House Season Premiere Review

Top left: House & Wilson chatting at the top of Janns Steps. Top right: Foreman, Cameron & House discussing the patient with Powell Library in the background. Bottom left: Foreman & Cameron with the Humanities Building behind them. Bottom right: House & Powell in back.
Photos from Fox website.



Well the EXCLUSIVE scoop I gave was a gross exaggeration.

An UCLA-centric view of the episode:

I had no idea that hours and hours of filming only occupy about a total of 5 minutes on the screen. There were lots of extras and crewmembers the day that I was on the set. The extras spent hours walking at specific times and waiting around and they just became distant blurs in the background. Oh the glamorous life of actors!

House (Hugh Laurie) was running through the hills that of the UCLA campus and up the famous Janns Steps during the night scene. Both of his powwows with Wilson (Sean Robert Leonard) and his team of Cameron (Jennifer Morrison), Chase (Jesse Spencer) and Foreman (Omar Epps) took place in front of the Shapiro Fountain, which is located at the top of the Janns Steps. The fountain is also where House has his epiphany about the patient. The crew added the sculpture and the extra spouts of water for dramatic effect. The buildings that were in the background were the Powell Library, Royce Hall and the Humanities Building.

For those of you who wonder if Hugh Laurie can add great skateboarder to his resume, a stunt skateboarder was used in for some of the scene. Hugh can skateboard and even had some kneepads on under his suit. Some other things you may not have known is that he smokes and he ate a banana in between takes.

During House's solo skateboarding scene, Omar Epps was seen riding a bike around UCLA to get to and from his trailer. His wife was also on the set and sat in his chair during takes. The more delicate Jennifer Morrison and Jesse Spencer had a van take them from the trailer, which they shared. No they aren't sharing to save money, but Jennifer and Jesse are a couple in real life. During rehearsals Jennifer used an umbrella to shield herself from the harsh sun and protect her fair skin. A funny tidbit: Jesse's stand-in was a woman...go figure.

Review

I think I was expecting more from the highly anticipated season premiere. It just wasn’t like the other episodes that we have seen in the past. Perhaps that was the intent of the writers to give a sense of disorientation to the viewers and allow them to adjust to the “new” House just as he was adjusting to his new pain-free leg.

Everything was just off tonight and healed House just is not the same. There were some good laughs that included House’s imitation of the paralyzed guy’s talking and Chase sucking up to House, but his usual hilarious snarky remarks were absent. I am skeptical that his cane will be gone all season, but I can’t wait to see what happens next with New House. How do you think it will take until “This Old House” returns?