House’s sixth season is now cooking with gas
This is why I liked it: Well written! The veritable opposite of last week! Fine. The performances last week were brilliant. But tonight’s episode redeemed a lot of what seemed to be an over-simplification last week. Thank God House is still in therapy [with the great Andre Braugher!].
I have been worried about how the writers would handle the New-and-Improved Gregory House. I am pleased to report that they are handling it with grace and subtlety. House is still acerbic and funny (making balls jokes to Wilson as they attend cooking class), yet smart: figuring out that vinegar would slow the cooking of the outside of the balls while allowing them to cook thoroughly inside.
Dr. House is in da crazy house!
I started out this review with mixed feelings, and then they got unmixed as I wrote. In the immortal words of an option not yet available on Facebook: Unlike! Jen Creer doesn’t like this!
“Broken” was cliche in so many ways. I don’t want House to get better and to grow. I want House still to be House. It’s not like he is a real person whose growth I am preventing. If he starts to heal, then I am going to lose interest in the show really fast. A functional (oh come on — yes, he was having hallucinations, but that was the writers’ choice. He functioned for a long time at a pretty high level) miserable asshole is much more interesting to watch limping along like the rest of us than a wet noodle trying to feel good about himself.
Diary of a House Virgin: The first season comes to an end
(Season One, Episodes 20 – 22)
I have got to say I’ve been quite impressed with the first season of House. The good doctor is interesting to watch as he goes through his machinations. The team around him is fun, though I do think Chase is a bit of a weak link. While the show follows a stagnant formula, it’s not afraid to break out of it from time to time, and overcomes this generalized downside by great characterization and strong dialogue writing.
TV on DVD for July 14th – Leverage, The State
It’s another big week of DVD releases, with a little something for everyone. I’m sure many of you here are fans of TNT’s Leverage, which finally gets the season one DVD treatment, just in time. The week also sees a very overdue set for The State and the return of G.I. Joe. Still not working for ya? There’s also ER, Anthony Bourdain, Wire In The Blood, and the OG American Gladiators. If that’s not enough, perhaps I can interest you in Joe Schmo 2? Unfortunately for those of you just chomping at the bit to get your hands on SciFi’s Flash Gordon, that one’s a Canada only release. More info, links, and the rest of the releases, after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
Miss the Hung pilot? Check it out tonight – Daily Rerun Roundup
We’ve got a little bit of everything in Rerun World tonight, from Kathy Griffin to Hugh Laurie to Tim Roth. If you missed the pilot of Hung, check it out on HBO at 9 PM. It felt flaccid to Keith, but I think it’s an interesting premise. Notice how more and more TV characters are turning to drugs and prostitution to make a living?
- Starting at 8 PM, CBS has reruns of How I Met Your Mother, Rules of Engagement, Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory, and CSI: Miami. The HIMYM episode is “Little Minnesota”; it’s the one where Marshall takes Robin to a Minnesota themed bar. Debbie thought the episode sounded more clever than it turned out to be. The Big Bang Theory’s ep is “The Bad Fish Paradigm,” the second season opener in which Penny turns to Sheldon for comfort after her disastrous first date with Leonard.
- Fox is airing reruns of House and Lie To Me. We’ve grown to love Cal Lightman in this household, and tonight’s ep is the one where he and his crew investigate a NASA test pilot accused of intentionally crashing a plane.
- The CW has reruns of One Tree Hill and Gossip Girl. Blair tries to improve her standing with Yale by babysitting the daughter of a prominent Yale donor. Yeah, that sounds like Blair. I’ll get caught up on this season on DVD.
- TNT has a repeat of The Closer at 9 PM, leading into a new episode at 9 PM. The repeat finds Brenda getting involved with the gay dance party scene. Should I say something here? Nah, just watch the episode and experience Brenda’s quirky goodness.
- On Bravo, catch a rerun of Millionaire Matchmaker at 8 PM, followed by a repeat of Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List. Kathy tries to get hip by joining Facebook and hanging with Paris Hilton. Good luck with that.
See Jane Clack – Nurse Jackie vs. House (with some Mental thrown in)
I’ve been watching Mental since it premiered a couple of weeks ago, and caught the premiere episode of Nurse Jackie this week, too. It’s hard not to draw comparisons to House with both of these shows, although I don’t know that either show is truly like House, which is in a class by itself (even though I haven’t watched it much the past few seasons). But let’s delve a little deeper into this notion:
Is Nurse Jackie a female House? Right off the bat, I’d say no. Even though she pops pills like House (or in her case, snorts them — can you snort Vicodin?), she actually cares about the patients. House is just as rude to the patients as he is to everyone else, and looks upon them as a puzzle to be solved.
Sure, they’ll both do whatever it takes to solve the medical mysteries, but she’s doing it because of a larger philosophy that if she doesn’t look after them, no one else will — certainly not the doctors, especially Dr. Cooper, played by Peter Facinelli. The jackass didn’t follow her advice and the patient died, so she made something right out of it and forged his signature on a donor card. I’m trying to decide if Dr. House would do this. It’s certainly rule-breaking enough, but I don’t know that he cares that much about someone else getting a patient’s organs illegally. What’s your thought on that?
House – Right brains, left hands and hallucinations
What the heck’s wrong with House? We thought we took a trip to hallucination land when he was hanging out with Amber, but he really lost his marbles this week. I’m not sure if this finale blew me away, left me confused or just made me love Carl Reiner more than ever (huge Dick Van Dyke fan here….).
What was successful for me was the way they juxtaposed the patient with the alien hand syndrome with House’s malady. It was all about the right brain, the side that controls our reality, who we are for real. After this episode, we are left with the question, “Who is House really?”
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