This article briefly mentions suicide.

The TV show The doctors in House's team of diagnostics experts all brought something to the table, but it was their differing dynamics and relationships, both with House and with each other, that formed the focal point and heart of the show. This was especially true of House's most short-lived team, which included some of the best characters in the show.

The personal lives of the doctors in House easily took center stage as the show followed a relatively predictable format. Each episode saw at least one patient who presented a complex and evolving series of symptoms, while Dr. House (Hugh Laurie) and his team raced against the clock to diagnose them. The vast majority of the time, Dr. House was never wrong, though some of the best episodes of House showed him struggling with a dilemma or issue connected to the patient. The best teams in House kept the story moving while being compelling in their own right.

Thirteen, Kutner, Taub, & Foreman Were House’s Best Team

This Team Challenged House, Which Increased The Show's Tension

After firing his medical team in season 3, House hires a new team in season 4, which is often considered House's standout season. The new are the serial adulterer Taub, the seemingly carefree and relaxed Kutner, and Thirteen, who is hiding her developing Huntington's Disease. Foreman, who has stayed with Dr. House since season 1, is also a team member and the only one to regularly question his decisions. The cast shakeup in season 4 was a gamble that could have ruined House, but the team was the best in the show, bringing in some much-needed tension.

Foreman and House regularly butted heads, but with House surrounded by strangers, Foreman became a source of stability for him, even if he never itted it. After Cameron and Chase's hero worship turned to frustration and disappointment, the show needed characters who would directly challenge House rather than quietly disobey. Another character who was not afraid of House was Thirteen. Her doomed relationship with Foreman might not have lasted, but it gave more insight into both characters away from House's influence, which is something the show did not do as much in the earlier seasons.

House’s Season 4 Team Was The Perfect Replacement For The Original One

House's Season 1 Team Had Some Questionable Storylines

Cameron and Chase might have been popular characters, but it did not make sense for them to remain in House for too long. As accomplished diagnostics doctors, their careers needed to take them further away from House's fellowship program. With House also being a cantankerous antihero, characters who regularly worked with him found ways of dealing with him. After three seasons, House needed a less compliant team that did not always work well with each other. The new, prickly dynamic was the perfect replacement for House's season 1 team, which had endured some unpopular storylines.

The show's potential romantic relationship felt out of character for both House and Cameron.

House was not always medically accurate and sometimes included controversial storylines. One of the strangest and least popular was the questionable romance plot between House and Cameron. The show's potential romantic relationship felt out of character for both House and Cameron, and the storyline was difficult to believe. Another controversial writing choice was the episode in which Chase kisses a young cancer patient on the lips after she says she is afraid that she will never have a first kiss with a boy. Though House's original team set the show up well, season 4's team had better characters.

Kutner’s Death Means That House’s Best Team Lasted Less Than Two Seasons

Kutner's Death Was The Opposite To A Common Criticism Of House

The team in House season 4 looked to become one of the best teams in a medical drama, and many viewers were looking forward to seeing the characters develop over time, as they did in the first three seasons. Kutner's shocking death by his own hand changed the show for good and meant that the best team in House lasted for just 26 episodes. The episode "Simple Explanation" is still one of the best in the show, and Kutner's death had such an impact on Dr. House that he was brought back as a flashback in the finale.

Kal Penn, who played Kutner, was offered a job in The White House and had to break his contract as he did not want to say no to President Barack Obama.

One of the biggest criticisms of House is how formulaic it could be. House was virtually never wrong about anything and often seemed able to predict the actions of his staff as well as the behavior of his patients. Kutner appeared outwardly cheerful and friendly, and his death was one of the most tragic and unpredictable moments in the show. Kutner's death was so shocking that the episode showed House trying to argue that it was a murder, not a suicide. This plotline was the total opposite of all other episodes in which House had the answers.

House’s Season 4 Team Became The Foundation Of The Show’s Second Half

House's Final Team Was Never Going To Live Up To His Best

Season 4's initial strained dynamic set up the second half of House, with more attention being paid to the personal lives of Dr. House's diagnostics team. This meant that later storylines, like the one in which Taub falls for a con artist, become relevant to the rest of the show, adding another layer to the relationships in the team. House changed dramatically over its eight seasons, becoming one of the greatest dramas of all time, but this was only possible because his season 4 team brought a combination of tension and unpredictability that his original team lacked.

The unpopular Dr. Adams and the childlike Dr. Park were introduced during the last season, and as they never seemed to bond, House felt like the glue that bound his final team together. It is impossible to mention House without bringing up characters like Thirteen, who played such a key role in the show's second half and was a rare LGBTQ+ main character in a mainstream series. Thirteen and the rest of House's team were some of the best characters in House, with the most memorable storylines, and the final team in House could not live up to their legacy.