The most fascinating part of the early seasons to me were the actual medical mysteries (which have been taking a backseat in importance for the past 4 seasons, so oh well) and then the interactions between House's team members with House and amongst themselves. Foreman, Chase, and Cameron had such a great dynamic always questioning things about each other, plotting against or with House, trying to outsmart him or prove something about themselves or the patient. That dynamic is what seems to have suffered the greatest and is what I miss most.

When they brought in Taub, Kutner, and 13, it wasn't quite the same, but it would still manage to be fairly interesting a decent amount of the time. The changing line-up that's been around the past few seasons, and especially this one, however, have just been a total bore-fest for me. This new attractive female doctor he hired from the prison? She's in every way a carbon copy of Cameron and 13. They're giving her the exact same storylines they've been giving the female leads for the past 7 seasons: House does his semi-flirt/semi-question thing with them and tries to tease out stories about how being so beautiful and successful must mean they're horribly damaged in some way, they spend all their time trying to prove that they're not just an impossibly hot woman who's also apparently a brilliant doctor, yada yada yada.

Charlene Yi's character would be better in that she's not in that same stereotype, but her acting is meh and I'm generally only interested in her in her brief moments of comic relief.

Chase and Taub are...whatever. Couldn't care less about Taub's kid drama or House's mockery of it.

The one thing that does work is the House-Foreman dynamic, and if they keep building on it then there'll be at least some redeeming things to watch. Overall, I won't be surprised if it's the last season. They've given some amazing shows over the years so it's not crazy that they're running outta ideas.