I was going to say that House has finally lost its lustre. Why? For one thing, overpopulation.

Here's a drama series, now in its fifth season, with too many regular characters who have nothing to do. Between Dr. House's old staff, his new staff, his private detective, doctors Wilson and Cuddy, and the patients-of-the-week, the Fox (Global) has become something of a traffic jam.

When the House writers finally devote an episode to the once-prominent Cameron-Chase romance next Tuesday, it will feel like nostalgia night.

I was also going to say that the House storylines have grown increasingly preposterous during the years -- and they were cuckoo to start with.

Sometimes, the medical mysteries and the dramas about the doctors' personal lives are so over-the-top, I have to go into a kind of denial to get through the hour.

I have to work to suspend my wild disbelief while I'm watching the insanity unfold -- doctors breaking into patients' homes, House having his PI go through Wilson's garbage, Thirteen getting fired but not leaving.

But then later on, or during the commercials, I shake my head and laugh at the lunacy.

OK, Cuddy just drugged House so that Wilson could kidnap him and drive him to his father's funeral.

Got it.

And yet I would much rather say something completely different here.

Against all odds, and against all the evidence of sloppy storytelling and excessive implausibility, House remains one of network TV's most dynamic hours.

Obviously, Hugh Laurie is outrageously good; he has created an awful, brilliant, condescending, needy, childlike, curmudgeonly character with nary a wrong note over five years.

His House already deserves a spot in the TV character hall of fame, near Archie Bunker and Hawkeye Pierce.

But I do find that, despite the occasional bum episode, the drama that is built around Laurie is still good, too. Weird, but good.

House can't be approached and judged as a typical medical procedural, even while it has that formulaic quality.

The show needs to be viewed as a comic psychodrama in which all the medical cases reflect aspects of the doctors, and all the doctors reflect aspects of House, and House reflects the naked id. It's a crazy House of mirrors.

The crowded cast, the overheated action, and all the absurd twists and turns are the show's unique stylization. House may be mainstream TV's boldest-ever psychological farce.

Yes, I have sometimes joined in the chorus of fans who feel that House is over. But right here, right now, I'm feeling more optimistic.

With Olivia Wilde's Thirteen getting more compelling, and House and Cuddy getting romantic, and bold direction that can turn a prime-time hour into a dreamlike fantasia, the show still deserves a chance.