14 posts tagged “house”

Mondays should be all about Chuck and House. Except NBC have decided to withhold Casey, Chuck and Sarah from me till the spring. So all that leaves me with is House. Except Fox have decided to pair my two favorite Brits: Hugh Laurie and Tim Roth. So Monday nights will be back-to-back snark with House and Lightman. Finally a reason to get excited about the work week starting over. Other than that there isn't that much on TV on Monday nights. I can't allow myself to get sucked into Heroes again, and I am not really a Gossip Girl girl. I am slightly tempted my Castle. Looks a little Murder-She-Wrotey and ABC (and I can't believe I am saying this) has some really interesting shows this season so I am ready to cross over to the dark side.

I use to think it weird that in December all my favorite shows would go into hibernation until the new year. In the UK Christmas is when the BBC et al come out all guns blazing to wow a nation but now I cherish the respite.  The heart grows a little fonder for some shows and forgets others.  I thought that we were on the cusp of welcoming 24 back onto our DVR but Alex just veto it (sorry Jack). Let's be honest when you peek the list below we have more than enough shows to be going on with, and 24 is no Battlestar Galactic. Five days until BSG's season 4.5 kicks off - woo hoo!

• Battlestar Galactica (1/16/09)  - Who is the fifth cyclon and what happened to Earth?
  
• Burn Notice (1/22/09) - Highly addictive, and the Miami setting eases winter blues
  
• Chuck (2/2/09) - It has more than the touch of the Walter Mittys about it and a definitely a guilty pleasure
  
• Dollhouse (2/13/09) - Josh Wheldon's new show so will give it a whirl but I get Ibsen flashbacks every time I think of the title
  
• Fringe (1/20/09) - MASSIVE DYNAMIC and the wonderfully inappropriate Walter
  
• House (1/19/09) - Duh!
  
• Lie to Me (1/21/09) - Mr. Orange reads people
  
• Life (2/4/09) - Quirky crime drama with Band of Brother's Captain Winters
  
• The Mentalist - Simon Baker reads people
  
• NCIS
  
• Psych - fake psychic reads people
  
• Supernatural (1/15/09) - Mythology, monsters and classic rock
  
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2/13/09) - The end is neigh and John might meet his dad
  
• United States of Tara (1/18/09) - quirky comedy about a suburban mum suffering from spilt personality
  

Thank the gods for staggered start times otherwise I'd never have anytime for anything else! Quite an alarming list and only time will tell which shows get left on the DVR.

I think my Mum had a good visit even though during the evenings she was trapped between my love of USA and Alex's Food Network obsession. Ah it was episode after episode of House, NCIS, Ace of Cakes, Food Network Challenges, etc. She now knows more about Bobby Flay and Rachel Ray than anyone else in South London. To round things off my Mum's flight was overbooked, and Virgin Atlantic upgraded her to Upper Class. Thank you very much Sir Richard for making my Mum's Christmas all over again! 

Now we are both getting back into our respective routines. Mum to whizzing around London on her Freedom Pass, and me to a heady life of yoga, sushi and Greek columns. I have less than a week before heading back to life as 9-5 drone (I must admit that there have been moments were I have felt a lingering curiosity to check my work email but then I remember how much I make, and the urge passes) and I am trying to make the most of my remaining time off so I have compiled lots of lists. Lists of topics and reading for school. Lists of yoga classes to be taken (and flabby bits to be firmed). Lists of recipes to be cooked or baked. Lists of chores to be done in the flat.

Here's to uber productivity over the next 5 days.

Smiles

• Made it to work 4 mins early
  
• Ended up not having to buy new yoga pants, and therefore "saved" money
  
• Because I didn't go to yoga I had the inclination to make banana bread when I got home
  
• Extended episode of House
• Four day weekend (Bourne marathon here we come!)
• Going to stay positive and aim to catch-up with majority of school work
  
• Freezer full of left overs
• Enjoying reading 'The Iron Hand of Mars' a Falco mystery
• Colbert Christmas special is still on DVR and to be enjoyed
  

• Forgot my pedometer and yoga pants (this is what happens when you don't dress for yoga in the first place)
• Squeezed myself onto an over crowded train so that I would make 9am meeting
• 9am meeting canceled
  
• Had to work late so couldn't make it to yoga in the end
  
• Extended episode of House only gave us an extra 8 mins and the commercials felt like they ran longer
• Two seminars starting next week
  

Woo Hoo

• The Unit
  
• Winter sun
• House punking Foreman
• The excitement of a shuttle launch
  
• Lazy afternoon spent clearing out the DVR
  

Meh

• The end of vacation
  
• Blindness by Jose Saramago
• The piles of laundry I need to put away before bed
  

By all rights this should be 'Study: The week ahead' but I don't want to bore you as I am not at the exciting bit yet. I am still at the preliminary background reading stage even though my schedule states that I should be on topic 4 'Antony and Cleopatra. I don't quite understand how I can be behind even before I have officially begun. I fear it could be one of those pesky time paradoxes like in the Terminator. Reading about Tony and Cleo should be a big carrot for me to get my arse into gear as it is the perfect excuse to re-watch Rome, and savour James Purefoy.  With regard to the small screen I am not sure what I am more excited about the VP debates (I hear Tina Fey will be subbing) or Mitch Pileggi appearing as the Winchester brother's grandfather in a flashback episode. Oh it's a toughie!

Monday

• Heroes - I'll DVR this for the weekend as it really isn't as "sticky" as the first season, and I only keep watching because I have a soft spot for Noah (aka HRG dude)
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - No sophomore slump on the horizon for these terrorists, and who knew that Dean Austin Green could act?
• Life - Loved the truncated first season but will need to bank this in the DVR until Alex has caught up

• House - It's painful that Wilson has dumped House but makes for great snarky television
  
• NCIS - A classy guilty pleasure, and I totally guessed the twist with last weeks episode. But, I don't know who the spy is working for.
  
• The Mentalist - I didn't think I had capacity for yet another procedural drama but this one is worth dumping Bones for
• Fringe - I am committing to Pacey et al with a season pass this week

• Pushing Daisies - Despite one of the central characters being a zombie the show does leave you with a warm tingly feeling

• SUPERNATURAL - All shades of awesome wrapped in an Impala
  
• VP Debates  - You just don't know how this will play out. Perhaps Palin has been faking it for the last few weeks to give Biden a false sense of security...
  

• Life - Another episode for the DVR. Now are NBC trying to engage with a new fan base with two episodes this week or burn through them...
  

Tuesday is a boss night for staying in, and curling up on the sofa with a homemade desert (tonight it's bread pudding - there's a recession people!) and your honey.  My top returning shows are House and NCIS.  Oh Gregory House, I do adore you even if the actor playing you is forced to wear a hairpiece because this role came a tad too late in his follicle development. I just hope that this season they are able to find a way to integrate Chase and Cameron into the fold a bit more, and perhaps get rid of Thirteen as she is even more annoying now she is definitely dying of Huntingtons. After watching tonight's season premier I love that they have broken up House and Wilson. It looks as if House is going to have to start "wooing" Wilson in order to get him back. Now, NCIS is a complete guilty pleasure and is one step away from America's Next Top Model (I jest). Funnily enough the last season ended with the current original team being broken up (a la House) so we wil see how this plays out. My only anixeity from watching NCIS is that I worry about David McCallum since he is getting on a bit.

There is really only two new Tuesday shows that I am willing to court: Fringe and The Mentalist. I enjoyed the pilot of Fringe. It has the potential to be really good. I hate that people are comparing it to the X-Files because it is a completely different animal. I'll give it two more episodes and then make up my mind about whether or not it gets a season pass. The Mentalist looks like a slicker version of Pysch.  Simon Baker is easy on the eye and Robin Tunney is fairly engaging but since I haven't seen the pilot yet so the jury is still out.

Once again, Alex and I have started to try and work our way through Star Trek: The Next Generation because someone says that we can't re-watch Deep Space Nine until we have finished TNG. It's a bit like having to eat your greens before tackling some really tasty deep fried chicken. The last time we tackled this project we managed to get through the first two seasons, and I want to know at exactly what point did TNG get good? Was the tipping point Picard going Borg? The gem from the last few episodes we've watched is Whoopi Goldberg. It was genius to cast her as Guinan and I started to get excited about seeing her. So that got me thinking about which guest stars really bring it. The ones who shake things up, are a nod to the genre or just are just plain annoying (in a good way). In no particular order here are my favourites (and I think they really show my age):

1. Whoopi Goldberg - Guinan in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Goldberg appeared in 28 episodes of TNG, she is  the landlord of the Enterprise's bar '10 Forward' whose planet had been devastated by the Borg. Not only is Goldberg an outstanding actress, her characters back story was a great segue into Star Trek's newest villains - the Borg. 
2. Marlee Matlin - Joey Lucas in The West Wing. IMDB is trying to tell me that Matlin appeared in 17 episodes - was it really that many? Over the years that The West Wing has sustained us through the Bush administration there were many great guest stars - Mary-Lousie Parker, Janeane Garofalo, Oliver Platt, Steven Culp, Jorja Fox, Adam Arkin, etc - but if I had to pick just one it would be Matlin's turn as political pollster Joey Lucas.  Her character is bright, and ballsy. She butts heads with Josh, and the pair tip toe around their mutual attraction. I can forgive Matlin for putting on her tap shoes to appear in Dancing With The Stars because I can always dust off my West Wing box sets.
   
3. Maggie Wheeler - Janice in Friends.  The character of Janice was a tour de force. The "real" New Yorker that rubbed the bridge and tunnel crowd the wrong way.  Her laugh shattered glass, she took being annoying to a whole new level and she is the Achilles heel to our Friends. There is no escaping her, and that's what we loved about her most. She was brash, and she irked the hell out the smug set. 
4. Bebe Neuwirth - Lilith in Fraser.  Lilith is like an iceberg. Icy cool, and the most dangerous part of her is hidden beneath the surface.  Her power was in how everyone reacted to her. She doesn't need to lift a finger to keep those Crane boys in check.
   
5. Richard Hatch - Tom Zarek in Battlestar Galactica. Okay, this guest star role isn't perfect but it is pretty fraking cool to have the original Apollo cast as a terrorist. A nod to the BSG's heritage that shakes things up, just like Starbuck being a girl.   
   
6. Stephen Fry - Dr. Gordon Wyatt on Bones. I am still holding out hope that Fry will guest star on House but his three episode on Fox network's sister show tided me over for a bit (and sustained my interest in this procedural drama). Fry was, as ever, a joy to behold as the psychiatrist assigned to help Booth open up after an incident, and truthfully I'd pay to watch Fry pottering about in any TV show bar the truly dreadful Kingdom.
7. Bruce Harwood, Tom Braidwood & Dean Haglun - The Lone Gunmen in The X-Files.  These guys are the epitome of conspiracy theorists, and brought some colour to Scully & Mulders FBI grey.
   
8. John Barrowman - Captain Jack Harkness on Doctor Who.  Before Captain Jack took over Cardiff he appeared as the bi-sexual alien with a predilection for vintage clothing and flirted shamelessly with the Doctor. 
9. Supernatural. Okay, this is a total cop out but one of the things that I *love* about this show (other than Jensen Ackles) is that they embraced the genre and incorporate lots of "genre specific" guest stars. Callum Keith Rennie, Amy Acker, and Linda Blair to name a few.
   
10. Dean Stockwell - Brother Cavil in Battlestar Galactica. It's Dean Stockwell as a Cylon. It doesn't get any better than that.
    

Between cable On-Demand and the internet I've seen a few of the pilots for the coming season, and I am really excited about how my 2007/8 TV schedule is shaping up. Let's be honest I really don't have all that much going on. My down time will basically be made up of studying, yoga and TV (with the occasional trip to the flicks) until the Boy Wonder returns at the end of the year.

After a dismal few years, I am actually planning on watching a few shows on NBC - shock horror! Though they appear to have been taken over by Brits as Kevin McKid (Journeyman), Damian Lewis (Life) and Michelle Ryan (Bionic Woman) are all heading up new shows and fingers crossed none of them get canned as they all look quite good.

Below is what I'll be DVRing and praise the gods that we have the ability to records two channels simultaneously otherwise I'd be screwed! Though it doesn't help my jam packed Tuesday 9pm slot - I will have to start utilizing the TiVo box in the office for the Reaper overspill. I should point out that I wont necessarily be watching these on the official nights as I am going to be strict with my study schedule (at least two hours per night)  and bless the DVR for not dictating when I have to watch my shows. And of course this is just my network shows doesn't include any gems from BBC America or Showtime (Dexter and Brotherhood start soon).

Monday
8pm Chuck (NBC) / 8:30pm Aliens in America (CW)
9pm Heroes (NBC)
10pm Journeyman (NBC)

Tuesday
8pm NCIS (CBS)
9pm The Unit (CBS) / House (Fox) /  Reaper (CW)

Wednesday
8pm  Pushing Daises (ABC) /  America's  Next Top Model (CW)
9pm Bionic Woman (NBC) / Kitchen Nightmares (Fox)
10pm Life (NBC)

Thursday
9pm Supernatural (CW) / CSI (CBS)

I kid you not there is NOTHING on television this evening, and nothing on the DVR that tickles my fancy at this exact moment. We lasted less than 10 mins on Fox's "hot" new show Drive... the character stereotypes were SO dull and obvious.

The shows we've lost interest in now out weight the season passes on our aforementioned DVR. Seriously at the moment our must see tv consists of House, The Unit, NCIS, The Daily Show & The Colbert Report (and Supernatural for me). Rome has finished, and The Tudors is not comparable (BTW could the voice-over people at Showtime stop pronouncing  'Tudor' like  a nasally  'tuna').  Battlestar Galactic, Dexter and Psych seasons are over for the moment.

Prison Break got so bad it became unbearable, and after watching BBC America's The State Within the antics of Jack and CTU looked very silly. My suggestion to the producers of how to salvage the shows... send Jack to the same South American prison as Schofield. Bones got a brief reprieve whilst Stephen Fry was guest starring but now his arc is done so am I.