TV Watch: House And Some Blonde Chick

Last night's House was an interesting because it departed from the normal "disease as villain" formula. Instead of tracking vectors and requesting tests, House was forced to deal with an emotionally traumatized patient. Nothing's physically wrong with her - there's no mystery to solve - and the episode has to manage to drag House along.

This might have flopped. The "Some Blonde Chick" in question was played amazingly well by Katheryn Winnick - who you've possibly never heard of even though she's had about two dozen small roles. She was in "Failure To Launch" if you caught that. The interplay between her and House puts some meat on the bones of what might otherwise have been a pretty meager meal of a show. The subplot of a dying cancer patient, for instance, is largely filler.

House, the show, will have to do more of this down the road in order to sustain the show. The "disease of the week" episodes are grand and all, but the villian subplots (Trigger, Evil Guy From Boston Public) - haven't been as strong as they could. If the show can sustain arching plots and characters that don't feel like obvious antagonism (for instance - any previous episode with Sela Ward doing essentially anything at all) - it will have more longevity.




tagged: television