Spoiler: House season 5

Ok so we all know House was a weird season last time round. All those new faces. Not much for Jesse Spencer. And then there was the writers’ strike. It was interesting for a while, but didn’t it forget itself for a while there?

Creator David Shore has spoken about what to expect for season five. He talks about the new characters, the older ones, and talk of any spin-off.

Spoilers follow!

Here are some select questions + answers from NJ.com
Can you talk in broad strokes about what’s coming up next season?
I forget (where we left off). I’ve been working on it for so long now. It’s not like a usual year.

You killed off Amber, and Wilson blamed House for it.
In broad strokes, we’re obviously following up on that. We had a lot of fun following up on that in a funny but realistic way. It does not go unnoticed. It has an effect on Wilson and it has an effect on their friendship.

Realistically, how long can that play out for?
Not long, but the journey’s really cool. We learn something about Wilson, we learn something about House, and we learn something about their relationship. (But) I don’t think anybody expects Wilson to be off the show.

And you don’t want to separate those two for very long.
You don’t. Their relationship is so great. But it’s nice to mess it up and screw with it for a little while.

Looking back, how do you feel the whole selecting the new team process went?
It was weird. Learning as you’re going along. It was interesting. Had we done it in season one, it would have been very different. Season four, when you’re an established hit — I don’t think we made huge blunders, but people went along for the ride a little bit. They enjoyed it, and we enjoyed it.

Would you have paced it out differently if you had known when the strike would shut down the show? Would the team have come together much more quickly.
I hope not. And I don’t think I would have, because I was naive enough to believe the strike wouldn’t happen almost to the last minute.

Looking back, what do you think of how Chase and Cameron were used last year?
We under-utilized them. It seemed like a natural place to go that after three years people are just not going to stay with this man forever. We like them, we want to use them, and that’s why we didn’t just cut them loose. To have them just being the same three people in this team with this character seemed unnatural. So we figured we couldn’t bring them all back or it would be a giant wank. So we put them in the hospital, and to be honest, we’re still trying to find ways to use them. We’ve found better ways as season five has gone along, but it’s a work in progress.

What are some of those better ways?
Cameron, we’ve touched on their relationship a little more. Foreman’s going to bring them a case to work on independent of House, she’s going to bring a case to House.

What were the conversations with Jennifer Morrison and Jesse Spencer like?
There was never a big issue. I think this is true — I hope it’s true, I didn’t mean it to be a lie at the time — the notion was that they would be coming back in different capacities in the hospital, and therefore come back with a greater gravitas, and have a different relationship with House, and that would be refreshing. As little as we used them — again, we would have liked to use them more — I really did like the use we made of them. They would come in for only a scene or two an episode, but those scenes had a greater weight.

In the handful of episodes since the new team was assembled, are you satisfied with how you used the newbies, and do you feel you have a handle on them?
I never have a complete handle on anyone. I may be rationalizing, but I think that’s a good thing. I used to feel bad when someone would ask me if I could describe a cahracter in two sentences and I couldn’t do that. But once I can do that, the characters are dead. They’re kind of real people to me. I get that there are certain things I know they would do or they wouldn’t do, but every now and then they’ll surprise me in a way that makes sense.

So much of last season was about breaking the formula, do you feel a responsibility to keep doing that?
We broke the formula a few times right in season one, and we’ll continue doing it. But you can’t break the formula unless you have a formula. It’s really important to me that we do the so-called “normal” episodes really really well.

What’s the state of affairs on the possible spin-off?
That’s a good question. If I had more of an answer, I would give you more of an answer. We brought in a character, partway through the year, Michael Weston as this private investigator House goes to. The spin-off would be less of a spin-off, it would be more us using House to launch it. It would be an independent world. A character out of the House mould, but definitely different.

When does he appear?
He appears very early in season five. House is constantly sending people to break into people’s homes, and he does it the right way in one episode. It’s a character that only House could love.

And why is that a story you want to tell?
I’ve always loved “The Rockford Files.”

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Source: NJ.com