tv: Tonight House had its series finale after eight long years on the air. The show has been marked by consistency. A consistency in the format of the show with the super-doctor, Gregory House, solving cases that would mystify lesser mortals. A consistency in the rationality of its philosophy. A consistency in the stellar performance by Hugh Laurie as House. These are things that made it a hit. These are the things that won it recognition. These are the things that will keep a favorite of viewers of syndication and on Netflix for years to come.
The end of the series brought much more than that consistency out of the show and out of its actors. It also brought more out of the story of House than anything we had ever seen. Towards the end of the series (its final eight episodes or so) the show broke format from its typical case of the week stories with underlying stories dealing with the characters to tell one singular story. That story became that of House's best friend James Wilson, played always brilliantly but yet underapreciatedly by Robert Sean Leonard. About eight or ten episodes before the end of the series Wilson was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Not only was this devastating to House but also hugely ironic as he has been the head of the oncology department at the hospital the two work at for the duration of the show. Not to mention the fact that of the two Wilson has been the more virtuous, making his character less likely in typical situations to be the one to meet an untimely end.
This story ended up, however, being the perfect choice. The effect of Wilson's mortality on House, as his only friend, was a total joy to watch. Seeing someone both struggle through the tragedy of losing their best friend while reveling in their presence portrayed a true friendship. The effect on the character of Wilson was pretty awesome to watch as well. Watching a man be diagnosed with the illness he has spent his life treating was quite a fascinating turn for Wilson. His denial and sense of irony and awareness of the pain he was going to go through in his final few months made for a truly heartfelt and brilliant portrayal by Leonard.
In the end House's practice takes a back seat to his friendship. The cases still exist for no better reason than that that is what the show is. But these cases are no longer what is meant to be interesting. Where we were once hanging on the tension of diagnosis from House and his team, it no longer really seemed to matter. As it became less important to House what was going on in the hospital, so it became less important to the viewer. What was important was his friend.
Let it not be understated how rare that friendship is. There may not be a true lifelong friendship between grown adult men portrayed on television the way we have seen with House and Wilson. Eight years of the two of them playing pranks and helping at work and through brutal relationship problems and trying to figure out how to deal with each other as polar opposites that balance each other perfectly. And that friendship, the one stable relationship in the title character's life, was what should have been brought to the foreground at the end of the series. The one lasting relationship throughout the series. The relationship between friends. And what better way to bring the most out of it than by dealing with death and loss? Through that experience their friendship is amplified to the point that you see a true love between these two men. Not a romantic love, but the love of friends.
The story takes a somewhat unexpected turn in the final episode that makes the episodes leading up to it more the emotional high point of the show than the finale itself. It is, however, ultimately satisfying and fulfilling.
It would be unfair to not be impressed by the run House had and the job its actors and writers have done. Sure it seemed like it was always Lupus, but it was still fun to watch. And despite all the snarkiness and abrasiveness, it was, in the end, about something as important as the rare diseases House investigated. It was about friends.
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