Not too long ago, I spent about 45 minutes Googling the symptoms of deep vein thrombosis. See, I’d had a leg cramp and my leg was still sore the next day, so naturally I was worried that I had a blood clot that was going to lead to a pulmonary embolism. Or possibly lupus, because since House came on the air, every time there is something the slightest bit wrong with me, I think I might have lupus. I suffer from a condition that affects thousands of Americans: "Hugh Laurie Induced Hypochondria."

House reinvented the medical drama. Imagined more as a detective show than a typical hospital show, House is one of the few programs on right now that features a really unlikable protagonist. In fact, Hugh Laurie has said that when he first read part of a script, he thought Robert Sean Leonard’s character, the sympathetic Oncologist Dr. Wilson, was the main character of the show, and he was auditioning for the sarcastic sidekick.

This season, House has been in flux. His three team members were either fired, or quit. Although all three are now back at Princeton Plainsboro (Cameron is in the ER; Chase is on the surgical staff; and Foreman is now back on House’s team after getting fired from his new job), all but Foreman are seeing considerably less screen time.

House’s approach to replace them was to do a lengthy audition process for new fellows. The group was quickly whittled down to eight or so recognizable faces, and most of the episodes this season have focused on getting familiar with the new cast members; but with one or more eliminated each week, it hardly seems worth the effort.

There are only four candidates left now, and Foreman is back to take up one slot. I’ll be glad when things are settled down: the episodes focusing on the team candidates have been uneven at best. I don’t know whose genius idea it was to try to shake things up by giving Hugh Laurie less screen time, but it obviously wasn’t someone who is in touch with the reasons for the show’s popularity.

House will go into reruns next week. According to executive producer David Shore, they have enough scripts to last several episodes, but may try to save new episodes for sweeps, which would mean reruns until February. Those of you who can’t wait to find out who the final team members will be (Does anybody care anymore?) can breathe easy, though, as Cuddy is apparently fed up, too, and will order House to pick the final team members in tonight’s episode. As we all know, however, Cuddy doesn’t often get her way, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he fired them all and we started all over again with a new batch.

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Amy Kane spends as much quality time with her television as possible, when she's not busy at her day job as a cube dweller.

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