House

I think, from my experience, there are three different things that happen with Netflix. The first is just aimlessly scrolling through, maybe when you have some unexpected free time or company and you aren't sure what to do until you decide on something you've already seen to avoid disappointment. Secondly, much similarly to the first, is deciding there is a film you want to watch and looking it up on Netflix - inevitably leading to leading to joy when it is or disappointment when it isn't - but it is on another on demand service which you don't have. Or the third, which I think most people experience - binge watching a box set. I think the culture today is not so much to watch TV when it is actually on but to record it, on demand it or buy it when it is on DVD. It's lovely to just keep watching and know there is more, but you do end up a gap to fill when it is finished.

At the moment I am watching House which was on TV pretty much when I was at secondary school between 2004 and 2012. The reason I actually started watching House more recently was because of work experience. In Year 10 I worked at A-Z Maps for two weeks. There I got to make my own map of my local area, and explore the building to see how all the maps were put together. The main office was in the village where I live which was lucky, because I was interested in geography systems and I could walk. Win win really. A lot of the work was ICT based, which at the time I was not used to, and unfortunately I started getting bad migraines in the afternoon which lead to the doctors, which lead to only working half days in the second week.. This is also how I found out that I am terrible at taking tablets - they just make me gag. So when I was working half days, I would come home in the afternoon and close the curtains and sit in the dark with the TV on for background noise. I always remembered House from this, and when I saw it on Netflix thought - hey I remember that. I'm hooked, close to the end of the sixth season with two left. I started watching this on my own, but I started sneaking in the odd episode onto the TV and no we're both watching it.

I was trying to find the map that I made as they printed it out for me but I couldn't find it but I do ironically have another scroll of paper, which was a gift from a colleague. Where I work, I have had a couple of different nicknames but the one that seems to have stuck is penguin. So here is me as a penguin - it's pretty awesome.

I think the penguin idea came from wearing a three piece suit.. Which I still do to this day, not everyday but.. Pocket watch n'all.

Any way - onto House.

So, a little background information on the series for those of you who are unfamiliar. House is played by Hugh Laurie and leads a diagnostics department which specialises in solving medical mysteries. He has a team who works with him, and they carry out sometimes crazy treatments to work out whats wrong and then treat it. My description doesn't really pay it any justice and makes it sound very boring but.. It's worth it. Five stars on Netflix and 8.8 on IMDB.

I wasn't really expecting House to be what House is. My memory from when I was younger was a crazy man solving life or death puzzles - which is what it is a lot of the time. I like solving puzzles, and knowing what caused something to happen but I found a lot more. The program itself plays on a lot of real life situations and portrays them well. There's a lot of stories about drug abuse - legal or not, about relationships, there's definitely a lot about people lying - it's a very strong theme. It also gives, probably a very over exaggerated view, on the moral dilemmas presented to doctors. I am terrible at making decisions, I argue in my own head trying to make a decision but these people are literally making choices which affect peoples lives so I am glad I don't have to do it.

***SPOILERS***

An episode which I found very interesting was when the patient was the president of a developing country. The episode itself was called 'Tyrant' (S6E3) because that is what he was, he forced men into rape and murder, was planning to kill the population that stood against him and of course a lier. Two of the doctors treating the patient are married, and are both very good at their jobs. Assassination attempts are made against this tyrant which you can argue are for a good reason. The female doctor in this situation, stands firm to her beliefs of the sanctity of life and no matter how bad the things he does; it is not her decision as to whether he lives or dies. The male doctor, switches blood samples to lead to a misdiagnoses, leading to the death of the patient. He believes he made the right choice by ridding the world of an evil dictator, leading to peace talks and an end to conflict in the country.

As a watcher, in a fictional world you can easily pick a side. One life to liberate a nation seems likes a simple decision. At the end of the episode, the mans estranged son comes to see the body and is clearly upset despite hating his father when he was alive because of what he was doing. The decision might seem simple, but everyone has a family. I don't think the worrying thing is taking a side in this situation, but the idea that the same decisions might be happening in the real world - no thank you.

***END OF SPOILERS***

Something I find interesting about the way the show was created was the character development. Orange is the New Black basically devote an episode to each inmate to allow you to understand their background and where they are coming from to understand their actions. House does this very slowly and on an overall front - mainly through House's deductions and frank statements. It's is only now in season six where they have started to explore each character, giving them a devoted episode. It's quite clever how it fills in the blanks backwards - things from earlier episodes make sense.

Whilst watching the show, I started to wonder how medically accurate it actually was. All the names of the drugs and the diseases I am pretty sure to be real - and would also take a very long time to look up.  In a lot of episodes, the patient requires a defibrillator to be used to restart the heart or to get the rhythm back - and it pretty much always works. It was quite hard to find a definitive answer online about how effective they are, some reports say 50-50 others more.. But I imagine that they are no where near as reliable as in the show. Overall comments from other doctors online say that the show is inaccurate so I would probably still recommend Google or going to a doctor.

Then again, if I wanted it to be medically accurate, I would watch 24 Hours in A and E - but I don't want to feel sad all the time. Thats some bad hat Harry (in joke for those who watch all the way to the end of the credits..)

One episode, the patient was a blogger. This character blogged everything, arguments and the intricate moments of day to day life which I don't really do. I can see the appeal of it, you can make connections online because real life is relatable, people will understand you. I provide a snippet into my life, of things that I am comfortable sharing, and the people involved are also happy for me to share. It got me thinking about why real life blogs or vlogs are so interesting. I don't want many myself but I guess it is a sense of trust you get from someone being happy to share their life openly with you as a consumer. Also because it is kind of like gossip - which is addictive. Why else would there be so many gossip magazines? I personally don't understand that side of things because I feel like.. The gossip 'loses value' if you don't know the person. As exciting as it is to know that Taylor Swifts 4th album was inspired by her 3rd boyfriend - I don't really care.

We recently went to London, Amy and I, and we went to Forbidden Planet which is this amazing shop - it's quite 'nerdy' or 'geeky' or whatever. Amy bought me this:

This is Tobin's Spirit Guide which is basically details of ghost and demons from the fictional world of Ghostbusters. It's amazing, and the art work is great and it is written from the perspective of the original cast and I think it is done very well. I am a die hard fan of the originals so the new movie was an interesting challenge for me. Comparing it to the originals, it didn't do much for me but as a separate film is funny and very enjoyable. I am however happy that this new film has pushed Ghostbusters back into the limelight so to say. New merchandise and an expanded fan base are all good things in my opinion, this book being a great example. It's just awesome.

I'll have to go into some more detail about London because we visited somewhere else pretty awesome..

But for now, I will leave it here and go to bed - or likely finish watching Days of Future Past. Blog you later.