Just letting people know because it officially hits the internet today or tomorrow. Everything people like about the show is absent. None of the regular supporting cast appears, aside from a five second cameo by Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard). House makes almost no jokes, or if he does, they fly under the radar because they are not funny. He solves no mysteries and practices no medicine. And it is twice as long as a normal episode. And Andre Braugher & Franke Potente have gotten rather thicker or older since I last saw either in anything. Seriously, if they make another Bourne movie, she could play his mom, instead of his girlfriend. She even looks a lot older than when she was on the Shield a couple of years ago.
Now maybe there was a good story here, or important lessons or what have you, but this is not why I watch House. Even if one might make the argument that this episode is about him trying to improve, so what? No one cares about House, because he's a jerk. He's a jerk because of his own choices, as he would be the first to admit/defiantly proclaim. A key issue for the show in the past has been that the various elements of his character are all essential. They tried taking away the Vicodin or the limp or the loneliness, only to hit the reset button, because it did not work for House the medical detective, no matter how interesting the story might have been. House was who he was, and could never change for long. That might be the only interesting thing about this episode - if it affects how he behaves when the show gets back to what made it one of the most successful and popular programs that does not involve retards texting.