Recession Proof

This is just a vacuous episode. A guy has been lying to his wife. She thinks he is a successful real estate developer when in reality the recession has ruined the family. He now has menial jobs, cleaning waste and blood, etc. He collapses and ends up in the hospital.

Subplot comes in. There is a big gala where Cuddy is going to receive an award. House decides to sabotage it in some way. Wilson tries to intervene.

Back at the ranch, the team is coming up with the same tired diagnoses as usual.

The guy starts exhibiting worse and worse symptoms. M & M is judgmental and gets the guy to come clean to his wife. At the last minute, House figures out what is wrong with him, but it's too late. House starts a drunken, downward spiral, leading to a drunken epiphany concerning life, death, and everything else. Off to Cuddy.

All the cast and sets, but none of the charm. Almost like it was made by a new time filmmaker trying to immitate the series after only watching a couple of episodes.

From overdone directing choices such as pointless Dutch Angles and Dolly Zooms to wooden dialogue riddled with clichés and a simplistic plots following the main characters and the patient but never meaningfully intertwining or offering any surprises, this was a dud of an episode.

Why does EVERY episode alternate between sarcoidosis, cancer, and brain tumors? Btw, it's almost never any of those things... Somewhere around season 5, the show took a total hard turn into House having a mental breakdown for no apparent reason and the ridiculous House/Cuddy romance storyline which was the most forced, convoluted plot line I've ever seen. There was no romantic tension, then suddenly they're in love? It was weak writing and despite a talented cast, it was meaningless fluff that made the writers lazy. This episode was a prime example, it put the medical mystery on the back burner and tried to rely on this absurd romance plot line. Most definitely NOT one of their better episodes...