This is a comment I wrote to a post of Chuck Wendig’s, where we’re talking a bit about serial characters and their tendency (or need) to resist the traditional character arc — and how shows like HOUSE and BURN NOTICE dance at the limits of their constraints as episodic stories. Spoilers, I guess, follow. More importantly, if you don’t know these shows, these comments probably don’t make much sense.

Having just caught up with HOUSE, I’m eager to weigh in… on BURN NOTICE. I think Michael has changed from the character he was in the pilot — the roving, unfettered spy — and that whatever resolution comes for his burn notice (whether it’s Option A: Become a Spy Again, or Option B: Accept His Current Life as a Freelance Troubleshooter) we’ll find that Michael went through an arc as the show’s treatment of spyhood changed. Michael is sort of held up now as something better than a spy, because he helps individuals and doesn’t do dirty missions. He has principles that we’re lead to believe spies often don’t — and that reverting to Company Man status will jeopardize. That is, Michael’s shifted gradually deeper into the role the show requires of him, and it’s point B on his arc rather than point A. The question is if he’ll revert, or if he can stay at point B.

That kind of tension may be what we can get out of HOUSE this season.

For one thing, I think HOUSE has sort of toyed with this idea before, in tiny doses. (Get it? Doses?) Dr. House is an asshole because he cares, but about being right. Now he’ll be an asshole because he cares… about people. Aww. Seriously, I think we’ll see this as a talking point for a while and then we’ll see that he acts similarly for different reasons. Still, I predict his behavior will be enough the same that the casual viewer can tune in to see House be witty, snarky, and brilliant.

It works because the procedural on HOUSE is utter bullshit — it’s a mystery that we in the audience cannot participate in, because we are not doctors. We can’t guess the culprit. We just watch the doctors be wrong for 40 minutes so they can make a choice/breakthrough/discovery in the final two minutes. The medical stuff only diverts me because I like to watch people work and talk, but as a mystery-of-the-week the show is bogus. Thus so many medical mysteries come down to personal drama on the show, and we find the final twist comes from patients lying and doctors making dramatic assumptions, rather than medicine.

I say this as somebody who hated HOUSE’s pilot and came back during this past season because the character dynamics and dialogue are just too good to resist. I enjoy watching the writers juggle the medical stuff, but again that’s because I like to watch people work, whether they be writers, doctors, or former spies.