On the House Season Finale

Last night closed out the first season of FOX’s critically acclaimed and hightly rated medical drama, House.

Here’s the story. Stacy Warner, once the love of Doctor Greg House’s life, asks him to examine her husband–he’s having abdominal pains and bouts of paranoia. House, against his better judgment, agrees, but Mark, the husband, puts off two examinations, and House resorts to subterfuge to get Mark into the hospital. Tests are run, and they show nothing. Exploratory surgery is done, and again nothing. House watches the video of the surgery, and then he notices something–muscle tremors in the intestinal cavity. Mark suffers from a type of seizure. What causes it? Nerves are dying. Could it be early onset Alzheimers? Tests come up negative. Then, Mark becomes paralyzed. And House doesn’t know why, and finally the situation becomes desperate.

I thought this was an okay episode, but not season finale material. The final episode of the Chi McBride Vogler arc would have made a better season finale (and had, in fact, been planned as the season’s finale). The drama came not from the medical problem but from the character dynamics between House, his team, and his former love Stacy. And while the drama between House and Stacy was interesting, and sets a number of new balls spinning in the air, I didn’t find it compelling. The characters had chemistry, true, but the time spent putting the two characters together might have been better spent on dramatizing House’s conflict between his heart and his duty.

Also, I felt the scene between Stacy and Cameron could have played out better. House’s use of the seized amphetamines in the final scene was odd, but not uncharacteristic. Wilson could have been better used as House’s conscience during the episode. Still, the drama generally worked, but in the end I felt it all came up slightly flat.

I’m looking forward to the inevitable DVD release to coincide with the start of the second season. 🙂

May 25-2005