Spoilers for tonight's "House" coming up just as soon as I buy some argyle socks...I talked a lot in last week's column about the "House" tradition of bringing in a very special guest star to shake up House's life for part of each season, and while some people liked, say, Sela Ward better than others, I can't imagine that any of the previous instigators combined were as polarizing as Michael Weston's going to be as quirky private eye Lucas. My guess is either you loved him or can't wait until he's off the show, whether to the hoped-for spin-off or just to oblivion.
To my surprise, I find myself in the "loved" group. Usually, I can't stand characters who are a collection of colorful tics -- see virtually every David E. Kelley show going back at least to "Ally McBeal" -- and I also have bad memories of Weston from his brief "Six Feet Under" stint, yet his underplaying of the quirk really endeared Lucas to me. I'm kind of flummoxed by this, and would not be surprised at all if I want to throw a shoe at the TV by his next appearance, but I liked him here. The biggest problem I've had by far with the previous Special Guests is that they weren't funny (the cop in particular), which made any interaction with House a lopsided fight. Lucas and House aren't antagonists, but he's still not a regular presence in House's life, and the fact that Weston has various amusing things to do makes him click with Hugh Laurie far better than the previous visitors.
(The real shame of it is the Chi McBride character. As anyone who watches "Pushing Daisies" knows, McBride can be insanely funny if allowed to. But he had to clench for his entire stint as the rich guy who wanted House to cure cancer, or else.)
"Not Cancer" was notable not only for having House actually hire a professional (at great expense to someone, if not himself) to do the break-ins for once, but also for having such a complicated case -- or, at least, such an overpopulated one. Sure, Felicia Day(*) was the only surviving patient by the time we were halfway through the episode, but there were still so many moving parts, and so many facts to be considered about the various dead patients, that it started to feel as tough to follow as certain "Shield" plots.
(*) Will anyone who watched "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" be able to look at Day and not think of Penny? Also, please be careful with the "Dr. Horrible" spoilers in the comments, for the benefit of anyone who might be waiting for the DVD.
What did everybody else think?
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