Dr. House is back without the Vicodin, but he still has the same attitude. If the first episode of House is any sign of things to come, he is definitely not the same House.
Within the first three minutes of the episode, it became blatantly obvious that the show was entering new territory. The usual opening montage and theme music was gone and replaced with a drawn out sequence of House's drug withdrawal.
It was also missing the opening sequence in which the patient is introduced in a chaotic manner. In fact, there was no patient. There were none of the regular characters.
There was only House and this gave us a deeper look into the reason why the show became so popular in the first place: Hugh Laurie.
Laurie shined in this episode. He brought the character back to life and revived the show after five seasons of the same format.
Touching, insightful, and all around emotionally and psychologically driven, the episode definitely had a One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest vibe.
At the end of last season, House began a drug detox program at the Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital in an attempt to get the Vicodin out of his system and control his hallucinations.
After he got clean, House attempted to leave the hospital, but was forced into staying by his psychiatrist (Andre Braugher, The Mist) who agrees to write a recommendation to reinstate Houses' medical license only if he stays for further psychiatric treatment.
Once he agreed to stay, he was moved to a different ward of the hospital and begins to develop loose relationships with his roommate Alvie (Lin-Manuel Miranda), and Lydia (Franka Potente, Che: Part Two), a frequent visitor of one of the other patients on the ward.
At first, House uses his usual brand of sarcasm and intellect to rebel against the doctors and staff, but after his actions cause a traumatic event, he folds and stops fighting the system.
This begins an epic transformation for House. His hard outer shell begins to melt away. The moment of House's epiphany displays Laurie's brilliance in full force as he manages to gain our sympathy while still being a complete jerk in the process.
The second half of the episode explores House's transformation, which begins with him telling his doctor that he is 'sick of being miserable.'
The episode is full of touching and emotional scenes that are a far cry from the usual House format. The scene in which House and his doctor have their first therapy session is particularly telling.
House explains his fear of losing his edge as a doctor by taking psychiatric medications, but also the contradiction with his desire to get better.
The romance between House and Lydia is surprisingly touching, while short-lived. The love scene between the two characters is the moment where House moves into a completely new direction. The audience even sees him cry, something that he has never come close to doing in any of the previous five seasons of the show.
With such a drastic shift away from the typical House format, there is sure to be backlash from the die-hard fans of the brilliant curmudgeon. However, these fans should be comforted to see that all the wit and sarcasm that makes House a unique show still remains.
There are several moments throughout the episode that are distinctly House, including a scene in which House antagonizes the patients of the asylum during a game of basketball.
Everything that viewers have come to expect from House was present in this premiere episode. The wit and sarcasm. The emotion. The intensity.
What's different is that viewers get to see a new side of House and if the first episode is indicative of the rest of the season, it should be the beginning of some exciting changes.
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