What’s The Problem with “13″?
Alright, I’ve got something that we need to discuss - seriously. What’s wrong with 13? I’m a member of a number of House boards, and I cruise the net way more hours than I should looking for information for this site. Everywhere I turn there are more people that hate 13 than there are people that like her - what’s up with that?! When the new season started, I really, really liked her! I loved how she gave it right back to House but how she seemed sweeter than Cameron had been. For some reason, Cameron had really rubbed me the wrong way.
Now, however, as the episodes are going on (finally!), I find that I’m not quite sure how I feel about 13. The last episode on Tuesday night I actually…didn’t…like…her! Seriously! I was actually smiling when I saw Cameron at the end of the episode and sort of missed her! I know - it’s sick and disturbing, but that’s the truth! I know that when the season started the feelings for 13 were split half and half. The half that didn’t like her were mostly Cameron fans, and the half that did like her were excited and hoping to see her in a love situation with someone.
I’m going to go out on a huge limb here and say that most House fans have issues with the female characters. With the one exception to the rule being Cuddy. Most fans feel that Cuddy can do no wrong and want to see her in more scenes. Why are we so tough on the young females on the show? From the feedback I’m getting, most people liked the clinic patient last episode more than they liked 13, which, I think, shows that there’s something a bit wrong with the way they’re portraying the female doctors…or am I totally insane? Shouldn’t we at least partially like the female ducklings? I think more people like Taub than they do 13! It seems that Foreman is the only male doctor that no one likes, but when it comes to the girls, they get eviscerated. Should we have another female character aside from Cuddy that we like, or are the feelings we have for the current female ducklings (old and present) a good mix for the show?
January 31st, 2008 at 10:45 am
The problem I have with 13 is how she acts around House. He is her boss yet she doesn’t seem to have a problem slamming his hand in his laptop and telling him to stop obsessing or tying him up and giving him a liver biopsy. WTF. It is also unbelievable that she supposedly already understands how House operates. Those closest to him don’t even know.
13 is my least favorite of the three new ones. While I understand that the old ones couldn’t be interns forever, it is sad that JS & JM’s roles have been reduced to practically nothing. They did contribute to the success of the show. Great way to show the appreciation.
January 31st, 2008 at 10:51 am
Casey - you’ve got some really valid points there - things that make a lot of sense. I agree that it is sad that their roles are smaller now, and hopefully next season *sniff - it’s so sad to say that* they can get more into the action.
January 31st, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Just a thought…Why is everyone being so judgmental anyway? We barely know the new characters. Do people out there really decide whether someone is of value or not if they’ve only met them 10 times (or 10 episodes).
Also, what is this obsession with making sure House has a love interest…female or male! It is sometimes the case that some people go through their lives alone. Is it so awful if House chooses to live alone, rather than hurt someone he loves. (Reference Stacy Warner) He is, right or wrong, choosing to make the sacrifice. Or is he just waiting for the person he knows is the right person for him. (Stacy almost was) Or maybe he prefers an uncomplicated life. This puzzle is part of what keeps us intrigued by him.
January 31st, 2008 at 7:02 pm
I don’t like any of the new ducklings because they’re just a rehash of the original three. According to what I’ve read, TPTB were afraid of the show getting stale so they decided to shake things up before that happened.
How did they shake things up? By giving us a watered-down version of the original three AND cutting into the air time of the three I’d much rather watch?? All the extra air time that 13 gets is unwarranted IMO. And Cameron has shown personal strength in a way 13 has not. Cameron looked at her test results, 13 tossed hers out.
Oh, and while this might get me flamed, I’m not a fan of Cuddy. She’s an intelligent doctor who is the powerful administrator of a hospital who dresses inappropriately and rolls over every time House does something. The only time I have respect for her is when she deals with Foreman, at least then she lays down the law and that’s that.
January 31st, 2008 at 7:47 pm
Para mi el 13 deberÃa enamorarse de house
January 31st, 2008 at 7:52 pm
Para mi la nro. 13 deberÃa enamorarse de house (Lucas 12 años Argentina)
January 31st, 2008 at 9:59 pm
Honestly, I don’t think the show ever did such a great job with the female characters (which, IMHO, is a common ailment in US television). Cuddy was the best of them, she used to be the one capable of giving as good as she got when it came to dealing with House, but since the middle of season 3 House has been walking all over her. In some episodes she looks/sounds so weak and pathetic that it makes me want to scream or cry. The episode in which the Mirror Syndrome patient put to rest the question of which one, House or Cuddy, was the dominant personality pretty much destroyed Cuddy for me. Now we all know for a fact that there’s nothing she can do to contain House.
Cameron started the show as the worst female stereotype I could imagine: syrupy sweet, over-compassionate, falling for her boss, lacking the inner strength to face the patients’ family with bad news… Then she began to change, but I don’t really feel there was much consistency to the way she changed. I honestly had trouble recognising her from one episode to the other. (Ironically, if there’s one thing she was always consistent about in the entire series is her cruelty to Chase. Go figure.) In fanfiction she’s often a kind, well-meaning girl who is very self-absorbed and tries to fix everything and everyone and often becomes horribly nosy and judgmental in the process. I actually think that’s a really interesting character, and I kinda wish she was consistenly like that in canon. (I don’t want to *like* Cameron, I just want her to be interesting. I don’t actually *like* House, after all.)
As for 13… well, she’s the one I dislike the least among the new ducklings, but that’s not saying much. I’d have traded her for Carmen Argenziano’s character (Ridiculously Old Fraud) any day. I kinda like her interaction with House, but like many others I feel she’s become too knowledgeable of House way too fast to be believable. And I don’t like her interactions with *any* of the other characters, which suggests to me that House is the main attraction in those scenes, not 13.
As for why we are so tough on the female characters… Well, most fandoms are highly misogynic. I have a few theories about why, but that’s enough material for an academic thesis, so I’ll spare you. From my part, I don’t care about seeing a female character in a position of power if I don’t see true power in her. I don’t care about cool/nice/too-good-to-be-true female characters if I can’t identify with them at all. And I don’t care about bitchy/manipulative/flawed/overbearing female characters if I can’t see a consistent motivation to their actions.
As far as I’m concerned, Cuddy lacks the inner strength, Cameron lacks the consistency, and 13 lacks the charm. Amber perhaps had more potential. But the fact is that I want the old ducklings back so badly, I resented all the new ones just for being there.
February 1st, 2008 at 9:31 am
I agree with most people that 13 knows House too well. So well that’s almost unbelievable, considering the time she has been on the show. That bugs me.
And Dee has a point when she says Cameron began the show as a really stereotyped character and changed. This change made me like her better. Even thought she’s not in House’s team anymore, she should appear. Chase as well. They were important and they still are, c’mon, House may say whatever he wants, but we know he got hurt when the ducklings left.
About Cuddy… well, I like her. It’s true she became less autoritary specially in season 4, but I think that’s due to the lack of cases which need crazy procedures. She’s still the best female character in the show IMO.
Let’s hope the episodes after-strike will be good.
February 1st, 2008 at 2:00 pm
They chosed the wrong girl! Amber would have given the show a new look. You would never know when she would screw the guys, including house.
February 3rd, 2008 at 4:58 pm
What’s wrong with Thirteen?
1. She’s Practically Perfect in Every Way. She’s smart, she’s caring she stands up to House and isn’t intimidated by her, she’s got a tragedy looming over her but she’s such a brave person she looks right beyond it. She’s “the one who cares”.
Because of that, in terms of writing she’s such a black hole of a character that they are recycling Chase’s back story of a dead mother and Cameron’s story lines for her (she’s caring, she’s mysterious, she’s hot she has a possible fatal disease and she’s afraid to take the test but House tricks her into it. They have to keep pushing the envelope with the character because there’s nothing original or interesting about her.
2. She’s being pushed down our throats. She gets more time than the other two new ducklings, she’s the one House says “I need you” to go to the patient with him, she’s become Cameron in term of understanding House (after only a couple of months!) and there’s this stupid mystery that we’re all supposed to be intrigued by.
3. The actress is miscast. Olivia Wilde has done good work in other roles but in this one she’s hampered by the fact that Thirteen is supposed to be shut in and keeping herself distant from everyone. I don’t know if anyone that young could have done a good job with this role but Thirteen’s only two expressions are closed in and smug.
4. The worst part of Thirteen is that the plot contrivances to keep her on the show make House look stupid. He should have fired her after she killed Stark not because she made a mistake but because it was made out of arrogance and lack of empathy. He should have fired her after she drugged him and forced tests on him because while he might respect her, he can’t afford to keep someone on his team who would do that to him. He definitely should have fired her in Games because not only was she wrong, Amber was the one who cared about the patient, not her.
If House is going to be a jerk, he has to be smart of it doesn’t work. Thirteen makes him look stupid.
For the record, as a professional woman of Cuddy’s age, I thought Cuddy was a good character in season 1 but now I cringe whenever she’s on screen because she’s been made so incompetent, it’s embarrassing. Cameron has the excuse of youth, to see Cuddy not only stupid about House because she’s got the hots so much for him but incompetent as an administrator gives adult women a bad name.
Of the women on the show, Cameron may have been annoying at times but I think overall she’s the most professional of the group. But then, I’m not her age so I don’t dislike her for not being perfect.
February 13th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
Thirteen is my lucky number. I love her. I think that if she makes house look stupid It’s cause she could think like him. I think house loves a really deep mystery; something that he could never know will atract him more than a simply girl. So the argument around thirteen is really cool for me; cause everything around her is unknow; like her name, House don’t want to cheat and read her file.
I think that he respects her because she got’s a very strong personality, she’s secure of herself and she could manage every situation at the show.
Until she’s a mystery, House will love her.
And me too.
Why I’m writting in front of a PC and not with her? :’(
Merry Christmas if I don’t see you.
May 21st, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Thirteen is my favourite female character now, I did not like Amber. Cameron was annoying, and I don’t know, there is just something about Thirteens character which i like. I like the way she is still a mystery to House.
June 8th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
The fact of understanding House in just a couple of months doesn’t really bother me…I mean, why do we have to hate her because she’s not believable?Perhaps she’s just able to think in the “House’s way” and that’s not a bad thing.IMHO house will be attracted from 13 but they will not hook up, mainly because they would be perfect together.. and house would be universally sad no more if engaged with such a too-good-to-be-true girl.And I’m speakin about both 13 and Olivia Wilde..I wish I was married to her..You’re lucky, mr. Tao Ruspoli
Why didn’t OW choose me instead of you? You’re half american and half italian, I’m 100% italian… I just need 3/4 years more and also 99.000.000$ more in bank 
anyway, goodbye everybody!
July 3rd, 2008 at 4:23 pm
I Love 13 and Cameron this whole thing about judging characters is ubsurd. The company decided that they wanted new ppl so thats what happened. I’ve heard a lot of people saying that the reason they don’t like 13 is that shes gonna fall for house like cameron did but I think her being bi-sexual was a kind of foreshadowing for later plus shes dying of a horrible disease. Give the kid a break. also Foreman is my favorite character,apart from Cuddy hes the only challenge House has gat he makes the show interesting.