House gave us a brilliant Wilson-centric episode earlier this season in “Wilson.” I’m glad they decided to give Cuddy her own episode, but this was not an easy one to watch. I am so stressed out right now I’m not sure even a full body massage and several hours of Transcendental Meditation can return me to my peaceful state of mind before watching “5 to 9.”

Cuddy does not have an easy life and one thing I got out of this episode was that I would never, under any circumstances, want to be a Dean of anything! Nine times out of ten, when we see Cuddy in an episode of House, she’s sitting peacefully behind her desk, mildly annoyed when House comes in to request something absurd. Wow, does her job entail more than that. Normally, it’s hilarious when House annoys Cuddy, but in tonight’s episode, I wanted to strangle him and tell him to leave her alone every time he popped up asking about malaria. She’s got way bigger fish to fry than House.

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American Idol has become such a ratings juggernaut that it’s always a little surprising when something actually tops it. The Grammy Awards were able to do just that last week, thanks to the best ratings for the show since 2004. The other big event for the week was the return of Lost on ABC. It didn’t approach the Idol or Grammy numbers, but it did finish the week as the number one scripted show in the adult demo. Granted, it was the season premiere, but knocking off Grey’s, House, 2 ½ Men, and Big Bang Theory is always worth noting. On cable, the big surprise was probably the performance from USA’s White Collar and Psych. Both were well down from last week. Read the rest of this entry »

After covering this week’s Big Bang Theory, it feels like I have already written this week’s installment of Quotation Marks. It was certainly a laugh-a-minute episode, and I brought back my favorite two quotes from the episode for the weekly edition. Also making its — to my memory — first appearance is White Collar. It is nice to see House show up as well, but we seemed to have misplaced Psych this week. Did you see it? What were your favorite quotes?

Supernatural

“Time travel was difficult even with the powers of Heaven at my disposal.” — Castiel
“Which you cut off….” — Sam
“So what, you’re like a Delorean without enough plutonium?” — Dean
“I don’t understand that reference….” — Castiel Read the rest of this entry »

The title of this week’s episode, “Moving the Chains” reminded me of the ends of Dylan Thomas’s famous poem “Fern Hill.” The last lines of the poem are: “Time held me green and dying/Though I sang in my chains like the sea.” The reason why this episode reminds me of the poem is more complicated than the shared word “chains.” At the end of the episode, two young men, two young patients, have to deal with lost and broken dreams. House tells the young vet, “You knocked up a girl. You’re just another guy,” when the kid argues that he was just a guy when he first went to war, but now he is going to be a father.

The young football player wonders what his life will amount to now that he can’t be drafted for the NFL, and House tells him that his life will be the same as everyone else who graduates from college, without the student loans. Bleak? Or just realistic? House is not big on sugarcoating things. He is all about the miseries and realities of life. After all, if someone as brilliant as House is miserable, what right do ordinary mortals have to want happiness? Read the rest of this entry »

It was a bit of a slow week of television. Football on FOX sent all the other networks scrambling on Sunday. Then Obama took over all the channels on Wednesday. Add in an oddly quiet Thursday and we had three pretty weak nights of numbers. Not to worry though, there was still the occasional cause for celebration. To call the NFC Championship a success would be a terrible understatement. How terrible? How about it more than doubled the Idol numbers? In non-gridiron results, FOX took advantage of the quiet Thursday, garnering some very good results for Bones and Fringe. Castle managed to grow their numbers again. And Vampire Diaries tied for second in the demo! Read the rest of this entry »

Dear Network Executives,

Alright, people, I understand that it’s hard to take risks. TV (especially on the big networks) is all a numbers game. The ratings need to be high and the costs need to be low. It’s a business. For every Lost there is a The Nine. For every Glee there is a Viva Laughlin.

With that being said, I have a message for you: for the love of everything good in this world, please, please, please stop creating “franchises” with spin-off clones.

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“In the great game of chess that is our relationship, Wilson sees only one move ahead. I see dozens. That is why he will never mate me.” — House
“…” — House’s team
“That’s a chess term.” — House

After watching the end of tonight’s House, I turned to Keith and said, “How can I write about something so epic?” I could literally write a thesis paper on “Remorse,” another installment in the House-perfection files, like the last episode, “The Down Low.”

I’ll spare you the thesis, but I do want to explore the question I asked in the title — is House a psychopath? I’m going with a very solid no on this, because he does have what psychopaths lack: remorse (hence the title of this episode).

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