I watched every episode of House, all 177 episodes, so I wanted this finale to be good. For all the criticism of the show I’ve had over the years, Hugh Laurie remained steadfastly dedicated to the character and to his acting. Every wince, every movement, every limp was owned by him, and he’s the main reason why I stayed around. But beyond that, I always thought the show had potential as a drama, as the first two seasons and the fourth season finale showed. There were exciting stories in those seasons, when things actually seemed to be on the line, before the later seasons came and the show descended into gimmicks

Even though this final eight season hasn’t been particularly good, I held out hope that the writers would pull out something in the final episode worthy of Hugh Laurie. They didn’t. The first forty minutes of the episode are a flat out embarrassment, with a framing device that would make Glee look subtle. House is hallucinating in this burning building and past characters are showing up to talk to him and guide him through the story of how he got there. It’s blatant fan service at its worst, bringing back random characters to talk to him. So there’s Kutner, Amber, Stacy, then Cameron, and they’re all trying to talk to him and explore his psyche. I’m not sure if it would be possible for any writer to make something successful out of this, but the writing is rubbish, the characters weaseling their way into House’s head with pure sophistry. Do we really need people to lay out, word for word, who House is? While it’s painfully blunt, I wouldn’t have so much problems with this had it not taken up so much time. I kept checking the clock, incredulous that the writers would drag this on for so long, but they did. Then, House somehow comes to a revelation that he should live, fakes his death, listens in on his funeral, rides off with Wilson, and the series is over.

As for the other characters, the patient, and the medicine, those were glossed over as they usually are. The returning characters have about a line each and they don’t even talk to other people. The patient is part of the framing device, so he’s kind of just there to guide House’s flashbacks/storytelling. In the end, House was always a show about House and all attempts to give extra dimensions to the other characters fell to the wayside. The writers got so caught up in exploring House with pure dialogue that there wasn’t anything left in the episode, no meat to backup what was going on.

Am I surprised the finale turned out this way? Kind of. I thought the writers would come up with something meaningful and not stilted. This was there time to shine and prove everyone wrong about the past seasons, but it seems like they either didn’t care or were just lucky in the past.