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Very few shows that make it beyond their third year are the same programmes they were when they began. This is understandable, as both writers and actors are keen to try something new and take their shows in different directions.
The show can ‘jump the shark’, to use an industry phrase, and introduce a wacky element to spice things up and, usually, to boost failing ratings. They can also go the Desperate Housewives and One Tree Hill route and jump forward several years between seasons. Or a show will be forced to evolve because of its original ‘high concept’ premise; shows such as Heroes, Prison Break or Flashforward each have a self-contained, highly addictive story that will take them through their first seasons, but where do they go from there once those problems are solved?
Sometimes these changes work, and sometimes they don’t. What formula shows have taught us is that people, in general, don’t like change; they like familiar set-ups, familiar characters, and they like to know roughly how the plot is going to pan out, even if they don’t want to know the details.
Ironically, though, it is the formula shows that most often experience a change; to take a slightly geeky example, Smallville began with a regular ‘freak-of-the-week’ formula, and has now become embroiled in its own mythology. Likewise, Supernatural (two brothers driving round the US hunting demons) has toned down its weekly villain to concentrate more on the ‘serious’ stuff, like angels, Lucifer and God; although, unlike Smallville, it has remained watchable.
In contrast to this shedding of rigid formality, CSI began as the ultimate formula show and yet managed to slip in revealing personal insights and character interactions that spiced up the weekly body count; now, however, in its tenth season, despite some season-sweeping story arcs, it has become even more formulaic and less personal on a weekly episode basis.
House, on the other hand, is now in its sixth season, and as well as breaking free of its formula, it has never been better.
House, on the other hand, is now in its sixth season, and as well as breaking free of its formula, it has never been better. It too began with the ‘case-of-the-week’ that needed to be solved in the form of a medical mystery. The ace up its sleeve, however, was its central character. Not only did he make the medical jargon worth sitting through, but he cracked jokes and offended people in the midst of it, often at the same time. Hugh Laurie has received all sorts of awards and accolades for his portrayal of the misanthropic doctor, and deservedly so, but in the last few seasons his character has been really challenged, and Laurie has risen admirably to the occasion.
House has gone through a series of changes and come out the other side all the better. After the breaking up of House’s original team (Foreman, Cameron and Chase), Season 4 saw the introduction of a reality TV style interview process as House hired 40 new fellows so that he can fire one a week and eventually end up with a team. This introduced us to the new team of Thirteen, Taub and Kutner, who proved a success with the viewers, as well as a returning Foreman.
Seasons 4 and 5 initially struggled to find a way to incorporate Chase and Cameron into each episode as well as focus on the new fellows, each week’s case and, of course, House himself. Often this led to scenes inserted in various hospital departments just so Chase and Cameron would have a few lines. Towards the end of Season 5, however, the show found its rhythm and managed to make Chase and Cameron’s scenes feel less like they’d been shoe-horned in just because Jesse Spencer and Jennifer Morrison might have been getting bored with nothing to do.
It was Season 5 that saw the most pronounced development of House into a more personal show. With the suicide of one of House’s new team, the chronic illness of another, and Cuddy’s attempts to finally become a mother, less attention was paid each week to the, quite frankly, increasingly forgettable patients. The decline of House’s clinic hours also changed the structure of the show meaning that the time the cameras spent away from the patient could be devoted to exploring each character’s story.
Season 6, however, has restored the original team (or ‘Ducklings’ to the more House-literate), after opening with a stunning two-parter that was completely dislocated from anything the show had done before. Finding House in a psychiatric hospital, the writers were faced with the challenge of having no patient of the week, no puzzle for House to solve, except maybe the most complicated of them all - that of himself.
All this has led to House striving to be ‘better’ (whatever that means), seeking to form more meaningful human relationships and become less self-destructive. The danger here lies in the very fact that as an audience we love House’s flaws, as they make the character what he is. To change that is to change the very essence of the show. Is it working? House has lost none of his acerbic wit, but this is now tempered with House subtly revealing a more compassionate side through various acts or words spoken. House being House, however, he always manages to achieve this in slightly unconventional, outlandish ways.
For devoted fans, House will always be able to do no wrong. It is the casual viewers that the show has to sufficiently impress to convince them to return week after week. Fortunately, House seems no signs of slowing down. One can only hope that this continues to be the case, and when the time is right the producers see the sense to quit on their own terms before they get cancelled.
House is currently on Sky 1 on Sundays at 9pm.
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