House: Last three standing

This was kind of a letdown to a really fun, half-season ride through House's version of "Survivor." I didn't care about the patient who didn't care whether he lived or died. I can't even remember which diagnosis they finally settled on - measles, was it? Whatever.

I can't decide if Kal Penn has had absolutely nothing to do all season because the writers wanted to showcase the candidates who weren't going to make it, a la Cutthroat Bitch, or if they just hadn't figured out what to do with him. In any case, there's no case to be made for him to be there. 13 at least got a showcase episode a few weeks back, although it failed to make her interesting. Mini Stud, of course, rocks the world.

So I dunno where they go from here. The cast has grown unwieldy - the only one who benefits from a reduced role is Wilson, who is now practically guaranteed to steal every scene he's in. The problem with the new faces is that I don't care much anymore about the old Cottages (should we call the new crew Cabins? Condos? Duplexes?).

Still, as I started out saying, it's been a great half-season. Fox only has three more episodes in the can, so the January return is likely to be short if the writers' strike goes any longer.

Elsewhere on Tuesday night, that was a pretty good "Reaper." I'm really pleased they're finally edging away from the Andi subplot and adding a potential daughter of the devil to the picture is a great plot twist and should open up all kinds of potential storylines. Trouble is, the show only has a couple episodes left and still hasn't gotten a back nine order. Ah well.