House: Broken

From tv.com: House engages in a battle of wits and wills against the attending physician in charge of his detox program. When he starts to lose, House resorts to blackmail to gain the upper hand.

"House Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"! Terrific and very different start to the sixth season. It's all House in the mental hospital, butting heads with his doctor (Andre Braugher).

House really begins to understand that he needs help, that he needs to change. By the end, he's not only Vicodin-free, he's a bit more open and trusting. He also falls in love with a patient's relative (Franke Potente). Of course, that doesn't end well, but House leaves the hospital a different person.

I wonder how long this "new" House will last...It would really suck if he just suddenly went back to his obnoxious, Vicodin-popping self. This is a great opportunity for the show to grow- House exploring his new self. I don't believe for a minute that he'll be cheerful and friendly, but I'm sure he'll be a little more trusting of his fellow doctors- for a while, anyway.

I'm sure this version of Dr. House isn't gone forever:


Other television stuff- I've been watching Bones, which is very loosely based on the novels of Kathy Reichs. The show is a lot of fun, but often very, very gross!

I only half-watched the premiere of Law and Order: SVU. I guess I really don't care any more!

I've also been watching The Jay Leno Show- not every night, and only parts on the nights I do watch. It's really the same old stuff so far. A bit wobbly. But I'm glad to see Jay on the tube. I'm still not used to Conan O'Brien on the Tonight Show.

Fall T.V.!

House is back on Monday with a two hour premiere. I can't wait to see what happens!

Law and Order: SVU is moving to Wednesday...the night I have choir practice. This will be a problem come January and the return of Lost!

I have mixed feelings about the re-imagination of V- the fantastic five part miniseries (and the lame weekly series that followed) that aired on NBC in 1983 and 1984. All five parts of the original were great fun and scary, and the story was so good. V was my first non-Star Trek/Star Wars fandom. I still have the novelization and spin-off novels somewhere. The new show looks slick and entertaining, with better visual and make-up effects, but many of the ideas that made the original unique just don't seem to be there. I'll probably watch just for the heck of it, to see if it's good in its own right.

I would really rather have a miniseries that picks up where The Final Battle left off, disregarding the messy and often silly series that followed. It would be great to have the original cast back, 25 years after the Visitors were supposedly defeated!

I have the original minis on VHS. I think I'm going to re-watch them soon!

Torchwood...

Yes, I did watch Children of Earth. I just have never gotten around to reviewing it. I guess it's taken almost two months for it to sink in! This was my original reaction on my live journal (spoilers...though I'm sure all TW fans have seen it all by now):

It was a great story until the end. The 456 wanted the kids because they were recreational drugs? That's just sort of lame. I thought they would be like cannon fodder or something!

The kids stopping dead and chanting in unison was genuinely creepy. Well done.

THE HUB GOT BLOWN UP!!! Guess that was the end of Myfawny the pterodactyl. :( The bombing led to the most gruesome of all of Jack's deaths and resurrections. Ugh.

So Jack has a daughter and a grandson, Gwen is pregnant, and Ianto has a sister and niece and nephew. Kids were very important in this!

How cool was Ianto in this? I loved how he rescued Jack from his concrete tomb/cell! I am an unabashed Jack/Ianto fan, so of course I cried when Ianto died. He died for no reason! :( I'll miss him. I wish Jack had actually responded when Ianto said "I love you".

Jack sacrifices his own grandson to save the world. Oh, man. If he wasn't fucked up already, now he's beyond help. So off he goes into the universe by himself.

Now that we know there will be a fourth series...where do they go from here? No Hub, no Ianto, Jack gone again...all that's left is Gwen!

I liked Lois. She'd be a good addition to whatever form Torchwood takes in the future!

Funny exchange:

Jack: Ianto! We're having a baby.
Ianto: Congratulations. Is now a good time to tell you I lost the car?
Jack: You did what?!


Just my initial reaction. I honestly felt it was good television, not just good Torchwood. It was excellent storytelling (despite a few plot holes), very nicely done human drama, lots of exciting stuff.

I'll miss Gareth David-Lloyd. The show's producers really knew how to make the fans hurt. Poor Ianto. :(

I liked Ianto's sister, Rhiannon, and Jack's daughter, Alice. Sadly, we'll probably never see either again. Alice would love to kill her dad...but of course, he's still immortal.

One of my favorite parts was Ianto describing his relationship with Jack- "It's not men, it's just him. Only him."

Other goodies- Naked Jack! Of course, BBC America censored John Barrowman's butt...but all was restored on the DVD. *evil grin*



Just a few screen captures I did: Blown up Hub, dead Ianto, grieving Jack and Gwen, Jack leaves.

Ianto: In a thousand years time, you won't remember me.
Jack: Yes I will. I promise, I will.

There will be another season, but it will be a long time before it happens- Barrowman is busy on the West End (currently doing La Cage Aux Folles), and Eve Myles is having a baby (due very soon, IIRC). Life imitating art there!

More youtube goodies.

As much as I appreciate PBS and Masterpiece, they always seem to cut stuff out of their British imports. I watched the Miss Marple episode "Ordeal By Innocence" when it aired two summers ago. It was not a great adaptation of the novel (one of Agatha Christie's best)- it wasn't even a Miss Marple story! But I watched it on youtube the other day, and found that a lot of stuff was cut out. It was much better with the missing pieces.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTxVuMgMvWY&feature=PlayList&p=B2334EFE5731DBF9&index=0&playnext=1

It had a great cast- Jane Seymour, Denis Lawson, Juliet Stevenson, Richard Armitage, Burn Gorman and Bryan Dick (oh, of course. The reason I watched it.). It was worth watching for the cast! It was a "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" for British actors.

The plot- Seymour is the mother of several adopted children. She is murdered, son Gorman is tried, convicted and hanged. His alibi shows up two years later, proving his innocence- and the suspicion shifts to the other children, the father, his secretary-turned fiancée, and the housekeeper. Plot is the same as the book, despite the addition of Miss Marple and an extra son who wasn't in the novel. Also, the later victims change, but at least the killer was the same.

I liked the book a great deal- I can see why it was one of Christie's personal favorites. They could have made an adaptation without Miss Marple!

Just one cute screencap of Bryan Dick as Mickey...love the red hair!

I still miss this show...

Even though I own the entire series on DVD, I've found myself watching clips from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine on youtube recently. It's been over for ten years now (that long? Jeez...), but I still remember pretty much every episode that ever aired. 

Today I'm watching clips centered around Dr. Bashir (Alexander Siddig) and Garak (Andrew J. Robinson). Some of the best writing the show had was written for those two! And Garak almost always had the best lines: "You should never tell the same lie twice".

Next time I go clip hunting, I'll explore Bashir and O'Brien- Trek's best friendship next to Kirk/Spock/McCoy; Quark and Odo; and Kira (my favorite character on the show). I'll probably start watching the DVDs again, starting with the premiere, "Emissary".