Thursday, November 30, 2006

Season 3, Episode 9: "Finding Judas"

You might be wondering (yeah, right) why I didn't post last week.

That's because I'm running out of ways to say that I basically hate the character of Detective Michael Tritter with a sense of horrible loathing, while still loving David Morse, the guy that plays him. Sometimes I'm not sure how that works, but it does.

David Morse is a pretty good actor. I'm not a huge fan of his, per se, but when I see him in things, I go, "Hey, it's that guy," and I know he'll give a good performance. My problem is that, IMHO, he's done exactly what he said he didn't want to do: get cornered into playing the bad guy. David Shore claimed Tritter wasn't just going to be the bad guy, but that's all he comes across as. Morse's arc has (I think) an episode or two left on it, so if they're going to character-develop him, they better do it fast, because all he looks like is a hypocrite cop who's just as big of an ass as the guy he claims he needs to take down. Some of the stuff he's doing would be bordering on unethical. It's hard to be vested in the plotline, when it's just overbearingly grating.

That said, Wilson ratting out House was nowhere near as big a plot surprise as it was probably intended to be. Chase was obviously a lame duck, considering they'd already used him as a mole in the Vogler arc. Sadly, a lot of plot twists in television can be figured out just by thinking like a TV producer: what decision would be the most apparently shocking? As put upon as Wilson has been recently, it really wasn't that shocking to see him finally snap.

Hello, Lisa Edelstein's screen time. We have missed you. Thank you for coming back.

Now we have to wait two weeks for a new episode...

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Season 3, Episode 7: "Son of Coma Guy"

I think this is the first episode this season that I have really and truly loved. I really enjoyed this episode, and I thought it was really well-done.

Guest stars: I've already told you the David Morse history (and that said, I still want to murder his character with an icepick, no matter how much I like the actor). But John Larroquette really needs no introduction. He's got a huge list of credits, including Night Court, The John Larroquette Show, and a great turn on The West Wing as White House counsel Lionel Tribbey, where he threatened to beat someone with a cricket bat. Good stuff.

He's also very, very good here. I was all "Oh, that should be good but I don't know," but he plays well off Hugh Laurie, two dry personalities that work together. The best part of this episode, for me, though, is the interaction between Hugh Laurie and Robert Sean Leonard. And the fact that Robert Sean Leonard gets some much deserved screen time. He really is an underrated actor, and the complexities of the House/Wilson friendship are getting truly interesting this season (and next episode, if you saw the promo...wow.) Really, it's good to see more of a guy who only has a couple of scenes an episode.

But I have one complaint. This has to be the lamest episode title, ever. That, or next week's episode title. Did someone in the writer's room just run out of title ideas?

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Season 3, Episode 5: "Fools for Love"

EW.

That was my honest to God first reaction to the events of this episode. I won't spoil it for those of you who haven't seen it yet, but that last plot twist...was both unexpected and a little bit uneasy. Not to mention the very final scenes.

For those of you wondering "hey, it's that guy," David Morse has been around a lot of different shows in a lot of different places. I remember him as the star of the CBS series Hack alongside one of my all-time favorite thespians, Andre Braugher. He was Jodie Foster's character's father in Contact and recently, was seen in 16 Blocks with Bruce Willis and Mos Def. He's also here for multiple episodes, so get comfortable. I personally normally find him a bit bland, but from what I've seen so far of him here, I like him. We'll see how things pan out for his character, and for House.