For six years Doctors House (Hugh Laurie) and Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) have flirted with one another in one of those will-they/wont-they relationships that seem compulsory on American TV shows. Now its time for them to finally get it together and see whether a grumpy, sarcastic doctor and an uptight hospital administrator can make it as a couple in Season 7 of House.
As always happens when a will-they/wont-they relationship comes to fruition, a lot of people complained that House – Season 7 changed the dynamic of the show too much. My take on this is that theyre wrong and its just that a lot of fans dont like it when anything about one of their favourite shows changes. Just look at the X-Files, where fans spent years bitching because Mulder and Scully werent together, and have now spent decades moaning that it ruined the show when they finally got it on.
While the medical mysteries are utterly essential to House, on the character trajectory a House/Cuddy partnership is the sensible place for Season 7 to go, and it works surprisingly well. House is essentially a show about someone who doesnt believe people can change, but in this season he has to find out whether he is actually capable of altering himself if he believes something is worth it. If the show had come to a different conclusion about whether Greg House can genuinely became a new man, fans might have had something to bitch about, but it fits completely with whats come before. Its an interesting spectacle watching House trying to be someone different and largely failing.
Outside the Cuddy/House nexus, Chase (Jesse Spencer) and Foreman (Omar) get rather unfairly sidelined, as they have for years now (theyre great characters and its bizarre the writers cant think of more to do with them). Instead we focus on the incredibly tedious members of Houses team, Dr. Taub (Peter Jacobson), who is insanely annoying but for some reason the show thinks we care about his love life and neuroses. And with Thirteen (Olivia Wilde) getting a leave of absence so she can go off and star in the likes of Cowboys & Aliens and The Change-Up, House gets a trainee doctor intern in the shape of the Martha Masters (Amber Tamblyn). While her seemingly incorruptible morality works as an interesting counterpoint to Houses anything goes attitude, Masters is never really given the time to develop fully, so she isnt missed when she leaves before the end of the season.
Occasionally in the past House has veered too far from being a procedural medical mystery, to the point where it felt they were trying to turn it from being the crux of the series into something they wish they could dispense with. However in Season 7 the balance is handled well, with more effort put into creating some good puzzles for House to get his teeth into. Its certainly an improvement on the rather limp mysteries of Season 6. Whether its a possible outbreak of Smallpox or a rodeo rider getting increasingly worse symptoms after being attacked by a bull, its all a lot of fun. Indeed while some may not like House and Cuddy together, overall it is a bit of a return to form for the show, feeling more cohesive than it has for a while and with a renewed sense of purpose.
The real question is where House goes next, after the dramatic events of the final episode!
Although TV shows never look as good on Blu-ray as the latest movies do, its still a big step up from HDTV. The picture is bright and crisp with great clarity. Although the shadows sometimes lack definition, its undoubtedly a great way to watch a very good show. Likewise the sound is excellent.
On the features front, there is a selection of surprisingly good featurettes that offer insight into some of the new characters, events and episodes. It feel like plenty of effort has been put into creating something fans will genuinely be interested in, rather than the filler that passes for the majority of extras these days. Alongside the featurettes are a few decent audio commentaries and a U-Control feature that offers a little extra info on the different medical conditions mentioned in the episodes. To be honest, the latter is a little pointless, but overall its a good selection of features.
Overall Verdict: Some may dislike House & Cuddy getting together on principle, but its handled extremely well and actually pulls the show together and gives it a focus its lacked in the last couple of years.
Special Features:
Meet Martha Masters Featurette
Huddy Dissected Featurette
Anatomy Of An Episode: Bombshells Featurette
Thirteen Returns Featurette
Audio Commentaries
A Beginners Guide To Diagnostic U-Control Feature
Reviewer: Tim Isaac