Be careful in choosing a new dean of medicine. An core underpinning of the series has suggested that only Lisa Cuddy can both control House and give him enough freedom to save his “hail-Mary” patients. Choosing her successor is one of the most important decisions the producers have to make going forward.
I’ve heard around the fandom “Why not Foreman (Omar Epps)?” “Why not Wilson?” While Foreman has the administrative chops, and he’s come a long, long way this year in “getting” House a little more, I don’t think he’d be effective. He’s as stubborn as House—and he thinks he’s a better doctor than House. Neither trait will allow him to cut House the slack he needs. House would likely run rings around him, and could lead to House and Foreman more resembling Colonels Klink and Hogan (from the 1960s sitcom Hogan’s Heroes). That would be very, very bad.
Wilson is on the hospital’s board and is already a department head, but I believe we need Wilson and House to maintain voluntary peer relationship they now enjoy. So who, then?
I’d love to see a new female dean played by a very strong actress who brings snap and seriousness to the role. I’d also like to see her come in already knowing House’s reputation as a brilliant, troubled diagnostician and understand him from the start. I’d love to see their relationship be completely professional (no flirting!), and for she and House to come to a mutual understanding at some point. Who should play my ideal dean? Helen Mirren? Allison Janney? Mary McDonnell?Someone like that would be just fine by me.
Deal with the pain/drugs issue. Especially if this is to be House’s last season, I would really love to see the series address House’s pain and drug issues head on. House deals with the issues many chronic pain sufferers deal with, including that of being understood—and having his symptoms dealt with adequately. House is also now back on Vicodin, and the pain is exacerbated by his ramped-up emotional turmoil. His physical pain and emotional health are tied up together. Perhaps introduce him to a smart, compassionate pain specialist. Hey, maybe that should be the new dean's medical specialty!
I’d like to see of House's serious side. House has been preoccupied first with his pursuit of Cuddy—and then the relationship itself. He’s spent more time on that, and less with patients, eager to slough off most responsibility onto the team. Although he’s always done that, it’s been more often these last couple of seasons. We tend to learn about House through his interactions with his patients—what’s really in his heart and on his mind. I’d love to see more of that.






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Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Zaze
I don't understand something, why didn't they use a monster truck for the last scene?
Gimme House and only GREGORY HOUSE for the last season. A monologue and I'd be happy.
2 - MusicandHouse
Thanks so much for this Barbara. There has been so much negativity in the House fandom since the finale I have kind of been avioding it. I have always believed that the writers will be able to redeem House next season and I agree with all of your hopes and suggestions. The only thing I am not holding my breath for it the return of Lisa Edelstein. While I would love for her to return, the circumstances surrounding her departure were so hushed and strange that I think there is more than meets the eye. In all honesty, I believe she left to take a stand agains one thing or another (some think it may have been a clause in her contract forbidding her from getting involved in PSA's like the ones she has or others think it was just over the salary cut) and will not return on principle. Hopefully the support from all her fans will help change her mind though. I am looking foward to season 8 to see how the redeem the character of House and how they will handle the departure of Cuddy and who her replacement will be.
3 - Amy
Hugh Laurie is without question one of the best actors of our time. It is unfortunate the writers completely let him down for most the season 7 episodes. One reason may be because some of the writers do not like or respect the character House. For example take a look at the writers largely condescending commentary about House for the Bombshells. As for House and Cuddy inevitable breakup the relationship wasn't given a real chance. Many couples are complete opposites and find a way to make it work often with the help of counseling. The bottom line here is that the writers have failed the character House and I have no confidence in there ability to pull out of it next season. Too bad for the viewer and disastrous for the once great show.
4 - barbara barnett
#3: Amy: That is your opinion. Yes, many couples are complete opposites and make it work. House and Cuddy didn't.
5 - Amy
It could have worked just like Hepburn and Tracy.
6 - Sacha
While I thought S7 was a pretty terrible season (with the exception of two or three episodes), I would like to say that I am interested in how S8 is going to develop. A lot of what has been said here is pretty much what I feel. House does need a friend. Someone who accepts him just the way he is without berating him. I think the only character that ever seemed to understand House and never judged him is probably Chase. While I can't see him as a 'friend' to House, I would very much like the writers to explore their relatonship in terms of searching for love but only getting hurt in the process - they both dealt with it in very similar ways. I would like the writers to show some way out of the desperate search for love, making it seem like a person is not complete or can't be content without a sexual relationship. I really would love to see Chase back with House, as the fellow who can read him as well as vice versa. S7 didn't do much with him and I wasn't happy about the Thirteen overdose which includes a bonding with House and Chase both. If they go that road, they'll fight about who is going to be her keeper for the rests of her life, and that's not something I would want to see. Also, pairing Chase with her is hanging above my head like Democles sword. It's a doomed relationship which will inevitably end in misery because of her untimedly death, and that's not what Chase needs.
I would love to see more of Jesse Spencer and Omar Epps. Both are incredibly talented actors who can shine if given the opportunity, and they both have chemistry with Hugh Laurie's House like no other fellows. He seems to be more comfortable around them as he is with Olivia Wilde. I just want the show to stop promoting her and give House his strength back as a mentor; someone who was able to get inside of their heads and capable of manipulating them for their own good. Maybe also stop concentrating on the shipper stuff. I think that's why the first few seasons are glorified by a lot of fans. We were slowly introduced to the characters, revealing them little by little, learning about their inner turmoils and troubles, and House being the center of it all. I'm not saying I want them go backwards - matter of factly, I loved S6 in huge parts -, but it would probably be a good thing to remember what a great cast they have been neglecting in large parts of S7. Me, I always enjoyed the Chase/House dynamic most of all on the show (as well as House/Foreman and Foreman/Chase), and it would be nice to have it back to some extent.
I think S8 could be a new beginning with Cuddy gone. I'll miss Lisa Edelstein as an actress but frankly, the females on this show are so poorly written, it's a disgrace. Having said that, my wishlist actually includes OW's movie career to suceed and I hope she'll be too busy to return for long. Thirteen really makes the show unwatchable for me at times, and I'll appologize to all of her fans in advance, but I don't enjoy Thirteen MD and the show can only benefit from her departure, for me.
Sorry for my English, it is not my native tongue.
7 - Robin
Barbara, I agree with all your points, well said and thank you for posting them.
(Btw, I second a vote for Allison Janney as the new Dean. She would have a wonderful chemistry with Hugh, I'm thinking--tough and endlessly sardonic but fair and compassionate, CJ Cregg style. It could really work. Unfortunately I don't see TPTB trading one older female for another, but stranger things have happened!)
Particularly relevant IMO is the point about the mini-movie teaser cutbacks. I've found the extravagant openers irritating in the extreme because to me they seem self-indulgent and rather pointless. I don't watch House for stunts and gimmicks; I watch for subtle, witty, intelligent and often ambiguous storylines, complete with moral and ethical dilemmas that are not easily resolved.
I know it's foolish to expect the writers to go all the way back to the style of the early seasons, since the show's evolved and to some extent so have the characters and their relationships with each other; but a return to the *form* of those seasons, with smart scripts, great medical mysteries, maybe a clinic scene or two, moments of House creating music or pondering the puzzle, would be most welcome.
Have to say my faith in the writers is nowhere near as strong as yours, especially after this season. However, I'm still willing to take a 'wait and see' approach to season 8, and stay open to possibility.
8 - Robin
Apologies, I meant to say Janney as the new Dean would have great chemistry with *House*. I really do know there's a difference between the character and the actor. *blush* :)
9 - HouseMDFan
The good: Lovely observation about House and Cuddy this season: both of them always waiting for the other shoe to drop. SO very true and one of the main reasons for the break-up.
Agreed on the teasers and on Allison Janney as a cool idea for the dean. Otherwise I'll refrain from wishing anything - if I'm not invested in my own ideas of how things should go, it's much easier to appreciate what the writers are doing.
The bad: You seriously need to stop saying that Wilson isn't House's friend. Your assessment of him has always been biased, but reading that House needs a "real" friend instead of Wilson made me very angry, even if I'm the first to see the problematic aspects in their relationship. But I also see HOUSE'S part in that.
I think "accepting House as he is" is an incredibly romantic and idealized concept, because House is never going to let anybody close enough for that. Either someone accepts him and he doesn't care because that person isn't important enough to him, or someone is important to him and he doesn't let them get close enough.
In addition, you are once again underestimating House's capacity for self-destruction. Just letting him be leads to disaster as well - see "The Fix", where Wilson didn't lecture at first, but hoped for House to get back into his game when he was actually being completely reckless again. Or see their scene in "After Hours", where House is stubborn, bats Wilson's help away and ends up with a collapsing leg. Yes, Wilson could just let House be, let all of that be House's own responsibility, but that would mean for him to be okay with the very real possibility of House's death. I don't blame him for being unable to do that. But we'll see, maybe you'll get your wish and he won't forgive House next season. Just so you can blame him some more.
10 - Luc
I think House needs to accept himself - and that is part of dealing with the root of his problems - more than anything. Friends "accept" you, but still try to hold you accountable and encourage you to be a better you. Otherwise some would argue they are notreal friends. Both Wilson and Cuddy have shown incredible enabling deficiencies, but they have also accepted him. House doesn't accept himself, so he pushes limits and everyone ends up falling into destructive patterns.
The writers have tried to show that, but I think the fact that so many fans still find a way to make them villains in the while House collapse says they weren't very successful.
Every character on this show has deep issues and they work from that bend. It's also what attracts House to them. He's not really going to let an emotionally healthy person close to him, now is he???
11 - barbara barnett
HouseMDFan: I do believe Wilson can be and has been a very good friend to House. I think I said that. But the degree of his lecturing has had its effects over the seasons--since season one, perhaps.
House trusts Wilson, as he should and has missed him terribly when he's not been there. He appreciates what Wilson tries to do for him, but resents the intrusion when it gets as far as Wilson telling him that he loves to be miserable or wants to be in pain, which goes all the way back to season two.
I agree that House treats Wilson awfully sometimes. What I would like to see is someone --maybe Wilson or maybe someone else--who just accepts him. Maybe that's impossible, maybe not. Maybe it's a woman (there have been one or two).
The fact is that Wilson has been Mr. Manipulation to destructive ends. His insistence on House's wanting to be miserable, that his pain is psychological (more than physical) while continuing to prescribe for him, withholding Vicodin when he has needed it (and using it as a weapon). These are not nice things to do to even your very troubled friend.
12 - barbara barnett
Luc--you are right. House has to accept himself, and maybe that's in the end what they'll go for (though somehow I doubt it). Wilson and Cuddy have had their own "mishegoss" (insanity) as do all the members of House's staff. This intrigues him as you say.
I don't see either Wilson or Cuddy as villains, only as overly motherly friends who are inept at helping their friend. Their help has been at times destructive and not helpful. But not always. House loves them both.
He screwed up big time at the end of s7, so we'll see to where that leads.
13 - Bea
Tthanking you on your blog for this too. As usual, you made me feel a little better and added some interesting points to think about carefully. I totally related to the way you feel. I wish some of your wishes would come true for real.
I'm not very optimistic about next season; and I don't feel like trusting writers the way I used to anymore. It's not like I don't trust THEM per se. I do. But I still think something else influenced some narrative choices and lead to a series of "mistakes" or "flaws" this season, such as the ones you've pointed out.
IDK whether those kind of "mistakes" can be redeemed anymore really. I mean, I was watching Broken the other day and I found myself wondering when the hell House had suddenly stopped digging so deeply inside this man psychology ( I missed Katie too, so much I feel like starting a petition to have her back behind the camera really...it's petition time on TW anyway :P) and I was thinking that maybe "Broken" is the perfect example to realize how different from the start this show has been this season. Back then we had a two hour ep in which, fictionally, House spends something like 8 weeks into a Phychiatric Hospital. Two months. Two months of pain and sufference, withdrowal and consistent inner changes masterly depicted on screen. Two hours to give us the sense of a man's path of grow. It's nothing. And yet you totally feel it. And when House gets on that bus you're there with him, feeling hope, feeling changed, like you've been, with him, moving mountains. And the same happen in season 5 when with BSN you feel the irrimediably of it. Of him getting hospitalized. He has gone too far. He must fix himself before being ready to move on and be in a relationship.
So I started thinking. And I tried to remember when was the last time I witnessed sth like this in season 7. And I realized I hadn't. Not even the whole season is able to give me this sense of completeness. Of a perfet circle that comes to an end and makes sense according to a concept that has you have pointed out it's a creative choice one can agree with or not. But this is not the point here.
This season, right after ep 7x14, missed in consictency for me. I can't see it. I can't see House's path. I just can't. It's like....it kept escaping me. The meaning of all of it. It's like I can't see the point, not even what they are trying to suggest or what's the idea behind it all. It just saddens me really, 'cause everytime I rewatch old eps I feel a thrill and I enjoy them so much, under so many aspects and it doesn't seem possible we are heading towards a season 8 with all this unanswered questions on "why" and "how" they did this.
I think that one thing certainly proves my way of feeling House might have changed fot good: I can't see him as a person anymore. I mean a real one. Once, I couldn't see an actor playing a role. I couldn't see a bunch of people playing some fictional life. It was so damn well-conceived I could have sworn they are were real for me, like four-dimensional character Alan Moore would say; with a sense of history and experience; they were deep, complicated and they made perfect sense. They had their twisted logic but they were real, cause they made sense into their universe. Now I can't see it anymore. During the last three months I just saw a man and a woman (and I'm not ignoring the others, I love the whole cast, I just think emotionally, House and Cuddy were meant to be the focus of the show this year, originally at least) playing two roles. And after the finale he really is just a character for me; a fictional creation that might inevitably be screwed up as any other on TV. Delusional much thinking a TV character might be flawless for so long? Maybe. I also started wondering when was the last time I though Lisa Cuddy was indeed behaving like the Lisa Cuddy we used to love back in season 1, 2, 3, 4....even 5, even if she had changed deeply due to realizing she was in love with House. And I couldn't remember it. I saw her back in 5 to 9 and Known Unknowns a little bit. And then just Help Me and some Now What but I'm not sure anymore. I feel like we have been dealing with shadows of our House and Cuddy this season, although I can't deny I enjoyed large chunks of it and some eps are oustanding.
Well anyway, enough crying over the spoiled milk. I have some moving on to do myself, I'm afraid. Have a nice hiatus Barbara and good luck with promoting your book! I have it on my bedside-table ;)
14 - marykir
I like your list. I would add
* Spend less time paying homage to movies, especially if it takes resources away from the core of the show. I don't care if you're doing a shot-for-shot reenactment of a classic film. I'm watching [H]ouse.
* Do the writers review the director's cut, etc.? If not, they should. Too many times in season 7, the writers talked about things in v-logs and interviews that didn't come across onscreen for me.
15 - Bea
PS I leave you this comment I found on FP. Is from a friend of mine I personally adore. She's quite a way with words, and I think this sums it up really
I want my House back.
I want back the man I learned to love, the brilliant diagnostician, the tormented spirit, the lone ranger, the lover who is capable of being so uncommonly close to you, the candid friend who can tell you the most bitter truth, the potential father who understands what a child really needs, the leader who knows the weaknesses and strengths of his employees, the man who works in the shadows for a good end without wanting any recognition, the sweet musician. I want back my man broken by suffering, who wants all or nothing and feels everything in “black and white”, the selfish one but also that man capable of great acts of love, the one who does not expect gratitude and pretending to be emotionally inaccessible, the liar who knows how to be painfully honest, the man who secretly loves the children, the disabled and minorities. I want back the unfaithfull and the believer, the deluded and the disillusioned, the man who overestimates and underestimates himself simultaneously, the one who believes that he’s not deserving love.
Good night, bedtime for me ;)
16 - blacktop
TPTB need to take the avalanche of criticism seriously, pull up their creative socks, and bring out their best for the next season. If they delude themselves that all the hullabaloo is just a tiny faction of frustrated Huddies, then they will miss their opportunity to turn the show around.
The "House" show runners and writers are just like all the rest of us: if they are told that what they did in season 7 was great stuff, they will continue to do it for season 8. If, on the other hand, they get constructive criticism that addresses real concerns, they might, just might, listen and take it to heart.
I think it is perfectly alright that those of us -- fans and critics alike -- who love the show offer stout criticism in our opinions. Depending upon the opinion of the viewer, that criticism can and should include disagreement with the creative choices made by the showrunners. That opinion can also be supportive of the choices of TPTB. Offering alternate viewpoints and counter-factual plotlines, we can highlight that what we got in season 7 was indeed a series of creative choices made by Shore and Co. There was nothing inevitable or inescapable about the direction they chose for the show. The characters and stories are creations without independent life. They go in whatever directions the showrunners choose and those creative directions are certainly open to examination and criticism, in my opinion.
For me, I hope fervently that they decide upfront that season 8 is the last one and then drive with singular purpose toward that end. They should drop the sloppy inconsistencies in details of time, location, motivation, and character that plagued the show in season seven.
No more mysterious rat drugs that only affect one leg muscle. No more ridiculous green-card bride plot. Why was the restaurant in "Unwritten" called Dominica's, just like House's new wife? Why did Cuddy lose all of her robust and quirky humor this season?
For House, no more jumping off balconies or riding in monster trucks or talking lewdly with school kids. If House is physically injured let him stay incapacitated for more than a few hours or days, sheesh!
How about a return to some actual humor that is witty, adult, clever, substantial, and hilarious. (Clinic, we hardly saw you!) Humor that does not depend on Taub's height or sexual prowess, or Chase's skirt chasing, or Foreman's supposed arrogance, or Thirteen's non-existant lesbian love life.
Dump the ludicrous Taub twins storyline and bring on some real plots for Chase and Foreman. These excellent actors have been wasted long enough. Keep Thirteen in the background where she can be both poignant and effective as a mirror and sounding board for House in small (really small) controlled doses. Keep Wilson angry and estranged from House for more than one episode. Wilson should express sustained horror and revulsion at House's violence toward Cuddy.
I beg the writers to address House's vidocin addiction with the non-exploitative care it needs. He is in pain, he needs to be in a pain management treatment program, he needs to be back in talk therapy as well as physical therapy. I realize this stuff is grinding and neither glamourous nor photogenic, but I think a realistic portrayal of House working on his issues would be compelling TV.
The writers should create a plausible and compelling series of encounters for House and Cuddy, featuring real anger, fierce sorrow, and finally an acknowledgement of each other's tremendous damage and possibilies for recovery and redemption. That kind of deeply explored confrontation would bring their story to a realistic closure. If they do this they might have a chance of persuading LE to return to the show for guest appearances in several key episodes, which would make for the emotional highlights of the season.
TPTB should resist every impulse to create an explosion (whether physical or emotional) just to have another shocking event to celebrate. House on the ledge or hitting rock bottom or whatever other metaphors they might have used in the past have run their course. Maybe the limits on their budget will help them get over this juvenile obsession with visual excess and refocus them on character driven stories about adults.
Maybe they could even persuade Doris Egan to write another script or two for the final season. Whether she comes back or not, they should make sure each scene serves the prime purpose of getting to the logical and meaningful end of the series, whatever that may be.
I agree with Matt Roush of TV Guide who said that the departure of LE is a body blow to the show. House as a character or as a show doesn't really make much sense without Cuddy and Wilson. So how they deal with this huge issue will early on tell us if the season ahead will be a disaster or a treasure.
The departure of Lisa Edelstein creates a grotesque -- and in my view unsolvable -- problem for the show. The very DNA of "House," introduced in the first episode requires that the lead character be protected from the normal repecussions of his personality and professional style by a tough and loyal dean of medicine.
We were told from the very beginning that Lisa Cuddy was the only person in the medical community who was willing to play that role in House's life.
Now are we to be introduced to another, equally powerful and dedicated dean who will similarly protect and foster House?
Hiring a new dean with the same remarkable qualities as Lisa Cuddy undermines the uniqueness of House as a medical maverick and genius and just makes him a rather petulant but manageably quirky doc.
The other major problem that the show faces right now is that the decision to have House crash his car into Cuddy's home has fundamentally altered our perception of his character. He is now seen as pathetic, a new and unsettling characteristic for this once-noble figure.
In the past we have viewed House as in constant struggle to save his patients, to find a way to overcome his physical pain, to understand a world which has dealt him such terrible blows, to achieve a bit or normality and human connection. His efforts made him insufferable ocassionally, but never pathetic.
Now, by asserting brute force against a woman (or her building as David Shore would have it) as the only way to break out of his emotional deadlock, House is revealed as an essentially weak man who finds courage in violence. This is a formula only a pre-adolescent boy or a Hemingway could embrace.
In my view, House on a beach smirking without remorse after destroying Cuddy and Rachel's home seems like the portrait of a pathetic loser. This is not the House I want to watch. I hope that David Shore and the writing team can erase that lingering picture of House from my memory.
17 - barbara barnett
Bea--thank you for sharing that. That's a beautifully put description of the character I love.
Marykir: good adds to the list.
18 - josie
I'd like to see House receive closure with issues from his mother. Although he always claimed that he hated John House, he must have a lot of rage towards his mother. She allowed him to be abused. She lied to him about his paternity. It's time to have Diane Baker back!
19 - Amie
And bring back the clinic!!!
20 - Max Durdy
Great list, Barbara. I think that Season 7 has been a very good season - not necessarily one of the best, but I can't help feeling it has been unfairly judged by some fans. Such episodes as 'After Hours', 'Bombshells' and 'A Pox on our House' were some of my favourite episodes over the last few years; both because of their diversity and the way they revealed new things about the characters we have loved for so long.
There's just something I slightly disagree with. You seem to knock Wilson. Now, I'm not saying he's a perfect friend - at times, he can be too preachy. However, I think Wilson, given who House is, is an excellent friend the majority of the time. Friendships are about being able to get things from one another - about trust. And, while it annoys me that Wilson goes crying to Cuddy too often, Wilson has always been there for House whenever he needed him.
I suppose what I'm saying is that, while Wilson isn't perfect, the only reason he's advising House on how to move on, is because House needs help. As friends, both Wilson and House tell each other when they feel they have made mistakes.
Another idea would be to bring back Andre Braugher as Dr. Nolan. I really enjoyed his character, and I feel that House could really use some connection, after such an horrific break up. Also, the episodes he was in during Season 6 were excellent, and I think it could smooth the transition to a life without Cuddy.
Thanks for the blog Barbara! Keep writing.
21 - BrokenLeg
Thank you Barbara for your new thread. It’s a brilliant summary of back seven season ( as always condescending a little the writers….) , and resume all my thoughts about possible next season. And full of faith in the days to come!!
I subscribe entirely your wish list for next season, with great fervor these three:
a)finding a way to bring back LE: They must try the hardest. ( I’m quite sure that they finally will do, and because all the fandom turmoil, “someone” will surrender and give up, be her departure because money, artistic reasons or LE involving in “leftie” causes. And I bet it will be an entire and final season arch, maybe involving little Rachel in some way ) And BTW, Bravo to LE fans!! Awesome people!
b)Cut back all the blockbuster sequences: And monster trucks, rockets on parks, hookers festivals, jumping from balconies, car crashes, etc..Please, please and please!! If someone wants to do that, go to another show.
c)Be careful choosing a new Dean: To avoid completely any possible flirtation (Please, no!!!) if the Dean is a woman, how about bringing a much maternal figure, a well written ( being written female characters as they are in this show it seems impossible to me) but older female doctor, pacifier one, healing one. As Helen Mirren can be. Someone House can finally admire and someone that can understand Greg House as he is and by all he is, free of past prejudices.
And I add one more wish : Do not center all the scenes in 13, and cut the Taub’s stories. Both are boring.
I just add another wish to the list : the writers and directors, please, center their efforts in their own jobs to do it better than lately, and “do less twitter” to mock fans. Part of the anger of the fandom probably is related to the way GY and others have expressed (so rudely) their opinions to fans. And they received back the same medicine. Stop all of these. As Gandhi said, eye by eye, and the world will be blind.
And just add that it’s difficult to me to give faith to the writers-directors team, and wait and see season 8. Even in my “half full glass” optimistic way of thinking. The hole they’ve dug for Greg House is now so deep, and he is so out of character, that there are a very few space for any kind of faith.
Thanks again, Barbara. Have a good summer hiatus. Although if I’ll not watch [H], I will continue reading your blog. And I hope a final version of Chasing Zebras, when [H] finally ends.
22 - barbara barnett
Just watching "Family Practice" again and I recognize how great this episode is. All of the things that make House great are in it. The ethical struggle, House's emotional struggle and a great medical case.
Great stuff!
23 - barbara barnett
Max: Great idea to bring back Dr. Nolan. House really needs him now.
24 - Max Durdy
I just thought Nolan was such a great character - someone who didn't take any of House's mindgames. In the 'Broken' commentary, Katie Jacobs mentions how they needed a character, and an actor, who seemed imposing and on a level playing field to House.In the second half of this season, we have slowly seen House self destruct - and seen the need for some stability. The season 6 episode 'Baggage' was, for me, an incredible episode, and I would love to see Nolan used in similar effect in Season 8.
It would be much easier than introducing another new character, who attempts to heal House, as well as the new Dean of Medicine.
25 - BrokenLeg
20 @Max Durdy
23 @Barbara Barnett
Bringing back Dr. Nolan is a great idea, but I do not think he fullfilled the Dean role.