Resh House

Dr. House (Hugh Laurie) is happy.  As noted byAllMediaNY.com in the run-up to the season 7 premiere, this is a new House.  Whether it's an improved House is another story altogether.

Throughout the episode, the question that House asked early on in the premiere to Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) continued reverberating: "Now what?".  The acting, as usual for this show, was excellent, despite overwhelming moments of pure "cheesiness."  But that was mostly the writers.

And it was also because the thought of House being romantic is so far-fetched that no one could really get used to it.

The episode picked up where the tragic season 6 dropped off: House was finally breaking down and he was about to slip back into his drug addiction.  Cuddy walked in and saved the day, professing her love to him.

Monday night's episode was pretty low-key.  No major cases, save for the comical issue of a neuro-surgeon at the hospital who had eaten something that disagreed with him and who kept stripping off his clothes.  The medical drama was completely ancillary and served merely as a device to show that House wanted Cuddy to himself for the day (he answered her phone and then gave Dr. Chase orders that wound up creating an inadvertent disturbance in the hospital, which Cuddy never found out about).

And it also served to focus, slightly, on Thirteen's mysterious departure, something that the rest of House's team focused on religiously back at the hospital.  In the end, no one knows where Thirteen went off to.

This is not Thirteen's first departure from the show, and it is likely that she'll return (what's House's team without a girl on it to give him an opportunity to make leud remarks, after all?).

By the end of the episode, House's long-awaited relationship with Cuddy appeared to be on the fritz, as he was assuring her that he'd do terrible things to her and that she shouldn't be with him.  Luckily for the audience, Cuddy replied by telling House that he was essentially incredible and that she wasn't leaving him.

The writers are now probably not too sure about what they'll do next.  They swear to audiences that they only plan the show one or two episodes in advance, but if that's the case, then the show might be in trouble.

As nice and refreshing as it was to see House and Cuddy spend the day at home together, the show is simply not the same without House bantering with Cuddy and without Cuddy pretending not to care as she tramples all over House's feelings.

Sure, the current set-up is more functional but will it last?

If not, then the season premiere did do one good thing:  Thirteen is off the show for a while, meaning that the extremely boring relationship of Dr. Foreman (a controlling man with about as much romanticism as a robot) and Thirteen (a woman defined by her independence) is over, or at least on hold.

 

By: Jorge Vargas

 

Read more film and television reviews at www.allmediany.com!

About the Author:
Jorge Vargas is the Editor-in-Chief of AllMediaNY.com.