I have watched every episode of House M.D. since it started in 2004. It’s nothing I brag about. It’s nothing I’m incredibly proud of, but I do continue to watch it.
I continue to watch it for two reasons. Hugh Laurie is a great actor, even beyond his ability to voice an American as if he’s lived here his entire life. And because when the show is on its game, it has a good sense of humor, despite its scenarios being miles beyond anything that would constitute reality in today’s lawsuit-crazed society. And occasionally, Laurie gets a truly interesting secondary character to play with.
Outside of that, objectively speaking, the show is rubbish. For five complete seasons, the formula has been almost identical. The crew is presented with a thought-to-be unsolvable case. They all, including Dr. Gregory House, make a series of failed attempts at diagnosing it, until eventually a coincidental moment hits House and leads to a solution, or at the very least an answer to the puzzle after it is too late.
Meanwhile, the medical genius continues fighting his addiction to painkillers, and alternating between bouts of being obvious with it and deceiving others or himself into thinking it is under control. And every season invariably ends with an episode where House is either curing himself, dealing with the addiction or some other personal issue.
But Fox is looking to spice things up this season, and so far it is working, but the question is whether the creativity can hold out. To start, House checked into rehab at the end of last season, and the entire two-hour opener of Season 6 was based on his time in rehab, which saw him trying nearly everything in his book to deceive his way out before finally learning that the only way he was really going to get better was to submit to the system. The comedy reminded me of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and seemed to finally straighten out the doctor and make him start thinking of what is most important in his own life.
That reflection first left House deciding that the only way to heal was to stay away from his former medical practice. To channel his time and keep his mind off the leg pain, House starts trying new things, such as cooking. After applying the same idiosyncrasies to anything he does, he excels, but realizes the hospital is where he needs to be.
Meanwhile, the secondary cast got a shake up, mostly cleaning up the clutter of the big reality show-like contest for a new staff back in Season 4, when Foreman, Cameron and Chase moved on to other endeavors. Those three are back, working under Foreman’s leadership alongside House, who has been waiting for his medical license to be reinstated. From the newer breed of doctors, only Thirteen (Olivia Wilde), lingers in a romance with Foreman.
The shake up is exactly what the show needs, cleaning up the clutter and returning House to its roots and its core cast. The two-hour opener was solid, but it would have been nice to see House struggle with different hobbies awhile longer before returning to medicine. Especially when the show’s writers still haven’t figured out that its rehashed plots, conundrums and loads of medical lingo are tiring. By now, the show should be focused fully on its characters, with the medicine only used as background noise. It would have been fun to see how House applied himself in a few different things before falling back on Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital.
But that wasn’t the path charted for the show, and as such the latest season of House will have to find relevance elsewhere if it is to survive. House cannot simply fall back into the monotony of difficult case after difficult case with a slow progression. The show needs to reinvent itself.
With a storyline involving the death of a foreign dictator (Spoiler Alert! who Chase intentionally killed after finding out he planned to commit genocide) looking like it will carry over for at least a few more episodes, House has garnered more deserved attention than it has received since it started and has momentum. But the show’s writers need to find a way to keep things interesting without falling back on old habits. Most importantly, House needs to stay clean. Five years of flip-flopping between drug use was more than enough. The challenge for the show’s writers is to keep him interesting without falling back on that device. If they can do it, House has a chance at being a better show than it has ever been.
About the Writer
Bill Jones is the editor-in-chief of padsandpanels.com, a site dedicated to coverage of comics and games.
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