TV Review: House 8.14, 'Love is Blind'

By Chris Swanson / March 20, 2012

rating: 3.5

I don€™t get the appeal of NASCAR. Watching a bunch of rich people drive fast cars in a circle for hours on end doesn€™t seem even remotely interesting to me. I know that the people who are into it are at least partly interested in seeing horrific crashes, but I can see those recapped endlessly on the news. So why bother with watching the races? I bring this up because tonight€™s episode of House was supposed to air last month. It did not. It was delayed due to broadcast of a NASCAR race. So there€™s another reason for me to dislike it. We begin with a blind man buying an engagement ring, which enables me to point out that American paper currency is a horrible thing for the blind. But anyhow, he gets the ring, goes outside and gets suddenly overwhelmed by loud noises. This causes him to lose control and stagger out into traffic. He doesn€™t die, but does end up at the hospital for House (Hugh Laurie) and his team to go over. At the hospital we find the patient being tended to by his girlfriend. The two have a couple cute moments as Park (Charlyne Yi) and Chase (Jesse Spencer) start in on the diagnostic process. Meantime, House is trying to avoid everyone, claiming he€™s out of town. Why? Because he€™s found out that his mother is in town, and Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) is spending time hanging out with her. It€™s while doing so that Wilson spots House€™s mother€™s hospital bracelet and a book called Coping With Your Cancer. He puts two and two together and heads off to find House. The team are continuing their usual work. They try various tests and while running one of them, the patient begins choking. Turns out he€™s choking on a frothy mix of blood and three of his own teeth, which I suppose is better than choking on someone else€™s teeth. House goes to visit his mother at her hotel, only to walk in on her spending €œquality time€ with a next-door neighbor played by noted actor/comedian Billy Connolly. I like Connolly. From Head of the Class to Mrs. Brown, he€™s one of those actors who just makes everything better. I don€™t, however, like the image of him naked in bed, so€yeah. Anyhow, it turns out that the mother doesn€™t have cancer, and that she and Connolly plan to marry, something House handles with his usual level of grace, especially as he believes the man might be his biological father. Back at the medical team, we see Taub (Peter Jacobson) and Park going to the patient€™s house. He wants them to bring him his laptop. While there, Park eats some of his horrible sugar free ice cream and comes to regret it; first due to the taste and then second because it€™s laced with LSD. Yes, it turns out the patient thought trying it might let him see interesting colors and shapes. The scene where we see Park, as she put it, €œtripping balls€ is rather amusing, but goes on longer than it should and smacks of filler. As for the patient, it turns out that he got the acid from his girlfriend, who is not the girl he€™s been spending time with. It seems that he€™s instead in love with someone else. Not long afer this revelation he starts coughing up blood again, and this time things look bleak€ So this story. Well, it was ok. This is one of those episodes where I didn€™t care for the medical story at all. It bored me silly on every level, aside from the brief squick moment of the patient choking on his teeth. That I know is at least in part due to the fact that, like many people, I€™ve had dreams of losing my teeth in various nasty ways. On the other hand, the soap opera aspect was quite good. As I said, Connolly really does make everything better. He€™s quite compelling any time he€™s on screen and I really wish he got more work here in the states. There€™s only eight episodes to go, according to the trailer for the next one, which airs in two weeks. See you guys then!