'House' suffers from erratic behavior

Any television show in its seventh season, no matter how popular, runs the risk of becoming stale. For many, the "House, M.D." formula got crusty years ago: Someone suffers some horrible malady in the teaser, Dr. House and his diagnostic team assess the case in Act 1, House (Hugh Laurie) does something hilariously nasty to Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) and/or Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) in Act 2, the patient takes a turn for the worse in Act 3, a member of House's team threatens to quit in Act 4, and House has a life-saving epiphany in Act 5. In the epilogue, the characters' personal drama is either resolved, or some drastic measure is taken and will likely be canceled out or completely forgotten one or two episodes later.

Reading that paragraph, you could reasonably assume that I have grown tired of David Shore's popular medical mystery -- but you would be wrong. This seventh season has been my favorite since the game-changing fourth, in which House hosted a "Survivor"-style competition for doctors who wanted to work with him. This current season is not as innovative or surprising, but has, at times, perfected the formula that made "House" a worldwide phenomenon, and tweaking it by finally putting House and Cuddy together.

So what happened last night?

What happened was the byproduct of a cast and crew who want to do more than walk-and-talks and diagnostic differentials. Breaking from formula can be a relief for the audience, and yield memorable episodes; witness "Two Stories," the House-goes-to-class episode from two weeks ago that called back to Season 1's landmark episode, Three Stories."

But breaking from formula can also lead to failure, and I would categorize last night's "Bombshells" as a failure.

I am not opposed to the idea of putting our doctors into dream sequences aping "Two and a Half Men" (good timing, that), "The Walking Dead," "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "Across the Universe." I am opposed to employing such a trick for very little narrative gain. The dream sequences came off as the writers' attempt to justify Cuddy's actions at the end of the episode, but it's going to take a lot to convince me that Cuddy believes cutting House loose will actually help him. (The promo for next week suggests the opposite.)

I confess I am often baffled by the things House and Cuddy do to each other, and that's part of the fun of the show -- if they were typical, every-day people, would we watch? -- but last night just left me angry. It is an obvious choice to have House crawl back to Vicodin, and I don't buy the impetus. Why would House assume the worst before seeing all the test results? The answer may be that House was looking for a reason to get back on Vicodin, which, if true, has not been sufficiently set up. Worst of all, Cuddy's words early in the episode turned out to be prophetic: Though she was the one whose life was in jeopardy, House made the incident -- and, in turn, the episode -- all about him.

Happily, this plot twist comes in Episode 15, which means Shore and Co. have seven more episodes before closing the book on the season. I don't need to see House on the brink of mental destruction in the season finale, and there are still plenty of other interesting threads to tie up: Where did Thirteen (Olivia Wilde) go, and when will she be back? Will Martha Masters (Amber Tamblyn) stay on the team and let herself be loved? Will the writers finally succeed in their quest to make Taub (Peter Jacobson) likable and interesting? Will Foreman (Omar Epps) and Chase (Jesse Spencer) get to do anything?

Whatever new questions "House" poses, I'll be there on Monday night to get the answers. Even at its worst -- and "Bombshells" was one of its worst -- "House" is a consistently entertaining show populated by great actors playing great characters. I just hope the choices those characters make start making more sense.