So, what we technically saw tonight was the two-part premiere episode of House, Season 6. What we actually saw was a stand-alone, feature-length film starring a very familiar character. This movie, let's call it Ward 6 starring Hugh Laurie, was mostly touching, sometimes outlandish and most certainly divergent from the popular television series that spawned it.

For the past three seasons at this point, I've had minor nightmares about what it must be like to be a writer for House MD. We have a compelling main character who can't possibly change without effectively imploding the premise of the series, which is wonderful if the series is only meant to run one, maybe two seasons. The show we have today is practically an entirely different program. If it wasn't before, it certainly should be after "Broken". House has undergone several major shake-ups in the past couple years, including a complete rotation of half the principle cast and a pretty significant body count. Basically, the writers changed everything they possibly could without changing House himself.

So, is that what "Broken" was all about? If so, what kind of show do we have to look forward to now? I feel like I just watched a series finale, or at least the setup for the single most extreme return to status quo in the history of television.

While I know that House as a character has to change to keep the series from going stale, his transformation in this premiere undercuts the sober, refreshingly cynical tone that has served as this show's foundation for five years. Every time some character on House seems to turn over a new leaf, circumstances and often House himself point out that the progress is a lie and that people never really change. At best, this jarring shift in House's character will breathe new life into the show and serve as a prime example of long-term character development. At worst, it'll turn Season 6 into a superfluous slog of soap opera plots between supporting characters with no real center.

I suppose we'll still be seeing House pop pills during differential diagnoses, but now they'll be his depression meds instead of Vicodin. MAOI's aren't quite as sexy as opiates, but that's what we have left, I guess.

As for the content of "Broken" itself, it was all just very fancy window dressing for House's big breakthrough. Don't get me wrong, I loved the one-off cast (yay, Franka Potente!) and the episode did a great job of turning the psych ward into the extent of the show's world, but it was hard to get all that attached knowing that (as the inmates kept reminding us) we'll never see any of them again. I already miss the sharp observations, biting wit and ironic humor of the standard House formula.

So, as a card-carrying fan of House MD, I am more than ready to return to Princeton-Plainsboro where the uncommonly pretty doctors race against time to save morally conflicted victims of exotic diseases... and never, ever have a stupid carnival scene again.