*** Spoiler Warning ***
House
[s4 ep02]: "The Right Stuff"
When the brain of an Air Force pilot bound for NASA starts confusing her eyes for her ears, the pilot goes to Dr. House, willing to pay him $50,000 in cash if he'll find out what's wrong with her but not tell the Air Force or NASA.
Wow. I already like several of House's prospective candidates better than those of his old team. After House made a third of the candidates wash his car, one candidate stages a revolt, leaving only the African-American Mormon guy with a determined work ethic. The leader of the defection later comes back stating that she didn't quit, she just wanted everyone else to quit. She had also stolen House's keys, so she and the other guy could just take the car to a car wash.
I also like that one of the candidates is a bit older, the same actor that played Carter's father Jacob on Stargate SG-1. Turns out, he didn't even graduate medical school, but House keeps him in the candidate pool a little longer anyway.
While trying to keep certain medical procedures secret from NASA, one candidate has the bright idea to give the patient breast augmentation surgery as the cover story for exploratory surgery on her lungs (since one of the suspected symptoms is lung cancer). That way, they have access to her lungs, but she has elective cosmetic surgery as the reason for any scars. House was impressed by the idea and is even able to talk Cuddy out of asking why he's doing it.
As far as House's three original staffers, they're all back at Princeton-Plainsboro: Chase is working in surgery, Cameron is working in the E.R., and Forman is seen walking in the hallway.
The main reason this episode is short of five star quality is that House eliminates candidates a little too quickly. I'd like to see more weeks of a lot of people competing for spots on his team. Plus, there's so much focus on the candidates' competition that it was hard to keep up with the medical stuff going on. Otherwise, the writing and acting for the episode are both top notch.
Beauty and the Geek
[s4 ep03]: "Double Dare"
It's disappointing in a way, but Rebecca, the most beautiful girl in the house, has a major attraction to the male "beauty" Sam.
The challenges were a lot more reasonable this week. The geeks went to the farmer's market and had $100 each to create romantic gift baskets that would be evaluated by the beauties. Will came in 1st, and Jesse came in 2nd.
To help the beauties study human anatomy, the geeks dressed in skin-tight suits with internal organs printed on them. For the challenge, the beauties had to "draw" certain organs, in fingerpaint, on the half-naked bodies of their geek counterparts. Their "drawings" were judged by an anatomy professor from UCLA. The 2nd body part was super simple--the *left* ear lobe. Sam and Shay both painted on their geeks' *right* ears. After four body parts, Rebecca won the challenge.
With Will and Rebecca on the same team, they got to choose both teams to go the elimination challenge. With Rebecca and Sam hooking up, Sam assumed he and Nicole were safe. For now, he's right. Hollie & Josh were chosen because they don't need as much improvement, and Erin & Jesse were chosen because of their supposed lack of interaction with other people, an allegation that really upset Erin.
Granted, they were easy questions, but both beauties each got their two questions correct. Jesse and Josh answered two and one, respectively, with Hollie and Josh going home. I'm disappointed. I didn't learn much about Josh, but I kind of liked Hollie. She seemed cheerful, friendly, and already a little bit geeky.
Boston Legal
[s4 ep02]: "The Innocent Man"
New law school graduate Katie Lloyd is nervous about her first murder trial, in fact, her first trial ever. In an ironic twist, Shirley hires Lorraine, the opposing council from last week's lawsuit against Shirley and also the woman that Alan Shore can't resist no matter how hard he tries.
This episode focused mostly on Katie and Jerry's case, which they did win. Denny Crane, Shirley Schmidt, and Carl Sack were barely in the episode, and Clarence wasn't in it at all. It was still a good episode, but there were no big surprises, revelations, laughs, nice character moments, or political commentary, only a sad scene in which Alan and Gloria broke up and a decent closing argument from Jerry.
In the closing balcony scene, Denny admits that Shirley is the love of his life, and Alan says he'd bet money that Shirley is already with Carl Sack, something we the audience already know is correct from last week's episode.
Damages
[s1 ep??]: "Sort of Like a Family"
Everyone finally learns that Gregory Molina is dead. Frobisher has a three-day deposition with Patty Hewes. Patty Hewes' questions are softball for the first two days, but thanks to inside information she gets from a divorce lawyer, she knows Frobisher's wife has served him with divorce papers. She hints at it in the third day's questions, and he goes ballistic. Ellen does something against Patty Hewes' orders, and Patty fires her over it. Ellen goes out and parties.
I know some people really like this show, but it never has quite clicked for me. I'm often disappointed by individual episodes, but I'm just *barely* interested enough in the overall mystery to keep tuning in. To be honest, this episode was better than some, but I'm also looking forward to this show reaching a finale.
Tuesday Night Winner: House, [s4 ep02]: "The Right Stuff"
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