So word came this week that this will be the final season for House, which will wrap after eight snarky and Vicodin-fueled seasons. No question the show stayed too long at the fair, as the last season or two haven't been the most interesting. You know you're in trouble when you can't make the main character's jail time an interesting - or at least fun - episode.
A number of people have pointed to the House-Cuddy relationship as the thing that turned the series, but I think the problems predated that. For me, the break seemed to start when House hired the new team. I don't have anything particularly against the actors, but I found the characters alternately flat (Taub, for all of his foibles, is not that interesting) and gimmicky (Thirteen: she has no name! she's bisexual! she has Huntington's! she's disappeared! now she's back! now she's gone again!). Bringing back Chase and Foreman hasn't helped, as Chase has no obvious purpose other than having sex with women, while Foreman has regained some value as House's boss.
I actually think the new team members could have helped inject some life into the show, but between Adams' relentless optimism and Park's rudeness we just got more archetypes for House to play against each other.
Which leads to the biggest problem the show's had - where to take House. The show seemed to be going somewhere when House was committed - a relatively clean House trying to get beyond his natural instincts would have been something to watch - but House just fell back into his old ways. Which, while possibly realistic, wasn't as much fun.
There were other stumbles along the way. The third season story arc where House is the subject of a cop's obsessive investigation was excruciating, and the less said about Martha M. Masters the better. But in the main, I think the show ran out of ideas on how House's life was supposed to go. I can only hope the show comes up with something fitting for the finale.
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