Season 4 General Discussion
Your general thoughts on Season 4 belong here.

It might be a minority view but I highly enjoy the new characters. The original fellows were becoming staid and uninspiring. There's a lot of potential in importing new victims – and new personalities. The show needed the shake-up IMHO.

Despite my disappointment in last nights episode, I am loving this new season. I honestly like the newbies, I don't have a real problem with any of them. They've made me realize how bored I was with the old ones. So far so good IMO.

I think this season pretty much sucks so far. I think the Survivor rip off has dumbed down the show. The new people have no magic and no chemistry. I don't care about them and knowing that most of them won't be around much longer doesn't make me want to care about them. I'm completely UNDERWHELMED by this season. There hasn't been a single moment that made my jaw drop or blew my mind like House punching Chase or revealing that he was faking cancer. None of the new people inspire any kind of passionate response from me, either positive or negative. At least with CC&F, I could get worked up about them whether it was loving a Chase epiphany or ranting about Foreman's ego. They make me feel SOMETHING. These new people... not so much. I've been slightly amused here and there, but mostly annoyed. And not even the good CameronInLoveWithHouse strength of annoyance. I watch an episode once and have no desire to rewatch any of them from start to finish. The story isn't compelling. The new characters aren't compelling. House interacting with these noncompelling characters is something I can watch once and move on. I'm seriously losing interest in the show and only hanging on out of loyalty and optimism that things will get back to the kind of quality they were when some more of these Numbers disappear. I know the show can be great when they utilize the six actors/characters that made it what it was. I think the show could be good if they had those six in place and I could even live with some new people, but I don't want new people at the expense of the old ones and that's exactly that's happened. The new ones aren't good enough to be worthy of the attention they're getting. I would be perfectly content if they *all* disappeared never to rear their boring little heads again.

The new ones aren't good enough to be worthy of the attention they're getting. I would be perfectly content if they *all* disappeared never to rear their boring little heads again. Substitute old for new and you have my position. I couldn't care less about Chase and Cameron and Foreman makes my teeth hurt, which I admit is caring, but not the good kind.

extra_c, the episodes you cite were all late in the season. At this time last year we had had Meaning; Cane & Abel; Informed Consent and Lines in the Sand. And in episode 5 we met Michael Tritter. So, while I agree with you that S3 started off stronger, it wasn't that much stronger. I think if a show manages to create a handful of jaw-droppingly great episode a season, that's incredible. And House still has plenty of time to achieve that in S4.

I began the season ready to be underwhelmed, but, like Poeia and LightMyCandle and a few others, I'm amazed now and how much new energy the changes have brought. I liked Chase, Cameron and Foreman and thought it was an interesting dynamic, but hadn't realized how stale those relationships between House and them had become. And at the same time, moving CC&F into new positions allows the show to expand what those characters are and what relationship they have with House. As I mentioned back in the episode thread, if you've got Cameron picking up some of Wilson's Jiminy cricket conscience load, that also frees up the relationship between Wilson and House to just be friends, to actually recover some lightness to their relationship and not just scene after scene of Wilson analying or annoying House. You've got a Chase who is able to say that he'll support House, but not if House wants to use him as a whipping boy anymore. Fantastic. I love seeing Chase standing up for himself. Like Cameron said: "I like him better this way." And among the new kids, you've got Kutner who's sheer enthusiasm at digging up a grave compares so highly in relationship to Foreman's bitching at digging up a dead cat in the first season it felt like a complete breath of fresh air. You've got Cutthroat Bitch who is unapologetic in her ruthlessness, Cole who can certain have his buttons pushed (and unlike Foreman, Chase or Cameron will push right back), and with Taub it's great to see someone who's already accomplished in his field and with the confidence that brings. And in comparison to the old fellows ... think about it. What did we know about Cameron, Chase or Foreman at this point? Especially Chase? Four episodes in? That he was rich and an intensivist. "Damned If You Do" wasn't introduced until the fifth episode. We hadn't even had the Poor Dead Husband reveal yet for Cameron. To quote House: "Bring it on." Edited because Foreman is not Chase.

if you've got Cameron picking up some of Wilson's Jiminy cricket conscience load, that also frees up the relationship between Wilson and House to just be friends, to actually recover some lightness to their relationship and not just scene after scene of Wilson analying or annoying House. Hmmm, I suppose that's true. After all, Wilson said he doesn't enjoy being House's conscience. OTOH, House respects Wilson's opinion and often follows it, Cam may take some of the load off but I can't see House not ever going to Wilson for advice again.

I can't see House not ever going to Wilson for advice again. Nor would I want to. That's a different thing from Jiminy Cricket. I too like having new fellows and wish that they'd just dropped the old ones altogether. So far they serve no purpose, except for Foreman who is just annoying. I can approve of what they're trying to do with him, but it doesn't work because the character just isn't sympathetic or compelling enough. (Note I said "sympathetic", not "likeable"). I am looking forward to having them pared down, though, right now there's just too many characters running around. With Foreman returning will House hire two fellows or three? Namaste pointed out that we're learning about the new ones more quickly than we did the old ones, but actually that's something I don't like. It feels overwhelming that we're given so much exposure to Amber and Cole, two characters we've just met; OTOH I think that means that they won't be staying. I do resent that one of the characters, Thirteen, appears to be a blatant Cameron clone. None of the other characters are copies of Foreman or Chase. It does make me nervous that they felt the need to give House yet another shocking (pun intended) near death experience only three episodes in. What's left for sweeps, House deliberately infecting himself with Ebola?

Ramblings on S4, starting with ramblings on the end of S3... At the end of S3, we were left with House alone, blowing smoke rings, playing his new guitar, and being in the new-to-him position of not being upset about huge changes going on in his life. He seemed to have achieved some sort of acceptance of not being in control of all the drama going on around him, and for once was letting go: he wasn't chasing down the ducks trying to get them back or find out what they were doing. He just sat back and accepted that they were gone and that things were going to be different. Then at the beginning of S4, he's still alone. Seems that he's been mastering EVH's two-handed arpeggio technique on the guitar, and he doesn't have a case or a team. He doesn't seem depressed (maybe he's still on ADs?) but he's not playing his guitar at home. He's playing it at work where he knows that eventually he will be stopped and put back on a case. He knows that even though he says he doesn't want a team, he will eventually end up with one, so, being House, he's bound to make it either a game or a bet. Cuddy takes the bet and Wilson comes up with the game. What could be better? And in the end of E1, he outdoes both of them in a big way when he starts the grand new game of "House takes on reality shows" to find his new team. In the next three episodes, we get plenty of information and exposition about the new characters, but they seem somewhat manufactured so as to be superficially appealing to House: the cutthroat bitch, the guy who sets the patient on fire, the older guy who "gets" House," the plastic surgeon who may be on a search for "meaning" of his own (else why leave a lucrative career to study with the great and powerful House?), the strangely innocuous mystery girl, and the odd religious guy. Certainly not identical replacements for the ducks, but we get to know them perhaps too fast: looks like House has devised this "longest job interview" to speed through evaluating these people without getting involved with them personally: speed-interviewing! We also get glimpses of the old ducks in their new habitats and in their new roles: now there are at least three House interpreters that might be bribed and/or manipulated for advantage toward gaining the new duckling positions. So they are added back into to the games and more bets are made. And even more hijinks ensue. The maybe-ducklings deal with the patients directly while House for the most part is elsewhere, even literally phoning it in. But the thing is, he is still the center of the show and the plots revolve around his approval or disapproval, who he respects, what he knows, who he is intrigued by, who he can't stand but has to deal with anyway, who he'll bother to challenge, who he'll accept and what his acceptance looks like. Even when he's not center stage, his opinions, his strategy, his intentions, his knowledge, and his decisions are behind at least some of everyone else's actions, whether as motivation, as annoyance, as role model, as friend, as mixed blessing, as guardian angel or resident evil, House is still the sun around which the lesser luminaries revolve. Oh and FWIW, yes, I do love Wilson, Cuddy and Chase, could do without both Foreman and Cameron, pray that we don't have another Foreman arc starting up, and don't much care which of the newbies stay (with some character development, any of them could be fine, though I'd get rid of 13 first). And I do miss the quiet, deliberating, thinking moments with House alone: hope the writers and directors can resist giving HL so many Houseisms in each episode (though I do love them) and put back the poignant pauses so we can digest and process the issues, the moral, ethical and medical dilemmas that House used to struggle with in such a moving way. Hope we get that back, even if it's in a new guise. Actually a new guise would be good. And the HouseHaus: we haven't been there this whole season: has he redecorated? Has he moved? Is Wilson commuting from Trenton? Will Cuddy start wearing tailored pantsuits? I hope to find out these things and more...

None of the other characters are copies of Foreman or Chase. You know, Taiga, it's funny you should mention that. I was actually thinking how Taub is a kinda sorta Foreman, in that he is strong-willed and argumentative and will put up a fight with House if he believes his ideas are right, and yet he is confident, whereas Foreman is just plain arrogant. I find Kutner a bit of a kiss-ass, much like Chase was portrayed (more early on than in the later Season 3 episodes), except that while Chase tried to hide that aspect of him by quietly agreeing with House, Kutner puts his lips right out there -- he's much more consciously obvious about it. Just my opinion ... And 13 -- yeah, agreed. Cameron clone. Yet I like her.

And 13 -- yeah, agreed. Cameron clone. Yet I like her. I like her too but I still don't see her as a Cameron clone. When she starts shyly asking House if he likes her in the hallway then I'll be concerned. Even so, I'd take that pairing over HAM, even if OW is ridiculously too young for him.