I watch for those amazing moments when Laurie just...reveals House. Case in point. Cuddy tells House that she doesn't want him at the simchat bat. House looks at Cuddy with an assessing, measuring, calm gaze, as if to say, "I am capable of giving you what you want; you just need to be honest with me." Then the expression is gone, and House is back to himself. But for that one moment, I thought -- wow, he is being as open as he can, and Laurie can really freakin' act. For some reason, I just find House/Laurie's expressions revealing and subtle and amazing. I really don't watch a lot of tv or films; and I find most actors kind of jerky and forced, but watching this actor is like watching Tiger Woods play golf... I don't have any other way to describe it! Maybe someone more articulate can help.

I think you just said it perfectly RachelSue. That's exactly how I feel and part of why I find him so extraordinary. Thank you.

I was interested to read the comments on the previous page about the Vogler arc. Like Lully, LogicalLilly, Triteness and others I too like the Vogler arc, which gave us what is possibly still my favourite episode ever, Babies & Bathwater, one of the very few eps where I vividly remember not only the POTW but also the clinic patient B Plot. I feel that Vogler (extreme though he was) represents something that's been missing ever since; some kind of pressure within the hospital on Cuddy as House's protector & eternal apologist. I find it hard to believe that with all the stuff that House has got up to since then, nobody with any authority over Cuddy (and there must be somebody!!!) seems to mind. The other thing the Vogler arc makes me wonder - bringing this post on topic - is how Cuddy would react if it happened now. Back in season 1 I totally believed that kick-ass Cuddy would do her best for House, but ultimately pick a million dollars for the hospital as more important than him. Now?... she's so emotionally hung up on him I find it hard to envisage. What would Vogler have made of her trip wire, her stink bomb, her camping out in House's office? I guess I'd kinda like to think he'd have fired her ass. If he could.

After reading your post, one would assume that I argued for lack of quality of recent House eps in my own post earlier. I take solace in the fact that I actually didn't. At least I think I didn't. Wink Oooh, I apologize if I misrepresented your views, to21be! Not my intention at all. I genuinely found myself agreeing with both what you and extra_cat said . Like you, I watch primarily for the fascinating character of House and for HL’s brilliant portrayal of him and this season House has continued to intrigue me and HL has continued to dazzle me. And we enjoyed the same things about last week’s episode. But the problem I have with this season is that 13's arc, unlike any other before this one hasn't involved him for the most part, and I found myself agreeing with Extra_cat that while I can watch episodes from earlier seasons in their entirety, that’s not true of those from this season. Both your posts nicely explained the mixed feelings I’ve had about the show this season. Here's the thing: You use a term like "drop in quality," and it makes it sound as if it's a verifiable and generally accepted fact, rather than an opinion. Furthermore, the implication is that for people who don't perceive this "drop in quality", they must be idiots or willingly deluded. That puts everyone into their corners with their fists up ready to fight. (Not literally, but all of a sudden you're felt as if you have to defend your honor.) (I'm using the word "you" in the general sense, not in terms of any specific person.) Perhaps it's best to stick to the "I" statements. "I'm not enjoying this season as much," or "I'm not enjoying this storyline" rather than "what a stupid storyline." Namaste, I know you said that you were using the word “you” in general but I feel like I have to respond since you quoted from my post. Here are my two posts on the topic with the I’s highlighted. “Both to21be and extra_cat have made excellent points about the show and I find myself agreeing with both of them. House is the only TV show I watch on a regular basis and the only one I have posted about. It was a brilliant show before. Now, it's a good show with some brilliant moments*. I continue watching for those moments and hold out hope that it will go back to being brilliant. * I believe the poorly written and poorly acted 13/14 arc along with the unprecedented amount of screen time it's been given is to blame for the fall in quality.” “I didn't go into the details of why I think the 13/14 arc has taken away from the quality of the show because I didn't want to repeat myself. I have already written a mile long post on the subject. It's on this very thread, page 14. If you have the time and the inclination to read it, that is” I guess I could have said “I believe it was a brilliant show before. Now, I believe it’s a good show with some brilliant moments.” But I thought it was implied from what came before and after it. Besides, putting so many “I’s” makes it cumbersome for me to write, but more importantly, for others to read. In any case, I’ll be much more careful in the future. I am sorry you feel the way you do but it was never my intention to state anything as a fact or imply anything about poster’s who may not agree with me. I do believe there has been a drop in quality for the writing for the show this season and I believe that most of it has to do with the 13/14 arc, while some of it has to do with the House/Cuddy arc being stretched out. I am not going to be apologetic about saying it because I’ve thought carefully about why I feel that way and I have long and detailed posts up thread on both these issues. You may not have read them or it may not have shown, but I put a lot of time and effort into both those posts because I don’t think people on these boards are idiots….or deluded. I wouldn’t come here if I thought they were. If anything, many of the people here strike me as being brighter and more articulate than I am. In my post on the 13/14 arc I talked about why it has affected the show in a way no previous arc has, about what a powerful idea it was, about parts of the arcs that I thought were handled well and those that I thought weren’t. I didn’t get a single response that questioned me on anything I’d said in that post. If posters feel strongly about 13 then they should come out and voice their appreciation for the character and the arc and be prepared for the fact that other posters may or may not agree with them. I enjoy House/Wilson and I am thrilled that there seem to be so many others on this board who do. I enjoy House/Cuddy but I find that there are several posters who don’t. When I disagree with what they have to say, I either post a response or I simply move on. That’s just the way it goes. At the end of the day, what's important to me is that no matter what anyone says, I know I am going to continue watching and enjoying their arc and discussing it with those who do.

Honestly, if I get 45 minutes of happiness at eight on monday nights, I'm content. When I get my work schedules, I know I'm secretly cheering if I'm off at eight and I'm a little sulky and upset if I'm not. One time when it was dead, I went out into the bar and watched it. I wouldn't do that for a basketball game, Celebrity Rehab, Man vs Wild, or an MMA fight. I'll talk about plots and characterization. I'll talk about what I wanted to see, etc., but at the end of the day I get way more enjoyment out of what I see on the screen. This isn't something new, in my view. Even a show like the Sopranos had a really bad season and a bunch of really bad episodes. Godfather 1 was one of the greatest movies ever made and Godfather 3 was practically unwatchable. I think they could come back and have a really great season 6. Even the end of Season 5 could be really cool.

Once again, you've put into words what I've been thinking and couldn't express nearly as well. This is exactly how I feel (and I'm talking about the fandom as a whole, not just this board, and certainly not anyone in particular). I'm almost afraid to announce I enjoyed an episode, or a particular part of an episode (especially if it has anything to do with 13, GFB) for fear of a backlash declaring how blind I must be not to notice how the quality has diminished. It's never a statement directed at me or anyone else in particular, but it is stated in such a way that I sometimes wind up feeling belittled. I feel as if your comment and others like it must be addressed because I honestly believe that nobody on this forum would intentionally belittle another poster. However, since I am allowed to only speak for myself, I can honestly say that I have NEVER belittled or felt like belittling anyone who is enjoying this season, nor have I seen anyone else do so on this forum. I have never posted anything with the idea of changing someone's mind; I only post to share my feelings just like everyone else. I see both positive and negative comments on the episode threads, but I've never seen anyone looked down upon for posting positive thoughts, and if I post a negative thought on Thirteen after someone has posted a positive thought, it is not to degrade their comment or try to show them the error of their ways because it is different than mine; it is merely to post my own thoughts. I feel quite comfortable with this forum. I can freely admit that I like Cameron and not feel as if someone is looking down on me. I feel confident that the moderators on this forum would not allow that to happen to me, or anyone who expresses their opinions on the show, whether they love it, hate it, or are existing in some kind of limbo right now, as I am. That doesn't mean that I'm not willing to debate some things, but to my knowledge, I have never tried to debate someone out of being happy about the show. I'm happy for them! I hope that makes sense. Edit: I'd like to quickly add that I am sorry to hear that a few members are feeling belittled somehow, and if there has ever been anything in any of my posts to make any of you feel that way, I am truly sorry. That was never my intention.

This is exactly how I feel (and I'm talking about the fandom as a whole, not just this board, and certainly not anyone in particular). I'm almost afraid to announce I enjoyed an episode, or a particular part of an episode (especially if it has anything to do with 13, GFB) for fear of a backlash declaring how blind I must be not to notice how the quality has diminished. It's never a statement directed at me or anyone else in particular, but it is stated in such a way that I sometimes wind up feeling belittled. Looks like I'm re-opening my mod note. You should never feel you are being belittled. Of course some of your/mine/everyone's opinions will be less popular than others and we all have to be prepared to defend our points of view when other people say "Really??? That's not what I thought." At the same time, a criticism of the show is not a criticism of the viewers of the show any more than a praise of the show is a praise of the viewers. If you (meaning any forum member) feel you are being attacked (a violation of HHoW rules), contact a mod. If it's blatant, any of us will step in immediately. If it's more subtle, we'll discuss it as a group and take appropriate action (either telling the other person she's being rude or too aggressive or telling the person who contacts us that she's being over-sensitive.) Mod Note>

Triteness wrote: "...we have no antagonist." kittylugnut wrote: "House is his own antagonist." Yes, he is a new creation; not an anti-hero like Byron or Wilde, who oppose authority with enthusiastic joy. House is his own worst enemy who is simultaneously his own saviour, negating the effect. He is both the antagonist and the protagonist. Lack of an authority figure to strain against this season may be in aid of coming to terms with his illogical problem with authority, now that his father is dead. He no longer can wrestle with his father over this problem but he can struggle with Cuddy to find a better balance in his, almost involuntary, reaction to authority. As Cuddy has lost some of her authority due to her emotional attachment to House and her new preoccupation with motherhood, House has been forced to take on a partial mantel of authority. These are small steps towards maturity. He has shown courage and emotional connection in this authority vacuum. Thanks to Hugh Laurie, I always assumed House possessed hidden depths. This season he has been demonstrating these depths almost continuously from the time of losing Wilson. He is revealing himself more fully to his closest colleagues as well. I like him better this way.

kittylugnut wrote: House is his own antagonist. Although I agree that it would be great to have an outside force for him to fight or outwit, I find his inner struggle against himself very interesting. If there's one person you can almost never outwit, it's yourself. Exactly right. I think that the brilliance of this season has been to have House struggle entirely within himself. The final scene of "Softer Side" summed up quite well his conflicting concerns for preserving his intellectual strengths and for finding pain-relief and a way to abate his overwhelming loneliness. House's exploration of what he feels for Cuddy and how he wishes to incorporate a relationship with her into the life he has created for himself has been an excellent vehicle for examining these questions, I think. In past seasons, the introduction of an external antagonist has always seemed to me a signal weakness of the season-long plotting. Vogler, Tritter, even Stacy, were set up as outside devices to force House into acknowledging his own weaknesses and asserting his own strengths. But the threat never felt real because I always believed that House would win in the end. But now at last in season five we are getting to the nub of the issues inside House himself and as jim, boffle, and others have pointed out the result feels to me both satisfyingly complex and sophisticatedly unresolvable and raw. Now the question of how House "wins" this struggle inside himself is not so easily or clearly delineated. I like the uncertainty and excitement of going on this exploration with House.

I cast my vote for an external antagonist. Soliloquies have a place but I find it much more interesting to see a dialogue with different people arguing the sides than one individual fighting himself. It doesn’t have to be an outside antagonist like Vogler or Tritter. (I think most of the Stacy drama was House fighting himself rather than fighting her.) I was happy when Cuddy was his antagonist or Cameron called him out on his unethical practices. That doesn't happen any more. Cuddy is toothless as Mirror Mirror showed (she wins only when House lets her) and Cameron is gone in practical terms. I know many people are happy to have her gone but she did serve a purpose within the show, she gave House the opportunity to show why his unethical practises and his "treat before testing" was good. I've read several comments in the vein of "I like Thirteen because she doesn't care about the patients and wasn't soft like Cameron was." And that's true, Thirteen isn't soft. But neither are Taub, Foreman or House himself. At the beginning of Last Resort, when the clinic patient came to her asking for help and Thirteen shut him down, it was just like House would have done. They're all too similar in terms characteristics and behaviour, there's no real contrast to House and so House doesn't stand out as an iconoclastic character. It was annoying to some when Cameron fought House in The Itch and used the paddles when House was hoping to trick the proxy into letting him take the patient to the hospital. But the alternative in the new team is Taub, who told House that what he was asking him to do was unethical and then turned around and did it anyway. Cameron's actions sparked pages of debate; no one mentioned Taub's. Which brings me to..... The other major misstep, for me, was keeping all the characters. It doesn't work, and it delayed any development of the new team to a point where now it's very difficult to flesh them out. If the artistic vision was for a new team, they should have gone all in. It’s not for Cameron and Chase taking away the time from exploring them. Chase has barely had anything this season (as extra_cat pointed out, the last time he exchanged any dialogue with House was last season in Wilson’s Heart). Cameron hasn't had much more, half of The Itch (the other half was House, Cuddy and Wilson reacting to the kiss) and she took Cuddy's role in Big Baby. It’s also not because we don’t know who these new people are. We knew more about Taub and Thirteen at the end of their first season than we know about Cameron’s non-hospital life after five seasons. Taub’s has an on-going storyline with his marital issues and Thirteen has had as much or more time than House himself in three episodes this season along with all her Perils of Thirteen stuff. I think it’s because of the six final candidates, these three are the most boring and least likely to raise interest in what's going on. Cole not only had his religious beliefs in which he wouldn't back down, he was a single parent. Henry had been there, done that, and was laid back enough not to get his buttons pushed by House. And Amber not only drove the only interesting plotline of season 4 IMO, her presence carried through the first four episodes of season 5. In contrast, there's Foreman, Taub, who is another Foreman with Wilson's marital issues, Kutner who is Chase V2 and Thirteen, who is a female House. All the conflict has to be externally driven because as a team, they're too similar both to each other and to the original ducklings. The original six were a diverse and well-balanced group and that, on top of the acting and writing, was what made them compelling. Over the past two seasons, the scope of the show has narrowed, both in terms of the diversity of the characters and in terms of House now interacting emotionally only with Wilson and Cuddy rather than with all five secondary characters. Given that by 100+ episodes the medical storylines are being re-used to some extent as are the "House is hurt either emotionally or physically or both" season finales, the new team was the place to bring in a new energy to the show if that's what Shore wanted. In reality, whatever new energy was created was created by seeing Chase, Cameron and Foreman in new roles in relation to House, not by the new team IMO.