Suffering from a full 'House'

Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) never hedges his bets. It's part of his charm, and now we see why. Because if you hedge your bets, if you try to keep several possibilities in active play, you wind up with a television show that has what are essentially two separate casts, neither of which has enough to do.

For seven full days there was hope that last week's episode of "House," the first since the writers strike maimed the TV season, was terrible because everyone was a little rusty, a little out of sync. And last night's episode was better, but not much. At least not enough "much."

The problem, it would seem, is systemic -- neurological rather than viral, in the show's parlance (I think.) The brilliance of last season's decision to do away with the old consulting team in favor of a reality show-like competition for a new team left us with a numerical challenge. The old team came back, albeit not as diagnosticians, which means we have Cameron (Jennifer Morrison), Chase (Jesse Spencer) and Foreman (Omar Epps) jockeying for screen time with the new team -- Kutner (Kal Penn), Thirteen (Olivia Wilde) and Taub (Peter Jacobson). (None of whom have bios on the show's website; make of this what you will.) Add to that standing costars -- Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) and Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard), oh and Wilson's new girlfriend Amber (Anne Dudek) -- and you have way too many people for a show that insists its main character be the center of each story line, delivering most of the best lines in almost every scene. 

All of which may explain why last night's episode, which should have been a jim-dandy -- House kidnaps the star of his favorite medical soap because he has noticed "symptoms" in the actor's delivery of his lines while Cuddy is in the middle of an unexpected accreditation review -- fell completely flat. And not because we know that, even by soap opera standards, Princeton Plainsboro should have lost its accreditation years ago, while House and his team languished in a low-risk security facility somewhere.

No, it fell flat because there was no narrative tension -- no matter how many times poor old Lisa Edelstein was forced to say "my job is on the line," we knew the hospital would not close and House would not be fired. There was also no personal tension because none of the characters has had time to create traction with the audience. Because there are too many characters! This is not "ER," people, this is not "Grey's Anatomy," this is not a serial drama with criss-crossing narratives in which every character gets his or her moment in the sun. This is "House," a procedural in which, thus far, the only character allowed any sort of development is House.

Which has worked just fine, awards all around, the No. 1 scripted drama (for a while anyway), magazine covers galore. But those shows only work when you have a small cohesive core surrounding the star; cast-wise, "House" is now an ensemble. With every one standing around watching Hugh Laurie do his thing (which can't be all that fun for Laurie, even with the cane-twirling thing.) Even the possibly interesting side plot about Wilson and Amber is being derailed into vaudeville by House's (read: the writers') insistence that he is at the root of it (that and the fact that without the tempering characteristic of doctorhood, Amber is, face it, just mean.)

So last night was just a panoply of weird tests and accidental successes, with the answer coming to House, as it always does, when he's just happens to notice that gum on the floor or the kid's stuffed bear or whatever. There was no snappy dialogue, no rich personal interplay, no attempt to use House's various quirks to reveal anything much. Because, apparently, the writers were too busy making sure everyone on the payroll had at least two lines.

It's not easy being "House," but then no one ever said it would be. Decisions must be made -- is this an ensemble drama or a lead-driven procedural. Make your choice. Begin writing accordingly. Because I for one miss my favorite show. And it's almost summer as it is.

--Mary McNamara

(Photo courtesy Fox)

Comments

[ItsAlsoANoun]

I second that -- your comments all seem right on. The only good thing about the last two episodes have been a few snappy House-isms, but everything else is out of sync. Seems like a return to the old lineup would solve lots of problems. Maybe the House-Cameron scene last night was a hint that it is a possibility? Let's hope.

[Jo]

The bloated cast is only part of the problem with this season, in my opinion. The character of House himself has changed significantly from Season 1. When I first fell in love with the show, I was drawn to this wonderful, introspective, brilliant, intensely private, troubled, and reluctantly compassionate man. The Season 4 model seemed to be written as a silly frat boy who traded in all his dignity and was more interested in screwing with the minds and lives of those around him, with hardly a care about the patient.

So, this last episode was a pleasant surprise for me because I saw a glimmer of hope that this show might be starting to right itself. I was delighted to see Cameron back where she belonged, and she sparkled. (If only she had taken House up on his offer to dump Thirteen.) I also was delighted to see a return of an ethical, caring House, who came through in the end to try and protect Cuddy when planning another outrageous course of treatment - and she didn't have to give up a thong for it. He was totally invested in the patient, and that was a nice change from much of this season's cases.

I agree that there are too many characters right now, but if The Powers That Be plan on ousting Chase, Cameron, and Foreman and keeping the lackluster new team, they are going to lose some viewers, myself included.

[Namaste]

Obviously you watch the show for completely different reasons than I do. I see the medical case not as the center of the show, but rather the framework used to hang character studies and fascinating questions off of. While you see the case as "completey flat," I see it as a great look at how hard it is to live within our dreams -- how hard it is to live up to the illusion of what appears to be a perfect life -- the actor, the doctor, etc. -- to outsiders even when we all question if this is what we're really meant to do and to be.

It's about reaching for things you think you want, but then finding that what appears to be perfection is far from it. That waterbed you always wanted? Maybe it'll make you seasick. It continues the themes that have been established throughout the season about dreams and illusions -- from the NASA pilot to the amnesiac farm implement salesman to a man dying of a chronic disease who believes death will finally release him. It echoes back to the magician who said the magic is in not knowing the answers, because that's what seems like perfection to him, and the character of House whose idea of perfection is always knowing the answer.

Can the cast be trimmed? Sure, but to me the season is fully firing now, bringing home themes established from the first episode. Obviously not everyone sees it that way.

[Sue]

The decision to get rid of the old team and run a survivor-type competition must have seemed good on paper but it failed in the execution. The first half of the season was a morass of leaving the medicine and character development in favour of cheap games, crude jokes and stealing Cuddy's thong. When the dust settled, the new team ended up a pale imitation of the old one. The best new character was Amber who brought a new spark to the show. There was barely any Chase this episode but Cameron's interactions with House brought back the fun of the old show.

The cast is too large but getting rid of the old team won't make the new cast work better. Shore needs to get creative to fix this one.

[E]

Spot on assessment. Yes, the cast is bloated & DS & his writers aren't using them effectively. They've become place holders for the same repetitive characteristics (Cuddy says no, Cameron shows her boobs, 13's a non-entity - and none of its is dramatically interesting or moves the characters forward) that it doesn't matter one bit what wonderful themes are carrying through the season, 99% of the audience probably either isn't seeing it or doesn't give a damn - and that's a failure of execution in the writing. House has become a parody of itself - the formerly solid medicine has become laughably bad, and House the character is primarily the source of cheap vulgar jokes, not great character insights that move the audience. The biggest mistake was bringing in the new team and discarding the depth & quality of the relationships that had been developed in favor of the extreme superficiality of the new players.