HOUSE Season Premiere: You Ask, I Answer
September 17, 2010 by Erik Wilkinson
The title of HOUSE’s Season 7 Premiere is, “Now What?” If Katie Jacobs & David Shore spent their summer on TV message boards, they would have seen that question posed with regard to the romantic pairing of Gregory House & Lisa Cuddy. For Huddy-shippers, this season could not be more eagerly anticipated. For those opposed to mixing business with pleasure, HOUSE is a candidate for deletion from their DVR’s Season Pass list.
After a sneak peek at the first two episodes of the season (yes, writing about TV has perks) this week, I set out to answer some of your burning questions about HOUSE in the era of Huddy.
Quick note of warning: Though my answers do not contain any major spoilers, there are definite hints and (hopefully) clever teases about the road ahead. Please do not read on if you would prefer to enjoy Season 7 in its pure, unspoiled form. For everyone else, the fun is just a simple click away…
How much time passes between the Season 6 finale and this year’s premiere?
A matter of seconds…with House & Cuddy picking up where they left off
How much time is spent dealing with the Huddy storyline? I’m a fan of the show’s entire ensemble, not just those two…
The Season Premiere shines a spotlight on House & Cuddy, leaving less time for hospital business than usual. Episode 2, “Selfish,” returns to the show’s standard format, featuring the MOST compelling patient storyline in years!
Are we expected to believe that Huddy is supposed to live happily ever after?
My House recaps have often been critical of the knee-jerk manner with which House & Cuddy have circled their romantic potential. However, I think Hugh Laurie & Lisa Edelstein have been amazing together to begin Season 7.
Does anyone from the hospital find out about House & Cuddy’s relationship?
In the Season Premiere, House, Cuddy, & Wilson find themselves under the same roof, and only Wilson is fully clothed!
What’s the deal with Thirteen’s leave of absence?
The show’s producers and Olivia Wilde have made no secret of the fact that she took time off to film the movie Cowboys & Aliens. Thirteen is still part of House’s team as the season opens, and her co-workers go to great lengths to discover the reasons for her leave of absence.
Can you tell me anything about the first patient of the season?
He/She is one of Princeton Plainsboro’s most important doctors…
With Huddy together, how different does the show feel?
Aside from Episode 1, the overall tone and pacing of HOUSE fits the audience’s expectations. If any change is noticeable, it is a LACK of childlike melodrama, replaced with a healthy dose of adult conversation.
Any hopes for a Chase & Cameron reunion?
Chase is taking advantage of the single life, to be sure, but fans of Jennifer Morrison should be excited for her new role on HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER.
Will I like the show as much with Hugh Laurie & Lisa Edelstein together as I did when they were apart?
This will be the toughest question for viewers to answer in Season 7. In my opinion, the writing team put a great deal of thought on how to bring House & Cuddy together without altering the show’s overall impact. All the ingredients that make HOUSE such a powerful ratings draw are still present, so there is no reason to stay away.
Are you excited for the HOUSE Season Premiere? Do you think the Huddy relationship will be a positive or negative for the show? We will have full coverage on Monday night, including my full review of the episode, so stay tuned to GMMR for all your House-hold needs!
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Filed under #1 featured, House, House Spoilers, Posts by Erik
Thank you so much! I love that House and Cuddy are together, it will be fun to see this side of House! Thanks for the scoop looking forward to Monday!
Elisha: If you have friends that are anti-Huddy, it’s important to encourage them to come back for the Season Premiere. I think they will be pleasantly surprised.
Great. I love House and Cuddy together but i don´t want a relationship that ruins the show. You really gave me hope and I´ll be watching on monday
I’ll try to stick with it until at least episode 2, because I am SO against Huddy that I was barely going to give it a chance this season. I wasn’t impressed much with last season (still seemed to Huddy-focused to me, even though they were together)….. I’m not holding out much hope, but I can make it past Episode Two, and maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised! Thanks for the info!
I’m so excited for this upcoming season, I could cry.
I LOVE HUDDY SO MUCH ! I’M SO HAPPY BECAUSE HUDDY IS A COUPLE NOW !
I REALLY HOPE THEIR RELATIONSHIP,FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE, WILL WORK AND WILL LAST ! PLEASE MR DAVID SHORE NO HUDDY BREAK-UP ! NEVER EVER !
BRING ON THE AMAZING HOUSE SEASON 7 AND THE AMAZING HUDDY ROMANCE !
Totally confused how Emily could think last season was so much about Huddy when House and Cuddy rarely shared the screen together. Matter of fact, it was the least amount of screentime LE has had since the show began.
I am excited to see where they take this relationship (Huddy). They have been dancing around each other long enough. I am glad to hear that HL & LE sold it in the premier. Call me excited.
I also think these two have potential to make the relationship last the duration of the show as long as they keep them in an unconventional relationship. I love the chemistry between HL & LE.
Emily: I’ll talk about this MUCH more in the review, but the producers & writers clearly sat down to discuss how to move Huddy forward without alienating viewers. Hopefully, you will see what I mean…
Clara: The Huddy-shippers will definitely be thrilled with the pacing of the premiere.
Samantha: Your assessment of last season’s screen time is correct. However, I think Emily felt, along with many viewers, that the topic of Huddy was present in scenes not involving Lisa Edelstein at all. Many of House & Wilson’s interactions led to, “You should tell Cuddy how you feel,” for instance. It was the elephant in the room, and I am satisfied that the reality of Huddy is far more entertaining than the buildup to Huddy.
Erik, I think a lot of the problem for those of us who are “anti-Huddy” is that the “alienating viewers” part has already been done. You can’t put toothpaste back in the tube, and it sounds to me as if that’s what the writers are going to try and do. If they had wanted to make Huddy (I hate that word, but I’ll use it anyway) believable to people like me who weren’t sailing any ships, they could have done without all the stupidity, like stink bombs and tripwires. I also object to all the obvious anvils that have clobbered us the past two seasons, such as having random patients and SWAT personnel tell us that Cuddy loves House or vice-versa. And then there is the constantly fluctuating time line and the obvious ret-conning of House’s past history, such as passing over House’s five years of living with Stacy, and the five years that he mourned her departure. Those are TEN years of House’s life that have now been conveniently blipped over because we are now TOLD that House and Cuddy have been pining away for each other all these years, yet that is not evident in any of the early seasons of House! Watching the first two seasons of House, you will not see any kind of hint that these two have a back story. Sexual tension, yes, I understand that. He has that with other women as well. Hugh Laurie could have chemistry with a tree stump.
Once the writers made Thirteen and her many problems the main focus for half a season, I was completely turned off the character. She was ruined for me forever. That is how I feel about Huddy, and unfortunately, that is how I feel about Cuddy as well. I think Cuddy was a great tertiary figure when she was the boss and had some degree of snarky control over House. Putting her character front-and-center is far, far more Cuddy than I care to see.
I loved this show when it was about doctors BEING doctors. Now it is about doctors PLAYING doctor. It concerns me when 98% of the spoilers coming out about this show have to do with Huddy. Stunt casting will not bring me back, and that pretty much makes up the other 2% of what this show is promising this season. And as thrilled as I am about the absence of Thirteen, I know she is coming back, so I’m not going to get my hopes up that we are finally rid of her. No doubt the writers are hastily concocting a miracle cure for her as we speak.
I appreciate your review, but an episode of Huddy is more than I can stomach, let alone an entire season.
I’ll be so interested to see if the ratings for House plus Huddy go up while the ratings for Bones minus any B&B action go down. I’m all for adult relationships on t.v. that actually follow a reasonably progressive arc. Huddy has been on again/off again for years but as a couple they aren’t the center of the show. I’m excited to finally see them together and hope the producers keep them there.
Anna: I think your criticism is 100% warranted, and a thoughtful representation of what loyal viewers have felt about the “hit over the head” nature of the House/Cuddy dynamic over the past two seasons. I cannot pinpoint exactly when the “House puts all his eggs in the Cuddy basket” approach began, but my best guess is following Amber’s death. Since that twist, the character of House has been searching for what Wilson was able to have, a steady female companion. That’s not a defense of the direction since, merely a theory.
EL: As a picky TV viewer myself, I am fascinated by the mainstream audience for primetime. They flock to love triangles, breakups, and Kate Gosselin, missing out on an avalanche of well-written, well-executed shows. I loved your question about House ratings vs. Bones ratings, and we’ll discover the answer very soon.
Thanks, Erik, for your reply. If you could bear with me a moment longer, I’d like to add a bit more. First and foremost, I no longer trust the writers to deliver a believable story line. One episode that horrifies me in particular is “Last Resort,” where a man held House and Thirteen hostage. It was over-the-top and ludicrous, and it seemed as if the goal of the writer was to tell the viewer that Thirteen wanted to live (yawn) and that Cuddy had a “thing” for House. Wilson – his best friend – showed no concern whatsoever, nor did Chase, because the goal was to show that CUDDY was concerned about House. Watch out for that anvil!!!
I also dislike the interchangeable character traits that are given to fit a certain situation, even though it doesn’t fit to what we already know about a character. For example, in order to show Cuddy that he had another side, House manipulated a situation to where Lucas revealed that House was a college cheerleader. House? A college cheerleader? What the heck?? A man who, by his own words, has been alienating people since he was a child, was a college cheerleader? This makes no sense! In the very first episode of the series, we are introduced to House and Wilson as they walked down a hallway together. Right from that first scene, it is revealed that House is self-conscious about his limp. Yet, this same man donned a ridiculous looking foppish 1780’s outfit to wear on a dance floor while reminiscing with Cuddy about the good old college days in one of the most unbelievable retcons in the show’s history. Who is this man? And then there’s Cameron… They got rid of her by TELLING us (not SHOWING us) that she was irreparably damaged. I guess I must have missed a few episodes somehow. This kind of convenience writing compromises the integrity of this show, in my opinion.
I feel as if I have been manipulated – if not downright bashed over the head – over the past few years to believe (or expected to believe) that House loves Cuddy, and that he thinks of her as some kind of “reward” for being “good.” This schmoopy behavior would have merited House’s deepest scorn if Wilson had been the one to think of Cuddy as a reward. If the show was trying to tell us that House lusts after Cuddy, I’d say they accomplished that very well, but since we saw how House acts while in love during the Stacy arc, I would never have said that House had those kinds of feelings for Cuddy. Of course, the importance of Stacy seems to have been conveniently nullified, so that’s probably a moot point.
And then there is Cuddy herself, a character that has changed the most over the years, and I don’t mean in a good way. What kind of woman would take the verbal abuse, scorn, ridicule, and outright disrespect that House has shown to her over the years, AND allowed him to encourage his team to show the same level of disrespect to her? Remember the horrid “Bring me the thong of Lisa Cuddy?” She has a child now, and let’s not forget the implausible event that brought Rachel to Cuddy as an infant. Totally unbelievable. What on earth would a woman with a child want with an unstable, disrespectful, drug-addicted alcoholic like House? And I don’t understand why an actress would allow her character to become the weekly T & A show if we are supposed to take Cuddy seriously.
In my opinion, this show does not do arcs well. Vogler, Stacy, Tritter, the Survivor game – they all went on too long. I’m already tired of Cuddy, and the spoilers are indicating that there is no end in sight.
I’m sorry for the overlong venting. I will be quiet now.
I will not tune into House again as longs as it is Huddy MD, and I won’t even bother to comment more than that. Just a short note because of something I noticed. You need to be careful with sentences like “Will I like the show as much with Hugh Laurie & Lisa Edelstein together as I did when they were apart?” It’s not Hugh Laurie and Lisa Edelstein but House and Cuddy. Huge difference. Don’t fuel the insane HuLi shippers even more, they are crazy enough already.
PS: one more thing. Anna, I totally agree with you, couldn’t have said it any better.
Ever heard the saying “To each their own”? Some of the comments on this review are living proof of that, as people clearly only see what they want to see and state their opinions as if they were facts.
Having said that, I appreciated this review very much ( Q & A are always much more objective than the long boring crap that tells you nothing) and I thank you for making me even more excited for the season premiere later tonight.
So this review gives me hope, specially coming from someone who wasn’t necessarily a fan of the Huddy build up. I’ve read nothing but positive encouraging reviews for tonight’s premiere and I couldn’t be more excited even if I tried.
“Watching the first two seasons of House, you will not see any kind of hint that these two have a back story.”
Vogler, anyone? You clearly didn’t watch the first season then, did you? Either you didn’t, or you simply chose to ignore facts that were there because you, as someone else have mentioned, only see what you want to see – which is blatantly obvious given some of your opions regarding that matter.
Sure, the “Huddy” build up went from fun to annoying, to ridiculous and to I can’t take this anymore in 2 seasons, but then again, that’s what happens when it takes them THAT long to get there. They should have had the balls a while ago. It’s what nearly ruined ‘House’ for me (I quit last season, but am willing to give it another try) and what pretty much already ruined Bones for me. I don’t know if it’s because I’m a guy, but I personally can’t stand “Will they/Won’t they” relationships. It gets on my nerves fairly quickly.
I too have only read good things about House and Cuddy getting together that are pretty encouraging. I can only hope it’s worth the stress of the horrible dreadful build up.
Erik, I think that it’s too late to start worrying about alienating viewers, that’s exactly what producers have been doing since season 4.
Brian, I most definitely watched the Vogler arc, and the first two seasons many, many times, as those are my favorite seasons of House. Vogler asked Cuddy if she was sleeping with House, or had slept with him in the past. Vogler also told Chase that House had “a thing for Cameron.” You can’t pick and choose what you want to believe if you are going to use Vogler as an example. Either Vogler has some good insight or he doesn’t. If he does have good insight, then I believe House must have been exhibiting feelings for Cameron as well.
If you watched the Stacy arc, did you get the feeling that Cuddy had feelings for House? I didn’t. Cuddy seemed exasperated that Stacy had slept with House; she didn’t appear to be jealous in any way. Cuddy also was happy when House was going out with Cameron in Season 1. I would have expected displays of jealousy if she had loved House or had slept with him in the past. I agree with Erik’s comment in an earlier post that focus on this particular relationship did not begin until after Amber’s death. In the earlier seasons, a case could be made that House was interested in Cameron at one point. Wilson seemed to think so. And then there are those people who thought that House and Wilson had something going on as well. I remember Hugh Laurie joking about all those “ships” when he was on “Inside the Actor’s Studio.” For myself, I liked that House was a loner.
As for “facts” vs “opinions,” I have tried to sprinkle my posts with enough “in my opinion” comments to make it clear that I am not trying to post my comments as facts. As an educator, I know the difference between opinions and facts, and I also know that saying “in my opinion” every other sentence should not be necessary on a forum such as this one.
I’m game. I’ll definitely tune in tonight, even cancelled a night out with co-workers.
Anna, I respectfully disagree. Voglers implications towards Cuddy were in the past tense “But you did, right? A long time ago?”. I’ve been on this business long enough to realize such implication is actually meant to, well, mean something within the narrative. Cuddy’s expressions – or lack thereof – were pretty telling, in my opinion. But then again, unlike you and your early impressions, I knew these two would get together from the get go and I know quite a lot of people feel the same way. The storyline isn’t any less valid or important because you feel contrary to it or simply don’t feel it. Cameron’s infatuation with House in my opinion was never anything other than a plot device that played itself out – which turned out to be the case. And I’m in no way denying that House has had feelings for Cameron.
As for Cuddy’s feelings for House during the Stacy arc? Um, yes, it was very much there. The difference (and the main issue here) is that she wasn’t in love with him back then – which is something that didn’t start kicking in until at least mid season 3, and went full force after Amber’s death. House and Cuddy had a one night stand in college! People move on. It was never a matter of “they’ve had feelings for each other all along” and your so called ret-conning. I honestly never saw any indication of that whatsoever on the show, but then again, our views regarding the characters feelings for one another contrasting to what the writers were trying to envision clearly differ.
As someone else previously mentioned, to each their own.
May I jump in? I don’t think there is a right or wrong here. Ultimately, we all see things differently and have our own expectations. I leaning towards agreeing with Brian here, mostly because I never saw any indication of ret-conning whatsoever on the show, and I watched every single episode this show has ever produced, including the dreadful season 6.
I also agree that while I saw hints of House and Cuddy becoming an item from day one, I never believed Cuddy had real feelings for him until mid season 3 ( Ibelieve it was during her date with the lube guy in which he said something like “You should hear yourself when you’re talking to him. Nothing else in the world is going on”) but back then, Cuddy was still in denial mode about her feelings – which didn’t surface until end of season 4 and exploded within season 5. House was a late bloomer on this one. It surfaced in season 5 and exploded in season 6. I see nothing wrong with the narrative there either, but I guess it depends on how you view it – and, again – or what are your expectations.
I think House and Cuddy being together is actually going to revitalize the show. God knows I couldn’t stand the will they/won’t they and House being miserable and emo all the time. I’m all for character development and growth, and I think this is the perfect chance to get to know the character of Gregory House more. You mileage may very, of course.
Just my 2 cents.
I love reading everyone’s opinion on this. Frankly, while I don’t necessarily agree with Anna, I understand her point of view. And I know she’s not alone. The only thing one can conclude is that if people feel so strongly about it one way or another it’s because the storyline wasn’t so well executed as some may think. Then again, I feel that producers love some controversy and they do it on purpose. I remember Greg Yaitanes once said that they’d only get worried once people would stop raving about it, whether negative or positive. I don’t think it’s worth the stress.
I’ve had issues with the show in the past (I also quit watching end of S5) but I also agree that House and Cuddy being together is a chance this show needs to get things moving. And I hope to GOD they never break up, because if I have to deal with the angst and drama and childish games again, I might quit for good.
I appreciate everyone’s comments and respectful disagreement.
I wasn’t a Stacy fan, but I was sold on the idea that House loved her very much. Seeing the way House has treated Cuddy over the years and the pranks she played on him as well has turned me against this pairing, so perhaps my mind is too dead set against it at this point. I feel as if Cuddy has been changed too much to make her a viable partner for House, and that’s where I feel part of the “ret-con” has taken place. I don’t think the Cuddy of the latter seasons is the same as the Cuddy of the first two seasons; and I feel that House has been changed as well. I can’t imagine the House of the first few seasons believing in a “reward” for being “good,” or finding pain relief from ibuprofen. I also have an issue with the way that Wilson seems to be conveniently out of the picture when House is at his lowest points. But, that’s my problem, I suppose.
Oh well. I’m happy for those of you who have looked forward to this. Even though I can’t change my mind on this, I’m definitely not going to try and change the mind of anyone else!
It’s ok, Anna. I mean, as long as we all respect each others opinions – which is something you hardly ever see online, it’s all interesting conversation. I understand your point of view completely and would even agree that Cuddy’s feelings for House changed her for the worse, however, I’d say that it also humanizes her character, which, to me is refreshing, because I found her so one dimensional in earlier seasons.
I also absolutely loved House and Stacy together. They were my first and one real House “ship”. Now, it’s important to point out that House changed after his leg, so much that he and Stacy broke up for good. I’d imagine the infarction played into his relationship with Cuddy, so I don’t think it’s fair comparison. He shut people down and pushed them away. And I think it’s poignant that Cuddy was there all along. However, I’ve only read amazing things about their relationship in S7, I even read critics saying it’s GASP mature. If it’s anything like his relationship with Stacy, then I’m set.
@Brian, @ Anna, et all. I really hope you will bring these kind of insightful comments to our weekly HOUSE episode discussions.
I don’t believe it. House is now nothing but a soap opera. The reason why women watch House is because House is the cad that every woman sees something good in him that she can bring out if only he would let he while men watch House because he does everything that they would do if they could get away with it. Since I am a male fan of House the series now has become nothing but what could be classified as being a “chick flick” for the small screen. I for one will watch the next few episodes to see where the show is headed. But if it continues as it is now, I for one will turning my attention to another subject.