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Are You Surprised by Forbes's Top-Earning Men in Prime Time?

BuzzSugar — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:30:41 -0800

Forbes recently released the list of Prime Time's Top-Earning Men. Who made the cut? In order, they are: Simon Cowell, followed by Donald Trump, Ryan Seacrest, Charlie Sheen, Steve Carell, Howie Mandel, Kiefer Sutherland, Jeff Foxworthy, Hugh Laurie, and at No. 10 (a tie!) David Caruso of CSI: Miami and Patrick Dempsey.

Simon Cowell at No. 1 is a no-brainer, thanks to the unstoppable machine that is American Idol (not to mention all of his other shows). But there are a few names that made me do a double take. Jeff Foxworthy, for instance - who knew that Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader was such a money generator? And where's Jeff Probst? I guess the Survivor franchise doesn't carry as much clout as I thought.

What about you? Other than maybe Simon Cowell at number 1, do you find this list surprising?

New House Promo: Paging Dr. Crazy!

BuzzSugar — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 15:15:53 -0700

I didn't think I'd get that excited about a promo for the House season that won't even start for another nine weeks or so, but I've now watched this video three times and my heart is still pounding like crazy. And speaking of crazy, this promo features our beloved protagonist at "the asylum," all intense and surlier than ever (so it looks like at least one of my questions for the upcoming season will be answered). The combining of the images with Elbow's song "Grounds For Divorce" is pretty magnificent. I know, it seems weird to be all worked up over a 30-second promo, but it's just good! To see what I'm blabbering on about, read more.

Photo courtesy of Fox

House Is the "World's Most Popular Show"

BuzzSugar — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 10:30:29 -0700

Grumpy, witty ol' Dr. House and his team have won over audiences all around the world, according to a poll conducted by ratings agency Eurodata TV Worldwide. In 2008, Fox's House apparently "gathered more than 81.8 million viewers in 66 countries, representing a potential 1.6 billion viewers." This is significantly higher than the number of viewers earned by the shows topping the 2006 and 2007 lists in the TV drama category, CSI: Las Vegas and CSI: Miami. And for a second year, Desperate Housewives is the most popular TV comedy with 65.3 million viewers worldwide, beating out Monk and Ugly Betty.

Does this surprise you? Is there something (perhaps Hugh Laurie?) about House that is universally appealing? Are there other shows that could have taken the top spot instead?

Photo courtesy of Fox

House Rundown: Episode 24, "Both Sides Now"

BuzzSugar — Tue, 12 May 2009 09:30:30 -0700

After last week's episode of House, I wondered how House would cope in a world where he was no longer on drugs. I was also curious to see what would happen to the sexual tension between House and Cuddy now that they've apparently done the deed. How did it all go down in Monday's season finale? If you're ready to talk about it, just read more.

Well, that explains a lot. A few things about last week's resolution seemed too good to be true: Do you really detox from Vicodin in less than 12 hours? And would Cuddy really choose to make out and even have sex with a man she'd been watching sweat and vomit all night? It turns out those things were too good to be true. Instead of coming home with him, Cuddy walked out after House insulted her. Instead of detoxing, House kept right on taking pills. Instead of twirling Cuddy's lipstick all day, House has been playing with a pill bottle. It was all - as the visions of Amber and Kutner tell House - the story he made up about himself. "Too bad it isn't true," Kutner adds. So while the rest of PPH is celebrating Chase and Cameron's wedding, Wilson's driving House to a mental hospital.

I'm not quite sure yet how I feel about this bait-and-switch. I'm not one of the Huddy worshipers who's sad the two of them didn't actually have sex; I figure that'll happen in due time. But I do have some questions about why the House writers used this twist - questions I'll have to wait till at least next season to have answered. These hallucinations are different than the others; why doesn't House just keep seeing Amber? (Is it because he was taking oxycodone instead of Vicodin? That's what I thought, but Fox's official recap says otherwise.) And what does it mean that in House's little fantasy, he is the good guy who detoxes and woos the woman he loves? By being in a mental hospital, it seems like House is serious about getting help and getting clean, and that leaves me wondering the same thing I asked last week: will House without pills still be the same crotchety, brilliant doctor we've come to love?

Meanwhile, Chase and Cameron start out this episode virtually broken up; Chase wants her to destroy her ex's sperm, and she can't do it. I like that it's House who finally convinces her just to take the leap - and that Chase tells her not to. He realizes now that she's not insecure about their relationship; she just can't get rid of the last part of someone she loves. Luckily, Cameron hadn't canceled the wedding plans, and now the two of them are actually (and finally) married. Which probably would have been a lot sweeter if I could have turned off the part of my brain that was thinking about the pair's real-life canceled wedding, but oh well.

Some other thoughts:

Some of my favorite moments in this episode were basically wordless: the patient's wayward hand stroking his girlfriend's cheek; House looking bedraggled and a little bewildered when Cuddy leads him to Wilson's office; Cameron and Chase mouthing "I do." The director of this episode has done some of the coolest House moments (this season's "Locked In" and last year's "House's Head," among others), and I really like his style.
Speaking of the patient, I loved that case. What a fascinating and creepy idea that part of your body could just disobey the rest of it! Not only did it work well as a parallel to House's story, it also included a few great medical moments, including that test with the words popping up on the screens.
Carl Reiner! Man. He's amusing as a pest who won't leave House alone because of his squawking problem (funny that we never actually hear him squawk) and then so, so sad when House realizes he probably has a tumor.
Is that a naked pirate House uses to torment Cuddy?

So: what a rollercoaster! Was this a suitable finale? Are you intrigued to see where the show goes next?

Photos courtesy of Fox

House Rundown: Episode 23, "Under My Skin"

BuzzSugar — Tue, 05 May 2009 09:30:49 -0700

This week's House finds House still struggling with his hallucinations of Amber and wanting to get them out of his head for good. That sends him to his friends for help - with intriguing consequences. Meanwhile, Cameron asks Chase a potentially relationship-changing favor, and House's team works on a case alone. To chat about it, just read more.

The big thing about "Under My Skin," of course, is the House/Cuddy kiss, the kiss that - according to the promos and the show's cast itself - apparently turns into something more. But it's the culmination of a million smaller moments in the episode that find House truly taking comfort in his friends. He knows he can't go on without help, with Amber's voice in his head. It's throwing him off, making his medical decisions worse. So he confesses everything to Wilson - whose reaction to the hallucination being Amber is pretty mild, I think, all things considered - and starts an episode-long quest to figure out his affliction.

House really only sees two options, so kindly spelled out for him by Amber: one, he's crazy, which means no more medical practice; two, he's hallucinating from Vicodin, which means detox, which means pain, which means no more medical practice. Either way, the biggest thing haunting House (besides Amber, of course) is the thought that when he comes out on the other side of this, he won't have his identity as a doctor anymore. But he thinks he might be losing that anyway; on the phone with Foreman, he realizes he's made a lucky - not brilliant - call in diagnosing the dancer. So what else is there to do? Wilson offers to take him to a clinic, but House wants to be with people who know him. Specifically, he wants to be with Cuddy.

It's interesting that the two of them can only really connect when one or the other is incredibly vulnerable. They've kissed twice now this season, and both times, one has been helping the other through crushing pain. She's good to him in the detox scenes; she brings him ginger tea and flushes his one last pill down the toilet before he can take it. I loved watching Amber slowly realize that House isn't kidding around this time; when he confesses the locations of all his secret stashes, she responds with an indignant "I don't even know who you are anymore!" And when he starts to come out of withdrawal, Amber's gone.

Some other thoughts:

I hope that, were Anne Dudek to somehow read this, she'd take it as a compliment: she does creepy better than any other actress I can think of.
House may have solved the case, but the team manages to pull out a way to save the patient's life even after he quits. Good for Taub, especially.
What do you make of Cameron and Chase? I understand where she's coming from, but I also understand why Chase is hesitant. It seems like "Oh, I have my dead ex's sperm, and by the way, I want yours, too" is a conversation they should have had pre-engagement.
So Cuddy and House's story goes back even a little further than we thought: Cuddy audited the class where they met purely because she thought House was "an interesting lunatic."

We've asked this question before: can House still be House without Vicodin? This time, he seems a little more committed to finding out the answer, and I'm curious to see what happens next week. Are you?

Photos courtesy of Fox

TV Tonight: House

BuzzSugar — Mon, 04 May 2009 07:30:21 -0700

For the second year in a row, House seems to have really kicked it up a notch at the end of its season. Last year, the fantastic plotline was the death of Amber and the way it disrupted the bromance of House and Wilson. This year's killer story once again involves Amber - but now, she's back as some kind of apparition, haunting House and giving voice to some of his meanest and most devious thoughts.

It's in that environment that we get tonight's episode, "Under My Skin." It contains some pretty big developments for House personally and for his relationship with Cuddy. Lisa Edelstein recently chatted with reporters about the episode, and while the details are fairly spoilery, I'll be happy to spill and share some video of the episode when you read more.

Word is this is the episode when House and Cuddy finally do the deed. Could it just be a hallucination brought on by House's pills (or lack thereof)? "There's a chance for anything, isn't there?" Edelstein said.

But while she wouldn't say what the latest twist in House and Cuddy's relationship might mean going forward, she was happy to talk about the scene itself. "I wouldn't complain," she said wryly. "We did probably about five takes - we didn't really do it for that long. . . . I have a great friendship with Hugh, and he's super sexy, so who could complain about kissing him?"

These moments with House and Cuddy aren't necessarily just a fleeting moment of passion - but nor does Edelstein expect that Cuddy and House will be the love story of the century: "I don't think it'll necessarily ever be a satisfying relationship in terms of both of them settling in and saying, 'This is what we're doing,' she said. 'She has a complicated relationship with men, it seems. She likes the screwed-up ones."

And if they do get together, it won't exactly rock the PPH world, she said. "I think that the rest of the staff is pretty much waiting fo them to get together. I dont' think it's a secret," she said. "It's not like he doesn't talk about it! He's constantly talking about her body. . . . It might as well be schoolyard banter with him chasing her and pulling her braids."

Curious to see how everything goes down tonight? Here's one clip to whet your appetite:

Photo courtesy of Fox

House Rundown: Episode 22, "House Divided"

BuzzSugar — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:15:00 -0700

Back when Amber was competing for a job as one of House's fellows, I sometimes thought of her as House's perfect counterpart - his mirror image. Well, I didn't mean it literally! But in this week's House, Amber is essentially haunting our cranky doctor, showing up as a hallucination and speaking his thoughts. What does it all mean? Help me figure it out when you read more.

Everywhere House turns these days, Amber is there. He assumes it's just an effect of insomnia: he hasn't been sleeping much since Kutner died. But as we see at the end of the episode, even a well-rested House still sees Amber. She's in his brain, in his thoughts. And for all her wry smiles and clever banter, she's kind of an evil little friend, isn't she?

Had this been anyone but Amber, I probably would have rolled my eyes and assumed that Grey's Anatomy had forever ruined any plotline involving the return of a dead character. But I absolutely love watching Anne Dudek and Hugh Laurie play off each other. It's this great mix of flirting and fighting, and it kept me laughing even as House sets up Chase to go into allergic shock at the bachelor party. Whatever part of House's brain Amber's inhabiting is clearly the part that enjoys scheming; House even looks a little shocked when he realizes he knew about Chase's strawberry allergy. I loved the way Amber calls out House's thoughts in Wilson's office, urging him to knock over a pencil cup so he could get a clean shot at the file they were reading. Is this what it's like inside House's head all the time?

Between Amber's appearance and the story of the deaf teenager, this could have easily been a very serious episode. (And speaking of the teenager, his story is one of the few medical stories in House recently that's truly held my attention. Everything about it seemed to work well, from the mom's conflicted reaction about the cochlear implant to the sweet interactions between the boy and his girlfriend.) But I was surprised at how many times I laughed. I loved House striding down the hall with his ridiculous old boom box and Kanye shades; I loved the idea of throwing the bachelor party at Wilson's place so he couldn't escape it. (Might I suggest to Wilson that if he wants to get away from House's over-the-top bachelor parties, he marry a woman he won't divorce?) I especially loved Taub awkwardly grinding with a couple of the "dancers" at the party.

But what happens now? Amber's still there, and House knows she can do bad things - or that his brain wants him to do bad things, though I imagine Amber makes them even more enticing. Whatever comes next, I feel more invested in House than I have since the last time Amber showed up. What about you?

Some other thoughts:

Foreman's never been my favorite, but it's still nice to see him solve a case.
That's not the only great Foreman moment: He and Thirteen get some of the best stuff in this episode. I love their stripper research - and it doesn't surprise me that Foreman would pay $50 to watch his bisexual girlfriend do a body shot.
Even at his worst, would House really try to kill Chase just to prevent someone else's happiness?
I'm also not convinced that Chase would really give a patient a cochlear implant on only House's orders with no paperwork to support it. You know how much he lies!
Love Cuddy trying to sober up all the fellows so they can go solve their case (and sending them off with breath mints, to boot).

So, what's Amber doing in House's brain? And what will it take to get her out?

Photos courtesy of Fox

House Rundown: Episode 21, "Saviors"

BuzzSugar — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 09:30:42 -0700

This episode of House picks up the aftermath of last week's shocking death, and if you were wondering how Cameron and Chase would react, this is your episode: for the first time in a long, long time, the two of them are the focus. Meanwhile, House appears to be completely unchanged by the death - until a big, fun twist in the final minute. Ready to talk about it? Just read more.

I'm torn about this episode's focus on Chase and Cameron. On the one hand, I'm glad they're getting screen time not just as PPH's only ER doctor and surgeon. And, yes, it was frustrating to see them break up - and very, very sweet to see them get back together, with Chase getting down on one knee right there in the locker room. But on the other hand, it's hard to be as invested in their relationship as I used to be when we were seeing them every week and Chase was describing their hookups as convenience food and the like. Even the debate about whether Cameron is in love with House seems to come out of nowhere, just because it's been absent for so long. Not that bringing it up is unfair - she does cancel a weekend away with her boyfriend to spend time with House and his patient. But that seems like a relatively normal panic that could arise from finding the ring your boyfriend plans to use to propose, right? I did, though, get a kick out of everyone turning the question of being in love with House right back on Cuddy, especially Cameron asserting that Cuddy was just trying to mark her territory. (True? I'd believe it.)

Meanwhile, House is desperately trying to find meaning in Wilson's sudden decision to eat healthier - wheat toast, no bacon, a container full of kale. He even confronts Wilson at home, which leads to a very funny exchange about Wilson's food (Wilson points to containers of junk; House says that showing off food he's not eating isn't proof; Wilson says for that, House needs to check the first door on the right). House is convinced Kutner's death is behind Wilson's change; mortality is mortality, and when a doctor goes down, other doctors get scared. Wilson points out that that's ridiculous, House fears this is another sign he's losing his mojo ("I have no idea why you're eating carrots!"), and then finally he puts his finger on it: Wilson's eating healthier so House won't take his food. And everything is as it should be . . .

Except for that pesky ghost that House is apparently seeing. Amber! I cheered the second I recognized her voice. She's leaning on the piano while House plays "Georgia on My Mind" (on piano and harmonica, kudos Hugh Laurie). From the looks of the promos, she's doing a pretty large amount of lurking. It's interesting that she's become kind of a symbol for mental instability on House. Can you imagine how different the show would have been if House had picked her for his team in the first place? Though honestly, maybe she wouldn't have had the power as a regular than she does as an occasional antagonist. Either way, hooray!

Some other thoughts:

Love House addressing the patient's wife as "Mrs. Environmental Nutbag. Or did you keep your maiden name?"
Has total body irradiation ever worked out well on House? I always cringe when it gets suggested
Is it weird that Thirteen, Foreman, and Taub didn't really talk about Kutner?
For a second, I worried that Chase would actually say no to Cameron's "I'm proposing that you propose to me" line. Whew.

Anyone else doing a happy dance at the return of Amber? Or was this one all about Chase and Cameron for you?

Photos courtesy of Fox

House Rundown: Episode 20, "Simple Explanation"

BuzzSugar — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 09:30:56 -0700

In this age of spoilers, I'm always impressed when a TV show manages to pull off something shocking. So kudos to House for keeping a secret; that made what happened in Monday's episode mean even more. To say more would risk ruining it for those who haven't seen it, so if you're ready to chat, just read more.

If you'd asked me which House character would be most likely to commit suicide, I never would have said Kutner. Taub, sure. Foreman? Wouldn't have been surprised. Thirteen? Definitely. Even Wilson and Cuddy have gone through things this season that could drive them to the edge. But Kutner? He's the goofy one, the Guiness Book of Records crawling champ, and the surprisingly good doctor who - in his last act on House's team - let Taub take credit for one of his discoveries. And maybe that's why it's so interesting for him to commit suicide: There is no simple explanation. House, whose entire idea of himself is built around solving mysteries, can't crack this one.

As he tries to figure it out, House does some truly terrible things. Telling Kutner's parents it's their fault? That's awful, and even though he does look a little shamed when he realizes how far over the line he's gone, that's not a thing you take back. He's ruthless in his investigation, breaking into Kutner's apartment multiple times to search for clues (to the shock of Wilson, though I don't really know why: House's primary motivation is never kindness). And in the end, there's nothing - no outward signs of pain, no diary. House even believes for a while that Kutner must have been murdered; he can come up with a better explanation for that than for why Kutner would take his own life.

Watching the rest of the doctors deal with Kutner's death reveals a few interesting things: One, Foreman doesn't know how to get and give support in a time of crisis. He's used to dealing with things alone, so he rejects Thirteen at first - but finally steps forward at the funeral to take her hand. Two, Taub would rather wait with his dying patient than mourn the death of his friend. But this episode also made me sad that Kutner (and Kal Penn) didn't get to do more on the show. The fact that Kutner is a blank slate may be why his suicide is intriguing, but it made me feel much less than Amber's death did last year, simply because Amber was such a rich character and Kutner (other than a few key touches, like his childhood trauma or his geekiness) was always on the periphery. I'm sorry to see Kutner go, and I wish we could have known him better first.

Some other thoughts:

It's impossible to separate what happened from why, so here's the quick answer: Kal Penn asked to leave the show to go work in President Obama's White House. ~~I'll be talking to him, and to House producers David Shore and Katie Jacobs, later today, so leave any questions in the comments.~~ Update: Here's more on that.
The patient-of-the-week story barely held my attention given everything else that was going on, but I will say there seemed to be some pretty significant ethical lapses going on re: potentially letting patients die rather than treating them appropriately. An intentional side effect of Kutner's suicide? Or did the writers figure we wouldn't spend a lot of time picking apart the case when there was so much else going on?
So who's looked at Fox's Kutner memorial yet? It's a very web-savvy thing to put together, but at the same time, something feels very eerie about it. And I wish there were some info about prevention of actual suicides (which I'm glad they included at the end of the show).
Everything in this episode was so dark! Especially at the beginning, that upped the eerie feeling; the first shot back in the hospital after Foreman and Thirteen find Kutner felt particularly ghastly.

Were you shocked by Kutner's death? Sad to see him go? Wondering what this will mean for the rest of the season?

Photos courtesy of Fox

House Rundown: Episode 19, "Locked In"

BuzzSugar — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 09:30:05 -0700

This week's episode of House comes at us largely from the perspective of its patient, a man who had a bicycle accident that rendered him "locked in" with no way to communicate save for blinking and moving a computer cursor with his brain. House - who conveniently crashed his motorcycle and ended up in the hospital bed next to him - becomes fixated on figuring out what caused his syndrome, while the patient is forced to listen to the everyday dramas of House's team with no way to escape the monologues. Ready to talk about it? Just read more.

So, how well did House do with shooting an episode from the patient's point of view? My reaction was mixed. I liked the patient's sarcastic inner comments to some of the team's more inane conversations (in particular his bored reaction to Foreman's story about being bad at choosing jewelry), and I would have loved to see more of that. Sure, it's a little hard to get into the rhythm of his thoughts in the first half of the episode, but then there are a few moments in the second half - like when he's struggling to move his finger - when I really wanted to hear what he had to say. Part of the point of the episode is how difficult it is to communicate when "yes" and "no" are the only things you can get across. But we get exposed to the patient's inner life for a little while, and it was enough to make me miss it when it went away.

As for how much the episode reveals about the team, that's also a mixed bag. To my surprise, my favorite story is Taub's, once again. He's moved by his patient, thrilled when he finds a way to keep him communicating once the eye-blinking fails. At one point, we even see tears in his eyes; this is Taub's big chance to connect with the work he's doing for House. But House keeps stringing him along, asking him to come up with one brilliant idea. In the end, it's Kutner who finds the medical answer - I do love the way he's become the ace of House's new team, despite seeming like a doofus - but he lets Taub take the credit for the diagnosis. House knows it's a lie, but it's the kind of lie he respects. It's a lie that proves Taub cares.

Meanwhile, just as the patient is getting caught in a lie about leaving town (while he was, in fact, sending out resumes from his friend's basement, trying to hide from his wife that money was tight), House is getting caught in one of his own, with Wilson doing some sleuthing. It's always fun to see the two of them trying to out-scheme each other, and this one reveals an interesting fact: House has bee seeing a psychiatrist. Or, at least, he saw a psychiatrist once; he claims he'll never go again. But that raises this question: What would make House go to a psychiatrist now? Is he facing some new issue? What are we to make of that scene from House's locked-in POV right at the end of the episode, when he sees Wilson tell him he'll end up alone? Is that really something House fears that much?

Some other thoughts:

Love House's response to the patient saying God sent him: "Suddenly, you're not so fascinating."
Nothing makes a piece of jewelry less romantic than diseased rat pee.
Mos Def seemed particularly good at expressing frustration when his character reached his limits of communication - the strangled noises at the pain of the catheter, the frantic begging for his wife to stay, etc.
It's cute that House's test for the blinking is "square root of nine," but what if the patient had just been bad at math?

A good departure? Or too gimmicky to be taken seriously? Sound off in the comments!

Photos courtesy of Fox