House Vs. Holmes

Unique ideas for movies or plays are hard to come by, so if one is going to emulate something, it might as well be something good. For example, the Sergio Leone movie Fist Full of Dollars starring Clint Eastwood was directly inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo. The musical West Side Story is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet. Even the animated movie Lion King was influenced by Shakespeare’s Hamlet. And currently, Dr. Gregory House from the show House seems to be inspired by the literary character Sherlock Holmes. But while these two characters share a lot in common, they are significantly different.

Both Dr. House and Mr. Holmes work on unique cases. They both need the mental stimulation difficult cases provide, or else they'd be restless. House refuses to accept cases unless they appeal to his sense of curiosity, and probably take his mind off of his leg pain. Also, he tries as hard as he can to avoid clinic hours where he’d have to deal with average individuals with average ailments. Holmes prefers unique cases, and is thoroughly excited when somebody approaches him with a singular mystery, but he isn’t above helping the run of the mill person either. Holmes, however, does need interesting cases to keep his mind stimulated, or else he falls into a cocaine addiction. According to his friend Watson, Holmes craves mental stimulation, and while he prefers cases, he’ll go to drugs when there’s nothing else to turn to.

House and Holmes are both above average intelligence, to say the least. House is a doctor, so a certain amount of schooling and practice is expected. Holmes is a detective, which of course takes brain power, but he is also a scholar, and when he isn’t working on a case, he could likely be found in a chemistry lab running experiments. The origins of these characters’ intelligence come from different means, though. Holmes, as mentioned, is a scholar. He practices chemistry, biology, and physics. He studies cigars and where they are made, and just about any other piece of seemingly trivial information. He keeps up in politics and the legal system on a global level. Watson, through his narratives, explains how Holmes is as intelligent as he is. However, House is not given as good of an explanation. Yes, House is a doctor. He’s one of the best in the show's world. In one episode, Cuddy mentions she and House went to the same medical school and he was a huge figure even then. But all this does is explain why House is good at medicine. For unaccounted reasons, House also knows about foreign cultures and languages (as shown in the episode Whatever It Takes in season four). House contains heaps superfluous of information, which might supposed to be a testament to how smart he is, but a brief explanation occasionally wouldn’t be a bad thing.

House and Holmes aren’t what you’d call "people" persons. There is, however, a great difference. House hates people for a myriad of reasons. He thinks they’re dumb, they’re a waste of his time, they’re boring, etc. These are shallow reasons, but House usually sticks to them vehemently, especially when it comes to avoiding clinic duty. Holmes, rather, doesn’t see a point in creating a rapport with a person unless they have some higher role to fulfill. Besides Watson, which Holmes senses something special in, everybody else either doesn’t matter or only has a limited use. Holmes is hardly ever mean, even to the criminals he snares, but that’s only because it is less efficient to have enemies than it is to have a positive relationship with somebody. Honestly, though, general people bore Holmes just as much as they bore House.

Also pertaining to their general outlook on their clients, House is a general misanthrope. He doesn’t discriminate against hating people. Men, women, Jews, blacks, dwarfs, homosexuals, and the list goes on. Holmes is a bit different. To be fair, in most Holmes stories there aren’t blacks or Jews or many different minorities to discriminate against. Holmes does, however, discriminate against women. He sees them as the fairer sex, and generally not as smart as men. This doesn’t arise too often throughout his tales, but he does note when a woman surprises him with their intelligence. In one story, Holmes comments the only woman he ever could have loved was a thief who actually outsmarted him and escaped the country.

There’s nothing wrong with imitating something. Virtually everything is inspired by something else. And sometimes the new creations can out perform the old inspirations. Or, at the very least, the new creation could be a reincarnation of the old for a new generation. And that is House compared to Holmes. Just with a few personality tweaks.

How to Make a Hero

Creating a super hero isn’t easy work. There’s enough proof of this in the annals of comic book history. For instance, virtually every member of the Great Lakes Avengers from the Marvel universe is a dud. There’s Flatman, whose power is to have a flat body. That's pretty much it. Then there’s Squirrel Girl, who has the ability to communicate with squirrels. She, as some kind of comic book joke, has actually defeated worthwhile super villains, such as Dr. Doom. And also there is Grasshopper, who has robotic grasshopper legs that allow for super-sized leaping. These heroes aren’t quite on the same level as Batman or Spiderman. So, with duds like these, what exactly makes a good super hero?

The origin story is the start. If you’re hero doesn’t have an interesting and believable origin story, then it’ll be that much more difficult for it to take off. Origins can be assigned to different categories. There’s the science origin, like Spiderman, where he acquires his powers by means of scientific happenings. There’s the mutant origin, such as the X-Men, where the heroes are either born with their powers, or their powers develop without external coercion as they grow up. There’s the technology origin, such as Iron Man, who doesn’t have any actual super powers, but uses machinery and gadgets to fulfill his duty. There’s the magic origin, such as Dr. Strange, where the hero’s powers are based in spells and other sorts of mysticism. And lastly, there’s the natural origin, such as Superman and the Punisher. Superman’s powers are natural because where he comes from, Krypton, everybody has those powers (or would if they were in the presence of a yellow sun). His powers are normal for his species, so they would be considered natural. The Punisher also has a natural origin because he has no actual superpowers. Anything he can do anybody could do with the proper training.

The origin of the hero’s powers makes a difference because some origins, such as mutant and natural, are more believable to the audience than other origins, magic and science. Of course, comic books aren’t real, but there is an amount of believability in every comic book, and if that believability is pushed to far, the audience may decide the comic is too preposterous and stop reading.

The second important thing regarding the origin of a super hero is how exactly he or she receives his or her powers, and what instigated the hero wanting to use their powers for heroism. Spiderman is a well put example. He received his spider-like powers by being bitten by a radioactive spider while at a science facility. The science origin works well enough, although slightly pushes the believability. But when Spiderman realizes his powers, he doesn’t want to use them for good. He instead wants to make some money by winning a wrestling match. He doesn’t decide to use his powers for good until his Uncle Ben’s death, which Spiderman felt responsible for. This feeling of guilt and responsibility led Spiderman down the path of becoming a super hero.

So, a popular and effective characteristic when creating a science or technology origin for a super hero is tragedy. The death of Uncle Ben, the murder of Batman’s parents, and Iron Man being kidnapped by terrorists all use tragedy. It makes the character relatable while still granting them super powers. And along the same lines, although slightly different, is the use of prejudice in mutant origins. In the X-Men, people fear the mutants and hate the mutants because they’re different from them. This sense of unjustifiable prejudice is something most people can empathize with, whether it’s a minority facing racism or a fat kid being made fun of his weight.

Besides the origin, the main component of a super hero is his or her power. The power needs to be original, but still be based upon a sort of standard. Robotic grasshopper legs are definitely original, but it strays too far away from the standard. Leaping high is OK and robotic legs are OK, but actually specifying the legs to be “grasshopper” legs is a push too far. Super strength and stamina are necessary for most super heroes, but those powers wouldn’t make the grade by themselves. There is a list of already created super powers, and most of them would be good for a stand alone character. A large pitfall for any super hero, though, is for them to have too many powers. Martian Manhunter and Superman are both examples of this. Having too many powers makes the hero too powerful. If the hero is too powerful, then his ordeals aren’t so dramatic anymore. If there’s no drama, then there’s no pull to keep reading. An ultimate, unbeatable super hero is a nice idea in theory, but would get boring and repetitive fast.

And lastly, every super hero needs a worthy super villain. Some super villains are cool because of their own merit, such as Dr. Doom. But at the very minimal, the super villain must be the antithesis of the super hero. The relationship between the hero and villain must be more than the fact the hero doesn’t let the villain do bad stuff. Every great hero-villain relationship has deep rooted emotion in it. Batman and the Joker, Wolverine and Sabertooth, Superman and Lex Luthor, and Thor and Loki each have their own personal histories with each other. This long term relationship adds more drama into the comic, which creates more interest.

Really, there's no hard and fast rules to making super heroes. Different ideas appeal to different people at different times. Heroes like Flatman and Squirrel Girl might be popular in the future. Also, heroes like Batman and Spiderman may eventually be forgotten. However, for right now, at least, this seems like a good set of rules to follow when making your own super hero.

House Season 3: The Best Yet

Good television is hard to come by. Most of what is aired consists of reality shows. American Idol, Dancing With the Stars, and Flavor of Love are examples of what’s popular now. However, there are gems out there, one of them being House. House, for those of you who don’t know, is a medical show on Fox that stars Hugh Laurie as a very mean, but very brilliant diagnostician. He has a team of three doctors, each member with their own expertise, which handles the patients directly while House stays as far away as possible. House is a good show, as proven by two Golden Globes and a myriad of other awards, and has just finished up its fourth season. Each season was good in its own way; however, season three stands out from the others as the best season.

The first reason why the third season of House is the best is because it starts off with House having his bum leg fixed. House’s leg was the reason he used Vicodin so much. His leg pain was merely intolerable on good days. On bad days he could hardly leave his bed. To manage the pain he popped a pill about once every five minutes. House’s drug use became a major characteristic, and with his leg being fixed, he no longer needed the drugs. The pain didn’t just go away, his leg made a major recovery in muscle growth, too. After a couple of months of rehab House was running to work. He was feeling better than he had felt in years.

However, like every good TV show, you can’t have the main character remain happy too long. The experimental procedure House went through after he had been shot and the end of season two started to wear off. The pain was coming back. It wasn't too long until House started ingesting his favorite pain meds again. By the middle of the season House was hobbling around with his cane again and was as ornery as ever.

Creating this drama was great for the show. It allowed the viewers to see what House would be like with two functioning legs. He was just as mean as ever, but we saw him running places and how happy it made him to be normal again. And then to see House fall back into pain and Vicodin, see him degenerate, was almost painful to watch. This was a great move on behalf of the writers.

Secondly, the third season was the season to introduce us to Detective Tritter. Tritter started off as just another patient House was rude to. But once House was rude with him, Tritter stood up to him, something most other patients wouldn’t dare do. House, not to be out done, embarrassed and insulted Tritter. However, one night shortly after that incident, House got pulled over by Tritter while driving home. Tritter noticed House popping pills and wanted to get after him for drug abuse and drug dealing.

Tritter’s harassment started off relatively small, but became more aggressive. Soon Tritter interrogated Cuddy, Wilson, and even House’s team about House’s actions. Then, to step it up a notch, Tritter began freezing the bank accounts of Wilson and House’s team. Things escalated until it came for House to go to court and defend himself. House, of course, got off thanks to Cuddy lying for him.

Tritter is one of the most important characters of the third season, and possibly the entire show. House is a terrifying figure to some. He is tall, mean looking, and bad-tempered. He intimidates people on a regular basis. However, Tritter is the first character to really challenge House. Tritter was bigger, cutthroat, and clever. He was the perfect nemesis for House. Tritter got Wilson to betray House, the police to raid House’s apartment and confiscate hundreds of pills, and, most shockingly, Tritter got House to go to rehab. Sure, the rehab was rigged, but nobody else has pushed House that far. For that, Tritter will be one of House’s greatest opponents.

And what is House without bizarre cases? The third season had some of the weirdest and most interesting cases to date. Early in the season was the kid who was admitted and claimed to have been abducted by aliens. Tests ran on him were inconclusive, and the kid dug out a piece of titanium from the back of his neck, allegedly put there by aliens. House’s team was confused by this, and when they found DNA in the boy that wasn’t his, the case gets that much trickier.

Another notable case is the one with the CIPA (Congenital Insensitivity to Pain with Anhidrosis) patient who was in a car accident with her mom. They ran tests on her, and even though everything seemed fine, her condition kept getting worse. The fact she couldn’t feel pain made it much harder to diagnose her problems, which made the team resort to more intense exams. One of these tests included having the girl stick her hand in scalding hot water. By the end of the episode, the answer to her problems was one you’d never expect.

And lastly, the third season is the best because it marks the last season House’s original team was together. House, in a fit of anger, fired Chase. Foreman resigned after deciding he doesn’t want to end up like House. And Cameron resigns to be with Chase. This first team carried the show for three years and left a lot for the new team to live up to. So, maybe the best of four seasons isn’t too amazing of an accomplishment, but any new season will have to try hard to beat it.

I Hate Emo Music So Much I Cut Myself

Music, more than any other branch of the media, is subjective. Two people can hear the same song and get completely different messages from it. And besides the meaning of the lyrics, different sounds appeal to people. Some people may really love guitar solos in metal bands. Others love the rhythmic vocals of R&B songs. So, when talking about music, it is difficult to get a large group of people to agree on what is good and what is not. With that said, emo music is pretty much terrible.

I’ll begin with the aesthetic aspect of emo music. The songs just don’t sound good. The vocals are whiny. The Used illustrates this point exactly. Bert McCracken shows how shrill he can be in the song “All That I’ve Got” within the first 30 seconds. Besides the piercing singing, there is also the rasping screaming featured in many songs. A great example of this is in “I’m Not Okay” by My Chemical Romance. It’s featured throughout the song, but can be specifically heard around the 2:50 mark. The screams are as though the singer gave up on being harmonious and just wanted to be loud.

I mean, I kind of get it. The screams are for the parts of the songs where the singer needs to convey extra emotion. They scream for the parts where the lyrics get “deep.” Well, let me tell you about those emotional lyrics. They’re nonsense. In “Silver Bullet” by Hawthorne Heights, the lyrics say, “Got a single silver bullet/ Shot right through my heart/ To prove I can’t survive/ Without you.” I’m not saying songs about lost love are bad. Many great songs have been written on the subject, such as “Now That It’s Over” by Everclear. But it’s the way emo lyrics go about it. Much like the singing, the lyrics sound whiny. There’s no dignity in them. The words clearly say this man is going to die without this woman. His life will be over all because of this one incident. I’ve felt like this before, don’t get me wrong. But I never wrote about it and got rich. I have a bit much self-respect for that.

So emo music sounds bad and the lyrics are garbage. All that is left is the band members themselves, and they are no saving grace. I like to be diverse when speaking on subjects like this to show it isn’t just a band here or there that sucks, but when it comes to band members, there is a specific target I enjoy: Gerard Way. He is the frontman and lead vocalist for My Chemical Romance. He is the first experience I had with the emo genre and I have yet to recover. A friend of mine wanted to watch the making of th video for “I’m Not Okay” a while back, and I, being a good friend, obliged. However, as soon as I heard what the song was, I was in a constant state of agony. Yes, the song was bad, but what was worse was looking at Way. In the video he looks as though he had been sprayed in the face with mace. It isn’t mace, of course, it’s eye shadow. Bright red eye shadow. I’m not saying men can’t wear make-up. I’m saying nobody should wear make-up that makes them look that bad, though. On top of his eye shadow catastrophe, he is the whitest man on Earth with jet black hair (dyed no doubt). And, the cherry on top this fashion nightmare is the fact his hair is greasy. That’s just not okay.

Emo music sucks for more reasons than this, but these are the reasons most closely attached to the music itself. If I wanted to, I could throw in the fashion trends that have been spurred because of the genre, or I could throw in the emotional trends, both shown in this video with clarity. In the end, though, when it comes to taste in music, the music itself is what’s most important. And when it comes down to it, emo music just sucks.

My Week in Media 6/22/08

Everything’s Eventual

Stephen King’s Everything’s Eventual is a collection of short stories published in 2002. There are 14 short stories in the book, and if you like King, most of them are good. He does something different with these stories than he has done with previous ones. The stories in this book aren’t all about the dark and macabre. Instead, there are quite a few “realistic” stories, such as that of a man who is about to be autopsied before he’s dead and the fictional story of the Dillinger gang.

I liked how he departed from the typical spook stories. When reading the autopsy story, I felt as though it wasn’t King writing it. There’s nothing wrong with knowing King wrote the story, but it’s a good thing King can shift his voice after all of these years.

The collection isn’t without King’s usual scary tales, though. One of my favorites is 1408, which was recently made into a movie starring John Cusak and Samuel L. Jackson. The story is about an author who writes reviews on haunted locations but is a skeptic on the subject. So, he’s told about this haunted room in a hotel and wants to stay in it to see if ghosts actually do exist. I won’t ruin it for you, but the room is more than what the author was expecting.

Overall, it was a good short story collection, but not King’s best. If you’re looking for his best, I’d go for Night Shift

Be Kind Rewind

Michel Gondry’s Be Kind Rewind stars Jack Black, Mos Def, and Danny Glover. It is about the owner and employees of a run down video (VHS only) rental store in Possaic, New Jersey where a famous jazz singer was born. The store was going under and while the owner was away, Black’s character accidentally erased all of the tapes due to be magnetized, dooming the small business. Def and Black, desperate to supply a copy Ghostbusters for an old lady, decided to make their own version. This act snowballs into them making many other remakes, and of course, trouble comes shortly thereafter.

I liked this movie a lot, but it was very different than what I was expecting. The synopsis I read for it and the trailer I saw for it both made me believe this was going to be a straight forward comedy, but it’s more heart warming than that. It wasn’t as funny as it was a plain old good movie. It’s a fair trade off, I think.

Cel Damage

The now out of business, Pseudo Interactive’s game Cel Damage is a cartoony vehicular combat game released for the Xbox, PS2, and Gamecube. There’s not a real story to it, but I will try to explain it anyway. The game is about a cartoon show in which the characters battle each other repeatedly. Yeah, that’s the best I got.

I’m a bit partial to the vehicular combat genre, and considering the lack of games in the genre, Cel Damage is a welcomed addition. The main mode is a free for all battle where you have to score 500 points to win. There are 12 different levels, and a large arsenal of weapons to pick up on the battle field. The weapons are cartoon based such as a giant axe, harpoon gun, boxing gloves, holes your enemies can fall in to, and giant saw blades to name a few.

I like the entire cartoon effect the game has. It’s light hearted, but not too childish. It’s easy to pick up and play, but takes time to really get good at using the weapons. Because it’s a rather old game, and an unpopular one at that, I bought it for four dollars. Even if it isn’t the greatest game in the world, it was worth the money I spent.