DVD Reviews

DVD Review: House, M.D. – Season Four

By Patrick Luce Aug 18, 2008, 12:12 GMT

Dr. House is back for another season of insulting the patients, other doctors, and pretty much anyone else he runs across.

This season sees his world shaken up as he is forced to find a new team, deal with his best friend having a girlfriend, and those pesky medical emergencies that seem to always interrupt his television soaps.

The show’s creators really turn the show over this season by literally flooding it with new characters. With the departure of Dr. Eric Foreman (Omar Epps), Dr. Allison Cameron (Jennifer Morrison), and Dr. Robert Chase (Jesse Spencer) at the end of Season Three, House (Hugh Laurie) finds himself all alone in his department – which suits him just fine. Unfortunately, his boss, Dr. Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein), demands he find a new team and get back to work actually helping patients. House puts the process off for as long as he can, but then stumbles onto the idea of having his own reality show.He then hires about 35 doctors to work as his team and throughout the season slowly starts firing people. His way of firing often is a satire of one of the many reality series that flood television. House spends the closing of each episode handing out roses, or extinguishing the voted out doctor’s torch. Of course, he also fires just about anyone he deems has failed one of his competitions – such as washing his car.This revolving cast keeps the season fresh and gives House chances to interact with more doctors than the just the standard three member team of the past three seasons. Naturally, Foreman, Cameron, and Chase all end up back at the hospital. Cameron works in the emergency room and Chase in surgery.

This gives the two characters a chance to interact with House and his new team. Foreman discovers his time with House has made it impossible to get hired by any other hospital, and rejoins House’s team – reluctantly. Slowly but surely, the group of 35 is whittled down to 3 (I won’t say who they are because that was half of the fun of the season), and they have to learn to survive in House’s weird world.Also thrown into the mix, House has to deal with his friend, Dr. James Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) getting a new girlfriend. To make matters worse, she is just like House which leads to all kinds of clashes. This adds some more humor to the show, but the story plays out towards the end of the season.For the most part, Season Four is extremely good, and reminds you why you liked House, M.D. to begin with. The series’ new team of doctors works well with the established cast members and gives the show a fresh face lift. The way the writers worked the new characters into the show is extremely original and bares all of House’s biting wit.

While I liked the season, I HATED the way it ended, and thought the show “jumped the shark” a bit towards the end. It wasn’t enough to keep me from watching Season Five, but it was a big letdown to the good episodes of earlier in the season.The House, M.D. – Season Four DVD set comes loaded with special features. They include a look at House’s favorite television soap; several behind the scenes featurettes, and commentary. The behind the scenes are interesting because the cast talk about how the writers made the season like a reality show with the new actors not knowing when they were going to get the axe, and the final three not knowing they would be added to the show until the end. The actors talk about how the not knowing was stressful, but kept them sharp throughout the season.If you are a fan of House, this season will not let you down, and really revels in what has made the show great. Hugh Laurie once again perfects House’s characteristics and makes him the reason to watch – even though he would probably just insult you for doing it.

House, M.D. – Season Four is now available at Amazon. It is available for pre-order at AmazonUK for an Oct. 27th release. Visit the DVD database for more information.

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TaylorAug 18th, 2008 - 13:18:17

I have to disagree. Season 4 was by far, the WORST of the series of House! They didn't jump the shark at the end, they had jumped the shark right from the beginning of the season, and then replacing the original team with really dumbed down versions of the real thing. The new team that they picked especially one of them is continuously pushed onto our screen and I couldn't care less about her character. I was very disappointed with season 4 seeing as how I loved the previous 3 seasons. I lost interest in season 4 really fast, and wished they included more of Cameron, Chase and Foreman because they were unfairly under-utilised. I for one, am NOT going to buy the Season 4 DVD because I don't think I could relive this nightmare of a season they had given us.

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SaraAug 18th, 2008 - 16:54:53

Agreed.

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BBAug 18th, 2008 - 19:02:17

Season Four was an excellent season and the two-part finale ranks with the finest two hours of television ever. Laurie was solid, brilliant and subtle as he goes from diagnosing himself to discovering who he saw dying and Laurie, Leonard and Dudek are fabulous in the second part. not to be missed!

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Patrick L.Aug 18th, 2008 - 19:12:27

I agree the season needed more Chase, Cameron, and Foreman, and I wondered how they felt about their parts being cut down. Foreman still has a pretty big role, but the other two seem very small. However, I really liked the whole spin on reality shows.

As far as the two-part ender, I liked how they set it up for the Season Five, but I thought the whole hypno/brain surgery/water tank treatment/whatever else was a bit too much. It had nothing to do with Laurie's performance. I also thought those were two of Leonard's best performances since the show started. I also hate that we lost the character since I enjoyed her performance in Season Four.

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