-
3 months ago
It’s always sad when a television series you love hangs on too long. When the writers start recycling ideas, or relying on gimmicks, or new cast members are brought it to make the show seem fresh and new. All of this has happened to “House”, which Fox recently announced will conclude at the end of this season.
Here’s what I wrote about “House” at the end of season seven:
In its seven year run, “House” has been bad before. By season three the case-of-the-week formula was already stale, but the clever producers introduced a whole new team of characters to mix things up. That worked for a while, but by season five the new team felt like old news. The show bounced back the next year with a newly sober House, and it seemed like maybe the show had a few more years of life left in it. But this year…
This year, “House” was just boring. During episodes, I spent more time reading my twitter feed than following the details of the cases or House’s antics. An ill-advised romance with long-time foil Lisa Cuddy didn’t help matters, and neither did House falling off the wagon. Things picked up in the last batch of episodes (precisely when Thirteen returned, actually), but the finale was a head scratcher that made me wonder if the producers have any idea where they’re going.
I don’t know how many more years Hugh Laurie has left on his contract, but maybe it’s time to retire Greg House.
Midway through season eight, nothing has happened to change my opinion. The exit of Dr. Cuddy (and promotion of Foreman into her job) hasn’t provided any kind of boost to the show, and neither have the two new doctors on House’s team. And House’s new status as a jailbird on parole hasn’t changed his behaviour or his circumstances that much.
As a medical procedural, “House” has always been formulaic. The person coughing in the teaser won’t be the one who collapses, it will be their spouse/child/co-worker. The treatment administered at the 30 minute mark of the episode will not only not help the patient, it will make them exponentially worse. Some random event in the last five minutes of the story will give House the sudden inspiration he needs to make the correct diagnosis that “explains everything”. And that diagnosis will never be lupus.
Despite its formulaic nature, “House” has always been entertaining. But for the last season and a half, it’s just been boring. The right time to end the show was when House was sober and living with Wilson. He’d changed a bit from where he started, but he was still recognizable as the character viewers loved (which is to say he was still acting like an ass to his patients/co-workers/friends). Everything since then has felt like a step backward.
Another Fox show that hung around too long was “24”. Like “House” it had a resurgence late in its run (season seven) but by its final season (season eight) it just felt old and stale. With “24”, the cancellation seemed to give the writers a second wind and the last batch of episodes were exciting and surprising.
“24” went out with a bang that reminded viewers why they’d been watching for eight years rather than showing them how bad the show had gotten. Hopefully the same thing can happen with “House”.
Feel free to ask me a question!
Following
