House: Larger than Life

House is back, with Murphy Brown!

Those of you who caught the ninth episode of House last night would have to agree that as far as the medical problem was concerned, it was rather tepid. In fact the last tow episodes have made the problems facing the team seem rather bizarre. In episode eight we had a crucification ritual gone wrong. This time we have a bizarre and possibly impossible case of survival from being run over by a train.

A father and a daughter are making their way to the zoo and they are in the subway platform waiting for the train. Suddenly an epileptic woman falls on the tracks and begins convulsing. The father jumps into the tracks to save the woman but is too late. He has enough time to just cover her body with his as the train runs them over. When it moves away, they are discovered to be unharmed. But then the father collapses into unconsciousness.

The episode revolves around two particular dynamics: Taub's response to his wife's relationship with her on line friend and House's response to Cuddy's mother coming over for dinner. In between the medical problem does get a little short shafted- although the new kid Masters does show some interesting moments.

Enter Candice Bergen as the mother Cuddy! Clearly Lisa's sense of paranoia precedes her hiring of House. Whose wouldn't with a mother like that? Who would have thought that the best way to meet your daughter's boyfriend is not over dinner but at the clinic, disguising yourself as a patient while he grudgingly does his clinic hours!

Having done her reconnaissance she drops the bomb on House who is clearly at a loss. He did not expect Cuddy's mother to be a blond, an error resulting from the fact that she had converted after her marriage. What is truly amusing is her zeal of a convert: she pops more Yiddish expressions in her several minutes on screen than the number of times we have seen him pop for Vicodin throughout all seven seasons.

I really should not spoil the dinner scene for those who are reading. Needless to say it was quite priceless, a vintage House moment.

Taub on the other hand feels neglected by his wife: an odd feeling to have since she has been indulging in marital congress more than usual. He suspects that all this intimacy is a fruit of her passion for her on-line boyfriend. He is just someone convenient at hand to indulge her lust while she can delve into her fantasy world. He feels used and discarded. Yeah buddy, we have all been there.

I will say this of the show,I am never going to get tired of certain formulas. All the available diagnosis fails, none of the team has a good idea worth a damn. The patient keeps getting worse and marches steadily towards death's door. Finally, House has a completely unrelated conversation with someone else where one word or expression gives him an epiphany: something that leads him to the solution. He confronts the patient, makes him/her feel like a fool and pronounces a completely overlooked diagnosis. Voila! The patient is cured.

You could say that this is a somewhat tedious formula to repeat episode after episode. However, the writers of the show make it work and Hugh Laurie makes it work. Even after so many repetitions, the epiphany formula has not lost its thrill.

This whole season is promising to be rather interesting what with a whole new dimension added to House's life: his romance with Cuddy. Here's hoping the writers keep us on our toes!