TVSquad

(S05E07) I always enjoy watching House, but later, when I am thinking about it to write a review, comes the true test of whether or not I really liked the episode. Or, more accurately, then comes the true test of whether the episode can stand up to scrutiny. So, the answer in last night's case is that I didn't think it was a particularly strong episode. Sometimes shows seem to put in these place-holder episodes right before sweeps, and that's what this episode felt like to me. Strong hijinks, a little progress for more minor characters, but everybody else just sort of treads water.

(S05E06) Maybe it's just me, but one of the things I love best about House is that the writers often use the medical mystery as a parallel for the mini dramas occurring between House and his staff. Last week, with "Lucky Thirteen," the patient's fate actually coincided directly with Thirteen's, because the two women were lovers and were, briefly, both dying. This week, the patient(s)' symptom of sleepwalking was synonymous with House and Cuddy both sleepwalking through their desire for each other, and their waking to that desire paralleled the successful treatment of the patients.

I really liked the parallel structure of the dual plot points, even though I thought it was a little obvious. One of the things that keeps me hooked on House is that even when they do obvious, they do it pretty well.

"Joy" was a great episode because there is a lot to unpack. And let's face it-one of the joys of House is peeling back the good doctor's layers.

(S04E16) "Her heart won't stop racing. No idea what's causing it." Doctor in inferior hospital.
"Are you sure it wasn't the bus that landed on her?" House.

The season finale of House packed a wallop. I let my Tivo get ahead of my watching it so I wouldn't have to see the commercials, and I had barely begun the episode when my next-door neighbor burst into my living room exclaiming, "Have you seen House???" We barely had time to hit the pause button while yelling at her to leave and leave quickly without saying anything. But that is the kind of impact this kind of episode has. The season finale, which started last week, covered a bus-load of big themes: fear, wish-fulfillment, anger, risk-taking, the nature of friendship, remorse, and love. The episode was written by four writers, including producer David Foster: that was one of my first clues that this episode was going to be significant. They called in the big guns.

[S04E14] "You don't deserve to be happy." House to Wilson.
"And yet I am. You?" Wilson to House

House treats the symptoms, but he doesn't treat the whole person. He doesn't even claim to. He often makes a clear point that he doesn't care. House likes medicine because he likes to solve puzzles, and what greater consequences can a puzzle have than a human life? But ultimately, even someone dying doesn't matter unless House can't figure out the puzzle.

So, if the above paragraph is true, then why does House go out of his way to kidnap a soap opera star he believes to be dying in order to save his life? Is it really because he can't stand the idea of not watching his soap? I don't think so; he even encourages angsty actor Evan Greer (Sex and the City's Jason Lewis) to quit if he's not happy... well, sort of. But, back to the question: If House doesn't care, then why bother? Because it's a puzzle he can see daily, right in front of him, and he has to solve it. Apparently he has made multiple calls about it, because the actor knows who House is, so House simply takes matters into his own hands because that is what House does. House lives a life without consequences.

(S04E11) "Never before has a profession been so decried by someone who needed it so badly," Wilson [about psychiatry] to House.

One of my favorite parts of this episode was the quote I have chosen to put at the beginning of the entry. Wilson accuses House of not liking Cate, the patient, because she is a psychiatrist. House counters that there are many reasons he does not like the patient, and Wilson comes back with that retort. The reason I like it so much isn't because I think it's meant to be about House. I like it so much because I think it's a sneaky little slam on Tom Cruise. Or at least, if that is too much of a stretch, then I like it because it certainly can be applied to Tom Cruise and his very public outcries against psychiatry.

(S04E08) "Foreman, she's not wearing any underwear. You used to be more fun."-- House

Tonight's episode had parallel three plot lines running through it that investigated one theme: What is magic? And how much power can information give you? The three plot lines involved the case, of course; the game House is playing with the fellows to see who gets fire, of course; and Thirteen and her mysteries. Of course.

(S04E06) "My malpractice insurance doesn't cover alien autopsies." --House
"That's fine. X-files are the next wing over."-- Dr. Samira Terzi

Tonight was apparently the "stand-up" episode of House. It had more one-liners than an episode of Seinfeld. And everybody got into the game-- not just House. I guess "Whatever it takes" referred not only to medicine but to extorting laughs. It's a good thing it had so many zingers in it, because that was one of the only likable things about the episode.

"15 minutes for the lap dance, half hour to scrub the guilt off my soul... See you in 45!"-- House

(S04E05) "She said her hoo-hoo burned." -- Kutner

I will be reviewing House for the next two weeks because Richard Keller, my House compadre, is otherwise tied up. I was going to follow the format for the review that Rich devised last week, because I think it's a great format. However, when I began writing the review, I realized that because the plot integrated with what was happening with the characters so intensely that it made sense simply to review the show. For even more House, if you can't get enough, head on over to AOL.

I realized after I watched the episode that we never got to find out who the patient, Robert Elliot, really was. From the moment we saw him, he was mirroring the older brother mugger, and then the doctors, one by one.

(S04E02) Hi, I'm Jen, and I am going to be sharing reviews of House with Rich Keller, alternating weeks. Here's the way these reviews are going to work: We are going to include both reviews and recaps of each episode-- sort of reviewcaps, as our illustrious leader Keith McDuffee calls them. I will indicate in bold where the review begins and then, down below it, where the recap begins. So, if you don't want to have to read a recap, you can skip it.

I *know* tonight's post has a very long recap. I like the small details. Please give me a couple of times to find my groove. But this is one of the reasons I am putting the recap after the review, so if you haven't seen the show yet, please take that under advisement. And if you like recaps, or didn't get a chance to catch the episode, then you can find out about it there. I'm starting under the jump. Ready? Set? Go.

(S02E23) What's curious about shows that are super-formulaic in nature, is that when they're good, you don't care about how things are constructed, it's all about what is constructed and how the characters interact with each other. And yes, I know, this has been harped on to know end by me and some commenters on this site for a long time now, but that's a good thing. This week's episode, "Who's Your Daddy?" was pretty much spot on when it comes to that concept, with a young girl named Leona coming to the hospital after experiencing a horrible vision of flooding and her dead mother on the plane she is flying on. Leona, we have been told, is a survivor of the devastation that Hurricane Katrina put on the New Orleans area, and is now, for some reason, re-experiencing things that terrorized her.

At the same time, House is experiencing horrible leg pain, which has got to be pretty bad considering what his pain threshold on a regular basis is. He's storming around his apartment, even climbing up a step stool to get a box, hidden on top of a bookshelf, that contains needles and other pain medication that looks like his "last stop" when it comes to fixing what ails him. Once again, Cuddy rings him up on the telephone, and we get to hear his funny answering machine message, but also see that she knows how to push his buttons by saying exactly what curiousness would bring him in to treat a patient.