DVD Review: House - The Complete Fourth Season
Giving House a new team gives this show new life
Going back and reading my review of the second season of “House” I am surprised at how generic and boring I was. I have a far different recollection of that season than what I wrote down. Sure, the first season of “House” hit me like a ton of bricks. I loved it and I recommended it to anyone that hadn’t watched it yet. The sarcastic nature of Dr. House (Hugh Laurie) was right up my alley and the detective/medical aspect of the show was highly entertaining. However, the second season played the sarcastic angle way too hard and I was beginning to think it was a one trick pony with an out of control ego. Basically I was getting the impression the writers of the show thought they were too clever for their own good. Reading my second season review you would think I had the season mounted on a golden pedestal in my home. I apologize for that, because while I liked the season it certainly had its flaws.
Then, I had a “House” drought. Universal didn’t send me the third season for review and before tossing in the first disc of this shortened fourth season I hadn’t watched the show for almost two years. Looking at the cover art for the season everyone is recognizable and I had no reason to believe anything had changed. Oh, but that is a wrong assumption to make. Everything has changed with this fourth season and only for the better.
House still has his sarcastic attitude, but his insecurities are also bubbling to the top. Yeah, his insecurities have always been there, but this time they aren’t based on his disability, which I always thought was rather weak. I don’t want to ruin it by giving away any plot in those terms, but I can say it was nice to see that his previous team of assistants made up of Dr. Eric Foreman (Omar Epps), Dr. Allison Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) and Dr. Robert Chase (Jesse Spencer) have moved on and this season is all about House getting a new team of folks to work with and in the process gives audiences a slight glimpse at a slightly different House. I will say the end of the season, which was shortened to 16 episodes due to the writers’ strike, leaves the show at a time where it really could go all wrong if the writers aren’t careful, but I give them credit for switching things up from that second season and what I assume the third season probably was.
In terms of special features there is a lot of making-of stuff including a look at some effects and how the bus crash scene was done in the season finale, but the interview segments are the best including information that the new cast and how none of them knew if they were going to be working beyond the current episode. You see, as House is making up his new team he basically holds try outs and the folks involved in the try outs never knew when it would be their character’s turn to get cut until only a couple days ahead of time. They could be working one week and the next week be out of a job. The idea is something I had never heard of in television before and must have been extremely nerve racking. It’s even more interesting to learn that three people made the cut even though only two were originally supposed to make it.
Overall this season was a huge step up from what I remember and I don’t even regret missing the third season. If you haven’t caught on to this show yet toss the first season in your Netflix queue and see what you think. You never know you may become addicted and end up wanting to own them all.
RSS Feed
news feeds