The Media Drop

While this most certainly serve as a replacement for the full on reviews that I’d been doing of this show over at TV Squad, and I will most certainly point you all over there, where Richard Keller picked up that awesome assignment, I figured I might, from time to time, share my thoughts on this show I’d been covering for a number of years now. Plus, I’m feeling opinionated this morning while sitting in the terminal at Newark Airport this morning.

So, welcome to the fourth season of FOX’s House, if you can believe it. This year, we kick things off with significantly less staff on the House team - meaning, just House, and no Cameron, Chase or Foreman. While I most certainly can’t believe that those guys won’t be making their way to the Princeton-Plainsboro Hospital anytime soon, House isn’t exactly pushing for them to come back. We’re greeted to the season with a building collapse, one where a man is standing outside, speaking with his girlfriend on the phone during. The case, which House finally agrees to take on, features a young woman who is suffering from some peculiar maladies that don’t exactly jive with what her boyfriend, and her mother, believe are hers.

It was certainly a kick to see House’s most obnoxious attempt to be super smart ever, when he “recruits” the janitor to bounce ideas off, and then cheaps out by not dropping a 50 to get the janitor to do his dirty work and go break into the couple’s house. Additionally, seeing the doc enjoying his guitar a little too much was definitely classic, and apparently represents his true new hobby, although I guess we probably haven’t seen the last of his motorcycle, either. And when it’s pretty clear that Wilson has stolen House’s guitar and is holding it hostage, the retribution of stealing a patient and sending him to another floor is probably one that I wouldn’t have ever pondered - but then again, this is House we’re talking about.

Throughout the episode, we get a couple of comments about House’s former team, and Cuddy is all over him to interview new people, which he definitely doesn’t want to do. Informal job interviews with cute girls from the emergency room aside (and who says that someone’s breasts are lopsided, anyway), at least the preview of House telling a class full of people what they’d be up against was for real - and should lead to a fascinating remainder of the season, but hopefully not one that turns into a reality show of sorts for House.

So, this makes us wonder - how long before House’s old team - or at least parts of it, return, at least to interact with him in some way, shape, or form? Checking on imdb and other resources about their current jobs and what they’re working on makes it really too easy. I’d find this to be one of the more blatant examples of complete cast shifts that didn’t involve some sort of conflict behind the scenes, or at least one doctor calling another doctor a certain “f” word or something, right? But that begs us to ask the question - do we all want Chase, Cameron and Foreman back, or would you rather see House do his thing and hire some new people, just for kicks?