TV and Sympathy

Bringing down the House DVDs

Recommending shows to people is such a tricky business. What if they don't like them? Will they stop liking you? I've had such wonderful luck with Veronica Mars, and my roommate is now on a recommend-Rescue Me kick with positive results, but telling others they simply must try a new show can occasionally go awry.

For example, it's hard to recommend a show that you've only seen a few times, even if you think the show and the potential viewer would match up so perfectly it would border on kismet. So I steered clear of recommending House to my roommate for a long time, even though I knew he liked funny, snarky, strong male leads in stand-alone-episode series, preferably with a mystery element, because I'd only seen a couple episodes and couldn't be 100% certain if House evangelism was the way to go.

As it turns out, I had nothing to worry about. The House S1 DVDs, borrowed from my roommate's brother, have been in near-constant rotation in our DVD player for the past few days. As I suspected, my roommate loves bitter, sarcastic House and his crew of curious investigators that go poking around in the internal affairs of every body who's anybody in Princeton-Plainsboro Hospital.

One thing I've enjoyed during all this marathoning? That House, like so many other medical shows, is an excellent venue for quality guest stars. They roll in on a gurney, we grow to care for them, then they're rolled off stage left in a wheelchair. House, in particular, is a great revolving door of Hey, It's That Guys and Gals: Hannah's mom, Lilly, Veronica and Lincoln, Mrs. Jack Bauer, Brandy, and that hot wasp-y guy we're supposed to believe JLH could have bagged.

If you love House like House loves Vicodin, then you'll be pleased to hear you have just one more week till Season 2 comes out on DVD. At the rate my roommate and I are going through Season 1, it's a fair bet that we'll be picking up S2 (along with VM S2) on August 22nd.

A new season of House premieres September 5th at 8. All I can say is, Gilmore Girls better step it up this season if it expects to be my lead-in to VM. If there's one thing House has got, it's a competitive streak.

posted by Veltman @ 5:45 PM