House, "5 to 9": Cuddy class

As I've said previously, I've largely given up on writing about "House" because there's no point in my repeating the same complaints week after week after week, but last night's Cuddy-centric episode - like the Wilson-centric one that was the last one I previously wrote about - was of an order of magnitude so much better than most of this season that I felt it deserved mention. Some quick thoughts coming up just as soon as I get a prescription for breast milk...

The basic idea was the same as in "Wilson," which was to show the huge part of this character's life that's unrelated to House, and to show what typical House stories must look like from the perspective of someone not on the team. And even though it was coming relatively close on the heels of "Wilson," I thought the execution was really effective, in part because Lisa Edelstein is really talented (and only occasionally gets to show off that talent), in part because the day-in-the-life structure gave "5 to 9" its own distinct vibe. We got a great sense of just how overburdened Cuddy is as both single mom (even with a nanny and a helpful boyfriend) and administrator at PPTH, let alone how exponentially harder House makes her life just because he can. And I loved the use of two songs by tough female singers of a certain age (The Pretenders' "Break Up the Concrete" and Mary Chapin-Carpenter's "Passionate Kisses") to bookend Cuddy's story.

What episodes like this one, and "Wilson," and "Broken" show is that there are still really strong elements to this series. I'm just tired of the formula, and too much of this season has been hardcore formula.

I'll still watch it (or have it on in the background) most weeks, but until they go off-format again, or find some way to do a transcendent formula episode, it's back to not writing about the show again. But kudos on a job very well done last night.

What did everybody else think?