House: You Don't Want To Know

ORIGINAL EPISODES, TUESDAYS @ 9PM ON FOX

This was definitely one of the better "House" episodes. Tonight, we saw House take on a magician and come out on top; yet still without any inside information on how the magician was able to perform any of the tricks. It's sort of how House operates so he shouldn't be too peeved when he wasn't able to find out the secret to the tricks. He always performs these procedures and tests on patients resulting in diagnoses that no one else could figure out and he never reveals how he does it. Obviously we know the tricks because we see behind the scenes but for the patients it's like watching a magician do magic right in front of you.

The magician was actually pretty cool and I was really hoping to see how he was going to escape the underwater trick. Too bad he ended up bleeding through his nose and going unconscious in the middle. At least we found out how he was going to escape; he had the key hidden in his mouth. Unfortunately for him in all the commotion of you know, almost dieing, he forgot he swallowed the key which then ripped through his internal organs when he was brought to the MRI machine. Moron. This was probably something he should have tried to remember. It's bad enough that you almost died performing the trick but you survive and then almost kill yourself by forgetting something as simple as a key in your stomach; not too smart.

Aside from the magician we had another pretty big story line develop during this episode. Apparently, Thirteen's mother and grandmother both died of Huntington's disease. Basically, (and for those of you who watched "Everwood" you know this already) it's a degenerative disease that effects the brain and can strike at anytime. You slowly lose all function over your brain and you turn into a vegetable. It's a horrible disease and House started to notice symptoms in Thirteen; or rather he manufactured them. It was actually a terrible thing to do given her state of mind but when she dropped a folder House noticed she freaked out even though it was just a natural drop, nothing to do with Huntington's. So he switched out the caffinated coffee with decaf and when she unknowingly went through caffeine withdrawal and her hands shook she started to freak out. Actually, I'd like to restate my point of view, it wasn't just terrible, it was downright evil of him. When he found out it was Huntington's and not Parkinson's she was worried about at least he showed some sympathy. It just goes to show how awful this disease is; no one should ever have to go through that. The only problem was, as usual, House wouldn't leave it alone and he tested her DNA without her permission to determine if she had the disease. Her explanation about why she didn't want to know was very touching and I think it really hit home with House. Since he didn't look and now that we know all this about Thirteen, it's pretty much a safe bet that she's going to be around for a long while.

For a little fun in all the drama, House decreed that whoever obtained Cuddy's panties would be able to nominate two other interns for elimination. A very ingenious idea if you ask me and especially hilarious. Shockingly it was the Mormon who got the panties! I couldn't believe it and I guess neither could House. He realized that the only reason he got them was because he teamed up with Cuddy. The idea was that by him winning he would nominate Kutner for elimination, which Cuddy was very happy to see because she believes he's a liability given all his mishaps over the last couple months. The only thing Cole didn't realize was that the one person house always wants to beat is Cuddy and by teaming up with her, he did exactly what got him fired - he made a pact with the devil. So goodbye to the moron, you will certainly be missed for all the sarcastic jokes House made at your expense.

Yet another fantastic episode from "House" and I will certainly enjoy every minute we have until the episodes run out. Until next week, enjoy the review!

House: Ugly

ORIGINAL EPISODES, TUESDAYS @ 9PM ON FOX

Sorry Michael Michelle (Samira), you may be gorgeous but you suck at being a diagnostician. I really thought she was going to be around for a while given her high profile stint on "ER" but alas House is just too smart for her and at the same time too dumb. Apparently, he unknowingly hired her believing her abilities were greater than reality because his judgment was clouded by her good looks. It seems this isn't the only time this has happened to him as he thinks it may also be happening with thirteen. Personally I think Olivia Wilde (Thirteen) actually is good at her job but now he's questioning his perception and this may not be a good thing for her. House did bring up an interesting question though, did the same thing happen with Cameron? I think we could all agree it didn't, so a better question is why didn't it? I'm not really sure; I'll have to think about this one a bit longer and get back to you.

Meanwhile, House and his interns spent the night trying to help a young boy with a severe deformity have plastic surgery; or at least everyone was except for House. In an interesting turn, not surprising however, House was more interested in saving his life than getting him the surgery just to keep his feelings from being hurt. Granted none of us could imagine what his life is like with that deformity but I was totally with House. There's no reason to rush into plastic surgery no matter how crazy the deformity if you're going to put your life at risk.

As I alluded above, Thirteen isn't as stupid as House thought she may be. After an hour misdiagnosing the boy, it turns out one of Thirteens ideas that were dismissed was correct. The boy had Lyme Disease; the only problem was that the bullet target at the site of the bite was hidden by his hair. Very good pick up by Thirteen and I think this pretty much shows us that she's going to be around for a while longer.

It was an interesting perspective watching much of the episode through the lens of a documentary film camera. Although I should point out that this wasn't very original. "ER" accomplished this feat many, many years ago when they shot a live documentary of a day in the ER. Still, it was a nice change of pace and an interesting touch to the episode. I loved watching House try to dodge the camera by finding new and interesting places to hide so that the interns wouldn't feel inhibited.

This was kind of the standard "House" episode and very enjoyable. With a mix of the usual mystery, humor, and witty remarks from House, I thoroughly enjoyed this hour of television. From what I'm hearing there's only 5 episodes left of "House" before they run out so enjoy it while you can. Until next week, enjoy the review!

House: Whatever It Takes

ORIGINAL EPISODES, TUESDAYS @ 9PM ON FOX

This wasn't one of the classic "House" episodes but it certainly was funny. Is it just me or was House a lot funnier than usual? I love his sarcastic and mocking humor but usually it comes in small doses throughout the episode. It seemed that during this one the writers decided to take it to a whole new level and gave us Uber-House; a hyped up version of House that couldn't stop with the quick mocking lines for 60 minutes (or 40 if you take out the commercials). Not that I'm complaining much, I was laughing my butt off as he totally humiliated the other doctor with him at the CIA.

Anyway, House had a chance to be in the CIA. Well, sort of. He got to go on a black, stealth helicopter and try to save the life of a CIA agent who was the victim of an attempted assassination in South America at a government hospital. House spent his time there putting down the other doctor that was brought along and for a change, he turned out to be completely wrong with his diagnosis. But House ended up with the last laugh because while he was wrong he was also right. In the end his diagnosis wrong was but he was right that it wasn't what the other doctors thought it was. Turns out, he was in Brazil and had eaten hundreds of a native nut which caused the severe reactions he was experiencing.

The best part of his trip to the CIA was that House recruited a new doctor to his team. You may actually recognize her from her days on "ER" as Dr. Cleo Finch. So the beautiful Michael Michele is joining House's team. Here's the important question though: does this mean there will be one less spot for those on his intern squad? I would think so and this means that we have to start saying goodbye to some of these people soon. Foreman already took 15% of each of their salaries when Cuddy hired him and now House hired another doctor. There's no way they could keep all these other doctors around much longer. I think it's pretty clear that Olivia Wilde (Thirteen) is going to stay but I wonder how many others will make it through. Probably only one other if we're trying to make it a team of three. Anyone have any ideas on who the last person could be? My money is on the horribly mean intern or as House has her in his phone, "Cutthroat Bitch."

As for Foreman, he was left to lead the interns in solving the case of a female race car driver who just happened to pass out suddenly. The only problem was that with House gone Foreman felt he needed to prove he was as good as he believed. This is probably due to the fact that he's had such a hard time moving on since he was fired. Either way, he jeopardized the life of his patient while he tried to prove he was right. In the end, he ended up being right from the get go and had it not been for the rogue intern who tried to get money to cure polio by poisoning the patient in order to rig the test results, Foreman would never have jeopardized the patients life. He did learn an important lesson about being in charge and I have a feeling it's going to be an important tool for him down the road. I doubt this is the last time we're going to see Foreman in charge.

I should point out that Foreman was completely right to confront Cameron about interfering with his patient and his interns. She needs to move on or go back to House but she needs to pick one. At least she realized that after Foreman totally screwed with her mind too. I would like to see Cameron and Chase find a way back into the forefront of the show. They're on the fringes and I think it's a waste of great actors and great characters. I'm not sure what they can do since putting them all back under House would be weird at this point and I can't see any of the characters willing to except that torture.

I've been pleasantly surprised at how good this season as been given all the changes. How long this will last I can't say but for now I'm enjoying the new feel to the show and I think you might be too. Until next week, enjoy the review!

House: Mirror, Mirror

ORIGINAL EPISODES, TUESDAYS @ 9PM ON FOX

Tonight brought us another extremely interesting patient. A man, who was introduced to us during a mugging, began wheezing uncontrollably and landed in Dr. House's service with an unknown condition. The interesting aspect of his condition was that he took on the thoughts and emotional characteristics of the people around him. For instance, while any of the doctors were in the room he would start speaking from their point of view, making comments that that person was thinking at the moment. According to House, this is called Mirror Syndrome and he was able to read people so well that it was essentially a form of mind reading; although based off appearance, movement, eye contact, etc.

As you could imagine, a patient like this could reek havoc upon the doctor's in this hospital and he absolutely did just that. He called each of the doctors out on their inner most feelings including the hilarious moment when the patient (channelling House) told Thirteen (Olivia Wilde) that she was hot! Too funny and I knew House was attracted to her, it was so obvious over the last few episodes. This could really be interesting later on as she gets to House more. Will he actually hook up with someone on his team?

Basically, tonight was a funnier episode than usual from the team over at "House." The fact that the mirror patient literally mirrored every doctor, it brought a lot of serious but also hilarious issues to the surface. Whether they actually play a part in who House decides to hire for his team is unknown but I have to believe House knows most of these things already. He always has that insight into people that most of us don't and I'm sure he knows things such as one of the interns desire to go back to third world and help, that one of them hates what he's doing at the hospital, etc. In the end, House always knows who will be good and who will hurt the team.

Finally, all three original team members are back at the hospital. Earlier Cameron and Chase came back, albeit in different positions. This week Foreman came back except he was hired by Cuddy as House's boss! Well, sort of. House never really has any bosses because he doesn't listen to anyone. But Foreman's job is to watch over House and keep him in line while at the same time helping with the patients. The back and forth between Foreman and House was sorely missed throughout the beginning of the season and reminds us just how good the first three seasons were. Foreman discovered tonight that although he's been fighting House and the effect he's had on his life over the past few years, it turns out that he really loves working with him. It doesn't actually torture him to be there; the opposite is actually true - he loves the fight and he loves the challenge. Cameron had a big hand in this little bit of self discovery and it was great seeing them interact again. It's almost as if the old team is back. I do feel bad for Foreman though; even if he wanted to leave he can't anymore. Everyone in the medical community believes that he's been corrupted by House and this left him with no other option than to work at the hospital again. It just sucks that after everything that's happened, he can't even move on to somewhere else because of a stigma that's not even his fault. Not that I mind all that much because selfishly it's great having him back.

One a side note, I loved that House and Chase were secretly working together to rig the betting pool on who would be the next to be fired. House decided not to fire anyone on the team which means that Chase won every single bet that was made. And, House got a 50% cut! Too funny.

Great episode and it's awesome having everyone back. November Sweeps should be excellent and hopefully the writer's strike will be resolved before we start losing our favorite shows in December and January. Until next week, enjoy the review and cross your fingers for a resolution!

House: 97 Seconds

ORIGINAL EPISODES, TUESDAYS @ 9PM ON FOX

The numbers are getting old, so thanks House for letting the fellows take them off. But the team idea is definitely NOT getting old. This weeks patient provided the perfect opportunity for House to divide the fellows into teams once again. This time House knew the diagnosis before he split them up; otherwise it wouldn't be fair to the patient. To use him as a guinea pig without knowing what was wrong with him would unfairly risk his life as Cuddy nicely pointed out. The whole episode we weren't exactly sure if House knew the diagnosis but in the end it turns out he did; one of the fellows just dropped the ball big time.

Olivia Wilde (formerly of "The O.C.") plays Thirteen (her number), possibly the brightest and most adept fellow of the group. She is always quick with a diagnosis and generally has great instincts as well. Unfortunately she messed up BIG TIME. She came up with the correct diagnosis but didn't watch the patient take the pills that would have made him better. The pills fell on the floor and rather than getting better the patient deteriorated and eventually died. If not for her slip up the fellows and House would not have concentrated on coming up with a new diagnosis and he may have lived. Sadly, the dog ended up eating the pills and died with his owner, the patient. I have to give Olivia credit. She didn't do the best acting job on "The O.C." and so I was expecting her to be terrible. Instead, she has shown great talents and an ability to adapt to an entirely new character. She is by far one of the best actors in the entire group of fellows and she fits in perfectly on this show. I'm hoping she'll be around for quite a while and since House didn't fire her despite her mistake it appears that she will be.

Favorite moments: 1) House calling the annoying fellow the "cut throat bitch; 2) House setting up a tribal counsel to fire half the fellows - this was absolutely hilarious!; 3) Chase standing up to House at the end of the episode and Cameron just smiling at House afterwards.

I thought it was interesting to see Foreman in the same role as House in the New York hospital. Unlucky for him his boss there doesn't tolerate the same sort of insubordination as Cuddy. I think what Foreman didn't realize is that he would need to establish himself as one of the foremost doctors in the country before he could start defying direct orders from his superior. This will probably leave the door open for his return to ____ Hospital. In what role? Who knows. I doubt he would go back to work with House but you never know.

While all this is going on House is struggling with the idea of whether there is an after-life. A patient of his had a near death experience and claims to have seen a life after death in the 97 seconds that he was technically dead. To "relive" that moment he stick a knife into an electrical socket at the hospital, which as it turns out, kills him. Now you know House can't be upstaged and with his patient believing so deeply that what he saw was real House decided he should stick a knife in the electrical socket also. Whether he saw something or not he wouldn't say. Maybe Wilson will get it out of him somewhere down the road.

This was more of a funny episode than anything else. The patients disease wasn't all that interesting since the first diagnosis turned out to be correct. Although the green blood was very weird. Good show overall, great acting, and it left a door open for Foreman's return so all-in-all not too shabby.

House: The Right Stuff

ORIGINAL EPISODES, TUESDAYS @ 9PM ON FOX

No he didn't. He did not pin racing numbers to each of the potential fellows! This is why House is one of the best characters on television. Not only does he do whatever he wants when he wants but he's funny while he's doing it. His sarcasm and utter lack of caring for any rules is why the show is not only brilliant but comedic as well.

The fact that Wilson was able to so easily convince House that he was seeing his old team also shows that deep down House is human just like the rest of us. It's obvious to everyone except House (or at least in so far as he'll admit it) that he misses his team and the qualities each of them brought to the table. There are some very good potential replacements in the fellow search but so far they're just not as good. Chase proved this point when he diagnosed the patient from the surgical gallery after only hearing her symptoms for the first time while the fellows still hadn't figured it out.

That one girl who was sent to wash the car and convinced everyone else washing to quit was really getting on my nerves. Thankfully House got rid of her. If she were on his team I don't know how much longer I could watch her. The car washing was hilarious though! I also liked that he was putting the guitar back together that Wilson broke last week in the guitar-knapping.
Best Line of the Episode: House says to Dr. Cuddy when she wants to stop him from giving breast implants to his patient in order to examine her lungs at the same time - "You would condemn her to a life where people look at her face when they talk to her?"

At the end of the episode we find out that House wasn't in fact hallucinating and his old team was in fact back at the hospital. Chase is now working in surgery, Cameron is a Senior Attending in the ER), but Foreman isn't back. Odd though that House saw him in the hospital. Maybe his conscience is feeling guilty after all.

And Cameron does not look like a hooker with the blond hair but I like it too. Overall another great episode from the team at "House." I'm wondering how long it will be until the old team is back together because I can't see this being permanent. For now though, it's definitely fun watching House mess with a whole new group of doctors. See you next week!

House: Alone

ORIGINAL EPISODES, TUESDAYS @ 9PM ON FOX

What a way to start off a new season! I really didn't see a building collapse in the cards for the start of this season but then again that's part of what makes "House" so great, you really never know what you're going to get. Plus, the show has basically been turned upside down with House's team gone leaving him to play Van Halen on the guitar alone in his office. This will absolutely be a season like no other for House.

It kills me that House can never show his true feelings but always seems to have emotional responses to the events around him; which oddly enough is why I love his character so much. He clearly misses his team despite loving the freedom. He would never admit this to anyone ofcourse but he showed how he really feels when he recruited the janitor to be on his team. This was incredibly funny and House even gave him the name Dr. Buffer. Hilarious!

Even more hilarious than this was the Guitar-knapping perpetrated by Wilson. Absolutely brilliant and it's really nice to see him standing up to House and not taking his shit. I still can't believe how House can get anyone to break the law with him? In this episode alone he got Wilson to commit breaking & entering and the janitor to impersonate a physician. I know he's persuasive but it's absurd to think he's THAT persuasive.

By far my favorite scene was Wilson begging House not to erase his Tivo over the phone. That's a shot below the belt, you never erase someones Tivo!!

As for the patient I was on the edge of my seat the entire episode trying to figure out what could possibly have happened to her and why she would like about this alternative lifestyle of drugs and alcohol that neither her boyfriend or mother knew about. I never even thought that this girl could be someone else entirely. It was a brilliant twist and a great way to kick off the new season. Glad to see the writer's can still keep us guessing and guessing completely wrong.

Hopefully House's hallucinations in seeing his old team in the hospital next week come true and we'll get them back in one way or another. In the meantime, watching House torture his new job applicants should be fun and hilarious...