I do think there's a point, and thanks for the stats blue. (You're the superintelligent shade of the colour blue from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series, aren't you?) I know stats but am terrible at them, that's why I didn't include them in my analyses.

Granted, actors don't necessarily know all the plotlines in advance, but I did see something curious in the LE interview that's in TV guide. TVGuide.com: A couple of week ago, House and Cuddy were having one of their pissing matches and he threatened to replace her birth control pills with placebos. Does that mean Cuddy is no longer trying to have a baby? Edelstein: I asked that question, too! But I didn't get an answer; I think they just liked the line. Somebody said that sometimes when women have a lot of miscarriages, they go on the pill to try to regulate their ovulation. "I think they just liked the line." And that kind of summarizes in a nutshell how annoying and disappointing I have found this season. I'd like to think the characters were on some grand trajectory, but I think that might be a bit of a pipe dream. I think the writers have gotten quite smug with this show. I think they're going for the zing-zing humor and forgoing alot of the complexity of the characters that gave this show breath early on. I'm holding on to hope that LE just didn't want to give any upcoming plot points away (but if that were the case she could have just as easily said, "I'm not sure if that storyline is over or not") but it appears that she even asked the question herself. Is it too early to cry foul over the fact that that one stupid line effectively negated Cuddy's entire reason for existence last season?

It's difficult to know what she meant from a transcript. A lot can hide in how it's said. She could have been deflecting with a laugh and a joke or she could have been entirely serious. I don't know.

Since that previous line about Cuddy's birth control pills was echoed in "You Don't Want to Know" with House's reference to her IUD, I took it that the point was to deliberately reinforce for us that House is constantly thinking about her fertility cycle. He does indeed want to know. I agree that we don't have any definitive sense as to how LE delivered her statement in the transcript.

Seems like the writers for this show completely ran out of ideas for the original concept for this show. I think it happens to most shows. Otherwise, the jump the shark website wouldn't attract so much attention and every television series would last forever. I intend to watch this series to the end no matter how much it hurts, but sometimes I almost dread it. I keep watching the first 2 seasons and remember how wonderful I felt when I saw those episodes the first time. We were willing to ignore reality up to a point to enjoy the things House did. Now every episode is so obviously impossible. They especially have lost any consistency in House's character. Every patient this season is going to make a lot of money suing the hospital because of the horrifying experiments, tests, and treatments that the newbies performed during their competition.

Completely agree, HouseIsMine. I think I might enjoy this season a little more if it didn't feel so much like Season 1: Now With Extra Cheese! Wasn't the whole point of them replacing the old team with these new people to make the show more 'fresh', to do something different with it? I cannot bear the thought of having to go through god-knows-how-many-episodes of the exact same thing we went through in S1-3, albeit with new characters who I don't know or care about, and who IMO don't really bring anything fresh or different to the table. I just think there were a million other things they could have done to take the show in a different direction. I still don't really see why they needed to get rid of the old team, although I'll admit I'm biased because I miss them terribly. And if they were going to get rid of them, then why didn't they leave it where they left it at the end of Season 3? I would much rather have them go out with a bang than having them hang around like a bad smell for a while before finally fading into non-existence and having nobody notice. IMO it's nothing but a huge waste of some fantastic characters, who had great interaction with the other fantastic characters (i.e. Cuddy, Wilson and House.) In times past I felt I could pick up on the little things in episodes and try to figure out what they'd meant because they would actually mean something, but now everything just seems so randomly placed. There's a minimal level of continuity and zero cohesiveness. Something about the show just seems so flat; before I was riveted to my TV screen, and now I find it hard to stay awake. Also, the constantly blatant sex jokes are starting to get on my nerves. In any other show, fine, they'd be great, but in House? Please. What happened to the ambiguous subtlety that made the show so darn good before? Sigh. Oh well. I suppose I'll stop ranting now and sit here hoping that 13 actually does have Huntington's so she'll- actually, what? House even went through her wallet and he still doesn't know what her name is? Okay... Well, at least the patient in last night's episode was good.

I suppose I'll stop ranting now and sit here hoping that 13 actually does have Huntington's so she'll- actually, what? Die a slow, horrible, painful death. That's what Huntington does. I don't like the character but that part makes me feel for her (yes, I know she's fictional). House even went through her wallet and he still doesn't know what her name is? Okay... He googled her mother's obituary. He'd need a name for that and I doubt 13 carries her mother's name around - ergo he must have looked through her file or googled her to get her mother's name. So yes, House knows her name.

I'm now in the middle of an S4 rewatch and am surprised to see there is less comedy (or comedic moments) than I thought. Way less. But what there is is played much broader and a lot of the sarcastic exchanges are also broader. But it actually still is a drama. Even the "Mayo Clinic" scene starts outrageous, funny and then goes back into drama. Also, the sarcasm is funny but there's an underlying very serious POV that's being expressed. More thoughts when I'm done watching and can put some words together coherently. Cheers for Thanksgiving, Festivus or whatever you like. :-)

I posted this on You Don't Need To Know ep thread, but realised it may be more appropriate here. So far I think the role of intangibles like faith, hope and wonder and what makes life worth living seem to be a common theme. House has fenced with Cole over faith, killed himself to test his own faith in there being nothing after death, thereby showing he's not as sure as he sounds, and now examined the value and definition of hope and wonder. We had the deformed boy who was willing to risk his life in the hope of being normal rather than look for the underlying illness, and the general theme of how perception forms as well as records reality, so what do we really know? I think House's faith in the power of knowledge may be this season's theme, as well as what makes life worth living.

how perception forms as well as records reality Hmm, yes, that shows up in "I See Dead People" too.

It seems to me that the first two seasons were a lot more fun. House in a lot of ways was living an enviable life. He has a high paying job, his boss can't really tell him what to do, he decides which cases he is going to work on, and he decides who he is going to work with. I do know some serious things happened in some episodes, but mostly he was getting into arguments with patients and getting scolded by Cuddy, His biggest punishment was clinic duty or maybe getting punched by a patient. We knew it was unrealistic, but he wasn't going to lose his job or get in trouble with the law. Starting in season 3, the consequences were not funny. I don't think it is fun seeing House in jail, or rehab, or getting drugged, or having a drug overdose. Many people would say this escalation was inevitable, but I was watching this show to have a good time. This season, it seems like the patients are not getting the attention from House that they were. He's letting these newbies do what they want and they caught a patient on fire, paralyzed another, and did an MRI on a guy who swallowed a key. House is supposed to be extremely competent and there have been way too many screwups. This is too much artistic license to overlook. Not to mention the hospital allowing the contest to occur at all. I thought the original point of the show was to have fun watching House do the unexpected and be sexy. Lately there are too many other people in the show and House is just trying unsuccessfully to stay out of trouble with Cuddy/Foreman.

And yet, a lot of people are complaining that this season is too "fun" and that the early seasons were serious drama, and how dare they change the show to a comedy. I suspect we all watch with different expectations and enjoy different things about the show - and when there are changes that don't follow our "version" of why we like the show, we find it hard to adjust. I am not having that much problem with this season so far, because I never really liked the duckling, (aside from Chase who eventually grew on me) so I don't mind not seeing them, and I don't resent the newbies because I figure they are not really adding or subtracting anything any more to my viewing pleasure than than CC and F. If anything, I may end up enjoying them more - but that remains to be seen. And I am used to my favorite characters (aside from House) Wilson and Cuddy, having limited screen time, so that is nothing new. People who watched for the ducklings are having to make some real adjustments to the amount of screen time their favs are getting this season, but I am used to mere glimpses. And I am actually enjoying the positive changes in Wilson, so when he *is* on screen I am eating it up. I don't see 13 as a Mary Sue - she screwed up and killed a patient. A Mary Sue would have snatched the patient from the jaws of imminent death, would speak six languages fluently, would volunteer to work in the clinic for free out of the goodness of her heart and would have graciously offered to step down from one of the positions in order for others to remain. Nor do I think the show has "jumped the shark" - it has changed focus a bit, I agree, but I don't think anything that has happened this season has come near to the amount of suspended disbelief I needed to accept a man with half his thigh muscle missing jogging 8 miles... And I would like trust that the writers DO actually have an end point in mind, that we are headed somewhere. A few of House's sexual comments lately have struck me as less clever and more crude, and I have some concerns about various issues. However, for now I am willing to give the show the benefit of the doubt. It will have to get a lot worse before I decide it is irredeemable. Declarations of doom are nothing new. People have been making them every season. Though I do find it strange that some people are still posting on House forums though they claim they haven't enjoyed the show since season one, and that everything following has been crap. Goodness... why would someone want to watch a show they can't stand for three seasons? Life is short! I want to say, "Go find something you enjoy doing and stop torturing yourself!" I find my own enjoyment of a show moves in cycles. I am really *in* to a show for a while, and want to know everything about it and the actors, and then I move along to something else - something fresh for me. It doesn't mean I no longer enjoy said show; it just means I am looking for something different. I think this is kind of a natural cycle. After a while, things that were shiny new, get stale and we like to try something different. It doesn't necessarily mean the show has slipped in quality, just that we long for a new dynamic or new characters to learn about. I suspect part of the shake up this season was to try and combat that fatigue with viewers. But some viewers didn't find the old formula stale yet, or really enjoyed the show as it was, so for them, this change is the most difficult. I sympathize. I really do - because I have been in their shoes (X-files and SG1 for example), but in the end, TPTB will do what they want to do, and each viewer will have to decide what they are willing to accept.

ITA, Lagniappe. I can definately understand the frustration with this season for fans of the ducklings. I would probably be fuming if my favorite character was Chase or Cameron. It's a big adjustment to be sure. However, my favorite is Wilson (and House but that goes without saying) and I have heard some people complain about the newbies taking time away from Wilson and Cuddy, but Wilson and Cuddy have always had small parts. An episode that features them a lot is kind of rare. I'm used to seeing him in small glimpses and as I've said numerous times, quality is more important than quantity and Wilson's scenes this year have been some of the best I've ever seen, IMO. I love his whole attitude this year. The only difference is that instead of CC&F (one of which I hate, one of which I tolerate and one of which I like) "taking screentime from Wilson" I'm getting more, IMO, interesting ducklings "taking screentime." How can I resent them for doing what the original ducklings used to do? Especially seeing as how I like the new bunch more? I also know that a lot of fans feel the show has gotten too light, and I think that's a fair criticism, to me it all depends on what you like about the show. I like angst but I like fun too and so far I don't feel that the show has turned into an outright comedy, it could possibly use a tad more angst but mostly I love the tone of this year. This show is special to me because I'm normally heavily into a show for a season then I become a casual viewer, I tend to get over it during the summer but that hasn't happened with this show. I love it just as much as I ever did. The show could have easily lost my interest this year but I think it's held it more. Last season I wanted a new episode to come so I could get one step closer to ending the Tritter nonsense. This year I want a new episode to come becuase I'm having a great time watching it. The only episode I've really been disappointed in this year is "The Right Stuff."