7x23 Moving On - Ratings and Reviews
Here we go... our last Ratings and Reviews thread!
RATINGS
Ratings for this episode were once again disappointing. From Hitfix: "FOX's "House" finale averaged 8.9 million viewers and a 3.3 demo rating, negligibly up from last week in viewers and down from last week in the demo" (last week's demo was 3.5). The show was also down 23% versus last year's season finale.
REVIEWS:
Most critics thought that the episode was ok or good but didn't like the final scene where House crashes into Cuddy's house. I wonder why, it was such a brilliant idea (and yes, I'm being sarcastic).
Barbara Barnett of Blogcritics - "Until the last few moments of the episode, they completely had me riveted: a patient whose unnerving mirror image portrait of House; House finally processing what has happened between him and Cuddy, realizing that what he had done to his leg was just insane, and that something has to change. He has to change.... And then comes the final sequence, from Wilson’s visit to House’s apartment through the end, and the shock of House intentionally crashing his car into Cuddy’s home-and then his walking away from it, uncaring, barely a word, self-satisfied, leaving devastation in his wake as he walks merrily into the sunset. ... it's certainly possible that House suddenly, dramatically snaps inside when he observes Cuddy and her new friend. But what doesn’t add up for me is that no matter how angry, no matter how out of character, would House actually drive his car into a home he knows to be occupied? If it happened “really” within the story, and House has actually done what it appears he has done, what does that do to him as a character, and what does it do to the series moving forward into what is likely the final season? Walking away from the destruction he has wrought is pretty unforgivable. How do you recover from that? How does House not come to his senses enough to understand that what he has done is beyond belief and beyond the pale? How does he go to a tropical paradise, running away from everything and everyone into some sort of fantasy that cannot exist?"
Magali Levet of The Voice of TV - "I could tell miles away House was going to crash his car into Cuddy’s house or that both character would try to ‘move on’ from the mess that’s been their lives the last few weeks. Yet, I have a hard time buying that both House or Cuddy would be ready to let go of 25 years of history negating their heavy past and strong connection, acting like they don’t matter that much for each other either by going back on the dating scene or attempting murder. What if House had hurt Rachel (Kayla and Rylie Colbert)? .... Overall, this is a disappointing, and ridiculous, finale to an unsatisfactory season. The promised so-called exploration of House and Cuddy’s relationship, which had so much potential with these two screwed-up characters, barely scratched the surface and fell into unexpected common grounds way too quickly; the break-up’s aftermath was almost nonexistent besides House’s lame and uninspired antics; we haven’t learnt anything new about House himself or the people who are really supposed to matter to him; and there is absolutely nothing redeeming or appealing left in the House we loved at this point."
Lisa Palmer of Buddy TV - "Well, the positive thing about this episode is that it made me too angry to get truly depressed about Lisa Edelstein leaving the show. The ending was cringe-worthy.... this season ended with House driving through Cuddy's house (perhaps a self-destructive play on words?) and sipping a drink in some exotic local. We know you're angry, House. But are you really violent to the point of crazy? And if an umbrella in your drink can cure what ails you, why didn't we just send you to the Caribbean after the pilot episode? In all seriousness though, I'm racking my brain trying to figure out what the writers wanted us to deduce in the final scene. Has House really moved on? He's expressed his anger and he's chosen a lighter bar instead of the dark, depressing hole Wilson predicted. Well, I'm sorry, but it's not enough for me. House walking on the beach next to the tide might have looked refreshing, but after the finale, I was the one who needed a drink".
Erik Wilkinson of Give Me My Remote - "Until the closing minutes of this finale, I was enjoying HOUSE for the first time in weeks. Kath Lingenfelter & Peter Blake wrote a fantastic script.... Instead, director Greg Yaitanes indulged his overactive imagination for the umpteenth time, closing the season with a barrage of images that sacrificied story for shock value and emotional impact for sexy camera angles.... Viewers have been itching to have the Huddy chapter of this show closed, and Hugh Laurie & Lisa Edelstein were capable of telling that story with their own performances. If you believe that Gregory House is incapable of love and loyalty, then you were not watching his interactions with Rachel Cuddy, the precocious child who bonded with House more than any adult. Last week’s episode, when House & Rachel shared their pirate moment in the car, was almost Jerry Maguire-esque in its showcasing of an emotionally unavailable man falling in love with the notion of protecting a child. Leaping forward, we are supposed to accept that House would ram his car into Cuddy’s house, jeopardizing that same little girl’s life in the process? Nope, I don’t buy it. Not for a second".
Michelle of DaemonsTV - "This was Lisa Edelstein’s last episode, and while the writers had no idea she would be leaving the show at the time this episode was shot, they certainly gave Cuddy an out. I don’t think House and Cuddy could even remain in the same state at this point, let alone the same hospital, and I certainly don’t blame Ms. Edelstein for running far, far away from what has been done to Cuddy. ... House executive producer Greg Yaitanes said fans would be left shocked and excited by the last five minutes of tonight’s finale, but honestly, assuming the events are real (and the more I write, the more I’m leaning toward hallucination, though it’s probably wishful thinking), I’m just sad. House is many things: a cranky misanthrope, a brilliant doctor, a drug addict, a frustrating and selfish man. He is not; however, a psychopath. Or at least he wasn’t. Yes, House was hurting, drug-addled, and suffering from post-operative stress. Yes, Cuddy repeatedly picked the scab of their break-up, and yes she was with another man. These are all reasons for House to be upset-not ram his car into her home ALMOST KILLING HER AND THREE OTHER PEOPLE. I don’t know how the show will get past that. I don’t know how I will get past that. Assuming the show does get past it, where does House go from here? Doctors without Borders? Off the Map? Back to the psychiatric hospital?
Zack Handlen of AV Club - I feel like I should have disliked this more than I did. Which is an odd thing for a critic to say, even one as lumpy and waffling as myself. Because really, House ramming Cuddy's home was all kinds of dumb. The idea that Cuddy would just happen to be having a double date, in the middle of the day, when House and Wilson came by, was weird to begin with. ... And there's just too much idiocy in the act of auto-assault for it to be taken at face value, since, again, House could've killed people. Hell, Cuddy's daughter was somewhere inside. That's kind of evil. But getting past that, well, at least he didn't check himself into a nuthouse, and at least no one committed suicide. The announcement of Lisa Edelstein's departure from the show already confirmed the death of Huddy, but even if she wasn't leaving, it's hard to imagine the two of them getting back together after this. I do like that. And I liked how "Moving On" didn't shortchange just how impossible it can feel when you're trying to convince yourself that people are worth knowing after someone who means the world to you lets you down. Maybe it was Laurie's performance, maybe it was the writing, but you can almost see the episode admitting that, well, all of life is pretty screwed up, and the smarter you are, the more difficult it is to just accept the perversity of circumstance. Like all the finales, this promised some kind of change, but the change here is just that maybe next season, everything will somehow go back to the way it was.
Sara M. of Television Without Pity - "Finally, of course, this wouldn't be a season finale of House if something totally insane didn't happen, so after Cuddy unsuccessfully tries to talk to House about his feelings and make things better between them, she moves on and has an odd mid-afternoon double date at her home with her sister, brother-in-law, and a guy that her sister is trying to fix her up with. When House sees them enjoying life in Cuddy's dining room, he does the only reasonable thing: he drives his car through her house and into said dining room, somehow managing not to kill or injure anyone inside. Yes, House is now actively trying to murder people, including Cuddy's three-year-old daughter who may well have been home and in the room at the time the car went through it. She wasn't, but he didn't know that. So he's pretty much irredeemable, as is, I think, this show. The season ends with House -- who somehow managed to escape the police who are actively looking for him even though he was on foot and, as we know, he's not the fastest walker -- hanging out somewhere tropical and looking about as happy as he ever gets".
Shannon of The2cents.com - "As a whole, I found this the most disappointing House season finale ever. The finales are always the best part of the entire season but this one just wasn’t as good as the previous seasons. Actually, I found the whole thing quite boring up until House parked his car in Cuddy’s dining room".
Joseph Oliveto of ScreenCrave (a.k.a. the only reviewer who liked this episode, which he rated 9/10) - "The way this episode ends is completely unrealistic, but the creative team behind the camera pulls it off so effectively and convincingly that we honestly don’t care. “House” has pretty much given up on realism these days anyway, so it was worth it to see House genuinely smiling for what seems like the first time in the history of the show. We wonder where the series will go from here, but hey, we’re definitely interested. Looks like everyone involved did their jobs.... A strong season finale should get us interested for next season, and that is certainly what was accomplished in this episode. While any sense of realism was thrown out the door in the final moments of the show, hey, it’s TV: we’ll learn to live with it."
Jonah Krakow of IGN - "What's amusing is that the commercials touted a surprise twist and that House would never be the same again. And then the episode ended exactly the way it had to - with House (Hugh Laurie) violently lashing out at the people who care about him and avoiding the repercussions, especially Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein), who we now know will not be returning next season. Whereas last season's finale gave us hope, this one only served to remind us that the guy can't change... (in the climax) House crashed a dinner date that Cuddy was having at her house, as in, literally crashed through her dining room picture window at top speed... So now, along with prescription drug abuse and felony drug theft, we can also add domestic abuse and attempted murder to his rap sheet. House has always been able to defend his shortcomings because his ability to save lives trumps everything and his major crimes were usually directed at himself. This time he went too far and my suspension of disbelief to accept him as a protagonist has run its course. The producers seem to disagree: House went out a winner, relaxing on the beach under a bright sunny sky, safe from the police and safe in the knowledge that Cuddy won't be returning as the head of the hospital next year. Enjoy Season 8, House fans. I won't be joining you".
Antony Ocasio of Screenrant - "Continuing this season’s general trend of lack-luster storytelling, mixed with moments of brilliance, the House season 7 finale perfectly personifies both the positive and the (many) negative traits that viewers have come to experience as this season painfully crawled to one of the most underwhelming, incoherent finales of the year... Like House on his downward drug spiral, this season has most certainly felt like it was mirroring the horrific path that the series’ protagonist found himself on. With continuous convoluted storytelling that conveys the sense that the producers don’t actually know what they’re doing, the House season 7 finale was an empty, heartless and all but pointless hour-long journey of perpetual failure... From the horribly constructed performance artist storyline, to the “surprising” revelation that Taub can easily get anyone pregnant (which appears to be a favorite trait amongst Fox series) and the terribly conceived seasonal cliffhanger plot progression, every element - from the minute to the monumental - felt as it if was thrown together in an attempt to “shock and awe” its continually dwindling audience."
That's all folks!! Thanks for following... and see you for the "Ratings and Reviews" threads of Lisa's next projects!
RATINGS
Ratings for this episode were once again disappointing. From Hitfix: "FOX's "House" finale averaged 8.9 million viewers and a 3.3 demo rating, negligibly up from last week in viewers and down from last week in the demo" (last week's demo was 3.5). The show was also down 23% versus last year's season finale.
REVIEWS:
Most critics thought that the episode was ok or good but didn't like the final scene where House crashes into Cuddy's house. I wonder why, it was such a brilliant idea (and yes, I'm being sarcastic).
Barbara Barnett of Blogcritics - "Until the last few moments of the episode, they completely had me riveted: a patient whose unnerving mirror image portrait of House; House finally processing what has happened between him and Cuddy, realizing that what he had done to his leg was just insane, and that something has to change. He has to change.... And then comes the final sequence, from Wilson’s visit to House’s apartment through the end, and the shock of House intentionally crashing his car into Cuddy’s home-and then his walking away from it, uncaring, barely a word, self-satisfied, leaving devastation in his wake as he walks merrily into the sunset. ... it's certainly possible that House suddenly, dramatically snaps inside when he observes Cuddy and her new friend. But what doesn’t add up for me is that no matter how angry, no matter how out of character, would House actually drive his car into a home he knows to be occupied? If it happened “really” within the story, and House has actually done what it appears he has done, what does that do to him as a character, and what does it do to the series moving forward into what is likely the final season? Walking away from the destruction he has wrought is pretty unforgivable. How do you recover from that? How does House not come to his senses enough to understand that what he has done is beyond belief and beyond the pale? How does he go to a tropical paradise, running away from everything and everyone into some sort of fantasy that cannot exist?"
Magali Levet of The Voice of TV - "I could tell miles away House was going to crash his car into Cuddy’s house or that both character would try to ‘move on’ from the mess that’s been their lives the last few weeks. Yet, I have a hard time buying that both House or Cuddy would be ready to let go of 25 years of history negating their heavy past and strong connection, acting like they don’t matter that much for each other either by going back on the dating scene or attempting murder. What if House had hurt Rachel (Kayla and Rylie Colbert)? .... Overall, this is a disappointing, and ridiculous, finale to an unsatisfactory season. The promised so-called exploration of House and Cuddy’s relationship, which had so much potential with these two screwed-up characters, barely scratched the surface and fell into unexpected common grounds way too quickly; the break-up’s aftermath was almost nonexistent besides House’s lame and uninspired antics; we haven’t learnt anything new about House himself or the people who are really supposed to matter to him; and there is absolutely nothing redeeming or appealing left in the House we loved at this point."
Lisa Palmer of Buddy TV - "Well, the positive thing about this episode is that it made me too angry to get truly depressed about Lisa Edelstein leaving the show. The ending was cringe-worthy.... this season ended with House driving through Cuddy's house (perhaps a self-destructive play on words?) and sipping a drink in some exotic local. We know you're angry, House. But are you really violent to the point of crazy? And if an umbrella in your drink can cure what ails you, why didn't we just send you to the Caribbean after the pilot episode? In all seriousness though, I'm racking my brain trying to figure out what the writers wanted us to deduce in the final scene. Has House really moved on? He's expressed his anger and he's chosen a lighter bar instead of the dark, depressing hole Wilson predicted. Well, I'm sorry, but it's not enough for me. House walking on the beach next to the tide might have looked refreshing, but after the finale, I was the one who needed a drink".
Erik Wilkinson of Give Me My Remote - "Until the closing minutes of this finale, I was enjoying HOUSE for the first time in weeks. Kath Lingenfelter & Peter Blake wrote a fantastic script.... Instead, director Greg Yaitanes indulged his overactive imagination for the umpteenth time, closing the season with a barrage of images that sacrificied story for shock value and emotional impact for sexy camera angles.... Viewers have been itching to have the Huddy chapter of this show closed, and Hugh Laurie & Lisa Edelstein were capable of telling that story with their own performances. If you believe that Gregory House is incapable of love and loyalty, then you were not watching his interactions with Rachel Cuddy, the precocious child who bonded with House more than any adult. Last week’s episode, when House & Rachel shared their pirate moment in the car, was almost Jerry Maguire-esque in its showcasing of an emotionally unavailable man falling in love with the notion of protecting a child. Leaping forward, we are supposed to accept that House would ram his car into Cuddy’s house, jeopardizing that same little girl’s life in the process? Nope, I don’t buy it. Not for a second".
Michelle of DaemonsTV - "This was Lisa Edelstein’s last episode, and while the writers had no idea she would be leaving the show at the time this episode was shot, they certainly gave Cuddy an out. I don’t think House and Cuddy could even remain in the same state at this point, let alone the same hospital, and I certainly don’t blame Ms. Edelstein for running far, far away from what has been done to Cuddy. ... House executive producer Greg Yaitanes said fans would be left shocked and excited by the last five minutes of tonight’s finale, but honestly, assuming the events are real (and the more I write, the more I’m leaning toward hallucination, though it’s probably wishful thinking), I’m just sad. House is many things: a cranky misanthrope, a brilliant doctor, a drug addict, a frustrating and selfish man. He is not; however, a psychopath. Or at least he wasn’t. Yes, House was hurting, drug-addled, and suffering from post-operative stress. Yes, Cuddy repeatedly picked the scab of their break-up, and yes she was with another man. These are all reasons for House to be upset-not ram his car into her home ALMOST KILLING HER AND THREE OTHER PEOPLE. I don’t know how the show will get past that. I don’t know how I will get past that. Assuming the show does get past it, where does House go from here? Doctors without Borders? Off the Map? Back to the psychiatric hospital?
Zack Handlen of AV Club - I feel like I should have disliked this more than I did. Which is an odd thing for a critic to say, even one as lumpy and waffling as myself. Because really, House ramming Cuddy's home was all kinds of dumb. The idea that Cuddy would just happen to be having a double date, in the middle of the day, when House and Wilson came by, was weird to begin with. ... And there's just too much idiocy in the act of auto-assault for it to be taken at face value, since, again, House could've killed people. Hell, Cuddy's daughter was somewhere inside. That's kind of evil. But getting past that, well, at least he didn't check himself into a nuthouse, and at least no one committed suicide. The announcement of Lisa Edelstein's departure from the show already confirmed the death of Huddy, but even if she wasn't leaving, it's hard to imagine the two of them getting back together after this. I do like that. And I liked how "Moving On" didn't shortchange just how impossible it can feel when you're trying to convince yourself that people are worth knowing after someone who means the world to you lets you down. Maybe it was Laurie's performance, maybe it was the writing, but you can almost see the episode admitting that, well, all of life is pretty screwed up, and the smarter you are, the more difficult it is to just accept the perversity of circumstance. Like all the finales, this promised some kind of change, but the change here is just that maybe next season, everything will somehow go back to the way it was.
Sara M. of Television Without Pity - "Finally, of course, this wouldn't be a season finale of House if something totally insane didn't happen, so after Cuddy unsuccessfully tries to talk to House about his feelings and make things better between them, she moves on and has an odd mid-afternoon double date at her home with her sister, brother-in-law, and a guy that her sister is trying to fix her up with. When House sees them enjoying life in Cuddy's dining room, he does the only reasonable thing: he drives his car through her house and into said dining room, somehow managing not to kill or injure anyone inside. Yes, House is now actively trying to murder people, including Cuddy's three-year-old daughter who may well have been home and in the room at the time the car went through it. She wasn't, but he didn't know that. So he's pretty much irredeemable, as is, I think, this show. The season ends with House -- who somehow managed to escape the police who are actively looking for him even though he was on foot and, as we know, he's not the fastest walker -- hanging out somewhere tropical and looking about as happy as he ever gets".
Shannon of The2cents.com - "As a whole, I found this the most disappointing House season finale ever. The finales are always the best part of the entire season but this one just wasn’t as good as the previous seasons. Actually, I found the whole thing quite boring up until House parked his car in Cuddy’s dining room".
Joseph Oliveto of ScreenCrave (a.k.a. the only reviewer who liked this episode, which he rated 9/10) - "The way this episode ends is completely unrealistic, but the creative team behind the camera pulls it off so effectively and convincingly that we honestly don’t care. “House” has pretty much given up on realism these days anyway, so it was worth it to see House genuinely smiling for what seems like the first time in the history of the show. We wonder where the series will go from here, but hey, we’re definitely interested. Looks like everyone involved did their jobs.... A strong season finale should get us interested for next season, and that is certainly what was accomplished in this episode. While any sense of realism was thrown out the door in the final moments of the show, hey, it’s TV: we’ll learn to live with it."
Jonah Krakow of IGN - "What's amusing is that the commercials touted a surprise twist and that House would never be the same again. And then the episode ended exactly the way it had to - with House (Hugh Laurie) violently lashing out at the people who care about him and avoiding the repercussions, especially Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein), who we now know will not be returning next season. Whereas last season's finale gave us hope, this one only served to remind us that the guy can't change... (in the climax) House crashed a dinner date that Cuddy was having at her house, as in, literally crashed through her dining room picture window at top speed... So now, along with prescription drug abuse and felony drug theft, we can also add domestic abuse and attempted murder to his rap sheet. House has always been able to defend his shortcomings because his ability to save lives trumps everything and his major crimes were usually directed at himself. This time he went too far and my suspension of disbelief to accept him as a protagonist has run its course. The producers seem to disagree: House went out a winner, relaxing on the beach under a bright sunny sky, safe from the police and safe in the knowledge that Cuddy won't be returning as the head of the hospital next year. Enjoy Season 8, House fans. I won't be joining you".
Antony Ocasio of Screenrant - "Continuing this season’s general trend of lack-luster storytelling, mixed with moments of brilliance, the House season 7 finale perfectly personifies both the positive and the (many) negative traits that viewers have come to experience as this season painfully crawled to one of the most underwhelming, incoherent finales of the year... Like House on his downward drug spiral, this season has most certainly felt like it was mirroring the horrific path that the series’ protagonist found himself on. With continuous convoluted storytelling that conveys the sense that the producers don’t actually know what they’re doing, the House season 7 finale was an empty, heartless and all but pointless hour-long journey of perpetual failure... From the horribly constructed performance artist storyline, to the “surprising” revelation that Taub can easily get anyone pregnant (which appears to be a favorite trait amongst Fox series) and the terribly conceived seasonal cliffhanger plot progression, every element - from the minute to the monumental - felt as it if was thrown together in an attempt to “shock and awe” its continually dwindling audience."
That's all folks!! Thanks for following... and see you for the "Ratings and Reviews" threads of Lisa's next projects!