I suppose it really is all about expectations. I, for example, expect as much from House as I'm getting, which is to say a purely episodic show with little to no ongoing story. I mean really, it was quite clear by the end of the first season that this show had either no interest (or, perhaps, ability), to develop a really interesting serial story. If someone I knew had never seen an episode of House before, I really could tell them to go watch ANY episode. Yes, even the ones we're discussing.

Because this is what I expect from House, I quite enjoy the occasional flights of fancy like the Cuddy or Mos Def episodes. If you don't like them, there are usually 23 other episodes in a season to keep you happy.

This goes back to the long discussion we had about US TV programming. When you have 22-24 hours in a season to fill, occasionally you get episodes that don't fit the "mold" of the show. Sometimes these fall a bit flat, but other times it's a really fun momentary departure from the norm. In a show that has no ongoing story to drive momentum, there's even less reason to stick to the forumula.

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy House, but it's far from one of my favorites. As I said before, it has zero serial value, I really could care less about any of the supporting characters, and it truly does follow the formula Bitt posted earlier, which made me chuckle from its accuracy:

My wife and I call out "Bing!" when he has those epiphanies. We tend to also do that during Medium, when Allison figures out the thing that the audience worked out 20-50 minutes beforehand.