"Joy to the World"

Episode Rating: B

WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS

This episode was a hopelessly mixed bag. Wilson's challenge to House about being nice was absolutely hilarious and produced some of the season's best moments, while the medical mystery was boring, generic, predictable, and cheesy. I have no kind words whatsoever for this week's patient storyline; from the beyond-generic opening to the bland "I'm-a-teenager-so-therefore-I-am-full-of-angst-and-everyone-should-be-nice-to-me" dialogue to the predictable diagnosis (every time a teenage girl is on this show, pregnancy has something to do with it), this medical mystery was just awful.

Luckily, the rest of the episode was A material. The scene where House goes to the clinic in an attempt to be nice and diagnoses the pregnant woman might have been the funniest moment of the season so far. Hugh Laurie just nailed the scene; watching House try so hard to be nice, but then fail miserably, was gold. The rest of that storyline, which involved House telling the patient she was going to have a virgin birth (and thus allowing House to win his contest with Wilson), was full of laughs too. House's other prank in the episode, where he threw away a present Wilson gave him a year ago, was fun as well.

That stuff was enjoyable. So was Kutner's mini-storyline about dealing with the kid who supplied the patient with alcohol; ending the episode with Kutner's apology to a kid he bullied in high school gave the character some desperately needed character development. Meanwhile, Thirteen and Foreman got closer at the clinical trials. I saw where this was headed last week, but that didn't make the storyline any less enjoyable. We'll have to wait and see where this storyline goes, but it should give both characters some extra dimension (which Foreman needs at this point).

But holy cow did I HATE that medical mystery. I'm sorry, but we've seen the overweight teenager story before (the season one episode Heavy being one example) and in a more interesting way. As for angst-filled, depressed teenager...I don't think I even need to mention how many times that's been done, and never this poorly. The actress playing the patient was bland and we were never given a reason to care for her. By the time we found out she was going to die, I honestly didn't care. This show is bad at writing for teenagers anyway, but seeing the show get repetitive with the kind of patient they can't write for is simply grating. As a teenager, I can relate to John Connor, a kid who fight robots from the future, more than I can with any kid that has ever been featured on House.

Alright...I'm done ranting; despite the poor quality of the medical mystery, the end result was kind of cool. Cuddy's revelation that the baby was alive made for a powerful ending, and finally led to her getting a child. House, on the other hand, was genuinely nice to Cuddy at the end-meaning that Wilson's contest actually had some effect. Overall, this wasn't a great episode, but it was enjoyable. As the first half of the fifth season draws to a close, I have very high hopes for this show. After a mediocre third season and a good-but-not-great fourth, the fifth season has the show back on track. As long as they stay away from generic medical mysteries like the one in this episode, then this will be a great season.

As per the current plan, this is scheduled to be my last weekly review of House. It's a lot of work doing these weekly, and I want to put my full attention towards Lost when it returns in January. Still, the hit counts show me that these House reviews are popular (last week's is standing at a strong 550 hits), and I might keep this one on the agenda. If you'd like to see House reviews or Terminator reviews continue, leave a comment or email me at jrlack@lmresources.com. If I don't come back with reviews of either of those though, then do make sure to look at my Lost column when it start in January. Meanwhile, my Dark Knight Blu-Ray review should be up on Friday, and The 12 Films of Christmas special feature will begin on Saturday, December 14 th and continue every day until Christmas.