[The following is part two of an email conversation between Jesse and Jim with our thoughts about the 5th season of "House".  Part one is here. If you have not seen the show, please be aware that there are major spoilers.]

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From: Jim
To: Jesse
Subject: Let's talk story arcs

I'm glad you mentioned the new team, because we NEED to talk about that. So, the fourth season starts, House has little survivor game, and we have a field of candidates that keeps getting narrowed down. This was, unfortunately, shortened by the writer's strike. Anyhoo, House goes through the motions, and picks his team: Taub, Kutner, and 13. As mentioned, Foreman also joins in a supervisory role.

Of the three new cast members, only Taub has really been developed as a character. He gave up a lucrative plastic surgery career because he had an affair with one of the partner's daughters; rather than lose his marriage, he signs a non-compete agreement and goes into real medicine. Taub is well written, and Peter Jacobson does a hell of a job bringing life to the character.

The others? 13 has a fatal disease. Her mom had it too. She's pretty. She likes to sleep around, with both men and women. She goes on a self destructive bent, pulls out of it, and starts dating Foreman. So yeah, a lot of stuff happens to her. But that does not a character make. It seems to me that Olivia Wilde brings absolutely nothing to the table. 13, to me, is boring.

And Kutner. Well, he blew up the OR, almost. He's experimented with drugs. He blew his head off with a pistol. Oh, and Kal Penn is cool. He was played as very bright, almost like a younger version of House. If Kal Penn hadn't been the actor playing this role, I don't know if I would have been remotely interested in his final fate.

There was also Cutthroat Bitch, aka Amber, who was voted off the House island, returned as Wilson's girlfriend, only to die in last season's finale, really as a result of House's actions (not that he killed her, but she was in the wrong place at the wrong time because of him). Would the show have been better if she had been the female team member rather than 13? Well, we would have lost out on a fantastic two-parter to end season 4, at a time when we were all craving more new TV, after the hell that was The Strike.

Let's talk about story arcs. The ones that have been the focus of season 5 have.... how do I put this without using the words "sucked" and "underdeveloped"? The fifth season starts and House and Wilson are not on speaking terms. This is resolved by a road trip to House's father's funeral -- that was, what, the fourth episode? Since then, Wilson has seemed like an afterthought, popping up occasionally, disappearing when he's not needed. During this time, House hired a PI to investigate Wilson. Apparently trying to set up a spin-off for the PI character, this appendix of a storyline died a merciful death.

Then there was Cuddy's baby. Yup, the hot Jewess wanted to mother a spawn, but did not want to lose that tight, tight ass of hers. So let's adopt. She almost had one, but teenage mommy decided to keep it. Finally, in the Christmas Miracle episode, she finds a baby that was born to some 13-year-old-girl and left for dead in an abandoned house. It was being reared by a nice homeless couple, and now she's the adoptive mom. Great. We had about two episodes of Cuddy being a mom, and it's been barely addressed since then.

And those have been the better attempts. Let's talk about the really awful: 2 come to mind. First, the attempt to make Cameron relevant once again. Cuddy is too busy being Miss Mom to babysit House and run the hospital, so she makes Cameron her right-hand woman. This, to me, was a step in the right direction: let's make it make sense to still have Cameron on the show. The problem? This job lasted exactly one episode, never to be mentioned again.

And then House finds a way to stop being in pain. Is he on heroin? NOPE! Methadone, even better. House starts taking the drug, and lo and behold, no pain in his leg. Everyone freaks out: misusing methadone can kill you, House, don't do it! After one episode, House realizes that it's taking his edge away, he's not as good of a doctor as he was, and he decides to go back to the Vicodin.

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From: Jesse
To: Jim
Subject: Was House ever that good to begin with?

Here's where I'm going to have to disagree with you. I agree that the new team is pretty lame; while I actually like Taub and Kutner, 13 is horrible horrible HORRIBLE and has also been the new character with the most screen time. And I agree that the story lines this season have been perfunctory at best (House and Wilson's road trip) and cringe-inducing at worst (anything involving 13).

(Quick side note: I hate that we have to give a pair of characters that hook up on TV cutesy names. Logan and Veronica from Veronica Mars? LoVe. Jim and Pam from the Office? Jam. Of all these, 13 + Foreman = Foreteen is definitely the worst).

No, what I disagree with is the notion that the story lines on House have every been anything BUT perfunctory. Remember when House regained full use of his leg for three episodes? Remember when David Morse showed up for a few episodes to play a cop obsessed with bringing House in for drug possession for no apparent reason, and was then summarily dispensed with? The history of the show is littered with these little digressions that ultimately go nowhere. This all goes back to my point from the last email, which is that House is a great character in an okay-to-mediocre show.

Last time I mentioned a couple of shows that, like House, are at the mercy of the American television format of endless serialization. I tried to think of some examples of shows in the vein of House (formulaic procedural) that have been able to maintain their quality over an extended run. The only one I could think of was CSI, which is still banging out winners after 200 episodes.