I absolutely love Fox’s hit series House M.D.  I’ve been looking forward to the start of this season since I watched all five seasons last semester – college is everything they say it is.  It combines so many elements that make a good show: mystery, intrigue, drama, humor, a calloused jerkface.  Hugh Laurie’s performance is phenomenal – he’s the character you love to hate but love way more than you hate.  Due to his gimp leg (that sounds very un-politically correct), House has become addicted to Vicodine, and, in the course of five seasons, successful alienates all those around him.  He manipulates, bullies, and cons his way into his next fix, but he’s the greatest diagnostician in the country.  Instead of causing horrendous side-effects, the vicodine enables him to do his job, clearing his body of his pain and letting him tackle his intellectual puzzles.  Yet, at the end of series 5 and through a bizarrely entertaining series of events, House begins to lose his mind, hallucinate and fail at his job.  The season ends as he closes the door of Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital behind him.

Two weeks from yesterday, House Season 6 started with teasers and trailers claiming it as the best season yet, all the stereotypical stuff: we’ve pulled out all the stops, blah blah blah.  But I believed every word of it naturally because House is so awesome.  So, Monday night, September 21, I’m sitting down to watch me the 2 hour season premiere of House, expecting an awesome medical mystery, some sardonic lines about Cuddy’s body, and perhaps a relapse into his pill popping.  Blah.  The first time America has seen Greg House since May was simply blah.  But I suppose it was necessary.  The plot followed House’s treatment in the hospital and traces his transformation from prideful manipulator to submissive participator.  He realizes that he has a problem and by the end of the episode has learned both to trust and to care for others – and to play nicely with his friends.  Blah.

So yesterday, all excited for the start of the real season.  I’d comforted myself into thinking that last week was a necessary filler between seasons, tonight is when House really begins.  Still blah!  The episode opens with House quitting – which of course isn’t going to actually happen – and Foreman (played by Omar Epps) taking over the diagnostician post.  This, of course, creates great conflict with his girlfriend, 13 (played by Olivia Wilde).  Oddly enough she still doesn’t really have a name though she’s sometimes called Dr. Hadley.  So Foreman and 13 battle it out over their intimate work/love relationship while House begins to take up cooking…cooking!  Slight twist: House’s leg begins to hurt again and he goes back to his apartment with the intention of popping Vicodine.  At the end of the episode, he realizes, as we all know, that what really makes him happy is the intellectual puzzles. 

Ok, now obviously this last episode was way better.  I had quite a few laughs and there was some mild suspense as to whether or not he would go back to his drugs – which he didn’t.  And of course I’m still holding out for House, I think it’s one of the greatest shows ever.  But hopefully the rest of the season will be much less blah.   I mean, come on, cooking?