talkingtocactus
Coroner
I do enjoy miserable and distant (OT fact -I also like House a lot, and he can be a real SOB, LOL!). I like Mac's lighter side too, and how we've seen him warm up to the team. But he still maintains his distance from them at times. I think what you wrote about him in the spoilers discussion thread, about how he's reacting to the Flack situation, was really really interesting, and bang on about his character (are you sure you're not married to him, secretly?:lol.
haha, no, i'd never marry anyone, even him!! but i do relate to him massively because i'm very contained as well emotionally. i often watch mac and it's a bit like looking in a strange (and much much better looking) mirror...
yeah, i'd not thought of the military aspect which is a silly omission for me because i very nearly did my history dissertation on shell shock (in WWI) and that's all very closely tied in with the same things. the control of emotion in the military is a huge issue, and it's one i did a hell of a lot of ranting about during my degree:lol: but yes, i think you're absolutely right, he clearly does refer to his military training quite a lot (the most explicit example would be the "surgery" he did in COTP, but also in more subtle ways) and it must have a bearing on his emotional reactions as well. (edit, i just thought of this) this also came across really strongly in the flashback scenes - it was clear he was very "proper", calling his dad "sir" and sitting up straight and so on. that was a situation that calls for and would normally result in fairly open displays of emotion by most people (look at how stella reacted when prof p died, for instance), but he looked almost uptight, he didn't show very much emotion at all and was very contained. once a marine....
absolutely, i think that's spot on - some situations allow for a bit of venting, but the rest of the time he keeps it buttoned. and i think he's very aware of keeping work things at work and personal things separate, which probably makes him a lot more wary of treating his work colleagues as "friends" explicitly, by for instance getting involved in their personal problems (with the exception of stella, i think) - i think he's acutely aware, simultaneously, of (a) personal boundaries and (b) the boss-subordinate relationship - for instance he seems quite able to shout at a team member if they cock up (he yelled at danny a fair bit in the first 2 seasons) but i doubt he'd get so obviously invested in their emotional problems, unless they affected work, in which case he would have that justification for bringing it up, as their boss.
your entire post is basically why i relate to mac as a character!
yeah i agree - when i read your post, the bit where they arrested the singer who had been stalked jumped straight into my head - especially as hawkes *told* her that without a confession they'd have nothing on her. i think if mac was so black and white he'd have bawled hawkes out for saying such a thing but, although he looked a bit tense, he let it slide, i think that was a definite show of appreciation of gray areas
as for that, i find it hard to see hugh laurie as house, even now - i can't dissociate his bumbling, very british humour of the likes of jeeves & wooster, blackadder, fry & laurie etc from him, so seeing him as house is really weird for me. i had dinner with him (i was 9, i don't remember much about it!) and that makes it even harder - i guess i grew up with his persona as it's been for a long time in britain, and seeing him as a deeply cynical american doesn't quite sit right with me! [/ot]
Last edited:
