In a complete anomaly of the writers’ strike, House was a new episode this Tuesday and will be new AGAIN (!) next week.

Aside from the weird feeling I got from watching a Christmas-themed episode when it wasn’t actually Christmastime, I thoroughly enjoyed watching House get his Scrooge on.

Since no one actually watches the episodes for the “medical mysteries” that make up the plotlines, I’m going to jump right in to making commentary about the new medical team.

Taub: It’s still kind of an enigma to me why this dude is on the show, to be honest. As an actor, he doesn’t impress me much, and as a character, he impresses me even less. I mean, what is his purpose? What is House going to do with a middle-aged plastic surgeon? My guess is he’ll develop some kind of illicit relationship with Thirteen.

Thirteen: Thirteen is obviously the new Cameron, but I’m not sure I like her as much. She seems to have less attitude (although I did do a little cheer for her in this episode when she slammed House’s laptop closed in his face). Maybe she just annoys me so much because she is both gorgeous and too smart for her own good.

Kutner: Aside from the fact that I think Kal Penn is smoking hot, Kutner is my favorite doctor of the new crew. He’s sassy, he’s intelligent in a really sexy way, and I can see him giving House some major trouble in the future, which always makes for good TV.

So, hopefully the season will begin to pick up again now that the Contest that Wouldn’t End has finally ended. I still prefer Chase (oh, that accent), Cameron, and Foreman to the new team, but…only time will tell.