House M.D. (TV Series) 97 Seconds (2007) User Reviews

Wow...

[InvisableMirages · 8/10 · 12 October 2007]

This episode, well.. the ending actually brought a tear to my eye. When the crippled man died his last words to his faithful dog:

"Don't worry.. I'm not scared."

It was just powerful and touching, to be honest.

The acting, once again, fantastic. The story line, awesome. The ending, sad, yet full of courage.

The reason I gave it an 8 then, you ask? Well, the whole 97 seconds of dying thing was a little twist we could've done without. The fact that House DID stick that knife in the outlet...well, I just was hoping that he wouldn't actually do that. His beliefs differ greatly. But it IS just TV.

Another fantastic show from the creators. Keep it up. You're doing great.

House or the writers: who actually has an awful memory here?

[viva_la_verve · 8/10 · 28 December 2022]

So House decides to personally find out if near death out of body experiences are real by almost committing suicide. That would be pretty cool and all, if it wasn't because back in the very popular episode "Three Stories" it had already been confirmed by Dr. Gregory House himself that indeed he already had experienced one of those near death experiences when the surgical procedure to alleviate the pain caused by the leg infarction that left him crippled almost took his life.

So yeah, I think the writers seriously dropped the ball here. I love this show, but this is the sort of mistake that makes it a bit hard to suspend my disbelief.

Besides that, this is a pretty good episode though. The patient of this week and his companion have one of the saddest and most tragic stories during the course of this show. It will probably make you cry. Too bad it had to be part of the same episode in which the writers made such an ugly mistake.

Make sure you have tissues in hand...

[diamonddax · 9/10 · 9 June 2020]

If you have a heart, you will tear up. Or ugly cry. My heart hurts..

A sense of mystery

[xredgarnetx · 8/10 · 10 October 2007]

Let's clear up that odd title: It refers to how long a patient lies dead after attempting suicide, near the beginning of the episode. Those 97 seconds will figure prominently later in the story, which otherwise has House and the remainder of his original 40 (see last week) dealing with a crippled man who is dying faster than he should. Young (and sexy) actress Anne Dudek is back as a very sassy doctor looking to join House's team no matter what, as is veteran character actor Peter Jacobson as a wily and incisive plastic surgeon. The ending of 97 SECONDS is not for the squeamish, and proof of the brilliance of this show, which admittedly has had its uneven moments. To the show's producers: Just don't bring back David Morse (see last season), as much as I love the guy! That's one horse you beat to death several times over.

Am still watching because Hugh Laurie is great as House but...

[melanieakehurst · 8/10 · 10 March 2023]

Little things are starting to irritate. I was glad when Foreman left as I hate his attitude but now he's back? All the glam girly docs with their flowing locks all over the patients with their wounds and infections. The way patients come in with a minor ailment and after 'let's see what this does' treatment are very soon near death. I dread to think what the hospital bills come to when it's all "we can try this because we haven't any other ideas, oh we've killed his kidneys, he needs a transplant"!

However I can still bear all this because House is such a wonderfully complex character, played with aplomb by Mr Laurie. I love his relationship with the lovely Wilson (am a little in love with those dark eyes I must confess) who is starting to become a match for his devious tricks and even wins on occasion, but always has his back when it counts. I love the clinic scenes which make me laugh and balance out all the blood and gore trauma. I love the wit and dark humour which is right up my street.

Anyway, regarding this episode I think they all missed the obvious: the man gave the pills to his dog. He knew he was going to die whatever happened and didn't want to leave his only friend in the world to a lonely fate. I think I'd have done the same. It made me sad that it didn't occur to a single one of the doctors that maybe it wasn't an accident.

The Ultimate High

[torsionsfrei · 9/10 · 21 October 2007]

Warning: This review -definitely- contains spoilers. First the plot: House continues trying to narrow down the 40 with a patient who "seemingly" has an obvious diagnosis; Chase finds the courage to face House; Cameron is still involved with Chase; Foreman learns that T. V. is not reality. On to something deeper: the afterlife. What reason could House possibly have to consider the afterlife? Well, the patient that tries to off himself at the beginning of the episode gives him the perfect reason: it's the ultimate high. Forget the afterlife. Forget religion altogether! In fact, the last statement of the episode tells us what House found, at least in regards to the whole afterlife thing. In a conversation with Wilson, we find that House has been confronted with the whole, "You haven't been there" argument before, so...he goes there. Religion? Nah, that's too easy. A man who has "...done every hallucinogenic there is..." but still says that being dead is "...way bigger than that"...that's something for consideration. On that note, have faith (har har) that the incredible writers of House M. D. are smart enough to realize that a character as complex as House would not throw away everything he "believes" in simply for the hope that an afterlife exists. In my opinion, a very interesting take on the whole idea; I personally can't wait to see what happens in the next episode.

Religious Nonsense Ripost

[keithphillips · 8/10 · 3 April 2008]

I mostly agree with kidcrooks, except House is a scientist. Okay, atheism is the logical position for any reasoning person to take. But if you are a practical scientist, you test your hypotheses, usually with well crafted, laborious tests and proper controls. But how many times have we seen House take short cuts on tests. And electrocuting yourself to have an NDE is the obvious (at least in a dramatic context) way to do it. Test is negative. Case closed.

By the way, it's not only the final line that is evidence for House seeing nothing, or at least nothing special (remember he's done all the drugs too). What about when he tells Wilson he loves him? The reason people don't say these things is that they always think there is time. If House had seen an afterlife, he would have known he had infinite time. Instead he now knows for certain that our time is limited and that there is no time to waste. And Wilson just takes it. Any other time, Wilson would have wondered what the hell was going on, or made a joke. I think he knew exactly what House had seen, or rather what he hadn't.

I've only just seen this one, but I'm predicting that knowing for absolute certain this is the only life we have will finally be the thing that makes House a better person. Or at least I hope so.

"Something More"

[rbrown1205 · 11 October 2007]

The paralyzed guy is a really interesting character - I think he made more good points about seeking a good quality of life than the guy who thought he saw "something more". This guy (called "Stark", played by Felicity and Fraisier veteran Brian Klugman) was out there, with his dog, traveling to Thailand to enjoy the beach sand, always cooperative, never grouchy with the doctors, even flirting with the female ones, enjoying what he has of his life - and this paralyzed guy got House angrily venting over life after death, and then House tries the other fellow's knife in socket thing!! I wonder who played the injured drug experienced seeker of what he thought was "something more". I couldn't find his name in the cast listing.

So...I had to go and check

[jpapanone · 6/10 · 26 October 2020]

How many episodes of Kal, Wilde, generic Steve Carrell, and annoying Anne are there.

So Kal is in 37. Wilde 81. Peter "Steve Carrell" Jacobson 96. Anne 19.

Ok...I can put up with Anne for 19 episodes. She is that terrible.

She's distracting and annoying...more so the actress than the character.

This episode was fine. Essentially, if the story is compelling or interesting as opposed to just being a reason for House to be House, I'm more inclined to rate it higher. Seen enough hospital shows over the decades. I really don't care about the particulars of any diagnosis etc unless it is made interesting in some way shape or form.

There's enough actual death and misery to elicit emotions and tears. Unless it's really well done by the writers and actors, nope. Just make believe.

And...the more religious talk the better. That was probably the main driving point this show was on my radar for years. Seen enough house atheist memes that eventually I had to see what all the fuss is about.

I literally am just waiting for the religious or sarcastic or come backs. Everything else is just filler for the main course that is House's snarkism.

And oh...now I have to see or give a cr*p about what the 3 old employees are up to now, even if they have nothing to do with House...or barely anything to do? FFS.

Religious Nonsense

[kidcrooks · 5/10 · 10 October 2007]

I thought that this episode was decent. The plot construction followed almost every other House episode I had ever seen, which made me happy. But I felt that this, along with the episode about the girl who was raped, harped excessively about the "importance" of religious faith for a person to be truly considered a moral being. That is nonsense. As an atheist I am kind of offended by it. House is a character that is renowned for biting back at BS, and when it is spoon-fed to him through the raped girl's assurance that there is an afterlife or that there are such things as true "near death experiences," House should respond with an equal conviction as he always does. Yet, for some reason the topic of religion is the one thing that will cause House to stop and ponder. Why is that? My guess is that members of the writing staff are deeply religious. Stop messing with the story, guys. There are plenty of explanations for NDEs, but in this episode House barely expresses them and then backs down. He even sticks a knife in a socket and seems to believe in the validity of NDEs when he comes to. We'll never know for sure though, cause they killed of the guy that House would have talked to about it ... right.

This is nothing against those who are religious. But if you are going to set up a totally rational character - to a fault - and make him an atheist - as you should - you cannot make him have existential quandaries about the afterlife. A truly rational self-proclaimed atheist wouldn't have them. It wouldn't bother him. He would shrug them off. House has recently done the opposite. And it sickens me.

Keep to the original character and keep creating the same show we know and love. Don't bring faith into it, or if you do, keep House making fun of it. It's what he would do.