House, Season 6

So, as I'm sitting listening to this amazing thunderstorm outside my window and waiting for the opportunity to geek out with the end of "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer", which amazingly I've discovered I actually like now, I'm trolling the forums for news on Season 6 of House, M.D.

Okay, for those of you who haven't heard me obsess before House is easily my favorite television programme. It brings together medicine, which I discovered early on is tied with writing as my first love, and comedy. The characters are hysterical (at least, they used to be), the ships are always completely screwed and therefore interesting and the medicine tying it together keeps you on the tips of your toes.

At least, that's how it used to be.

Now, rolling into Season 6 of House, M.D. I'm a little bit skeptical...and yes, a lot cynical. There was a lot I didn't like about the last two seasons of House. It was like they tried to wipe the board clean after Season 3 and start over, but for those of us who already loved the show it's just not working. We don't connect to the characters in this season the way we did Foreman, Cameron and Chase, and we don't see them connecting either.

And no, I'm not just talking about Cameron sleeping with Chase. I mean, we've got Foreman and Thirteen if you're looking for a little Dr. Feelgood.

Okay, before I roll into my next set of thoughts you have to know something. I hate Huddy. I hate the thought of House and Cuddy straight down to my toes, for the simple fact that it would never work...and yet it would. It's hard to explain. The show's chemistry has never, until this year, left the door open for the possibility of House and Cuddy. It feels like the writers are forcing the idea down our throats, even though in reality House's relationships probably would have played out exactly the way they have.

That aside, I was trolling a Hameron forum and found the best quote ever for House: "I like who House is with Cameron better than who he is with Cuddy." Looking back on it, it's true. We saw all the ducklings pull humanity out of House time and time again, but Cameron the most. Why? Maybe she needed it the most. Maybe she demanded it of him. Maybe she was, to House, a reminder of everything that he lost and can never have back, and because of that he's always had a soft spot for her. Whatever it is, House was human with Cameron and it's hard to forget that.

Of course, they also killed my Cameron at the end of Season 3, so what do I know? I like this new Cameron, don't get me wrong, but I think she maybe blossomed a little too far, a little too far for the show's continuity. She's turned into a mini-House, which is amazing in some ways, frighteningly realistic in others and overall just...incredibly not the Cameron we all fell in love with. And she's still pulling the humanity out of House.

With Cuddy, House will never be a better person. He'll never be happy, he'll never be fulfilled, and because he'd never find that, even temporarily, with her he'd never hook up with her in the first place. For a man like House to have a relationship that goes beyond sex he'd have to find a woman capable of giving him something he's missing. Light. Hope. Happiness. Or he wouldn't bother at all.

So, with the Season 6 premier date set for September 21 (I mentioned that, didn't I?) I'm left crossing my fingers that the writers will be able to pull off their latest plot twists and turn it into something real that still manages to hang on to the essence of House. We've already lost all of our ducklings in two short years. Neither Cameron nor Chase are the people we fell in love with, and Foreman's nothing more than House's stooge these days. Are we doomed to lose House too into this mass pit of humanity and insanity he's teetering on the edge of, or will he retain the careful balance that came so easily to him in the first three seasons?

I guess we're going to have to wait and find out.