'House': The new faces are welcome

At first glance, it would seem that the creators of “House” are trying to get a toehold in the reality TV audience. On this season's second episode of the medical drama, the canny and conniving Dr. House capitulates to the general demand that he create a new diagnostics team by assembling all the likely applicants, 40 to be precise, and pitting them against each other.

Their first case is, of course, extra-special difficult: An Air Force officer wants to know why she is “hearing colors,” but she doesn’t want the tests to be on the books because that would squash her chance to work for NASA. She comes to House, as so many of us do, because he breaks the rules.

Off the 40, arbitrarily cut down to 30, winsome young people go on assorted House-directed missions, from searching the officer’s home to washing House’s car. It quickly becomes apparent that “House” is not just tapping into the success of reality TV, it’s taking a page out of “Grey’s Anatomy.” These docs may not be interns, but they are just as ripe for competitive plots and steamy romance, if not spin-offs, as any of the folks at Seattle Grace.

There’s the earnest, hard-working Mormon, the pretty, ringleted twins, the clever, House-like rebel, the ruthlessly ambitious blond, the cosmetic surgeon, the old guy, the mysterious, possibly brilliant brunette. No need giving them names; House doesn’t. He sticks to numbers, firing them coldheartedly for snitching or just sitting in the wrong row. Watching them bond and compete for House’s attention is a good reminder that for all his flaws, House remains, at least in TV Land, a world-class doctor. It also gives Hugh Laurie the chance to use the term “cutthroat little pixie,” which is not something you get to hear every day.

The on-the-q.t. nature of the case allows House to pull a MacGyver, creating diagnostic tests out of everything from breast implants to several shots of tequila. Meanwhile, glimpses of Drs. Chase, Cameron and Foreman moving through the halls like so many phantoms of House’s tortured psyche.

While it’s good to see our old friends back, one hopes that at least some of these new doctors can stick around for a while. It opens up narrative possibilities beyond the romantic machinations of Cameron and Chase (now engaged on the show, while the actors broke up in real life) and creates new possibilities for House, who is always at his best when someone smart is pushing back.

If nothing else, House can “read” each and every one of them — “when did your brother leave home?” he asks the mysterious brunette — which will be good for a few choice B-plots. And as he whittles down his new pool of doctors, perhaps Fox will allow us to call in and vote, “American Idol”-style.

Either way, it’s always good to have some new faces, not to mention a cosmetic surgeon, on hand.

-- Mary McNamara

(Photo courtesy Fox)

Comments

[kryptogal]

The show has hired Kal Penn (#6/9), the mysterious brunette and the plastic surgeon to be regulars. So we will be seeing House try to figure out, and manipulate, a new group of doctors. This is really helping to give the show a boost. Loved this episode and don't really miss Cameron, Forman and Chase.