Stefanie Barnes

StarringDr House

Play by Hugh Laurie

Lisa CuddyPlayed by Lisa Edelstein

Dr Allison CameronPlayed by Jennifer Morrison

Dr James WilsonPlayed by Robert Sean Leonard

Remy “Thirteen” HadleyPlayed by Olivia Wilde

Dr Robert ChasePlayed by Jesse Spencer Lawrence Kutner

Played by Kal Penn

Dr Jessica AdamsPlayed by Odette Annabele

Dr Chris TaubPlayed by Peter Jacobson Dr Eric Foreman

Played by Omar Epps

Details of the TV Drama• In the series, there was 178 episodes altogether which was divided

into 8 seasons. The series was also broadcasted in 2004 and the finale was aired in 2012, whilst being set in the US the entire time and of course, during the modern times.

• The series got ranked 24th among all TV series that are running at the time and was very popular with women that worked and wasn’t the stay at home type instead (if any of those types of women still remain) as the dramedy of the series was obviously catching the house wives and families, mostly parents and some teenagers, with its dark sense of humour that appeared a few times within the episodes and the mysteries it gave behind why a person caught a certain illness was intriguing, along with wanting to know more about each main characters past.

• The series also got a Metacritic of 74 out of 100 and had a very popular start and middle, though mixed feelings towards the finale, ranging from “could’ve done better but did get it done right” to, “A great way of ending”.

The Setting of the Series

And Creators• The series was set in Canada for the pilot episode and on the Bryan Singer

chose the hospital near his hometown, West Windsor, New Jersey, as the show's fictional setting. Princeton University's Frist Campus Center is the source of the aerial views of Princeton‑Plainsboro Teaching Hospital seen in the series. Some filming took place at the University of Southern California for the season three episode "Half-Wit", which guest-starred Dave Matthews and Kurtwood Smith. Part of House ' s sixth season was filmed at the abandoned Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital, in Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey, as the fictional Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital.

• House was a co-production of Heel and Toe Films, Shore Z Productions, and Bad Hat Harry Productions in association with Universal Media Studios for Fox. Paul Attanasio and Katie Jacobs, the heads of Heel and Toe Films; David Shore, the head of Shore Z Productions; and Bryan Singer, the head of Bad Hat Harry Productions, were executive producers of the program for its entirety.

Zeitgeist• Zeitgeist is present throughout the series as

when he is performing diagnostics in the beginning, end or even in the middle of the episode, he is often seen playing a games console and it changes throughout the series to different ones as at the start it is a Gameboy, then changes to a PSP and then later on, it changes to a DS. This links with the time it was set in which would be the present and shows the development of the series and that it’s not just set in one time period.

Camera Shots / TechniquesThis is a shallow focus shot and is used to show how House is avoiding Lisa who is the one seen in the white jacket. She, and everything else in the background, is faded out so it looks like he’s trying to blank them all out, pretend they’re not there so he can get out of doing work again without being nagged by her which is something that happens a lot.

This is a shot/reverse shot to show the conversation between House and Williams as they converse about a new patient, better known as a new ‘case’ and it slowly speeds up in the cutting the more House gets interested in the patient and the illness that they have.

This is an aerial shot that is used to show how the operation is taking place, who is there to assist with bring the girl back to a stable and breathing condition and some of the items that are nearby and are either helping with bringing the patient back or had assisted with her falling unconscious and being unable to breathe.

Mise-en-scene• In the series, you notice that all doctors wear to stereotypical white

lab coats, all except House and Lisa (when she isn’t performing a diagnosis and is trying to handle being the head of the department and act as a boss at the start of the series. ) Though the lab coats show a sense of authority from the doctors, these two don’t wear them, well, House doesn’t wear it at all.

• House doesn’t wear the signature white lab coat despite him being a doctor, maybe because he wishes to be seen as a person who is no different to the patients as he is, after all, a cripple and can’t walk properly without a walking stick. But instead, he’ll wear his everyday wear which consists of a suit in shades of brown or black, this can represent his emotions of resent as he wishes he could die sometimes because of his limp. Although, the difference could be to show that he is different to other characters and can also show him being the leading main character of the other characters who act like leads as well.

Sound• In the series, there is a ticking sound during times of

wait which builds up the suspense, along with a small build up in volume for a certain track that almost sounds like slowed down typical elevator music.

• There’s a highlight of sound within the series of the cutting into the patient and the blood squelching and a pump noise which can build up suspense again more as the patient who needs the pump is unable to breathe. So when the sound builds up in volume, all other sound stops before it echoes into the next scene which can represent a lingering feeling of nearly losing a patient.

EditingCutawayThis is a cutaway shot as it shows the teacher babbling like a baby, obviously because of her illness, then cuts away to the kids laughing and treating it like a joke. If it wasn’t the lady there but something else, the scene would make more sense yet it shows the oblivious nature of young kids.

CrosscuttingThere’s also one other editing technique known as the crosscutting which is used but I think it was used subtly as it was used when House picked up a letter that is to the parents and is apparently signed by him but is initially signed by someone else. It shows the concerned parents in the background before showing the letter which would be the foreground and zooms in on the letter before zooming out then showing us that the background has changed along with the scene whilst the letter had taken up all of the space on the shot.

Convergent Nature of Modern Media

• Convergence – The coming together of different forms of media on one device. Audience now expect to do more with devices and media.

• On FOX, the channel that House was aired on, has a page specifically for the series. This page has links to other websites which are accessible through other devices such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and has a selection for ‘Other Devices’. This shows that the channel knows that people would most likely want to catch up with the series or simply hear news about it on other devices and want to be kept up to date. It tells of the newest things to do with the series such as the ‘First Look’ of the season finale, a trailer that would not be accessible on any other website (at the time this page was shown) and can be accessible though from other devices. They also have podcasts that talk about the series and tells us about characters let alone the story of the series that is easily accessible as well.

Gender represented in the series• Gender in this series is presented

through Cameron, the only girl on the team arranged on the team who isn’t Lisa. She is seen as the girl who got into the team because she is a team, and House states this at the end of episode 1, or actually, the pilot episode. He states that her background in the university she attended for medicine wasn’t as good as others, so he could’ve picked anyone else and this makes her question him why he didn’t just pick someone who was better at the job than her, in which case, he talks about her appearance and compares it to models. This could hint at women being used in certain thing, merely for their appearances and treating them differently to the other male characters and as a submissive gender.

• It’s also shown that women may not always be as good as men because of Cameron getting into a school that wasn’t as good as Eric's which is also stated in the ‘Ethnic’ section.

• Though for Lisa, she changes that around as she’s House’s boss, threatening to fire him at points because of his risky moves and showing off her authority. This shows that women can also have power and can be the ones pulling the strings in operations. She’s very well respected and often makes sarcastic remarks alongside House which can show her as being of a similar level of status to him, let alone being his boss.

Ethnic groups represented in the

series• Ethnic groups are seen in different ways in the series. As other characters see the man American black guy, Eric Foreman, as a normal doctor with capable abilities to perform surgery just like everyone else at the hospital, House seems to see him different and acts different round him, often pointing out his difference in colour. He also thinks of him as the stereotype as shown in old urban movies.

• This is mostly seen when House tries to break into a house of one of his patients and needs to get in to find evidence, he then turns to Eric and depends on him to break in, mainly because of his racial background and even states so.

• Though this may be also because of the criminal record he has which is told that he broke into a house only to be caught and end up with said criminal record. More things are hinted at his race but also, it can be seen as Eric still being superior to Cameron, despite his ethnic but because of his gender as he got into a better school than her for medicine despite all of his problems.

Age represented in the series• Age is presented in different ways within

the series as it shows an elderly woman being overly cautious about her health and how long she has left to live yet the series seems to take the mic out of this and uses it as an excuse to say that questions like that are very much boring and typical and can even get annoying so to spice things up, House says, “10” which confuses the old lady before he starts counting down, which obviously shows how little he likes to spend with the elderly.

• It also depicts children as beings who can’t do anything without their mother or father and are totally dependent on them which is shown in the second episode for the newest ‘case’ when he turns out to be adopted and that is the cause of the problem because he hasn’t had his shots and was taken away from the mother at 2 weeks which is younger than a child should be taken away as he states he still acts like a child and continues to make such remarks throughout the episode.

• Then there are the kids who House describes as brats and seems to joke about them being ‘snivelling’ all the time and mothers worrying about nothing because of it just being a simple cold. For example, a woman worried over her child who had a cold because she didn’t want to give the kid the shots it needed, believing it to be a money scam but obviously, it is not.

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