Fresh when it gets here from
Julie Barrett
Saturday, July 7, 2007
I got another e-mail in my inbox today begging me to sign a petition to force the producers of House to bring back the love interest between House and Cameron.
That is so not going to work. First, I'll list some reasons why this isn't a good idea, and then I'll tell you what to do if you still want to express your displeasure.
Online petitions do not work. Anyone can sign a petition as many times as they want. There is no good mechanism to prevent that from happening. You could delete the cookies from your cache, use a different e-mail address, release and renew your IP address (if you're geeky enough), or go to every coffee shop in town so you can sign many times from a different IP address. It's a time-honored political tradition: Vote early and vote often. Yes, we have the right to petition our government, and our government takes steps to ensure that no one is gaming the petition process. Where I live anyone who signs a petition to the government has to be a registered voter and provide certain information. Someone has to go through and verify each piece of information. It isn't perfect, but it cuts back on fraud. It also ensures that two people who share the same name can sign without trouble. Online petitions are too easy to stuff with signatures.
You can't always force characters to go a certain direction. Or as the philosopher Jagger said... Speaking as a writer, I've seen characters and storylines go in unexpected directions - and those directions turn out to be right for the characters involved. I'm just saying that you should give the writers the benefit of a doubt. You don't know what they've got in store. Oh, and as many House/Cameron shippers as there are out there, what about the people who want House/Cuddy? Or House and Wilson? Dog help me, I've even seen House and Tritter. Whatever direction the writers take they're going to disappoint part of the audience. Actually, I see that as a testament to the creators and the writing staff. They've managed to create and maintain several multi-dimensional characters.
And here I go. I'm going to piss a lot of people off with this statement. As much as you love House, he's not your character. You didn't create him (if you're David Shore, then yes, House is yours, and I'm flattered you're reading this). You don't write for the show. You don't know what they think is going on inside of each of the character's heads. You just don't.
How to make your feelings known. Petitions don't work. What will have an impact is a letter. You know: write it out (or print it out). Put it in an envelope. Use a stamp. Put it in the mailbox. Believe it or not, there's still something to be said for snail mail. It's easy to sit down and dash out an e-mail. It's almost as easy to copy and paste and flood someone's inbox. Yeah, you have to go out of your way to send a letter these days, and that's what makes it significant.
Okay, so what do I think about all this? I'm not a shipper. I can't see House in a stable relationship with anyone. Stacy was as close as it got, and now I think his main relationship is with Vicodin. By the way, if you subscribe to the House-as-Sherlock Holmes theory, you should know that Holmes did get weaned off of the cocaine. Could this happen to House? I dunno. Again, it really depends on what direction the writers take - and how they think House would change in the event he didn't have drugs. It could be interesting.
Please, give the writers a chance. They've created this wonderful set of complex characters. Let them do their jobs.
Tags: House MD, HouseMD, Writing