House 5x14 "The Greater Good"

Last night, a landmark for television happened -- the FOX television drama House, now in the middle of its fifth season, aired its 100th episode. I, personally, never expected it to last this long. It's had a few good episodes -- the second season's finale immediately springs to mind -- but overall the show is a formula drama. The sardonic wit of the protagonist is the only thing keeping to show from failing, because plot-wise, it's not that great.

Watching the 100th episode felt like a landmark in my television-watching career. It's the only show that I've seen 100 episodes of. I've watched it since the beginning, and it gave me (as well as many others, I'm sure) a proud feeling to have been a part of something for so long.

Having said that, I would have expected a much better episode than what I saw last night. While the good outweighed the bad, the fact that I had to ponder this for a moment is not a very good thing.

The patient of the episode, a former oncologist-turned-chef, was quite boring. There was nothing particularly interesting about her or her case (save for the solution), and I became quite bored when watching her case due to my interest in several of the other storylines on the show. It was a giant ball-and-chain on the leg of the episode. The only good thing the patient did was convince Wilson to begin to move on from Amber, ending the episode with a sad but satisfying scene with Wilson washing Amber's cup. That was easily the best scene of the episode, and it tied in to an earlier scene quite well.

Chase and Cameron were also noticeably absent from this landmark episode, which really saddened me. To have been such a major part of the first three seasons, I felt like those two really deserved to have a big part in this episode, because they did star in the first sixty, after all. Their absence was very noticeable, and I really hope that they come back next week to at least have a bigger role.

The story with Foreman and Thirteen was pulse-pounding as well, though the "will he tell them, will he not?" theme of the thread annoyed me somewhat.

Overall, the episode just didn't have the punch that the 100th episode of any television series should have. FINAL SCORE: 65% / D