite mean. It was totally incomprehensible as to why Booth was supposed to be in love with her.
This is a reply to this message.
-
8 episodes of Medium since she had her stroke and Alison is now 100% able-bodied again.
Even the guy on CSI:NY is still using one walking stick.This is a reply to this message.
-
Flashforward just had the return of the MIA daughter promised by the electricity guy's flashforward, it turns out that when they said they'd positively identified her remains after her Humvee was blown up, they were only talking about one leg..... I should think we'll be fairly safe from her growing it back.
Bones is promising the return of Stephen Fry's psychiatrist character this week, it'll be interesting to see if he touches on any of what we've been discussing.This is a reply to this message.
Live community panel
Vote
Vote
© MMIX