When Did House Jump the Shark?

The producers of House have announced that this will be the the Fox medical drama’s last season. For my money it can’t happen too soon. It’s becoming increasingly clear that the network, writers, and cast have lost interest in the program. Why should the audience be any different?

Here’s a rule of thumb for determining whether a television series has passed its prime: if this season had been the first season would it have had a second season?

House has always been a formula show. Here’s the formula. The diagnostic team, through a series of misdiagnoses, between the diagnostic tests and the mistaken therapies darned near kill the patient. Eventually the correct diagnosis is stumbled upon (usually by Greg House). Patient saved. Lot of snotty comments by House. There have been some deviations from the formula but that’s about it.

What could otherwise have been unwatchable has been made engaging by Hugh Laurie’s vivid characterization of Dr. Greg House. Brilliant, infuriating, wounded. I think that for the last several seasons, Hugh Laurie has been holding the show together, as Mary McNamara of the LA Times put it, “by sheer force of will”. The series has jumped the shark.

When did House jump the shark? I think it was during season season three, the season in which David Morse had a recurring role as a cop, Javert to House’s Jean Valjean. Supporting evidence is the cast change in season four. Cast change is one of the warning signs of jumping the shark.

It was a great series but IMO is great no longer. Wrap the show up, give it some resolution. At this point Hugh Laurie is rich, probably beyond his wildest imaginings. I suspect he won’t return to series television but stick with live performance, either the theater or music.

33 comments… add one
  • Icepick Link

    What you describe were signs of erosion, not jumping the shark. Jumping the shark occurred when House entered rehab and then was allowed to practice medicine again in exactly the same manner he had before. Jumping the shark was driving his car into Cutty’s living room and essentially getting away with it.

  • Another show I’ve never seen. I hardly watch any TV though.

  • Icepick Link

    Probably the best policy, Andy. If you felt a hankering to watch the show, you can get DVDs of the first season or two. No reason to go past those two, really. There’s good stuff after that, but also a lot of filler.

    For those of us that do watch episodic TV, this is a Golden Age not because of the programming, but because of the technology. DVRs make watching TV shows a breeze – I only watch sports and news live these days. If I were more disciplined I might even watch sports using the DVR, but given that my favorite sport is football and I usually am following multiple games at once ….

  • Maxwell James Link

    I suspect it will also be on Netflix streaming again sometime soon. I haven’t seen House much, but what I have seen was quite enjoyable. In my view most successful shows go on far too long, and it sounds like it’s past time for them to wrap things up.

  • Icepick Link

    Shows worth watching these days:

    Fringe: It’s having a brilliant last season. Kind of like LOST, but less confusing. (Still confusing, but less so.) Plus Anna Torv is amazing.

    Castle: As fun as it gets right now.

    Hawaii Five-O: Not great, but entertaining. And there’s bingo! Really, the show is a bit beyond ridiculous, but it’s a good oportunity to turn off one’s brain and just go with it.

    Ninja Warrior: The 27 season is currently airing, and NW is ALWAYS good!

    Person of Interest: This shows has the two most interesting voices to listen to, amongst other things. Part James Bond, part cop show, all paranoid conspiracy mongering.

    Burn Notice: The show that demonstrates the counter-serveillance capabilities of sex toys. No, really!

  • Icepick Link

    Oh, and the series of new SHERLOCK movies airing on PBS (I believe it will resume shortly) are well worth the time.

    “Bored.”
    BLAM!
    “Bored!”
    BLAM! BLAM!
    “BORED!”
    BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

    There were three in the first run and I believe there are to be three or four this time. A first rate job of bringing the Sherlock Holmes stuff into the 21 century. Not QUITE as good as Neil Gaiman’s story bringing the Sherlock Holmes mythos into the Great Old Ones Cthulhu mythos, but pretty close!

  • michael reynolds Link

    I have a theory about series — TV, books, doesn’t matter — that they can’t sustain past 5 seasons. The writers get bored, you run out of plots, and you can’t squeeze any more juice out of character development.

    The good thing about series is that you can go deep on character. The bad thing is you’ve gone deep on character and there’s nothing more to learn. These last couple of seasons of House it was clear they were played out, and this season is just embarrassing.

    After 5 you should walk before they make you run. ANIMORPHS: 1996-2001 and we walked away. With GONE I’m stretching to six and probably should have stuck to my 5 year rule. BZRK is three years and out.

  • Ben Wolf Link

    Feels surreal to read this sort of thing when one hasn’t had television for many years.

  • Never saw the program air on television, though one of my kids had the first couple of seasons on DVD: Hugh Laurie was superb.

  • Maxwell James Link

    Michael – I think it depends on the genre – comedies and mysteries, especially, seem to have longer half-lives than others, perhaps because of their repetitive, episodic nature. It took the Simpsons 2-3 years just to become good, and it had an impressively long peak before turning into the endless, joyless abscess it is today.

    But as for most serial dramas, or fantasy/scifi? Yeah, 5 seasons/installments is probably about right. And less for most – I could have done entirely without the pathetic Star Wars prequels.

  • I think the BBC’s television reboot of Sherlock Holmes is the most creative thing I’ve seen in years. It isn’t common that an update gives you new insight into the original but that’s definitely the case here.

    The next season is practically the only thing I’m really looking forward to on TV.

  • Icepick Link

    Maxwell, the really bad thing aobut the SW prequels is that they had thte potential to be decent, if not good. In fact, the second version of The Phantom Edit comes close to be a good movie just by cutting the crap content.

    As for length, it does depend on the show. Other shows that were good over an extended period would include Cheers and Law & Order.

    OTOH the Five Year Rule would have seriously improved the avergae quality of a lot of shows. I’m thinking of Night Court and Buffy the Vampire Slayer in particular. NC lost its edge when Rheinhold Weege left the show, and Buffy’s last two seasons (six and seven) were not good.

    We know something else from this thread: Michael Reynolds apparently isn’t tight with George RR Martin. Dammit. I’m just hoping Martin leaves behind a detailed outline in case he dies before finishing Ice & Fire….

  • Icepick Link

    I’d buy the five year rule in general, but sometimes it takes awhile for a show to get going. The first couple of seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation were crappy. That show didn’t get good until the third season, and maintained its quality (for what it was) pretty much through to the end.

  • Icepick Link

    Another plus for Sherlock: Benedict Cumberbatch has the best male actor name in the business.

  • I have a theory about series — TV, books, doesn’t matter — that they can’t sustain past 5 seasons.

    I think it’s actually closer to three or four. It’s the rare writer/organization that can sustain the interest longer than that (Bellisario is, I think, one of the rare exceptions). Let me give an interesting example using a long-lived show as a test case.

    M*A*S*H was on for eleven seasons but that’s misleading. The series actually rebooted several times. M*A*S*H 1, like the book and movie it was based on, was a pretty standard service comedy as they’d evolved by the early 1970s. It lasted three years. Then they rebooted the series as a dramedy and that incarnation, M*A*S*H 2, lasted another five years or so, essentially until Gary Burghoff, the only movie cast member who made it into the TV show, left. Despite the record-breaking last episode and a few good episodes M*A*S*H 3, a sort of experimental drama, was a mess. Tremendously good, moving, innovative episodes were intermingled with episodes in which the cast walked through the episode. Had it premiered on its own in 1980 there’s no way that M*A*S*H 3 would have survived.

    That’s sort of like the transition between All in the Family (which experienced a similar series of transitions) and Archie Bunker’s Place. They had a common character/cast member but they weren’t the same show.

  • Maxwell James Link

    Icepick – agreed on all counts (and also thirded on Sherlock, a wonderful show if a bit uneven IMO). Another long-running show that has not entirely lost its mojo is Agatha Christie’s Poirot, at least if you’re into that sort of thing (which I am).

    On the other hand, the list of shows and book series which would be improved by the five year (or less) rule is almost impossibly vast.

    As for Martin, he’s not an outliner from what I hear. I’m hoping that the HBO show will put the fear of getting passed in him, or finish the thing well if he doesn’t.

  • Icepick Link

    Speaking of Bellisario, Magnum P.I. was a show that lasted exactly the right length. That show never rebooted, but it did play with continuity in interesting ways, though I’m not sure how many people noticed.

  • Icepick Link

    I’m hoping that the HBO show will put the fear of getting passed in him, or finish the thing well if he doesn’t.

    Good luck with that!

    I’m still pissed off about the Martin thing. About three years ago my wife and I decided to swap books with each other – each would recommend something outside the other’s usual reading habits. I recommended Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, the HC version having about 380 pages. She recommended A Game of Thrones, which has about twice as many pages and kicks off a series of an unknown number of books. GRRR. I’m not reading anything she recommends to me again, unless I know (a) all sequels have been written, and (b) the author is dead.

  • Icepick Link

    Maxwell, does the unevenness of Sherlock have to do with the third installment? I’m just curious. I know my wife didn’t much like the end of it.

  • That’s why I mention Bellisario. Magnum lasted 11 8 seasons, Quantum Leap 5, Jag 10, and NCIS is in its 9th season. Magnum never rebooted. Quantum Leap stayed within Michael’s five year limit and quit just at the right time. Jag rebooted at least once.

    NCIS, one of the small number of series shows I watch faithfully, has rebooted several times. Interestingly, the first reboot was in the first season, just a bit after the initial episode buy. The second time was after Season 3, then again at the end of Season 5 (which I didn’t much care for). It’s gotten better after each reboot. I think they’re teasing us now. This season would be a good time to call it quits but they may string us along for one more season.

  • Mike Link

    When?
    When House went to prison, but got out.
    Come ON.

  • Icepick Link

    Magnum only had eight seasons.

  • Maxwell James Link

    Icepick – in short, yes. I thought it was mostly good but that they tried to cram far too much into it.

  • You’re right. I stand corrected.

  • PD Shaw Link

    I was going to make Dave’s point about several versions of M*A*S*H*, but also emphasize, like Cheers, new solid cast members created new stories. (I watched a couple of episodes of the Sheenless 2 1/2 Men; this doesn’t always work)

    Shows with kids always have longevity problems. Sometimes, they try to bring in replacement kids, which I’ve never seen work.

  • I watched a couple of episodes of the Sheenless 2 1/2 Men; this doesn’t always work

    Not to mention that there’s one proven, surefire way of ensuring that the cast change doesn’t work: when the new cast member is Ted McGinley. I wonder if the years to come will see Ashton Kutcher as a Ted McGinley for the 21st century.

  • PD Shaw Link

    I forgot about Ted; boy Happy Days went to Hell when Ron Howard left.

    Happy Days was also a series of shows. The first two seasons focussed on Richie and was more of a dramedy. Single camera production.

    Season three shifted to a live studio audience and became a children’s show about the Fonz.

    Ron Howard left at the end of season seven, and there were four awful seasons.

  • I remember Hugh Laurie from Blackadder.

    I thought the series jumped the shark when he was in that bus accident with the other doctor’s fiancee. My husband watched the show, and I checked in occasionally.

    That’s when it stopped being about “doctoring” and started focusing on his his drug addiction. Drug addicts, like alcoholics, are ultimately boring, charming as they can be.

  • Erin Link

    First I think “jumping the shark” is an overused and ultimately pointless expression that surely should not be put in the same sentence as House. Hugh Laurie’s portrayal of House has been brilliant, and force of will or not, and I doubt we will likely see such depth and complexity of character on network television again for a long time. Hugh Laurie, no matter what House has gone through made me believe. I doubt I will find an actor who can play both the comedic and dramatic with such perfection.

  • Blake Link

    It was in season 5 in the beginning scene of “Here Kitty”. What do I win?

  • Anglebane Link

    Season 5 Episode 18

  • Alasdair Link

    How about lungs in a box breathing on a machine…really? The “dean” of medicine getting house out of jail? House getting Vicodin in jail? Plus all the other reasons you said. Im cringing but now i cant stop watching because i have to see how it ends…sigh its aweful. Crushing a wonderful show for greed. So sad. Reminds of the Super Bowl.

  • Seddon Link

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