The Pilot...

I thought this would be as good a place to start as any, although I'm still not too sure whether I'm going to do this chronologically or not!

The first thing I noticed, that I hadn't picked up on until I received my season one DVD boxset, was that the first episode of the season doesn't have a title - its just referred to as 'The pilot'. There's not a lot else I can glean about the episode from the title other than the fact it's the the pilot!

Although, in a wonderfully cliched link to the other topic of this blog, this ep would have quite happily fitted to the title 'You Can't Always Get What You Want' - the title of the first major song used in musical interludes within this episode. We get one of our first indications of House of the maverick individual that he is, along with an indication of his working relationship with Cuddy with his quip on having to undertake clinic duty -

'As the Philosopher Jagger once said 'you can't always get what you want'

And what does House want? From this episode and our baptism of fire regarding the character, it would appear that her certainly doesn't want to actually treat patients - perish the thought (!). This is a man who enjoys a puzzle - something that can tax his enquiring mind and make the point that he may be rude, he may be arrogant, but damn....hes good. This episode, unssuprisingly, is all about House the character and about his grudging acceptance of the necessity to actually interact with people and have some sympathy for the individual (maybe less of the sympathy and more of the interaction, but you get the idea!).

The presence of the Rolling Stones classic at the end of the episode, serves to highlight that, as it turns out, you may not always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you get what you need. As much as he hates to admmit it, House needs the patients - without whom there would be no puzzle, and no chance to prove others spectacularly wrong.

This first episode then, is an example of the power that music has to add to our understanding of a character - in this case Greg House and his need (as much as he would like to deny it) for the patient and the puzzle. There's something very fragile about this guy, he's damaged and he seems to draw other damaged souls to him - there's bound to be fireworks!

Beyond the Script

Have you ever watched a show without music playing underneath dialogue or a particular scene? Joss Whedon did it in his season 5 episode of Buffy, 'The Body', and boy was it odd. Music within television is extremely inportant and extremely valuable to a director - often a carefully chosen score can do the job of a page of dialogue, and do it better.

House MD is no exception and within this blog, I intend to examine the use of music in this fantastic show - when is music employed rather than dialogue? Is there anything that the music can tell us about the characters we are watching, or the situation they find themselves in? I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to structure my thoughts, so do bear with me on that one, but I'm hoping that this blog is going to help me get more out of the show when I watch it, and I hope it does the same for you guys too.

I'm also going to look at the episode titles of the two seasons of House, amd examine what they bring to one's understanding of the show - are the episode titles simply a straight reflection of the storyline, or are theree various levels to the titles...indeed, are they a mixture of both?

I hope you enjoy what I have to say, and keep coming back, as I intend to update as regularly as work allows!

First Test Post from House MD Editors

Welcome, Louise.