Broken (House)
Encyclopedia
"Broken" is the joint title for the first and second episodes of the sixth season
of the television series House
. It is a two-part season premiere
, being first broadcast on the Fox
network on September 21, 2009. The narrative follows series protagonist Gregory House
(Hugh Laurie
) as he overcomes his vicodin addiction and psychological problems at Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital.
Receiving season-high ratings, the episodes garnered positive reviews from critics. The performance of Hugh Laurie was also applauded.
) refuses to sign a recommendation to the board of medicine saying he is able to return to work. House resigns himself to stay at the hospital and get his clearance. He meets his manic-depressive
roommate, Alvie (Lin-Manuel Miranda), and begrudgingly participates in group therapy with Dr. Beasley. He also meets and is intrigued by Lydia (Franka Potente
), a woman who plays piano for her sister-in-law Annie, an unresponsive patient in the ward who was a cellist.
House attempts to be kicked out by making the patients' and workers' lifes miserable, starting by humiliating the patients during a basketball game by deducing their problems, but only succeeds in being placed in solitary confinement
. House then goads his fellow patients into creating havoc in the ward over table tennis, but Dr. Nolan subdues them. From the hospital window, House sees Dr. Nolan get into a car with a woman. House convinces Alvie to break into Nolan's office to get information on him, but Alvie is unsuccessful. House then phones Wilson to ask for help blackmailing Nolan. Wilson refuses, saying that Nolan had warned him that House may try to do something like this and that he should let Nolan do his job. House starts to adjust to life inside the institution. His only respite is Lydia's regular visits, during which they talk and discuss music.
A new patient named Steve believes he is a superhero that can fly. During one of his episodes, the doctors drug him into a catatonic state. House is infuriated by this, and, with Lydia's help, kidnaps Steve and takes him to a carnival
. House and Steve go on a wind tunnel
ride which makes it appear as if they were really flying. Steve is overjoyed, but then really believes he can fly and jumps off the edge of a parking garage. With Steve badly injured, Dr. Nolan tells House he cannot possibly treat someone so uncooperative. As Nolan leaves, however, House softly calls him back and says, "I need help." He begins therapy with Nolan and House says, "I want to get better." House takes his medication for the first time, and tells Alvie that his new plan is to cooperate, much to the chagrin of Alvie, who feels betrayed.
Nolan brings House a suit and has him mingle at the hospital's fund-raising party. His assignment is to make connections with strangers. It is difficult for House at first, but then he has fun toying with people. Lydia becomes his accomplice and before she leaves, she kisses House.
House discusses the kiss with Nolan. Lydia is married. He also feels guilty about what happened to Steve, and Nolan tells him to apologize personally. During group therapy, Dr. Beasley suggests the patients put on a talent show. House has an idea of how to help Steve, who had been trying to "save" the silent girl, Annie, with a music box hidden in the nurse's station. He called it her "voice". House convinces Beasley to allow them to get the music box, but Dr. Nolan comes in to break up the group and wheels Steve away, as House was "trying to fix, instead of moving on".
House rebuffs Lydia because he knows that, in the end, someone will get hurt. House is given a day pass by Dr. Nolan who requests his presence. He arrives at a hospital to find Nolan at the bedside of his dying father. A tearful Nolan asks House for a consultation. House has nothing to add to the diagnosis, confirming that Nolan Sr.'s condition is terminal. House accuses Nolan of having no one else to turn to but his own patient. Dr. Nolan tells House that he does not need him to make deductions, and House realizes that what he needs is company, so he stays and sits in silence.
When House returns to Mayfield, he finds Lydia upset over her sister-in-law. He apologizes, dances with her, and they have sex. The residents hold a talent show. House does not participate at first, but he is coaxed into helping Alvie when he cannot continue with his rap on stage.
House apologizes to Steve, and as he wheels him away, Steve breaks from his silence and gives Annie, the silent woman, the music box he was holding. For the first time, she speaks to say 'thank you'. Lydia arrives and House takes her in to see the group watching her sister-in-law playing the cello.
After seeing that Annie is leaving Mayfield, House goes to Nolan's office to confront him. Dr. Nolan tells House that Lydia is taking her sister-in-law to a rehab facility in Arizona with Lydia's husband. House gets an overnight pass and goes to see Lydia at her home. He is startled when Lydia's young son answers the door. House wants her to stay, and Lydia says she wants to but ends up asking House to leave. Back in the Mayfield parking lot, House talks to Dr. Nolan about his feelings, which, in conjunction with House getting close enough to someone to be hurt in the first place, convinces him that House deserves the recommendation to the medical board, showing that he learned to talk about his problems instead of abusing Vicodin.
Mayfield gives House a good-bye party, and House is discharged and gets on a bus back to Princeton. The bus sports an advertisement for a skills improvement institute saying "Prepare to Succeed". After the departure of House, Alvie decides he wants to get better and goes back on his medication. The last shot is of House wearing Alvie's smiley face shirt, sitting in the back of the bus with the hospital receding in the background and a rare smile comes across House's face.
was used for exterior shots of the hospital.
reported generally favorable reviews with a score of 77/100 based on 8 reviews. The show earned a 9.5 rating out of 983 votes on TV.com
. Entertainment Weekly
stated "a trite, untrue mental-illness mystery insults the show's high IQ, but doesn't diminish the opener's capture-the-imagination thesis: that a redeemed House can be just as compelling as a rude House."
Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times
said "the episode has a few sentimentality issues (any plot point involving a music box walks a very fine line), but it doesn't matter much because the characters are so vivid they even outshine House at times, which can only be good for him."
Alan Sepinwall from The Newark Star-Ledger
praised the episode saying "for one night, this is the best House, and its leading man, have been in a long time." The episode also won for Best Episodic Drama at Writers Guild of America Awards 2009
.
Hugh Laurie was nominated for a "Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series" Emmy for his performance in this episode.
", which received only 14.44 million viewers.
The two-hour season premiere garnered the top Nielsen Ratings
on the first night of the broadcast networks' premiere week. The show averaged a 6.7/16 with 17.1 million viewers. The rating was a significant rise from the previous year's season premiere, which averaged a 5.6/16 and 14.4 million viewers.
4.43 million Canadians watched this episode, making it the most viewed program of the week.
House (season 6)
House entered a sixth season on September 21, 2009 with a two-hour premiere. The season premiere, titled "Broken", was filmed at the Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in New Jersey.Season six featured 22 episodes, two fewer than the usual number...
of the television series House
House (TV series)
House is an American television medical drama that debuted on the Fox network on November 16, 2004. The show's central character is Dr. Gregory House , an unconventional and misanthropic medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in...
. It is a two-part season premiere
Season premiere
In North America, a season premiere is the first episode of a new season of a given television show. It often airs in September or October, after several months of reruns.-Evaluating the changes:...
, being first broadcast on the Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
network on September 21, 2009. The narrative follows series protagonist Gregory House
Gregory House
Gregory House, M.D., or simply referred to as House, is a fictional antihero and title character of the American television series House, played by Hugh Laurie. He is the Chief of Diagnostic Medicine at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, where he leads a team of diagnosticians...
(Hugh Laurie
Hugh Laurie
James Hugh Calum Laurie, OBE , better known as Hugh Laurie , is an English actor, voice artist, comedian, writer, musician, recording artist, and director...
) as he overcomes his vicodin addiction and psychological problems at Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital.
Receiving season-high ratings, the episodes garnered positive reviews from critics. The performance of Hugh Laurie was also applauded.
Plot
House awakens in the Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital after suffering through the painful effects of Vicodin withdrawal. He asks to leave, knowing that legally, they cannot keep him, because he voluntarily committed himself, but Dr. Nolan (Andre BraugherAndre Braugher
Andre Braugher is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Thomas Searles in the film Glory, as the fiery detective Frank Pembleton on Homicide: Life on the Street from 1993 to 1998 and again in the 2000 made-for-TV film Homicide: Life on the Street, and as Owen Thoreau Jr...
) refuses to sign a recommendation to the board of medicine saying he is able to return to work. House resigns himself to stay at the hospital and get his clearance. He meets his manic-depressive
Bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder or bipolar affective disorder, historically known as manic–depressive disorder, is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a category of mood disorders defined by the presence of one or more episodes of abnormally elevated energy levels, cognition, and mood with or without one or...
roommate, Alvie (Lin-Manuel Miranda), and begrudgingly participates in group therapy with Dr. Beasley. He also meets and is intrigued by Lydia (Franka Potente
Franka Potente
Franka Potente is a German film actress and singer. She first appeared in the comedy After Five in the Forest Primeval and gained critical recognition in the action thriller Lola rennt . Potente received Germany's highest film and television awards for her performances in Run Lola Run and...
), a woman who plays piano for her sister-in-law Annie, an unresponsive patient in the ward who was a cellist.
House attempts to be kicked out by making the patients' and workers' lifes miserable, starting by humiliating the patients during a basketball game by deducing their problems, but only succeeds in being placed in solitary confinement
Solitary confinement
Solitary confinement is a special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is isolated from any human contact, though often with the exception of members of prison staff. It is sometimes employed as a form of punishment beyond incarceration for a prisoner, and has been cited as an additional...
. House then goads his fellow patients into creating havoc in the ward over table tennis, but Dr. Nolan subdues them. From the hospital window, House sees Dr. Nolan get into a car with a woman. House convinces Alvie to break into Nolan's office to get information on him, but Alvie is unsuccessful. House then phones Wilson to ask for help blackmailing Nolan. Wilson refuses, saying that Nolan had warned him that House may try to do something like this and that he should let Nolan do his job. House starts to adjust to life inside the institution. His only respite is Lydia's regular visits, during which they talk and discuss music.
A new patient named Steve believes he is a superhero that can fly. During one of his episodes, the doctors drug him into a catatonic state. House is infuriated by this, and, with Lydia's help, kidnaps Steve and takes him to a carnival
Carnival
Carnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...
. House and Steve go on a wind tunnel
Wind tunnel
A wind tunnel is a research tool used in aerodynamic research to study the effects of air moving past solid objects.-Theory of operation:Wind tunnels were first proposed as a means of studying vehicles in free flight...
ride which makes it appear as if they were really flying. Steve is overjoyed, but then really believes he can fly and jumps off the edge of a parking garage. With Steve badly injured, Dr. Nolan tells House he cannot possibly treat someone so uncooperative. As Nolan leaves, however, House softly calls him back and says, "I need help." He begins therapy with Nolan and House says, "I want to get better." House takes his medication for the first time, and tells Alvie that his new plan is to cooperate, much to the chagrin of Alvie, who feels betrayed.
Nolan brings House a suit and has him mingle at the hospital's fund-raising party. His assignment is to make connections with strangers. It is difficult for House at first, but then he has fun toying with people. Lydia becomes his accomplice and before she leaves, she kisses House.
House discusses the kiss with Nolan. Lydia is married. He also feels guilty about what happened to Steve, and Nolan tells him to apologize personally. During group therapy, Dr. Beasley suggests the patients put on a talent show. House has an idea of how to help Steve, who had been trying to "save" the silent girl, Annie, with a music box hidden in the nurse's station. He called it her "voice". House convinces Beasley to allow them to get the music box, but Dr. Nolan comes in to break up the group and wheels Steve away, as House was "trying to fix, instead of moving on".
House rebuffs Lydia because he knows that, in the end, someone will get hurt. House is given a day pass by Dr. Nolan who requests his presence. He arrives at a hospital to find Nolan at the bedside of his dying father. A tearful Nolan asks House for a consultation. House has nothing to add to the diagnosis, confirming that Nolan Sr.'s condition is terminal. House accuses Nolan of having no one else to turn to but his own patient. Dr. Nolan tells House that he does not need him to make deductions, and House realizes that what he needs is company, so he stays and sits in silence.
When House returns to Mayfield, he finds Lydia upset over her sister-in-law. He apologizes, dances with her, and they have sex. The residents hold a talent show. House does not participate at first, but he is coaxed into helping Alvie when he cannot continue with his rap on stage.
House apologizes to Steve, and as he wheels him away, Steve breaks from his silence and gives Annie, the silent woman, the music box he was holding. For the first time, she speaks to say 'thank you'. Lydia arrives and House takes her in to see the group watching her sister-in-law playing the cello.
After seeing that Annie is leaving Mayfield, House goes to Nolan's office to confront him. Dr. Nolan tells House that Lydia is taking her sister-in-law to a rehab facility in Arizona with Lydia's husband. House gets an overnight pass and goes to see Lydia at her home. He is startled when Lydia's young son answers the door. House wants her to stay, and Lydia says she wants to but ends up asking House to leave. Back in the Mayfield parking lot, House talks to Dr. Nolan about his feelings, which, in conjunction with House getting close enough to someone to be hurt in the first place, convinces him that House deserves the recommendation to the medical board, showing that he learned to talk about his problems instead of abusing Vicodin.
Mayfield gives House a good-bye party, and House is discharged and gets on a bus back to Princeton. The bus sports an advertisement for a skills improvement institute saying "Prepare to Succeed". After the departure of House, Alvie decides he wants to get better and goes back on his medication. The last shot is of House wearing Alvie's smiley face shirt, sitting in the back of the bus with the hospital receding in the background and a rare smile comes across House's face.
Production
Greystone Park Psychiatric HospitalGreystone Park Psychiatric Hospital
Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital refers to both the former psychiatric hospital and the historic building that it occupied in Parsippany-Troy Hills Township .A new facility was built on the large Greystone campus and bears...
was used for exterior shots of the hospital.
Reception
The episode was well received by critics. MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
reported generally favorable reviews with a score of 77/100 based on 8 reviews. The show earned a 9.5 rating out of 983 votes on TV.com
TV.com
TV.com is a website owned by CBS Interactive. The site covers television and focuses on English-language shows made or broadcast in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Japan...
. Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
stated "a trite, untrue mental-illness mystery insults the show's high IQ, but doesn't diminish the opener's capture-the-imagination thesis: that a redeemed House can be just as compelling as a rude House."
Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
said "the episode has a few sentimentality issues (any plot point involving a music box walks a very fine line), but it doesn't matter much because the characters are so vivid they even outshine House at times, which can only be good for him."
Alan Sepinwall from The Newark Star-Ledger
The Star-Ledger
The Star-Ledger is the largest circulated newspaper in the U.S. state of New Jersey and is based in Newark. It is a sister paper to The Jersey Journal of Jersey City, The Times of Trenton and the Staten Island Advance, all of which are owned by Advance Publications.The Newark Star-Ledgers daily...
praised the episode saying "for one night, this is the best House, and its leading man, have been in a long time." The episode also won for Best Episodic Drama at Writers Guild of America Awards 2009
Writers Guild of America Awards 2009
The 62nd Writers Guild of America Awards honored the best film, television, and videogame writers of 2009. Winners were announced on February 20, 2010.-Best Adapted Screenplay:*Crazy Heart*Julie & Julia...
.
Hugh Laurie was nominated for a "Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series" Emmy for his performance in this episode.
Rating
In its original broadcast, "Part One" was viewed by an estimated 16.5 million viewers, with "Part Two" bringing in approximately 17.25 million viewers. Compared to the rest of the sixth season, the episodes became the highest-rated in front of "Epic FailEpic Fail (House)
"Epic Fail" is the third episode of the sixth season of House. It first aired on September 28, 2009.-Plot:Players in a video game known as SavageScape battle ferocious creatures. After the game ends, the testers find their boss, Vince Pearson, claiming that his hands are "on fire." House walks into...
", which received only 14.44 million viewers.
The two-hour season premiere garnered the top Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
on the first night of the broadcast networks' premiere week. The show averaged a 6.7/16 with 17.1 million viewers. The rating was a significant rise from the previous year's season premiere, which averaged a 5.6/16 and 14.4 million viewers.
4.43 million Canadians watched this episode, making it the most viewed program of the week.
External links
- "Broken" at Fox.com