Fall 2007 TV Tuesday Night: House
At the end of last season, all of House’s team had been fired or quit. The new season begins, and they’re not back. He’s on his own and desperate for someone to bounce his ideas off of, yet he adamantly resists the pleas of Cuddy and Wilson to hire a new team. In a brilliant move, Wilson kidnaps House’s new electric guitar and sends him ransom notes to try to force House’s hand. Whether it was Wilson’s escalating guitar threats or that House almost killed his patient (several times), there is a team on deck at the end. This is a great twist, and it’ll be interesting to see how long it’ll be till (or if) the old team returns. I was thrilled to read at the Onion AV Club that the next ep is likely to be even better.
As always, the show isn’t shy about drawing parallels between House and Sherlock Holmes–acerbic wit, drug problem, diagnostic skill, and address number. Wilson, kinder but hardly as brilliant as House, fits well into the Holmes role. In an email, M from Mental Multivitamin wondered if others see a Hamlet/Horatio between the two. I think it’s a great comparison. House is borderline mad and alone, while Wilson tries (and so often fails) to influence House through reason and patience. And House leaves both justice, by way of saved patients, and emotional wreckage in his wake.
On a more superficial note, co-stars Jesse Spencer and Jennifer Morrison (Chase and Cameron, respectively) broke their engagement. That return to work will have to be awkward.
October 2nd, 2007 at 8:33 am
I found this show soooo boring this week. I don’t think I’ll be watching it anymore. I read that the old team returns but NOT to work with him. So does that mean they’ll have their own plots? I don’t know, but I don’t think I can be bothered to find out.
October 4th, 2007 at 1:20 pm
I liked the opener, and I liked the second ep even better. I think the enjoyment of it, as with Bones, has to do with an affinity for the characters, rather than the procedurals. Unlike Law and Order, the characters are the thing. With House, though, they have the tricky task of keeping a misanthropic drug addict compelling for a third season.
I am weary of procedurals, though, and feeling trigger happy to skip any show that bores me, of which there were several this week, though House was the happy exception for me.