08 November 2007

All Creatures Great and Small

Well, it sounds like it could be a paranormal title, don't you think?

But apart from that, this post doesn't have too much in the way of a paranormal angle. No, instead I was thinking of my new favorite show, House, and my old favorite show, All Creatures Great and Small. And then, a light bulb went off when I realized that, in fact, House is an updated version of All Creatures Great and Small.

Okay, so they moved from a veterinary practice to a hospital, from country to city, from Yorkshire to New Jersey, but it's still medicine. There's more sex and cynicism, but, updated. And the woman has a job beyond, wife.

  • Siegfried = House (eccentric, not-so-old bastard)
  • Tristan = Chase (feckless young, pretty man)
  • James Herriot = Foreman (ultimately the one easiest to relate to—okay, perhaps you have to ignore parts of season two)
  • James Herriot's wife (whose name I cannot even remember) = Cameron (caretaker, only in House she got matched up with the wrong guy)

Alcohol has been updated to prescription drugs and fewer shows center around slapstick drunkenness. But still, I think this analogy works.

Since I'm sick of Wilson analyzing House with his less-than-insightful platitudes, I'd be happy for him to go anyway.

So, what do you think? Nicer scenery in All Creatures Great and Small but House has more plotlines.

And Hugh Laurie and Robert Hardy carry/carried the shows.

4 comments:

Carolan Ivey said...

I loved All Creatures Great and Small, and still have all the books. Now that you point it out I can definitely see the corelation. :)

Oh, and her name was Helen. :)

sjwilling said...

All creatures great and small movie was very good :)

S.J.

Anonymous said...

I never saw All Creatures Great and Small but House is a new love of mine. I found it through Thursday Thirteen and it's my favorite thing to come of it.

~X

Anonymous said...

Helen, that's right! Thanks, Carolan.

My post was a little tongue in cheek, but honestly, once I started making parallels, I had to laugh at what I saw in the two shows.

SJ—I remember that movie, too! There's a particularly vivid scene about bacon fat, iirc.

X-I relatively new to House, too. Just discovered this year, through dvd. (So I've yet to see season 4, this year's.) But I just adore Hugh Laurie and I think Cameron, Chase and, particularly, Foreman get better and better.