'House' Getting Less Technical and More Emotional

At some point, audiences that tuned in every week to see the twist and turns of the diagnostics department at Princeton-Plainsboro run by a maniacal, vicodin-popping doctor had to ask themselves a question: why do I even care about the characters?

Of course House M.D. is a procedural and people watch the show to see the oddball treatments said doctor derives from a random "moment". Yet personally I find that the best episodes of House are the ones where there is more drama surrounding the main characters rather than their patients (but it is good to have a balance of both).

The show has always been a slow-burn with character development that ultimately does pay off, but with the most recent season the show has taken an interesting turn of events.

(Keep reading after the break, but beware of major spoilers if you haven't kept up!)

Well ever since that amazing 2-hour premiere earlier this year I have had my expectations raised. While episodes like "Epic Fail" were annoying for their stark obedience to formula, others have had a strong balance of the newfound drama in House and the usual bizarre medical case.

A great example of an episode that hits that perfect balance is most certainly "The Tyrant". James Earl Jones (aka Darth Vader) plays the role of a controversial African politician who gets sick and attempts to be treated by the infamous Dr. House...the same House who happened to not have his medical license at the time being. So the huge-on-an-international-level case fell upon the already exasperated Foreman's shoulders. Dibala, the aforementioned dictator, was a fascinating character that was equal parts terrifying and awe-inspiring and James Earl Jones pulled him off flawlessly.

The one character Dibala had the strongest influence over was surprisingly not Foreman and instead Chase. Even though he was the most restrained out of the whole group when they received the case, Chase harbored some strong opinions about Dibala after learning more and more about how he has affected his country's citizens' lives. And then comes a pretty sudden, dark turn for Chase--he kills Dibala and uses Foreman to cover it up.

For the first time ever on House, we see the long term effects of an 'event' case upon the characters involved. Jesse Spencer pulls out his finest performance thus far in the series to accurately portray Chase's inner torment and waits until finally revealing his murder to Cameron. Cameron attempts to blame House, but Chase takes full responsibility for his wrongdoings and because she cannot "fix him", she leaves the team as well as her marriage.

After six years, House still has potential to grow and become a better show. All they have to do is try to hit the right amount of House's main story, all of the side character stories, and the medical cases, but that is no easy task. That said, judging from these first episodes of the season I can easily say that I have faith. This may finally be the year House M.D. gets drowned in Emmys.