As my math-free understanding of entropy goes, it's not strictly the amount of disorder always increasing so much as the amount of available energy in a closed system always decreasing. You can temporarily increase the amount of order in a specific system (object, what have you) by moving things around and reorganizing, but the process of doing so involves expending energy and having some of that bleed away as useless random heat.

Sue, Hope you are feeling bettah!

I am better just thinking about the fact that I am not at work! Even if I have evil CONTAGION!

I think that House would be unwatchable if it wasn't for Laurie's acting. The plots are generally formulaic, the science is dubious and the medicine moreso. The dialogue often shines, but I think even that would clunk with lesser actors. (And I don't know if the Cottages have the chops.) Yet still, I love it.

sorry, ita. My brain, she is still in last week.

Recent development aside, working at the only hospital you seem to want to work at

Not true. He's been fired from several hospitals, and Cuddy is the only chief of staff who would hire him. It's pretty clear that if he loses this job, it will be a long cold wait before he finds another.

And Cuddy keeps him because, as he pointed out to her, she wants to believe that the universe can be improved, she wants to believe that people can be saved.

They've done a good job of setting up in-show why he is tolerated. He's one of the best diagnosticians going (witness how he solves everything at the 50-minute mark *g*), Cuddy has emotional reasons for keeping him on, so he has a job.

Laurie is brilliant, and the only reason I've watched as much as I have. But in those moments where I remember my time is finite (and that I can't stop entropy), he goes by the wayside.

it's not strictly the amount of disorder always increasing so much as the amount of available energy in a closed system always decreasing.

It's the other way around. In a closed system the entropy always increases, but the total energy cannot be changed. In order to increase order you have to put energy into the system and then it's no longer a closed system.

ita, I've not really seen the doctor show but once, but in general I can relate to your annoyance with that character device.

Cuddy has emotional reasons for keeping him on, so he has a job.

Yeah, that fucking irritates. I mean, I consider it from the position of someone who is battered by the emotional abuse of a co-worker because our boss has "emotional reasons."

eta: Would Cuddy want to save a less brilliant doctor? Would she be able to?

I think that House would be unwatchable if it wasn't for Laurie's acting. The plots are generally formulaic, the science is dubious and the medicine moreso.

I'm fascinated by House the character, and I totally agree that Laurie is a huge part of it, but the show is beginning to wear on me. It *is* getting formulaic, and I agree with ita -- what, exactly, is the purpose of House's department? Does every hospital have a diagnostician who hangs around waiting for a juicy medical mystery to turn up every once in a while? It seems implausible to me, especially when you factor in his hand-picked staff of three, who don't have much more to do than sit around with him waiting for some interesting patient to turn up. And that's not even addressing how boggling it is that he gets away with behaving the way he does. (That's part of what fascinates me, though -- why does Cuddy, and his team of Scoobies, put up with him? What about him compels people to keep coming back for more?)

I get hung up on realism, though, and I really shouldn't, because TV so often delivers it.

I consider it from the position of someone who is battered by the emotional abuse of a co-worker because our boss has "emotional reasons."

I wouldn't work with House if you paid me in gold; he's cruel. But I've certainly worked with enough tolerated prima donnas to find the situation plausible. The Australian guy and the black guy loathe House but respect his skills. It seems as if everybody loathes him except the girl who has a crush on him and his longtime best friend.

And the science is utter crap, and we all know by now that the diagnosis at :15 is (A) wrong and (B) calculated to make the patient worse, usually in a manner involving body fluids.

Would Cuddy want to save a less brilliant doctor?

Hell, no. He's a prima donna. You only survive as a prima donna if you have the chops to back it up. (In my imaginary world, la la la.)