You Poor Dumb Bastard

Just a short one tonight...

Spoilers:

House – “Perils of Paranoia” (C+)

A step in the wrong direction. I guess it was sort of obvious the show wouldn’t be able to maintain the high level of last week’s episode, but a guy can still hope. This week was back to the usual though, and unfortunately that means weak patient stories and strained attempts at making the current team seem interesting.

The patient did have a decent start. The court room scene was actually pretty well done, and when Park and Adams found his stash of guns it definitely made things more interesting. But I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the explanation for why he was stockpiling and the second his condition deteriorated it didn’t really seem to matter anymore anyway.

I also wasn’t really buying the fact that Park wouldn’t admit the guys paranoid behaviour was a symptom. The writers are really having trouble finding ways to fit the two new team members in with the rest of the cast. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I love Charlyne Yi, but her character at this point is not one I enjoy watching. Maybe her date with Chase will turn things around.

Foreman’s story this week may have been little better than the main thread, but they lost me at the end when he decided to go back to that married woman. It’s not even so much about the moral implications – that’s the sort of thing House explores all the time – it’s more just the fact that they’ve already covered this area before with Taub, and to be honest (and this is of course just my opinion) it wasn’t that interesting the first time around. I’ll give it a week or two though before I really make up my mind. The writers may have something else planned for it.

The only real bright spot of the episode was House and Wilson. Sure, it was more of their usual shenanigans, but they’re always so creative about it I never seem to mind that they’ve been pulling the same shtick now for 8 seasons. It really is the most consistently entertaining part of the show these days. I was a bit puzzled though by House’s prolonged stare at the sword near the end of the episode. Was that a reference to something from a past episode or are the writers trying to set something up for a future episode? The fact that the gun ended up being real was a pretty ominous sign for what’s to come.