Weighing In on House

OK, I'm at work, pretending to work, which I'm pretty good at, but not really getting much done. And I realized that what I really want to do is to weigh in on last week's season premier of House, M.D. And I know that I've already had this conversation with at least one person, but I feel like I need to get this on record or something.

So here's your warning: PLOT SPOILER. STOP READING NOW IF YOU DON'T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT LAST WEEK'S EPISODE.

First, I don't necessarily watch a lot of television, with the exception of Law and Order, which in its various incarnations seems to be on all the time. But I really, really love House, or I did until last week. In fact, tonight, I'm planning to go to a poetry reading at 7:00, but I'm really tempted to skip it so that I don't miss the new House, and this is unlike me--to plan my schedule, my social life around TV.

Second, Hugh Laurie is, in my estimation, absolutely brilliant. And I LOVED him in Jeeves and Wooster; I cannot recommend it highly enough. But his role in House, so utterly different from Bertie Wooster, proves that Laurie is this brilliant, wonderful actor.

All that said, I was kinda disappointed in last week's season premier episode. I have to say that last season's finale was kinda dumb. So House is shot by the crazed ex-patient guy, right? And he hallucinates. I found it all to be a let-down; it just wasn't what I'd come to expect. (Side note: don't get me started on the thin, beautiful women that work with House--so unrealistic. And has anyone noticed that Cuddy's necklines get lower and lower? Oh wait, House himself commented on that, didn't he?) So in the premier, House is back to work, thinks he's fully recovered. And, apparently, his leg is fine; he's running several miled each day. He's also off of the Vicodin. And of course, without the Vicodin, he's bored, not himself, engaging with the world in a new kind of way. There was just something wrong about it. And so, at the end of the episode, his leg starts bothering him again, and he writes himself a perscription (on Wilson's pad????) for Vicodin. I don't know. There's just something depressing about it all. I mean, as a viewer, I guess that I don't really want House to recover and be healthy and well-adjusted. That wouldn't be any fun. But to see a partial (and not very believable) recovery only to witness his spiral back into pain, cynicism, and Vicodin just isn't very satisfying either.

Tonight's episode promises to be about a boy who claims to have been abducted by aliens. This seems like a weird stretch. I'm expecting Fox Mulder to show up at any moment.

P.S. Love it when House rides a motorcycle.