feel that unrelenting need to break things off as I did with Grey's Anatomy and Heroes, but that's not to say it's been smooth sailing. Some relationships end in an annoyed, fiery, resentful cliff dive out of the whole messy business, and others just kind of fade away...After five seasons, just about any show would start to loose some of its punch, but for a procedural in particular, episodes devolve into utterly routine even faster. There are exceptions, but by and large, I can tell you whether or not the diagnosis is correct based on how many minutes are left in the episode and can see House's epiphany coming from a mile away. Procedural shows are fairly formulaic on a fundamental level, given the nature of the conceit, so it's not unexpected that the show would follow the same format from week to week. It's one of the main reasons procedurals aren't exactly my favorites. In general, the A-plots kind of bore me. With House, the patient of the week forms the basis for pretty much the entire episode, and while I've always been invested enough in the patients to enjoy the A-plots well enough, they've never really been the reason I watch the show. The patients are more like a framework for House, Cuddy, Wilson, and the ducklings to work around and react to. Some patients are more intriguing than others, but after 5 seasons, I generally don't care anymore.
In many ways, the show is as good as ever, but I think most House fans can agree that the ushering in of new, and considerably crappier, ducklings, coupled with the criminally reduced screen time and story relevance of Cuddy and Wilson (and even Cameron and Chase) have rendered the past two seasons far inferior to the previous three.
I can definitely understand where the show wanted to get some new blood on board and even quite enjoyed the Survivor-style interview process of season 4,
but the end results were underwhelming, disappointing, inexplicable, and most heinously... dull. Of all the potential ducklings, Amber was one of the few that really stood out as a character who could truly add a new facet to the aging show, but they went and killed her off. It's to Anne Dudek's credit that she managed to make a cutthroat bitch the best new character on the show and managed to make the story arc involving her death one of the best of the entire series. Aside from her presence, season 4 was a little misguided in my estimation, and without her, would have begun House's decent into the second (third?) tier all the quicker.So, after the heart-wrenching brilliance of the final two episodes of season
4 (which managed to compensate for the otherwise marginal success of the rest of the season), my confidence was bolstered once again. As unenthused as I was with the winning ducklings, I was confident the writers had figured things out and would somehow manage to make it all work with the upcoming season.I was wrong...
It's not simply that there had been a few cast changes. It wasn't just a devoted fan's defiance of change or a loyalty to the old characters. The new batch of underlings changed the dynamic for the show, but not in a good way.
I never truly appreciated the original ducklings until they were replaced. In fact, Cameron, Chase, and Foreman were my least favorite elements of the show.
They were all annoying in their own special ways and during the first three seasons, I didn't pay too much attention to them. Cameron was whiny, Foreman was devoid of all personality, and Chase was just kind of pissy and lazy (which, given the bar being that low, made him my favorite). After the induction of Kutner, Taub, and [insert loatheful shudder] Thirteen, I found myself wishing I could have the old team back for pretty much all of this past season.It's not just that they were new and rabid TV watchers fear change, it's that they are pretty much completely useless, unrelentingly annoying, and don't provide House (or any other character) with an interesting character to play off of. These three were desperate to be on House's team, so unlike the original trio, they never really stood up to him or challenged his assumptions. The old team may have been annoying, but they each served a very specific purpose. In their own way, each of the originals provided opposition for House to antagonize, mock, and appreciate. The newbies, on the other hand, spent all of season 4 trying to win a spot on the team, and the better part of season 5 not knowing what to do with themselves now that they had won. After three seasons of largely the same construction, I was very open to change, but the changes that were made fell flat, ultimately fizzled, and were deleterious to the elements of the show that were still working.
It's bad enough that Cameron and Chase were relegated to cameos at best (seriously, I think their combined screen time for all of season 5 would come in at about 20 mi
nutes), but that Cuddy and Wilson were reduced to bit parts and their characters reduced to shells of their former selves was just unforgivable. Cuddy and Wilson were always my absolute favorite parts of the show, but Cuddy was reduced to a powerless, simpering idiot who wanted a baby and Wilson was turned into a mopey, useless, wet blanket after Amber's death. In that regard, their severely reduced screen time and relevance was actually kind of appreciated, but what little they showed up was mostly disappointing.I really do believe their characters could have been salvaged (and to be fair, toward the end of this season, they had greatly improved over their early season selves), but so much time and attention was paid to the new ducklings that no other storylines could be paid due attention.
Most egregious and horrendously unsuccessful among the bunch? Do I even have to say?
Ask just about any House fan what the worst part of the past two seasons has been and you'll get a near unani
mous answer: Thirteen. No contest, end of story, period. She was dead weight pretty much from the very beginning, but then throw in a belabored and unremittingly boring storyline about her Huntington's Disease and the show became nigh unwatchable. God bless my DVR, because if I hadn't been able to zip through those scenes with Lori Petty, I'd have been forced to break up with the show outright. Add to that her relationship with Foreman (far and away the most boring character on the show) and you've got a recipe for eye-gougingly painful TV. When you find yourself desperately hoping that a character will get shot or drugged to death during a hostage situation and that character is not the bad guy, you know you've got a problem. The show kept teasing that Thirteen could be bumped off, but then go and kill of Kutner instead. Kutner. The only one of the newbies who really had any potential. (I realize that was Kal Penn's decision, not so much the show's, but still.)So between Kutner's death and Thirteen's life, how could I enjoy the show as I once had? Taub? Yeah, not so much. Don't get me wrong, somehow I was more interested in his marriage and career woes than with Thirteen's life-changing diagnosis and near death experiences, but he's no where near enough to make up for his fellow ducklings. Oy.
Amid all the detrimental changes that so tragically bogged down season 5, I found that even the elements that remained the same have been so overdone that I'm kind of bored with it. House is as snarky as ever, his medical deductions are still impressive, and his manipulations and insanities are ever present, but I've seen it all before. His wacky and often criminal approach to medicine was a joy from the beginning, but after five years of watching him do crazy things, they just don't have the same punch that they once did. House has always been the linchpin of the series, and Hugh Laurie is as brilliant as ever, but it just doesn't have the sam
e effect. To quote a very wise, sagacious soul, "The thing is, there's not really anything wrong with the Itchy & Scratchy Show. It's as good as ever. But after so many years, the characters just can't have the same impact they once had." The setup, the conceit, House himself, the formula... They just aren't really doing it for me anymore. It's gotten to the point where the differentials have become perfunctory rather than illuminating and I just can't even bring myself to listen anymore, and that's coming from someone who's interested in medicine and likes to play along. Back in the day, I quite enjoyed listening to the back and forth, the diagnosis debate, and the ethical conundrums House put his team in, but between the underlings having no backbones and the show having dealt with over 100 patients, I just can't get all that excited about it anymore...At the end of the day, it's still a good show, but I don't think it can hold up as it once did. I finally got around to watching the season finale last night, and while it was a very good episode with an interesting patient (who pointed out deeper facets to the main characters--an element that factors in
to all the best patients on the show) and had a great twist, I have to admit I just wasn't all that enthralled overall. I really did enjoy the House/Cuddy and House/Wilson of it all, and it was lovely to see Amber for these past few episodes (proving to be one of the best parts of the show, even a year after her death), but all the pieces just seem overdone at this point. That House's perception of reality over the past few episodes has been warped and unreliable (at best) was the most fascinating part of this season's end. I really liked that the audience got to see how House's subconscious (psychosis?) or whatever is going on inside his head would construct his own universe and to find that his fantasy is completely different from his reality. For a character like House, whose rational brain is his greatest asset and most important quality, to suddenly find himself unable to tell what's real and what isn't made for a fascinating, and most importantly, refreshing dynamic on an otherwise aging show. The big reveal at the end of the episode, that the events of the past few days were largely a construct of House's vicodin-addled brain, was very well done. I particularly liked the bit with the lipstick. Unlike other shows (I'll get to my Bones finale ridiculous jump the sharkiness later...), House very subtly inserted clues that what we were seeing wasn't actually the reality of the situation. I kept thinking to myself, why has no one mentioned the fact that he's twirling a lipstick around? How is it that his leg pain has so thoroughly subsided? How did he totally detox so quickly? The show layered in little hints and conundrums, but didn't put everything together until the very end. It was very satisfying and had a hint of the old spark this show used to have on a regular basis.The season ends with House entering a psychiatric facility and leaves the futu
re of these characters way up in the air. As disappointed as I was with many facets of this season, the writers always manage to bolster my confidence in the end. I'm not breaking up with House, in spite of my concerns. It has become a second tier show, but I'm keeping the faith. I'll have to see how next season goes and have already accepted that this might have been my last full season of the show.In many respects, it's as strong as ever, but after so many episodes of mostly the same routine, I'm a little bored, and to large extent, I've lost that lovin' feeling.
But I guess that's what marriage is all about. ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment