Sherlock

Sherlock Holmes seems to be all the rage at the moment. A major studio film has been released, an anthology by John Joseph Adams, The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes has been published, and one of Fox's top shows, House, MD, has a number of connections to Arthur Conan Doyle's famed detective and sidekick. There's a new version out, one that's possibly the best version that I've yet to see: Steven Moffat's Sherlock.

Set in contemporary London, the story of Sherlock Holmes has been reset to exist in the modern day. The titular Sherlock Holmes (brilliantly acted by Benedict Cumberbatch) is a self described sociopath, and a consultant for the London police. He's joined by John Watson (also brilliantly acted by Martin Freeman - who's also portraying Bilbo Baggins in the upcoming adaptation of The Hobbit), an Afghanistan war veteran who rooms with the troubled detective. The series, composed of three hour and a half long episodes, are amongst some of the best that I've yet to see in television. Where Hugh Laurie's House has allowed for a good update of the character, Cumberbatch's returns straight to the subject matter of crime and puzzles. Fortunately, there is a second series planned, although with Freeman's work on The Hobbit in a year, it would be interesting to see if there's an impact.

The first episode, 'A Study in Pink' sees the meeting of Watson and Holmes amongst a rash of suicides in London as several people are found dead after taking a poisoned pill. As the two get used to one another, Holmes deduces that a single person is responsible for the murders, and works to track down their elusive prey. The second episode, 'The Blind Banker', sees a break in at a major bank, where nothing has been taken, but with a symbol spray painted to the wall of a secured office. As the two investigate, they move further into a world of international organized crime and Chinese gangsters. The last episode, 'The Great Game', sees Holmes locked in a psychological battle with his nemesis, Moriarty, with a series of challenges and crimes to solve in an ever shorter time period.

It's worth noting once again that Benedict Cumberbatch owns Sherlock Holmes. His portrayal of the character is spot on, with more similarities to the modern adaptations of Laurie and Downey's own takes on the character, where he's psychologically tuned, observant, and socially clueless. Cumberbatch nails every element of his character, even if he looks more like Neil Gaiman in my own mind than what I've envisioned Holmes to be.

It's curious that Holmes has popped up in a number of places lately. The stories have been incredibly popular throughout their publication history - Holmes is the most adapted character, ever - but it seems like he's popped up in a number of high profile areas lately. Sherlock did incredibly well on the BBC; a second series has been commissioned (and after the ending of Series 1, it's needed!), while the film has spawned a sequel, which is due out in the next year or so. At the same time, House, MD, is well into its seventh year. Personally, I'm hoping that we'll see a House hallucination of the famed detective at some point.

I think Holmes works well with any time period that he exists in. Doubtlessly, we'll see future adaptations of the character (I wonder how many science fiction stories have included him thus far), because the things that make him tick are really timeless. It's not the technology, the settings or backgrounds of Holmes, but the awareness of observation and superior cognition that he displays that fits everywhere. Add in a good look at the character and recognizing that it's not the hat and pipe that defines him, but the social ticks (the modern motion picture versions attribute Aspergers to the character, at least in part) that are more recognized in the modern day. Here, we see Holmes work well with cellular phones, city maps, computers and the like to solve his crimes.

Moffat's Sherlock is one that's destined for recognition, and I hope that it'll become as recognizable as some of the other classic versions. It's a fantastic drama, and the next series will be well anticipated. It’s exceedingly well thought out, acted and shot, and represents the best of what television can do with a familiar character.

House has Flatlined, we need paddles, Stat!

Watching this past week's episode of House, MD, I realized something that I've been trying to avoid thinking about: One of my absolute favorite shows is in the tubes. It's gone downhill so much that it no longer has the appeal and interest that was there when the show began five years ago, before exploding into a hit show that has gained incredible ratings. Far from this being a case of not having enough viewers to keep it going - this show has too much going for it, and it is essentially getting bogged down in its own popularity and storyline. The creative team behind the show needs to really rework the entire thing, or it will continue to sink, quality and story-wise.

There are a couple of things that can be changed that can help bring the show back into line with its former quality. The first is the stories and medical mysteries that the team follows. From day one, there has largely been a formula that most of the episodes follow. Cue patient, misdirect from a nearby person, patient collapses. House doesn't want to take case, argues with Cuddy, takes case to team, is sarcastic, thinks they find the cure, don't, House has revelation then it's discovered that there is a rather simple illness presenting in an odd form. While this can certainly continue, they need to shake things up more - a lot more. Some of the best episodes have been the ones that don't follow this formula, such as Grey Room, where House talks with a rape victim, as well as a handful of others. What we should see more of is a better focus on the actual medical mysteries and the cure, rather than the bickering of the team.

At the end of Season 3, House fired one member of his team, and had two others leave. This was a bold thing for a television show, to ditch most of its cast, but they didn't follow through. For the first half of Season 4 had a bloated cast, with 40 people starting out on House's team, which was fine, until we settled on the remaining three team members and Amber, who was still around through to the end of Season 4 as Wilson's girlfriend. This worked, to a point, but the main problem was that the creative team kept the original cast, bringing in old dramas from the old team members, and generally crowding everything. As a result, there haven't been any clinic visits to speak of, which was a great part of the first couple seasons.

With the new team, we have new dramas and problems, and much of what I really liked about the first three seasons has largely been forgotten or ignored. There isn't as much medical information as it's spewed out as team members work to try and overcome their counterparts, while House and everyone else attempt to try and figure out what everyone's motives are. In my mind, it's largely irrelevant as to what everyone is trying to do - it's shallow, trite and insulting to the viewer. This isn't good television.

House himself needs a lot of work. For the first couple of seasons, it was fairly easy to get away with the sarcastic, bitter doctor, but over the course of those three seasons, House has been through a board transition that almost left him without friends and a team, a gunshot wound, and Wilson turning his back on him, not to mention the various storylines with Vicoden. All of these storylines should have worked to improve and bring along some character development. This hasn't happened - House essentially resets back to normal. After five seasons, it's beginning to wear thin. All of the characters in the show are smart enough to figure out and prioritize exactly what matters in any given situation. House honestly should know, or be able to figure out what people's motives are, and people should just be able to tell him motives aren't going to matter, as long as the end result is achived - generally saving the patient or figuring out what's killing them. Repeated snarky comments every time just doesn't work too well, especially over five years.

Best Television of 2008

My top TV episodes of 2008: 10 - Fringe: Pilot / Leverage: The Nigerian Job

This was a bit of a tie, because both these shows aren't all that great, but they are fun to watch. Fringe was one that I was really looking forwards to, and I've been somewhat disappointed by how it's been handled over the season that I've watched thus far. Hopefully I'll get to marathon the entire thing at some point. That being said, the pilot for the show was very fun to watch - it was interesting, had a fun concept and was so over the top that it's laughable, but again, fun. Leverage is a show that I've started watching because I like Heist shows, and this one is certainly one of the better ones that I've seen, ever since the show Smith a couple years ago. There's a fun cast dynamic and some good hooks in this episode for future episodes.

9 - Big Bang Theory: The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis I've been wary of this show until this season, and now, I've really gotten into it for some reason. The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis really takes the show away from some of the easy jabs at the characters and makes some room for some real character development at the end. Plus, the following quote from Leonard is just plain gold:

Do you know what this means? If I can get a healthy ovum, I can grow my own Leonard Nimoy!

8 - Barack Obama 30 Minute TV Spot No matter what side of the aisle you support, this TV spot was a brilliant move on the part of the Obama administration. It consumed a news cycle of talk show, talking heads and really outlined the priorities of the incoming administration and helped put Pres/Elect Obama into the lead, furthering his momentum. I personally was a supported of the Democratic Ticket, and while this TV spot showed us nothing terribly new to supporters, and essentially reiterated his position, it was a good introduction to people who still weren't sure who to support.

7 - John Adams: Join or Die The John Adams miniseries was a very well done series based off of the book by David McCullough by the same title. This pilot episode demonstrated fantastic production values and is an outstanding adaptation of history, from the characters and casting to the look and feel of the sets. These first episodes showed the American War for Independence, a crucial time in our history, in a way that has largely been glossed over in a few short lessons in school.

6 - Lost: The Constant This was possibly one of my favorite episodes of the entire series, where Desmond begins his own time jumps back and forth through. While Lost has overdone the lifes of some of the other characters like Jack and Kate, this episode really got into Desmond's head and proved that the writers could still write compelling and interesting characters, while advancing the story forward while doing so, rather than just exploition on why the characters are the way they are.

5 - Battlestar Galactica: Revelations Episode 410 of Battlestar Galactica brings the show to a point that we've been looking for for the past four years on the show : Earth. Four of the last unknown Cylons come forward to their friends, and Kara finally leads the fleet to the people, only to find a devastated landscape. There was a lot of emotion and storylines caught up here. Characters were not what their friends thought they were, and the episode represents a culmination of a number of storylines, and ends on a killer cliffhanger.

4 - Pushing Daisies: Comfort Food I'm very sad to see this show go - it's one of my absolute favorites. Comfort Food follows Ned and Olive during a cooking contest, while Chuck has brought her father back to life, at the cost of Dwight Dixon. This was the end/middle of a mini-arc, and it really does a fantastic job with both Ned and Chuck - Chuck with seeing her father return, and Ned for having his trust betrayed. And there's a Colonel who's been deep fried.

3 - When We Left Earth: Landing the Eagle / The Explorers This year was the 50th Anniversary of NASA, and to celebrate, Discovery released a documentary on NASA's human exploration of the solar system. This episode, Landing the Eagle, details the Apollo program through to Apollo 11, while The Explorers follows the remaining five moon landings. The footage here is absolutely stunning, and even includes interviews with Neil Armstrong. I get chills watching the landing.

2 - Life on Mars: Out Here in the Fields I was very skeptical about the remake, and the first pilot didn't leave me with any confidence here at all. But Out Here in the Fields, the second pilot to the UK remake, helped to allay my fears that this would be a poorly done show and showed not only could this re-make be a good one, but one that would stand on its own, with its own qualities. I can't wait for its return later on.

1 - House, MD : Wilson's Heart Season 4 of House was pretty lackluster. The change up with new staff only marginally worked, and while we saw some new characters, they're not quite to the point of Chase, Cameron and Foreman. The newcomers are interesting, but too similar, except for the fanatic character Amber, whom I can't stand. This episode made me entirely rethink her character, but also saw an incredible amount into the characters of House and Wilson. These episodes of House are the best ones, when we see real development, and it's happening fewer and further between episodes now. The last ten or so minutes of this episode are possibly the best minutes of the show that I've seen yet.

The Best TV of 2006

Now that Christmas is over and it'll be the New Year tomorrow, I figure I'd do a bit of looking back on things. So, the best TV of this year:

New TV

This was the year that the television networks picked up on the fact that serialized TV might sell really well. Following the sucesses of LOST and Prison Break, it seemed like a no brainer. Odd thing is, it didn't really work as well as people'd predicted. Critic favorites like the Nine and Six Degrees bombed and were cancelled, although a couple held on nicely.

1- Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip - I like TV, the industry, writing, everything. I'd heard about the show earlier on in the year and thought that it sounded bad, but when I saw the pilot episode online, it hooked me from then. This show's the most important one on there. It takes on religous, governmental, politics, broadcasting theory and ethics in its episodes, stuff that you don't really see. This is smart TV. The dialogue, characters, plots, all fantastic stuff, and it's a shame that this show didn't catch on as well as it should have. Hopefully, we'll see a season 2 to this.

2- Heroes - This is a fun show. Can't take it too seriously, but it's just one of the best geek shows out there. There's a good kick back to the community with references and things like that that makes it fun to watch, as well as a really cool storyline and characters to match it.

3- Day Break - This was cancelled just the other week, which makes me very unhappy. The good news is that this show's got all the 13 episodes filmed, or so I heard, so they'll be out sometime. Detective Hopper's reliving the same bad day, and while this show couldn't last very long, it's got the strongest of all the storylines of any tv show. They should have just billed this as a miniseries or something.

TV That Came Back

Battlestar Galactica - I didn't think that it could get any darker, but it did, and man, the opening five episodes just blew my mind. There's been a couple of episodes that I wasn't thrilled with, but on the whole, Battlestar's back and kicking ass. Can't wait to see the next ten episodes. As far as Season 2 went, this year's half of the episodes was weaker than season 1 and the first half, but they really pulled themselves together towards the end.

Veronica Mars - Season 3's on a new network and doing pretty well, although they're not going to be doing an overall mystery this time around. The rape mystery was brought to a conclusion, which was pretty good, and the writing and characters are just as good this time around. Can't wait to see the next half of the season.

House, MD - House was cured! Sort of. After getting shot, he could walk for four months. Then he's back to drugs again, and he's got a cop after him, a former actor from the show Hack, who's one of the cooler new characters that's been in the show, much better than Vogler from season 1. House is sarcastic still, and downright mean at times, and they're really pushing his character around, which doesn't happen that often.

Prison Break - Okay, they broke out of Fox River, and they're on the run. A good chunk of them have been killed, right from the first episode. It was good to see the show change gears so quickly, but I don't think that this has much life left in it. While they're still alive, they're still running, and they've done a terrific job with it.

Other good ones this year - Supernatural, LOST, Stargate SG-1/Atlantis. Supernatural's gotten into more of an arc, which is interesting, and they've really forced some characterizations out of the brothers, LOST has been interesting and Stargate's really gotten into it's stride again, only to be cancelled.

Foreign TV

1- Life on Mars - Aired earlier this year on BBC1 while I was over there. I didn't catch the show while I was in England, but I did recently. It's one of the more imaginative and interestin series that I've seen, mixing police drama with science fiction and the 1970s. Brilliant show.

2 - Green Wing - This show is hilarious. Simply brilliant show, great acting, really fun sense of humor there.

Misses this year were The Nine, which should have been a movie, Six Degrees, which had an interesting concept, but handled poorly with some bad characters. Smith was promising, but it never took off, which was a shame, that one I actually liked.

In the upcoming year, I'm only looking forwards to one show, and that's The Dresden Files, airing on SCIFI in January, based off of the books by Jim Butcher. It looks really good, and I can't wait to watch it.

Internet TV: New Season

Last year, and earlier this year, I posted up a series of essays on television's increase in quality, as well as the changing role of television programmes and the internet. iTunes has increased it's number of television shows from just a couple of ABC shows to two-hundred twenty. They've also picked up shows such as Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, Prison Break, Law and Order, CSI, The Office, and have added a feature called a Season Pass, which will allow you to purchase the entire season ahead of time, all that you have to do is download the episode when it's put online. In addition to the huge number of shows that have been added online, Apple Corp. has just revamped the iPod and iTunes. The new iPods have a better screen and longer battery life, aimed specifically at being able to watch videos on the devices. They're not the full screen iPods as had been rumoured, but iTunes has become more visual. CD Cover art is more prominant, and the video quality has gone up. Towards the end of the typical TV seasons earlier this spring, where ABC put several of their shows online free, streaming, with limited ads. FOX and CBS have followed suit with some of their shows thus far. Fox put up four of the first episodes of Prison Break, Vanished, and has followed with a couple of other shows. CBS has placed their new show Smith, CSI: Miami, and the Unit online. I'm sure that several other networks (Please, please, please, CW, put up Supernatural and Veronica Mars online).
So what does this mean? Television is breaking further into the internet. NBC, SciFi, ABC, CW, and CBS have all added online video hubs. These hubs offer a number of different options, ranging from the full episodes of television episodes to behind the scenes and promos for upcoming episodes. I don't think that it needs to be said, but TV is here on the internet to stay.
There's a couple of reasons for content being provided online. The technology is here, with broadband connections becoming ever more powerful. I, for the first time, have Cable internet, and as a result, I've been watching Prison Break, Battlestar Galactica, and currently, Smith, streaming. It's a cool thing.
I'm also extremely pleased with it because I can now watch the episode a day or so after it airs, which is very nice because my job will be taking me away from the tube, and for shows with content that relied heavily on the story aspect, it's nice to have the option to be able to catch up without waiting half the year for a re-run.
There are, with all good thing, some drawbacks. iTunes music files are fairly large, ranging from 396 megabytes to 912 megabytes. These are huge files, and they have the potential to really eat up your hard drive in huge bites. No pun intended. But currently, I'm down to about 7 free gigabytes on my own hard drive. In addition, the streaming shows are just that, streaming. The quality level on the full screen settings are pretty weak, and if your connection is spotty, you're likely to have trouble.
Security is another drawback. with sites like Youtube, Google Video and Myspace videos gaining in popularity, it'll be a matter of time before there will be some news about television networks and their programs ending up on these sites. I know that House has made an appearance as a six part upload, as I'm sure that several other shows have done. Warner Brothers has signed a deal with Youtube for their content, while another has condemned the site.
Finally, not all shows are online. Fox, much to my annoyance, hasn't put up House for download on iTunes, nor streaming. So, if there's really one show that you have your heart set on, it might be hit or miss whether it'll be online for viewing or not. Well, there's always the DVDs, or you know, making sure that you'll be able to make the TV date.
I generally get around that little problem by watching the episodes while I'm doing other things, like writing, talking with other people, and with it in a small corner of my screen.
Things are likely to improve. Image quality has a little ways to go, but I'm betting that we'll see some slower progress, as with higher quality episodes, we'll have bigger megabyte sizes. Bigger sizes mean longer download times and more space taken up on your computer.

Next up: Lost Clones, the TV/Movie Barrier and high quality storylines.

What To Watch

In recent years, I've become a big fan of a lot of the TV shows that have come out on television, mainly because of the recent rise in quality in a lot of the storytelling that's been coming through. LOST has been one of the biggest movers and shakers thus far, causing a bit of a change among a number of stations and a number of new shows coming out with a much different focus than before.

So, as a friend described, I did something incredibly geeky over the summer, and set up a table comparing the shows, times, days and what they go up against. Thus, I've come up with a list of shows that I suspect will do well, and which ones I'm recommending for the upcoming season.

Returning Shows:

Prison Break (FOX) - This was one of the best scripted and arched series that came out last year. Now, the inmates of Fox River Penitentrary are all on the run, and now that the show's in it's third episode, it looks like they're keeping up the intelligent storytelling and scripting. Can't wait to see what happens next.

House, M.D. (FOX) - Doctor House and the doctors are back, and they're picking up where they left off, after House was shot last season. This show has some of the more interesting characters in TV, although they don't have the tight storylines that Prison Break has. However, the sarcasm makes up for it nicely.

Veronica Mars (CW) - Remember Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Now imagine it without the vampires, supernatural elements and keep the cute blond girl, who's father is a Private Investigator and the various problems that she solves over the year, and you've got Veronica Mars. It's highly and tightly scripted and has some of the best dialogue and characters to date.

LOST (ABC) - I don't think that I really need to talk too much about LOST, do I? 48 or so survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 land on an island with a mysterious creature that eats people and a couple of hatches with computers and other things like that. Oh yeah, and everyone's connected somehow. And, after last Season's cliffhanger, the next six episodes are supposed to be a sort of miniseries to clear everything up. Can't wait to see what happens next. Season 2 comes out today on DVD.

Supernatural (CW)- Last season, the two brothers lost their parents, their mother (and one of their girlfriends to a monster) and the father who vanished. They hit the road and work on taking out monster after monster. It's a little formulaic, but it's got great camera work and some very fun stories. Season 1 comes out today on DVD. Great watching for Halloween.

Battlestar Galactica (SciFi)- Coming up in October, this is the show that I'm waiting the most for. Season 2 left us with a year long jump ahead in the story that left the remains of the human race under the control of the Cylons and the Galactica and Pegasus jumping away to who knows where. The SciFi channel is leading up to the show with a small series of webisodes that'll lead people into the 3rd season, as that there's another gap in time. This season is going to be darker, deeper and better than the last two. The DVD for Season 2.5 will be released on September 19th.

And now that the shows from last year have been looked at, there's several new shows coming that also look very promising:

Heroes (NBC) - Around the globe, a number of people start finding that they have powers. A girl can heal quickly. A cop can read minds. A painter can paint the future and another man can fly. And, it's not based on a comic book, but it's rooted in the tradition. Reports are that this show's got potential and interest, although a little formulaic to start, but it's going to be launching into a full blown story arc. I'm excited for this. Also airing on the SciFi channel.

Jericho (CBS) - In a small, midwestern town called Jericho, one character comes in mysteriously. As people start asking him questions, a nuclear bomb blast is seen on the horizon and communications are cut off from the town. As the season goes on, we learn why. I'm not sure that this is going to do terribly well, but it should be interesting if it does.

Six Degrees (ABC) - The Six Degrees of Seperation states that anyone knows anyone six people down the line. One person knows another, who knows another, etc. Small world, right? This show's about six random people in New York City, who's lives are impacting each other's in some way. The really interesting part of this? J.J. Abrams has some hand in this. He also did LOST and Alias.

The Nine (ABC) - Nine people are caught in a bank robbery. As it goes bad, they're held for 52 hours. These nine people are linked together somehow, and that's all that I know. It's an interesting concept, but I can't see it lasting for very long.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (NBC) - This one looks amusing. It's about back stage life behind a sketch comedy show, and it's been getting some of the biggest buzz than almost all of the other new shows. It's created by the guys who did The West Wing, and from the previews that I've seen online, it looks interesting.

Vanished (Fox) - Comes on just after Prison Break, so it's got some of the audience from there. The wife of a senator goes missing, and there's a wider conspiracy that will be uncovered. I haven't seen any of it yet, but it's getting decent ratings. I've heard that it's a little predictable.

Those are the ones that I suspect will do well, although there's several others, such as Shark, Justice, Kidnapped, The Unit, Smith, and maybe a couple others that might do okay during the season. It should be interesting to see where this will be taking TV and the storytelling that it tells.

Now, just to end, a couple of the shows that I'm going to be missing in the upcoming Season:

Alias (ABC) - Going from being a double agent to missing a year of her life to various other drama in the spy world, but also great action and a very tight storyline, Alias was a very fun show. The first two or three seasons were really good, especially 1 and 2. While it dragged a little 3 to 4, the show did leave on a good ending. Despite that, I do wish that it was still going. Season 5 will be released shortly.

Surface (NBC) - This was very short-lived, but it was very interesting. A new life form appeared in the oceans. Big new life forms. They trashed a nuclear submarine, one small one was raised by a small kid and the government got really paranoid. Had a lot of potential, but I guess it didn't really appeal to the audiences. Complete series was just released on DVD.

Arrested Development (Fox) - Quirky, deadpan and hysterical. This is probably the one show that I'll miss the most, especially after watching all of last season, which only lasted 13 episodes. The writing and characters were the best and funniest. If only Fox listened to the fans again. Season 3 was just released on DVD.

Theshold (CBS) - An alien spacecraft lands in the ocean and the government enacts a plan to contain the situation. Too scifi for CBS apparently, as this was killed off in just 13 or so episodes. I only caught a couple episodes of this, but it seemed interesting. Now out on DVD.

The West Wing (NBC) - I heard that this was really well done, well acted and well written, and the awards that it won certainly means that it has some of those. I personally haven't seen it, but given what some people have said about it, I might give it a short somewhere down the road.

And that's it. I doubt that I'll be able to see most of the ones that I'd like to see, but given the fact that a lot of the shows are making their way onto the internet on the show's network's official sites, I'll probably be able to get an episode in here and there.

House, MD

I don't think that I've had the oppertunity to rant about this show yet. While here in London, I've had access to something that I really haven't before: Television. A couple of stations here play a number of shows that I've been interested in, a couple that I'd heard of and a couple that I've never thought about before. House, MD, is one of these shows.

The title comes from the main character, Dr. Greggory House, a brilliant doctor who figures out a number of puzzling illnesses. While brilliant, he's also fairly antisocial, sarcastic and abrasive. He browbeats and lies to patients to get them to do something when he isn't avoiding them altogether. He's also addicted to the painkilled Vicodin because of a leg problem caused by a infraction, which forces him to walk with a limp and a cane, sometimes used to whack people with. Despite his misqualities, House tends to do the right thing. He lies to get patients to do what's right and despite avoiding patients, he does everything in his power (Including lying and blackmailing doctors) to get them better.
House is joined by a young but very bright team that assists him. Foreman, a black doctor who doesn't like House much, Chase, from Australia and Cameron, the only woman on the team, and who's been attracted to House in the past. One of House's favorite things to do is to pick on them and mess with their heads. Other members of the main cast include Cuddy, the hospital administrator, and Wilson, House's only real friend. There's also been a recurring subplot with a character named Stacy, a lawyer who worked for the hospital, and the woman who House could never work it out with, despite their mutual feelings.
I was attracted to House's personality. I love sarcastic humour, and House does it brilliantly. A couple of quotes:

Dr. Wilson: That smugness of yours really is an attractive quality.
Dr. Gregory House: Thank you. It was either that or get my hair highlighted. Smugness is easier to maintain.

Dr. Gregory House: I am the doctor who's trying to save your son's life. You're the mother who's letting him die. Clarification- it's a beautiful thing.

Dr. Gregory House: I suppose "minimally at best" is your stiff upper lip British way of saying "No chance in hell"?
Dr. Robert Chase: Actually, I'm Australian.
Dr. Gregory House: You put the Queen on your money. You're British.

Dr. Lisa Cuddy: [approaching with two young-looking female interns] Dr. House!
Dr. Gregory House: Time for Girl Scout cookies already?
Dr. Wilson: Get me some Thin Mints.

Dr. Gregory House: [to the team after shutting blinds to avoid seeing Stacy Warner] What? Mommy and Daddy are having a little fight. It doesn't mean we stop loving you. Now, go outside and play. Get Daddy some smokes and an arterial blood gas test.

Dr. Gregory House: You're a wuss. Don't worry. Your secret's safe with me... Hey, Wilson! Guess what Foreman just did!

Dr. Wilson: Did you know your phone is dead? Do you ever recharge the batteries?
Dr. Gregory House: They recharge? I just keep buying new phones.

And so on. IMDB has a lot more if you really want to see more. It's the one show that I refuse to miss. I'll be getting the first season when I return home. Can't wait to either.

British TV

Something that's very weird, but funny at the same time. The commercials are leaps and bounds above those that you'll see on American TV. While we only get four channels in our flat, we seem to have a couple that are replaying some new American dramas, such as House and Prison Break.
I caught House last night - that's a hilarious show. Great characters, who are extremely sarcastic.
Also, I got this link from Karen Traviss - Looks like a very good documentary:

Why We Fight