We know that House was fired from four hospitals before Cuddy hired him, she said so in 'Humpty Dumpty'. This is true (though in my personal canon, it may have been before he was a "diagnostician," but that would get into timeline issues which are too confusing anyway). But I think the difference is that because House is still a medical genius -- and not just the "student" of a medical genius -- there was almost always going to be one more person willing to take a chance on him, though probably with more and more restrictions. Foreman isn't House. As to why Chase and Cameron stayed at PPTH? Obviously it was for storytelling issues, but beyond that I have no problem fanwanking that Cuddy eased their way because she saw the benefit of House-trained doctors on her staff.

The Foreman-can't-get-a-job storyline might resonate a bit more if we saw what was going on in comparison with Chase and Cameron. As it is, they just got absorbed back at PPTH (in somewhat bizarre positions) without any drama, conflict or, alternatively, great success at other institutions. I completely agree with you on this. I know that the writers have to come up with some kind of scenario to get everyone back, thus the Foreman storyline, but what's up with Cameron and Chase? Maybe we'll find out. I hope so. It's all been very odd. I did actually like Foreman the last episode though. He seems somewhat humbled. House will never be humbled, but he's got the sense of humor and wit that makes us like him regardless of his huge ego. Sorry. :) Foreman had the ego without the funny. I do like the new people. Except they dumped Scooter who was my very favorite. Also, I can do without 13. But I have to commend TPTB for shaking things up. Season one was the most perfect ever season of television though, so I think it's possible nothing will ever live up to that.

I have to admit that I don't mind the new kids. Still unhappy they got rid off Scooter, but apart from that and Thirteen(I really don't like her), they are definitively growing on me. I don't miss the old fellows at all and I actually would have been perfectly happy if they had written CCF out altogether.

Namaste: True he saved a patient -- and that may indeed have been the very thing that House would have done, but Foreman isn't House. He lacks the credibility to pull a stunt like that and get away with it. Plus, House has something at PPTH Foreman hasn't built yet, beyond the reputation for crazy brilliance: tenure, and a support system in Wilson and Cuddy. Even House probably wouldn't get away with the stuff he does if the hospital didn't need unanimous agreement from the board to get rid of him. Or if Wilson wasn't on the board - Cuddy I can see being politically pressured into having to let him go, even in a less dramatic situation than season 1's "he goes or I go" confrontation, if there wasn't someone else on the board that everyone knows wouldn't vote House out pretty much no matter what. Taiga: it's confusing, but I think we're supposed to believe that Chase really did have a job with the Mayo Clinic in Arizona Hm, really? I didn't get that impression - I thought Wilson had made up the whole thing, Arizona and all, to mess with House's head. That was confirmed to me by House saying, "calling Arizona was a nice touch," to Wilson and Cameron telling House that she'd been working there for 3 weeks. (As an aside, do we know how much time passed between season 3 and 4? It doesn't seem like it could be the three-ish months it'd take to make the season match up to real-time.) But, anyway, as to why Cameron chose to stay at PPTH - it seems like to stay close to House is the most likely explanation, given that she probably doesn't have much family in the area if she's from the midwest and her boyfriend would've been willing to move with her. Though I suppose it'd also be a plus that she already knows the people and structure of that hospital and probably already has contacts in a lot of departments there.

Plus -- if my memory is correct, didn't Foreman outright disobey a direct order from his superior? Has House ever done that in canon, when it's a patient's life at stake and not something relatively trivial like clinic hours? He'll try (and usually succeed) in wrangling Cuddy around to his point of view, or she'll take over the case and he'll go follow another line of investigation until either she gives up and gives in or he comes up with a new piece of evidence that convinces her. But I can't remember him ever doing something potentially dangerous to the patient that she had specifically told him not to do.

Okay, the last couple of weeks, I've thought people complaining about the season were too quick to judge, at only 3 or 4 or 5 episodes in, but now we're over a quarter of the way through. And yeah, I don't expect every episode to be a winner, but it definitely should have started to get good by now. Anyone know who Bobbin Bergstrom is? She (and/or he) has been credited as a nurse on the guest list for several eps in a row now, and I'm not seeing any nurse around.

From the "Whatever It Takes" thread: One thing I like about this season (listen... you can almost hear the chorus of faraway gasps) is that House's place in the world has expanded. I don't necessarily mean travelling in helicopters to far-off CIA strongholds and suchlike, just that there's more mention of House and his place in the world around him. Agreed with that. One of the problems of the previous setup is that it was too insular. We heard references to House as being a genius, world renowned doctor, but never actually saw it. From the fellows, it seemed like House was put up with merely because he saved lives -- or because he was the boss and could force them. Now we've seen rooms full of people who willingly put up with his abuse just for the chance to work with him. We've seen doctors fight to get a position on his team, not just to keep a job. (And that's not to denigrate the original fellows or make it seem like they were idiots who lucked into the job, it's just that we were told that a House fellowship was a desired position, but rarely actually saw it.) This time we're seeing House in a much larger world setting. And it's interesting to me that the world has wildly divergent feelings about him -- the "greatest medical minds of his generation" statement from the guy interviewing Foreman in "Guardian Angels" to "idiot" from the immunologist forced to work with House this episode.

I thought I would respond to some of the complaints about complaints found in the Season 4 episode threads here. I'm a pretty infrequent poster, as over time, Chase and his interactions have become the primary reason I watch the show. I sympathize with those of you who are just as happy, if not happier, with the direction the show has taken this year, having to read those posts that criticize the show, often reiterating the same issues over and over again. Please understand, though, that this show "belongs" to ALL of us... we have invested a great deal of energy in the characters and storylines over the last 3 plus years. Maybe those of us who are not happy are just genetically resistant to change, maybe our favorite character has been marginalized. Whatever. But we're suffering, as silly as that may seem to some. I get tired of seeing all the H/W hoyay stuff posted, and couldn't give a hoot about 13's mystery, but I respect those posters who want to talk about it. I just don't choose to read it. Perhaps some of you can do the same if you see a poster you know is going to rag about the lack of X,Y or Z. We've been tolerant of others' viewpoints here to this point.. please allow those of us who still have hopes for the show but are not particulalrly engaged currently the space to mourn our loss just a bit.

I keep thinking back to how livid people (on That Weird Other Place) were a year ago over the Tritter arc. And how, as it played out, a lot of people seemed to be massively disturbed by the fact that the show had gotten so very dark, with no redeeming lightness or humor. Now we have the flip side. We've got House clearly in a better place mentally, socially and emotionally, which may be affecting him physically as well, and a lot of people (I have no idea if it's the same folks or different ones) are getting themselves worked up over House light. And, much to my amusement, they're looking back nostalgically at Season Three, which many seemed to loathe as it was unfolding, claiming it was ruining "their" show. What I see in both cases is people who have a preconception of what they think the show is or should be. They seem to be terrified that it will lose whatever it is that they love best about the show. And for some, it may. For me, no. Personally, I find what the writers have done to be absolutely fascinating. They've experimented with something successful. As far as I know (and I'm a television & film historian), this is completely unprecedented in television history. On top of that, so far at least, they've managed to retain their audience at a time when network primetime is in danger of becoming irrelevant. I say good for them. I admire people who take risks. Maybe because I'm such a wuss in RL. Yes, the show has gotten lighter. In fact, IMHO, it's gotten very, very funny. Do I think it will stay that way through however much of the season we're actually going to get? Beats me. My guess is we'll get some angsty stuff, but who knows. If we were getting a whole season, I'd bet on it. With a truncated one, who knows. If I want angst, I'll rewatch MLC or Detox. Despite the ligthness, and in some cases the weirdness, we're still seeing aspects of House's character we haven't gotten before. We're seeing how he interacts with other people, which I think is the whole point of where they're going. As a couple of people have mentioned, we're also getting a sense of House's importance in the universe. Starting with the final episode of last season and now continuing throughout, we're getting different aspects of House's reputation. We have all these fellows willing to lie, steal, cheat or (nearly) kill to work with him. We have the CIA wanting him. We also have the other side, which is Foreman, who so desperately didn't want to become House, taking the worst and leaving the best, and therefore becoming virtually unemployable because of his connection to House. As for the crudeness and the sexual innuendo (or in some cases, it's much more blatant than innuendo), I'm seeing that a couple of different ways: 1. House is in a better place. When he was in pain or anguish all the time, there wasn't a whole lot left over to think about sex or relationships. I take it as a sign that he's healing a little bit, at least enough to realize he's really sexually frustrated. 2. He's really bad at it. His social skills have never been terrific, except with a couple of people or under very special circumstances. Why should we be surprised that he'd be crude with women? And, as someone else mentioned elsewhere, it is an effective way to keep them at arm's length, even if he's feeling better enough to think about sex with someone besides a hooker. My guess is, he probably did similar things with Stacy. Maybe he's waiting to see if anyone is willing to look past his crudity to see the person behind it. Am I thrilled with everything that's happening? No. I'm not happy about Cuddy's increasing idiocy. I'm not thrilled with what seems to be a desire to make House less special -- he seems to be making too many mistakes either out of hubris or lack of interest in the patient. I could do without that. But I'm awfully interested in seeing where this goes. Any bunch of writers who could take risks like the ones they've taken this season are going to get the benefit of the doubt from me. They'll have to do a lot worse before I give up and turn off the set on Tuesday nights. I just hope they get what they need from the producers as quickly as possible (which at this point doesn't look all that quick) and can get back to writing so I can find out what happens next.

I don't understand your amusement, sherlockjr, that people who found the Tritter arc too dark are now finding the newbie arc too light. I don't see the contradiction you seem to imply. Two wrongs don't make a right. Making the show too light doesn't correct having made it too dark: both are out of balance. I'm not sure I endorse either assessment myself but I don't see anything odd about people thinking that way.... On the episode thread there was complain about so many people not liking the show much right now etc and the mods directed that discussion here. I'm not sure how I feel about that... Isn't the point of a message board to talk about the show? It seems to me that both positive and negative comments would be equally appropriate. YMMV and no offense intended but what's the point in saying you don't like the tone of others' posts? If you disagree with someone's take on something, talk about the show to demonstrate why you disagree. Isn't that what we come here for?