House, M.D.

For those less familiar

I've been a fan of this show since its conception. I've watched Cameron, Foreman, Chase, and even House grow up with the help of the Wilson and Cuddy. I was continually enamored with the quality of the show and its ability to join nonsensical medical jargon with psychological drama.

With this show having a surprisingly low number of followers, I feel I have to defend it from when true fans of the show tell friends about it, but when the friends see it, they are subjected to the latest two seasons. But I don't want to get ahead of myself. For those who have never seen an episode of this show, let me quickly give you an overview. Dr. House is an anomaly of a medical mind. He takes cases from all over the country (and some from outside) that no one else can solve, and with his team of fellowships, he diagnoses the problem. In most given episodes, a common infrastructure will appear where he will have a few wrong guesses and then within the last 10-15 minutes, something completely unrelated will spark something in his mind that helps him solve the case.

Some people look at this infrastructure as a flaw, and say that it makes the show boring, but some people have no peripheral vision when it comes to being entertained. The human body is a common infrastructure but no two people are a like. Get the idea? Now, back to the show. What compels me most about the show is not the consistently unique string of cases that the doctors solve, its the underlying personalities and interactions that give this show the novelty. Dr. House is a sarcastic, narcissistic, vindictive ass, and also the main character in this show. He is surrounded by Dr. Foreman, a strong willed moral opposition to House; there is Dr. Cameron, who is an enamored enabler of House; Dr. Chase, a bright but complacent lapdog (in the first 3 seasons, at least) of House; Dr. Wilson, the Watson to House's Holmes; and Dr. Cuddy, who until recently, had been in an enigmatic, supposedly platonic female employer of House (and very beautiful). Each of these characters bring a clear focused and entertaining complementary personality to the main character.

Also, what gets me into this show is its deconstruction of human will, morality, and motive. My favorite, and I think one of the best examples of this is the episode No Reason (watch it if you ever have the chance). In each of these episodes, the writers find a new way to sketch a more clearly defined portrait of the main character through the various tools that are the other characters. Also, what I found that this show did great was almost never let the focus of the plot derail from the medical mystery. Each sub-focus of the human psyche happens within the parameter of the case.

However, with the show ending the third season, what we found was that the three fellowships of Cameron, Foreman, and Chase are fired or have quit. This leaves the show to take up a pseudo-reality show of a first half of the season in which House must choose a new team from 40 or so applicants. This, I think, greatly took away from the subtle of the show that I admired, and left only a few redeeming episodes, including the last two, and the episode "Frozen". After the selection of 3 new fellowships, at the 2/3rds point of the season we are returned to a similar format of show.

The show introduces Kutner, Taub, and 13 (later identified as Hadley). Kutner (played entertainably by Kal Penn) is the young, new doctor who likes to take risks. Taub is an older doctor, Foreman-like in his moral opposition to House's tactics but more of an enabler still. And then there's 13, who is a bi-sexual (with an episode dedicated to that) and is probably going to be killed off because she has Huntington's, an uncurable disease. Now, I don't know if you have picked up the tone in my text, but I don't like the new team.

What I found was that the writers tried to maintain the original cast's variety of personalities and fit the new three into small gabs that have not been previously covered. Though, the didn't do it overly well. Kutner is really the only new personality seen on the show. What's worse is that they're giving the ever uninteresting 13 her own plot line on this show. She has a fatal disease, she's sad, experimental, and vulnerable, okay. I would be ever grateful if something killed her off now and we could focus on any sub-plot involving the other two, who are more interesting.

Now, I'm almost done. But I feel I should address the newest sub-plot in this show. That is the bubbling relationship of Dr. Cuddy (the dean of medicine) and Dr. House. Now what I've loved about this relationship is that in 4 and a half seasons, this sub-plot has poked its head out a handfull of times and not very far ahead. There has not been 5 minutes in any given episode dedicated to it. Though now, we see that a few episodes ago, these two kissed. It's been in the back of the cupboard for seasons, and now its getting daylight. They did a good job of deflecting the topic for one episode, but each ensuing episode has been too much about the relationship. Will they? Won't they? Let's not recreate the classic Friends relationship.

In the latest episode, while starting to dominate screen time, this relationship has become unfortunately ambiguous. *SPOILER ALERT* What we found was that House had brought a priceless gift (anonymously) into Cuddy's office. As the episode ends though, Cuddy is walking to thank House (probably with a little more than a "thank you") but instead she sees him talking to another woman (who, if you watch the episode is very unimportant to the episode and even less important to the show). So she turns around disappointed and walks away. Can this medically unrelated case be solved before this show becomes worse than anything on MTV?

In conclusion, I know that i've been long winded. But this show is near and dear to my heart because I love the characters and I love the psychological drama that unfolds in many of the episodes. I just hope it doesn't go to the dogs.

Also note that I will, from time to time, call on House, MD for a character study if I'm bored.