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Revision as of 20:02, 21 December 2008 by Music2611 (talk | contribs) (small lead edit)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) Fictional character| Michael Tritter | |
|---|---|
| File:DetMichaelTritter.jpgPromotional shoot of Morse as Tritter. credit: Chris Pizzello | |
| First appearance | "Fools for Love" |
| Last appearance | "Words and Deeds" |
| Portrayed by | David Morse |
| In-universe information | |
| Occupation | Police detective |
Detective Michael Tritter is a recurring character in the medical drama series House, M.D., portrayed by David Morse. He is the main antagonist of the third season, which ran between 2006 and 2007. Tritter is a police detective, who tries to get Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) to apologize to him, after leaving Tritter in an examination room with a thermometer in his rectum. House refuses to apologize, which leads to Tritter researching House's background and discovering the doctor's Vicodin addiction. Tritter turns people close to House against him and forces House to go to rehab. When the case ultimately comes to court the judge sentences House with one night in jail and finishing his rehabilitation, telling Tritter that she thinks House is not the drug addict he tried to make him.
The character was created as somebody who could go "toe-to-toe" with House. At first, Morse did not know if he wanted to portray the character, because he had never seen the show. When he saw the show he still was not very impressed. But when he told some friends of his, he was convinced because, as Morse puts it, "they just went nuts". Initial responses to the character were mostly positive, however, when Tritter's story arc continued critics responded that the character's arc was becoming "boring". Nevertheless, Morse was praised for his portrayal, and gained an Emmy Award nomination, in the category "Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series" for his appearance in the episode "Finding Judas". In a 2006 TV Guide interview Morse has stated that, although discussions had been made, bringing the character back on the show is "practically impossible".
Storyline
Tritter first appears in "Fools for Love", he comes in to the walk-in clinic fearing he has a sexually transmitted disease as he showed severe irritation in the area of his groin. House is assigned to see him, and sees him chewing nicotine gum. House, in a typically charmless manner, quickly diagnoses him with dry skin, a common side effect of the gum. However, Tritter is not convinced and insists that House take a sample for testing. House declines on the grounds that he's met this month's quota for indulging "stubborn idiots", their conversation continues, until House attempts to peremptorily leave the room. Tritter kicks House's cane, causing him to trip. House then feigns acquiescence and takes the sample, but insists he has to take his temperature—rectally. After inserting the thermometer, House leaves the room with no intention of returning.
Tritter complains about his treatment to Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein), House's boss, who forces House to talk to Tritter. Tritter says he would rather "beat the crap out of" House than sue him, however, House still refuses to apologize. When House is pulled over for a traffic violation, Tritter reveals he is a police detective. Tritter does a patdown search, due to seeing House taking some pills earlier, and finds some unprescripted Vicodin pills in House's pocket, for which Tritter arrests House.
After House is bailed out by his friend James Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard), in "Que Sera Sera", Tritter gets a search warrant for House's apartment and finds six hundred-plus Vicodins. Tritter tells House that the amount of Vicodin could prove an intent to traffic, and decides to look into House's prescriptions. Upon finding a possible fake prescription, Tritter goes to Wilson, who writes House's Vicodin prescription, and shows him two prescriptions he found, written in different handwriting. Wilson lies, saying he sometimes writes his name differently. Tritter asks Wilson to think deeply about his answer, and threatens him with police action if he finds out he's lying. Wilson replies that he's absolutely sure. At the end of the episode "Son of Coma Guy", Wilson finds out that Tritter has frozen his bank account because he did not believe him. Tritter tries to convince the members of House's diagnostic team to testify against House, but they all refuse. As revealed in "Whac-A-Mole", Tritter also has Wilson's car towed and has his prescription-writing powers removed, forcing him to shut down his practice.
When Cuddy finds Tritter spending his week off looking through the hospital files, in "Finding Judas", she accuses Tritter of not having a life, and therefore spending his week off "personalizing every slight". She yells at him for shutting down an innocent man's practice. Tritter replies, saying "Nobody here is innocent", since everybody knows about House's Vicodin addiction, and yet they still allow him to treat patients. Cuddy says that if this is true, then it should be handled by doctors, not police detectives. To which Tritter replies that the doctors are not dealing with it, they are, in fact, covering it up. At the end of "Finding Judas", Tritter is visited by Wilson, who requests thirty pieces of silver—which indicates he is willing to testify.
In "Merry Little Christmas", Tritter and Wilson work out a deal for House so that he can keep practicing medicine if he pleads guilty and spends two months in rehab. House refuses, Tritter tells House that he has three days to take the deal. Wilson talks to Cuddy, who prescribes House's Vicodin because Wilson cannot, and convinces her to stop giving House his Vicodin in order for House to settle. However, when noticing what is happening to House during his detox process, Wilson tells Tritter that he does not want to testify anymore. Tritter says that if Wilson does this, he will use his previous statements and charge Wilson with interfering with a police investigation. Meanwhile House tells the pharmacist that Wilson sent him to pick up medicine for a Mr. Zebalusky (who died a few hours earlier), the pharmacist gives him the oxycodone pills. Early the next morning, House visits Tritter agrees to take the deal, Tritter says the deal is off, because he found the pharmacy's log and found out that House signed for a dead man's drugs.
In the final days leading up to House's court case, House, realizing this might be his last chance, apologizes to Tritter. Tritter, however, finds the apology too late and wants to get revenge. House goes into rehab, putting on a show for Tritter and the judge. Tritter is glad that House went to rehab, but still refuses to drop the charges, saying that he has learned not to trust addicts due to his past experiences. During court proceedings Cuddy commits perjury by saying she swapped the oxycodone pills with placebos, before House signed for them. The judge excuses Cuddy and tells House that he has better friends than he thinks he has; the judge then tells Tritter that she thinks House is not the drug addict he tried to make him and orders Tritter to move on. She makes House spend the night in jail and after that he can return to rehab. Just before the bailiff escorts House out Tritter tells him, "Good luck. I hope I'm wrong about you".
Personality
Alan Sepinwall, The Star-Ledger."Tritter himself is essentially House without the sense of humor, but that doesn't make him any less right in his assessment of House as bully".
Being the main antagonist of the third season, Tritter is a "stubborn" and "vengeful" police detective. Tritter becomes morbidly "obsessed" with House, and wants to get him clean, due to past experiences with drug addicts. The character's portrayer, David Morse, explained that Tritter is the kind of person who "gets who House is on all levels and can really shake his foundation". Morse stated that, what House did to Tritter in "Fools for Love", leaving a thermometer up his rectum for several hours, was so offensive to him that it is not hard for him to stand up to House. Also saying, that as a resulted of this, Tritter's "alarm went off". Executive producer Katie Jacobs, described the story arc as "a battle of ego's" between Tritter and House.
Robert Bianco, of USA Today described Tritter's personality as "legitimately, if belligerently, aggrieved adversary", but saying that after the first four episodes of the Tritter Arc, the character "morphed" into "some kind of insane supercop, tearing his way through the hospital and the Constitution at will". IGN's Staci Krause stated that the character has a more "manipulative" personality, as in "Finding Judas" he formed a plan to "break" each member of House's team separately. Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune stated that Tritter is a "dogged cop".
Character development
Jacobs on Morse's portrayal."We wanted someone with the strength and presence to really stand up to House ... David's presence is felt when he's not even speaking, on the moments when he's silent, his face is so expressive, and he can do so much with just his stature".
In 2006, House creator David Shore, contacted actor David Morse, with whom he had previously worked on Hack, for a guest starring episode arc on the show. At first, Morse did not know how to reply, since he did not know the show. Morse stated that, after watching a few episodes, he thought "This House guy is a total jerk. Why do people watch this show?" During his vacation, Morse told a few friends he had known for a very long time, about the job offer, his friends reacted very enthusiastically, and convinced Morse to call Shore and agreed to appear. Morse stated that he had very minor responsibilities on the show other than "giving House a hard time".
Katie Jacobs, executive producer of House was immediately impressed by Morse's performance. According to Morse, the producers were not looking for a "bad guy", as he later explained "What they were after was someone as focused and as smart as House, so it's a real force he comes up against". According to Ellen Gray, of the Philadelphia Daily News, Morse's earlier portrayals of "scary" cops (in 16 Blocks and Hack) also helped in the casting process. In a 2006 TV Guide interview, Morse said that although they had talked about it, it is "practically impossible" to get the character to return in any later seasons.
Reception
Staci Krause, IGN."...However, after about the fourth episode and the many troubles he was causing the people in House's life, we were bored. This story seemed to drag on forever and, in the meantime, there weren't that many great medical cases to fill in the gap".
Initial responses to the character were mostly positive, Barbara Barnett from Blog Critics Magazine, compared Tritter to Inspector Javert of Les Misérables, which was agreed with by Charles McGrath of The New York Times. Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune declared Tritter the "Best male villain of the fall of 2006". Lisa Edelstein, who portrays Lisa Cuddy on House, said that David Morse was one of her favorite House guest-stars, saying that he did "a really great job". Alynda Wheat from Entertainment Weekly stated that Tritter annoyed Dr. House the most, ranking above other House characters Amber Volakis (Anne Dudek), Stacey Warner (Sela Ward) and Lucas Douglas (Michael Weston).
However, when the character's arc continued, critics became bored, Staci Krause of IGN said that she found the first few episodes of Season 3, with House recovering from being shot more interesting. In a review of "Que Sera Sera" Michelle Kung, from Entertainment Weekly commented "I agree, David Morse is a fine actor, but his cop is so ridiculously one-note and revenge-bent that his scenes are often just excruciating to sit through". In a review of "Fools for Love", Sara Morrison, of Television Without Pity, doubted that Tritter getting revenge on House was worth all his time and aggravation, calling the "Tritter Arc" an "insane quest for ass thermometer justice", and giving Tritter the nickname "Detective Shitter". Alan Sepinwall, from The Star-Ledger stated that "pitting House against a comedy-impaired cop was both dull and not a fair fight". Daniel Fienberg of Zap2it, feared that what happened to Chi McBride (Edward Vogler) in the first season (the audience being glad of the character's departure), would happen to Tritter. "Because", as Fienberg explained, "Dr. House is a force of nature, while anybody sent to oppose him is just a nuisance, particularly any actor signed to a six or eight episode guest-starring arc". USA Today critic Robert Bianco, agreed with this, by calling Tritter's departure "a Christmas gift for fans". Kristin Dos Santos of E!, reported that most fans were, indeed, pleased with the character's departure. After appearing on the show, Morse jokingly stated that he gained various bad comments from fans who said that they hated his character for what he had done to Dr. House.
Morse, however, gained mainly positive responses to his portrayal of Tritter, The Star-Ledger's Alan Sepinwall called Morse a "superb actor". Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune, stated that Morse's "understated performance" made Triter all the more scarier. Zap2it's Daniel Fienberg said that Morse is "one of our very best character actors". Morse submitted the episode "Finding Judas", for consideration on his behalf in the category of "Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series" for the 2007 Emmy Awards. Morse went on to be nominated, but eventually lost to John Goodman for Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. In a comment to Morse's Emmy award nomination, Cynthia Littleton of Variety, said that she was glad Morse got nominated because she already thought Morse deserved an Emmy for his work on St. Elsewhere.
References
- ^ Shore, David; Blake, Peter (2006-10-31). "Fools for Love". House, M.D.. Season 3. Episode 5. FOX.
{{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter|episodelink=ignored (|episode-link=suggested) (help); Unknown parameter|serieslink=ignored (|series-link=suggested) (help) - Shore, David; Moran, Thomas L. (2006-11-07). "Que Sera Sera". House, M.D.. Season 3. Episode 6. FOX.
{{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter|episodelink=ignored (|episode-link=suggested) (help); Unknown parameter|serieslink=ignored (|series-link=suggested) (help) - Shore, David; Egan, Doris (2006-11-14). "Son of Coma Guy". House, M.D.. Season 3. Episode 7. FOX.
{{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter|episodelink=ignored (|episode-link=suggested) (help); Unknown parameter|serieslink=ignored (|series-link=suggested) (help) - Shore, David; Davis, Pam (2006-11-21). "Whac-A-Mole". House, M.D.. Season 3. Episode 8. FOX.
{{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter|episodelink=ignored (|episode-link=suggested) (help); Unknown parameter|serieslink=ignored (|series-link=suggested) (help) - Shore, David; Hass, Sara (2006-11-28). "Finding Judas". House, M.D.. Season 3. Episode 9. FOX.
{{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter|episodelink=ignored (|episode-link=suggested) (help); Unknown parameter|serieslink=ignored (|series-link=suggested) (help) - Shore, David; Friedman, Liz (2006-12-12). "Merry Little Christmas". House, M.D.. Season 3. Episode 10. FOX.
{{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter|episodelink=ignored (|episode-link=suggested) (help); Unknown parameter|serieslink=ignored (|series-link=suggested) (help) - Shore, David; Dick, Leonard (2007-01-01). "Words and Deeds". House, M.D.. Season 3. Episode 10. FOX.
{{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter|episodelink=ignored (|episode-link=suggested) (help); Unknown parameter|serieslink=ignored (|series-link=suggested) (help) - Sepinwall, Alan (2006-11-01). "This is why they don't have many friends". The Star-Ledger. Retrieved 2008-12-12.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Morrison, Sara (2006-11-07). "Vogler II: Electric Vog-a-loo". Television Without Pity. Retrieved 2008-10-04.
- ^ Wheat, Alynda (2008-09-12). "Who Annoyed Dr. House Most?". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2008-10-04.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - Williams, Kate (2007-08-24). "House, M.D. - Season Three". PopMatters. Retrieved 2008-12-12.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Byrne, Bridget (2006-11-08). "David Morse a 'House' Cop With a Problem". The Associated Press. Los Angeles, California. Retrieved 2008-08-15.
- Bobbin, Jay (2006-10-30). "A new enemy for Dr. House". Newsday. Retrieved 2008-11-22.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Cohn, Angel (2006-10-31). "David Morse Prescribes Big Trouble for Dr. House". TV Guide.
{{cite news}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - Ausiello, Michael (2006-08-07). "House Exclusive: David Morse Joins Cast!". TV Guide. Retrieved 2008-10-04.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Bianco, Robert (2006-11-12). "What to Watch Tuesday". USA Today. Retrieved 2008-12-12.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - Krause, Staci (2006-11-29). "House: "Finding Judas" Review". IGN. Retrieved 2008-12-12.
- Ryan, Maureen (2006-11-02). "Sweeps ahoy! Highlights of November's TV schedule". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2008-12-12.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Murray, Noel (2008-06-24). "Random Roles: David Morse". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2008-09-22.
- Gray, Ellen (2006-10-26). "David Morse makes a "House" call". Philadelphia Daily News. Retrieved 2008-10-04.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Krause, Staci (2007-06-13). "House: Season 3 Review". Some great medical cases, one disappointing story arc and a shocker of a finale. IGN. Retrieved 2008-10-04.
- Barnett, Barbara (2008-04-10). "House, MD: Revisiting the "Tritter Arc"". Blog Critics. Retrieved 2008-09-22.
- McGrath, Charles (2008-01-07). "Discovering Irishness, Recovering Niceness". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-12-12.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Ryan, Maureen (2006-10-19). "Fall TV's best new characters". The Watcher, Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2008-11-08.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - Kubicek, John (2007-10-02). "Exclusive Interview: 'House' Star Lisa Edelstein". BuddyTV. Retrieved 2008-11-15.
- Kung, Michelle (2006-11-08). "Heavy Hands". On "House", oppressive cop Tritter draws Wilson into his case against the doc, and the team struggles to diagnose 600 pounds of patient. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2008-10-04.
- Morrison, Sara (2006-10-31). "Awkward". Television Without Pity. Retrieved 2008-10-04.
- ^ Sepinwall, Alan (2007-11-27). "Sepinwall on TV: 'House' gets a creative shot in the arm". The Star-Ledger. Retrieved 2008-11-18.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Fienberg, David (2006-10-30). "The Tease: 'House' Returns with David Morse". Zap2it. Retrieved 2008-10-04.
- Dos Santos, Kristin (2007-03-06). "Q&A: House Producer Katie Jacobs Dishes on What Lies Ahead". E!. Retrieved 2008-12-12.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - Latifi, Sadia (2007-06-12). "We Ask David Morse of 'The Seafarer' Who's Tougher: The Devil or House?". New York Magazine. Retrieved 2008-11-28.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - 'O Neill, Tom (2007-07-30). "We've got the titles of episodes submitted by Emmy's guest actors!". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2008-11-22.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - "The 59th Primetime Emmy Awards and Creative Arts Emmy Awards Nominees are..." Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 2008-10-04.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - "Academy of Television Arts and Sciences 59th Primetime Emmy Awards" (PDF) (Press release). Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. 2007-09-16. Retrieved 2008-10-04.
{{cite press release}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - Littleton, Cynthia (2008-07-19). "Emmys: Oddities and observations". Variety. Retrieved 2008-11-22.
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External links
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