House

So, is it the new doctor? Nah, MMM (nice comic booky aliteration there) is ok. Pretty much the only angle that hasn't been tried yet with House's team is a member that does not compromise and sticks to the rules yet refuses to go away. Up until now, they had all been converted to House's school of medicine for the sake of plotting, so I'm not complaining about a couple of episodes with somebody that will just play by the book.



Is it the core team's continuing move towards comic relief? No way. I love them, they're hilarious, have great chemistry and feel looser and more comfortable than their earlier incarnations without coming across as incompetent or dumb. I would watch a spinoff with those three in a Scrubs-like tone. Granted, though, Foreman and Taub playing basketball adds to the long list of infamous needless basket montages in TV series and movies, from American History X to Alien 4.



Is it the medical case? Not really. It's kind of superfluous, but not incidental to the main plot, plus Jack Coleman is always fun to watch.



No, what annoyed me was the forced, convoluted conflict set up here between Cuddy and House. I was ready to let this go and just accept the two as a couple. URST pisses me off, and I commended House for moving past that, but a sign of not knowing what to do with resolved sexual tension is throwing different excuses to cause arguments in the couple or breaking them up and getting them back together repeatedly, Friends-style.



The big issue here is how the show spent several episodes actually going deep in a meaningful way about these two very clever characters discussing how their relationship needs to work, to the point where they both kind of agreed that their respective character flaws were understood and accepted. Cuddy's justification for grief here is terribly mild by the show's standards (seriously? House faked a test? That's a new one) to the point where the plot itself can't trust it to be even understood by the audience, feeling the need to add a scene where House admits to being worried about the outcome and kind of acknowledging that he has done this a bunch of times in the past without repercussion. It doesn't work. It is still out of character for Cuddy to first request categorical proof, then not question it when it is presented and then get angry when she finds out it was faked after already having a success.



House can do better than use Cuddy as a sexist female stereotype by having her be angsty, unreasonable and easy to piss off and send on a romantic tailspin towards a breakup. We know this because they have. Making House be the insecure one in the relationship was clever. Making the two talk about the potential risks and sources of conflict was brilliant. If they pay this off in the upcoming episodes in the form of arguments or a breakup, however, that will be stupid and I will be disappointed.



Then again, it's just a scene at the end of an otherwise entertaining episode. But it's the kind of scene that makes the quick links on this page show one to a quiz about shows that have jumped the shark.

A solid episode of House tonight, and I actually really liked Dr. Masters, something I thought I would never say about Amber Tamblyn's character. The only protest I have about this episode is the interactions between Taub & Foreman. The scenes between them were as unbearable as their interactions in "Lockdown" last season.



I really liked the interactions between Masters and House though, it really showed us what this series has been desperately needing these past couple weeks: a female doctor. The patient's case was also very intriguing and it was a great tie in with issues like morality and the Hepatitis A. I'm also glad that Dr. Masters isn't a carbon copy of Thirteen or Cameron. The thing I always loved about this show is how well a character develops in one episode, and we definitely saw a lot Dr. Masters development here. The cliffhanger was just as intriguing as the episode.



House lied to Cuddy and she found out, even though I could do without Cuddy & Dr. Masters walking in slow motion, we've got some great scenes here. Overall, a great episode of House this week. The fact that we had to wait 3 weeks for this episode escapes me, but still great.

House delivers a balanced, enthralling installment in which Cuddy imposes a new team member on House and the team and they treat a campaign manager who may have a questionable disease. House and the new team member, Dr. Masters who is a genius who graduated high school at 15 and is by that same token socially awkward. But Cuddy's agenda clashes nicely with House's complex situation of lying to her to cure the patient and telling the truth and losing the patient and the show took the proper moments to allow that change to happen naturally especially how Cuddy ultimately found out about his deceit. But I've always thought that House has been really good at balancing it's supporting characters with Foreman and Taub playing B-Ball in the hospital court, or them getting locked in jail. I though that Masters had called the cops on them for breaking and entering but they never addressed that ever later on and it would've been some nice clarity to have. But overall a good episode of TV's most solid medical series.