Minor spoilers for this week’s episode of House, “9 to 5,” follow.
On the one hand, I liked this week’s episode of House, but on the other hand, I felt manipulated into caring about a situation that wasn’t relevant (and moreover was populated with secondary characters we’ll never see again and problems that are unlikely to ever recur), just so the writers could force me to care about a character who’s become increasingly marginal and, to some large extent, a genuine problem for the show. I like Lisa Edelstein, and I think the character of House does need some kind of foil, but the show has spent an awful lot of energy trying to convince me that Lisa Cuddy is interesting beyond that role, and I have to say I’m just not buying it.
The constant reminders that Cuddy was a woman were unnecessary, given her current predilection for distracting low-cut tops, and also had an unfortunate tendency to remind the audience that, at this point, Cuddy’s major character trait is that she’s a single mom with a high level job. I wanted to like “5 to 9” more, and if I had to go out on a limb, I’d say I’m probably going to get criticized for not embracing it as much as I did “Wilson,” but distracting us isn’t the same as fixing a problem. It works for a little while, but when House comes back next week, Lucas will still be Lucas, and Cuddy will still be playing Den Mother. Who cares?