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House Rundown: Episode Eight, "Emancipation"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:30:45 -0800

The people you work with can become a sort of weird, twisted family — especially if you spend as much time together as the House doctors do. It's great to have a close safety net when you need support, but it can also get a little too stifling sometimes. On this week's episode, a few of the doctors seek freedom from the PPH family, with varying results. To chat about it, just

House Rundown: Episode Seven, "The Itch"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:30:01 -0800

On this week's House, a few of our doctors have some major fears to confront. We finally see Chase and Cameron together again, seemingly at a crossroads in their relationship. Meanwhile, House and Cuddy reach a crossroads of their own after their surprising kiss. This episode wastes no time picking up in the awkward aftermath of that smooch, and it builds to an intriguing ending, so to talk about it,

House Rundown: Episode Six, "Joy"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 09:30:44 -0700

The title of this episode of House ends up loaded with meaning: It's the potential name of the baby that Cuddy so desperately wants; it's a major component of the case; and it may be the emotion we're supposed to feel when something big happens in the final minutes. Am I being too vague? Well, this is one episode I wouldn't want to spoil, so to chat about it, just

House Rundown: Episode Five, "Lucky Thirteen"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 09:30:20 -0700

Thirteen hasn't been my favorite House character. In fact, to this day, I would have picked Amber over her for the final fellowship spot. The prospect of an entire Thirteen-focused episode of House, then, did not exactly thrill me — but the episode turned out to be a nice surprise. I'm fascinated by the fact that Thirteen's essentially living with a death sentence, and this episode's case drills a little deeper into her psyche. Want to talk about it? Just

House Rundown: Episode Four, "Birthmarks"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 09:30:30 -0700

The theme of this week's House is how parents can really mess a person up — mostly accidentally but sometimes on purpose. House has to confront his feelings (and suspicions) about his father, while his patient seeks out her birth parents and winds up at PPH fighting for her life. Meanwhile, House and Wilson explain the genesis of their relationship, and it's better than I ever hoped. Ready to talk about it? Just

House Rundown: Episode Three, "Adverse Events"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 09:30:47 -0700

This week's episode of House hit the trifecta of major show themes: lying, spying, and drugs. It also made me laugh out loud for the better part of an hour, and now I'm pretty sure "Adverse Effects" is my favorite House episode of the season. Even Lucas Douglas, PI, is growing on me, which is a huge surprise. Did anyone else love this episode? Or do you all think I'm crazy? To talk about it, just

House Rundown: Episode 2, "Not Cancer"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 09:30:30 -0700

If you asked me what House needed, I think the last thing I would have said is another character. But that's what we got anyway on Tuesday, when Michael Weston arrived as Lucas, a new private investigator House hired. House creator David Shore is tossing around the idea of building a spinoff around Lucas if the character clicks with the audience, so I'm curious to know if he clicked with you. That and more on this episode when you

House Rundown: Episode One, "Dying Changes Everything"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 09:30:44 -0700

House's fourth-season finale was a big ball of turmoil, so it's no surprise that Tuesday's season five premiere spent a long time sorting through the fallout. We pick up two months after Amber's death, with Wilson preparing to make radical changes, House attempting (ineptly) to stop him, and Thirteen trying to make sense of her own uncertain future. It wasn't the emotional wallop of the previous two episodes, but it certainly wasn't a romp in the park, either. Want to talk about it? Just

House Rundown: Episode 16, "Wilson's Heart"

BuzzSugar — Tue, 20 May 2008 09:28:51 -0700

Hang on, I have to go find some tissue before I can start this recap. If you weren't a bit teary-eyed at last night's season finale of House, then your heart is as cold as a heart that's been put into arrested hypothermia.
Last week, House took us on an interesting bus ride, and while I didn't know where it was going, I certainly wasn't expecting an ending like this. Especially considering how light-hearted, and goofy this season has been. We started off with a Survivor-like hunt for a new team, and ended up with a bus crash and a case of tragic timing. To check out all of my thoughts on the House season finale (spoilers ahead), just

House Rundown: Episode 15, "House's Head"

BuzzSugar — Tue, 13 May 2008 10:39:37 -0700

Wow. I have no idea where House is taking us in its two-hour finale that started this week, but so far at least, I'm enjoying the ride.

What we know, or think we know: House was in a bus crash. He saw someone dying. But who it was, and what was hurting that person, is locked somewhere in his drug-addled brain (inside his cracked skull, to boot). The episode was spent in a frantic search for what House saw, with hypnosis, reenactments, and some kind of creepy dark bath all playing a part — and in the end, we finally learned who was dying. Or at least who might be dying, if the writers aren't pulling an elaborate "but it was all a dream!" scam on us. To check out my thoughts, just

House Rundown: Episode 14, "Living the Dream"

BuzzSugar — Tue, 06 May 2008 09:36:03 -0700

As we've seen over the past several years on House, House's life is one of a few simple pleasures. He tortures Wilson. He ogles Cuddy's breasts. He solves medical mysteries for sport. And he watches his medical soap. How many times have we seen him point out this or that minor plotline to someone on his team who made the mistake of wandering in during Prescription: Passion?

Picking up on a real medical mystery while watching Dr. Brock Sterling over-emote must have truly been a dream come true. So much so that he'd badger Evan's publicist and eventually sneak onto the lot and drive actor Evan to the hospital himself? Well, it is House. And for a show built around odd coincidences, Evan having his foot go numb right in front of Cuddy — the person least likely to believe House about Evan's condition — has to be up there with the best twists of fate of all time. What surprised me was that the episode — save for the Wilson/Amber plotline — then turned largely into a story about job satisfaction, so for the rest of my take, just

House Rundown: Episode 13, "No More Mr. Nice Guy"

BuzzSugar — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 09:29:53 -0700

Monday's episode of House had everything I could have hoped for in the show's return — and I'm not exaggerating when I say everything. Cameron, Chase, and Foreman were all there — but so was the new team. There were scenes with Wilson and scenes with Cuddy — and a scene with the two of them together. They even threw in a little Hugh Laurie tooling away on the piano. Doesn't it just figure that the episode about a too-happy guy would make me smile for almost an hour straight?

The team's treatment of the happiest man alive ("Is he Canadian?") led them on a quest to figure out why House is the crankiest man alive. Meanwhile, House set about rekindling his bromance with Wilson by proposing joint custody with Amber. Could House survive seeing his best dude on Wednesday nights and every other weekend? To find out, just

House Rundown: Episode 12, "Don't Ever Change"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 09:30:51 -0800

First off, a bit of business. If you missed the Super Bowl episode and haven't already found it elsewhere, Fox will be replaying the episode Friday at 9 p.m. Go set that TiVo.

On to this episode, which might serve as our season finale depending on the writers' strike. It's somehow appropriate that it and last season's finale both were all about change. This time, House suspected that his patient made a radical change in her life — converting to Hasidic Judiasm — because there was something psychologically wrong with her. Meanwhile, he also starts to wonder if there's something psychologically wrong with either Wilson or Amber. To talk more about the episode, just

House Rundown: Episode 11, "Frozen"

BuzzSugar — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 09:33:39 -0800

From what I understand, "Frozen" wasn't initially intended to be the post-Super Bowl episode of House: Even guest star Mira Sorvino didn't find out about the episode's prime placement until she was already on set. Considering that, I thought the producers did a remarkable job of making this episode feel special. Practically the whole gang was there (save for Chase), and the case itself was a new spin on the old House formula. Plus, there was some romance — the best part of which we had to wait to the very end to understand. Want to talk more about it? Just

House Rundown: Episode 10, "It's a Wonderful Lie"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 09:35:44 -0800

Merry Christmas, everybody! Any other holidays we should celebrate while we're at it? This week's House took us all the way back to late December for a Christmas-themed episode all about (what else?) deception and lies. Hey, I suppose I'd rather see Wilson wearing that ridiculous reindeer hat late than never see it at all. To chat about Tuesday's episode, just

House Rundown: Episode 9, "Games"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 09:36:47 -0800

Every House episode is really just a series of games House plays — with Cuddy, with Foreman, with his patients' lives — but this week's episode took things one step further. For the final challenge before picking his new team, House set the final four candidates loose on an aging punk rocker with symptoms that were either drug abuse or something more. In the end, he did actually buckle down and choose a team, but of course I'm not going to reveal the names up here. For that you'll have to

House Rundown: Epsiode 8, "You Don't Want to Know"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 10:57:33 -0800

Ladies and gentlemen, step right up for the greatest show on earth! There will be mystery. Intrigue. Stolen underwear. All that, and more, in another installment of House! This week's magic-themed episode featured a typically bizarre case, some "can you say that on TV?" one-liners, and the end to one of the show's best running jokes. I'm a little bummed about that last part, but I thought the rest of the episode was great, so to read the rest of my take, just

House Rundown: Episode 7, "Ugly"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 09:27:29 -0800

Does anything change when a documentary crew starts following the action at PPH? That was the question this week on House. And the answer: not really. The documentary episode is a bit of a TV stereotype, and frankly, as a window into what the characters really feel, I preferred the Mirror Syndrome guy. But the film crew did prompt some great lines — "I became a doctor because of the movie Patch Adams" — and caught Cameron in one very awkward moment. It also apparently gave Taub the courage to stand up to House for the first time. For more about the episode, just

House Rundown: Episode 6, "Whatever It Takes"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 09:34:51 -0800

There was a lot going on in this week's episode of House — a little too much, if you ask me. House was shipped off to the CIA to diagnose a patient whose background was mostly kept secret, while the rest of the team tried getting used to Foreman's leadership back at the hospital. We also might have learned the identity of one person joining House's team, but I'm hoping it's a trick. To read the rest of my take, just

House Rundown: Episode 5, "Mirror Mirror"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 09:42:08 -0700

Every so often, House will break out a theme episode where the cases and the doctors' lives intertwine. Those episodes often seem contrived, but they do have a purpose: They give us a window into the characters that we couldn't get from the typical House formula. "Mirror, Mirror" was one of those episodes, and it gave us some insight into the doc-testants still in the running for a job on House's team. To read my thoughts on the episode, just

House Rundown: Episode 4, "Guardian Angels"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 09:29:35 -0700

Sometimes, I think that the House writers invented this whole auditioning-for-the-new-team plotline so they could poke fun at reality television. A couple of weeks ago, we got a Survivor-style tribal council; this week, it was a Bachelor-esque rose ceremony. Maybe next week, we'll be able to call or text in support of our favorite candidates? This week, we learned a bit more about our remaining doc-testants, saw a little more of Cameron and a lot more of Foreman, and watched House get punched. Aw, yeah. To read more of my thoughts, just

"House" Recap: Episode 3, "97 Seconds"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 09:42:48 -0700

What a strange episode of "House" this week, huh? It was one that broke down all the normal rules of the show: There were three medical cases instead of the usual one; House took a much more dramatic step than usual in an attempt to solve one of them; and not everything worked out well in the end. To talk more about the episode, just

"House" Rundown: Episode 2, "The Right Stuff"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 09:33:59 -0700

As much as I loved watching House work alone on last week's "House," it was even better to see him surrounded by new potential team members to torture. I'm not sure if any of these new candidates have (ahem) the right stuff to be House's new lackeys, but it's sure going to be fun to watch them try. To talk about the episode, just

"House" Episode 1: "Alone"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 09:28:53 -0700

What's a "House" without any team to torture? Why, if Tuesday's season premiere is any indication, he's the same cranky doctor as always. To check out my thoughts on the fourth-season premiere and share your own, just

"House" Recap: Episode 24, "Human Error"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 30 May 2007 11:33:23 -0700

When I first saw the preview for the "House" season finale, I was most excited about the medical case. But in the end, I ended up being more intrigued by the drama surrounding House's staff. Between what happened this week and the word that "House" will look different in the fall, I really wonder what the writers have in store for us next season.

More about that in a second. First, let's meet the patient of the week: a Cuban refugee who's been traveling with her husband in an attempt to see House for her set of odd symptoms. I had no idea House's powers were internationally recognized, but it makes for a good story, so

"House" Recap: Episode 23, "The Jerk"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 16 May 2007 12:30:02 -0700

Man, who wasn't a jerk on "House" last night? At least the title wasn't meant just for House, as he had to take on a whiny, angry teenage patient who definitely gave House a run for his money. (If "personality disorder" is really a symptom, couldn't House have been diagnosed with every disease in the book by now?) Meanwhile, Foreman still insists he's leaving, but someone sabotages his chances by canceling a job interview. But who? Well, for that and the rest of the story,

"House" Recap: Episode 22, "Resignation"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 09 May 2007 11:20:35 -0700

This week's "House" largely followed the fallout from Foreman's sudden resignation, set against the background of a medical case that seemed remarkably similar to the one two weeks ago that led Foreman to kill his patient. This week's patient is Addie, a college sophomore who starts coughing up blood during her martial arts class. House is convinced she has an infection, but the others think it could be something autoimmune. When will they ever learn? Meanwhile, Foreman makes his resignation official — and then gets honest about his feelings about the rest of the staff. For the rundown,

"House" Recap: Episode 21, "Family"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 02 May 2007 11:37:13 -0700

If last week's episode of "House" was about failure, then this week's was about redemption — or at least an attempt at it. Foreman is still reeling from the death he caused, so he's gun-shy on the team's next case: a boy who gets a mysterious infection just before he's supposed to give bone marrow to his older brother. House decides that the infection is like a needle in a haystack, so they need to "grow more needles" — the old "make him sicker before we can make him well" trick.

Foreman isn't sold, and he's not the only one with reservations. Wilson points out that he treats his patients for months and years, and he needs Matty and Nick's parents to feel like they're doing the right thing. House, of course, has different ideas about medicine, so to see where it goes from there,

"House" Recap: Episode 20, "House Training"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 11:18:10 -0700

I've never been a person who watched House for the supporting players, so this week's Foreman-centric episode was interesting for me. The medical story was an emotional rollercoaster that ended up giving a lot of insight into his character, and I'm curious to see how the outcome affects him going forward.

The patient this week is a woman who collapses while gambling. Foreman hears her list of jobs — pet store, then unemployment, then selling subscriptions door-to-door, then unemployment — and judges her as a drug-using con artist like the ones he knew back when he was a bad boy. The point about Foreman turning his life around is driven home further when his parents show up; his mom is losing her memory, and Foreman hasn't visited in eight years, so his dad has decided they should come to him.

Meanwhile, Wilson's second ex-wife, Bonnie, arrives on the scene, trying to convince Wilson to take custody of their dog, Hector. To see what happens from there,

"House" Recap: Episode 19, "Act Your Age"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 12:03:11 -0700

As much as I liked seeing Chase and Cameron together, I've been looking forward to the inevitable bickering once they broke up, and we got lots of that on this week's "House." We also got our little mystery girl, and let's just say that one of your predictions of what would be at the end of her dramatic "I ... want ..." line was almost dead-on. Rock on, ALSW!

We start out at a daycare, where the little boy who I'm almost positive plays Sam on "October Road" gets a gross bloody nose. But the actual sick one is his sister, who collapses suddenly. House sets his team on the case, but Cameron and Chase can't stop fighting, because there's trouble in casual-sex paradise. To hear where it goes from there,

"House" Recap: Episode 18, "Airborne"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 11:35:48 -0700

Well, it wasn't snakes. Might as well get that out of the way.

This week's "House" gave us two different cases: one in the air and one on the ground. I didn't see the connection between the two, but in the end, we got juicy medical footage, some developments in the Chase-Cameron department, and more time for House and Cuddy to bond. For all the details,

"House" Recap: Episode 17, "Fetal Position"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 11:57:24 -0700

Now, this is how I like my "House": an interesting case that's relevant to the characters, a healthy dose of snarky House lines, and a few moments that make him seem almost human. I love all the character development we're getting along with our medical mysteries.

Our patient this week is a celebrity photographer who has a stroke while photographing a dude from All-American Rejects. (I'd like to think a photographer of this woman's status wouldn't be wasted on the All-American Rejects.) Emma's in her 40s and pregnant with a baby from a sperm donor. She also photographs every step of her hospital stay, which leads to lots of disbelief-suspending moments with the doctors looking at photos that have somehow been developed into high-quality 8 x 10 prints instantaneously. I'll let it go, though, because it is a nice touch.

We go through the standard misdiagnosis routine before the team figures out what's wrong with Emma, so

"House" Recap: Episode 16, "Top Secret"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 10:56:56 -0700

We're back (finally) with the first of eight new episodes of "House." This one was a bit of a doozy, with saucy on-the-job sex and a plotline that had me thinking more about House's naughty bits than I ever really wanted to.

The episode starts with footage of soldiers who get caught in a sudden explosion. One of the soldiers is dragged, minus a leg, from the wreckage, and as the camera pans back, we see House's face on the guy’s body. Ah, it's a nightmare. A psychic nightmare, apparently, because House soon gets assigned to a guy with Gulf War Syndrome — and the guy looks like the solider who dragged House to safety in the dream. This baffles House, who tells Wilson that even though he can do many wonderful things (bring two women to simultaneous ecstasy, etc.), he can't dream about someone he's never met. He sets the team to work researching the guy, from his credit history to any TV appearances that could explain why House knew his face. To see where it goes from there,

"House" Recap: Episode 15, "Half Wit"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 11:05:00 -0800

My fellow "House" fans, are you as frustrated as I am with the scheduling for this show? I understand "American Idol" is Fox's cash cow, and I know "House" doesn't depend much on continuity, but still. We’ve had just four new episodes this year, and now the show’s gone again until March 27 — though Fox promises a string of nine new episodes once it’s back.

To tide us over, we got not one but two medical mysteries in "Half Wit." House treats a savant who has trouble buttoning his shirt but can play the piano expertly. The team, however, is more concerned with some disturbing information they’ve discovered about House. To hear all about it,

"House" Recap: Episode 14, "Insensitive"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 10:35:11 -0800

Does anyone else instantly start singing that mid-'90s song by Jann Arden upon seeing the title of this episode? Or is that just me?

Anyway, love is in the air on this Valentine's Day episode of "House" — er, make that meaningless sex and botched dates. House spends the episode mostly concerned with two things: getting a spinal nerve from a 16-year-old car crash victim who can't feel pain and breaking up the blind date Cuddy has arranged for herself.

The crash victim, Hannah, appears to be perfectly fine at first. But House is fascinated by her pain-free life, given that he's always in pain — which Cuddy spells out for us about five minutes into the episode, thus ruining my chance to feel insightful. Hannah isn't into being experimented on, but when she develops a fever, the doctors keep her around until they figure out what's wrong, so

"House" Recap: Episode 13, "Needle in a Haystack"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 11:12:54 -0800

After last week's foray into psychology, things seem to be back to normal on "House". House and the team treat a 16-year-old who passed out during a make-out session with his girlfriend, while he bickers with Cuddy about giving his parking space to a researcher in a wheelchair, leading House to spend a week wheeling himself around the hospital to prove he’s more deserving.

We're introduced to the patient, Stevie, while he and his girlfriend are making out in their car in a deserted parking lot. Well, deserted except for a cop, who tells them they have 10 minutes to get out of there. The girlfriend apparently wants to make the most of those 10 minutes, so she whips off her shirt, but Stevie suddenly can’t breathe. No joke I could make here could possibly be appropriate, so why don't you just

"House" Recap: Episode 12, "One Day, One Room"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 10:17:44 -0800

Well, that was strange, huh? Tuesday's episode of "House" was chock full of odd philosophical debates about the nature of pain, mostly at the hands of a young patient who latches onto House after being raped. We learn about some bad things that happened to House as a kid, and we see that he can actually be a good guy sometimes, but I'm not sure what it all means. "House" fans, be sure to tell me what you thought of this one.

The episode starts off normally enough. Cuddy assigns House to clinic duty, and because House isn't exactly the kind of guy who thrives on treating the poor and infim, he:

has his team run unnecessary tests on a guy who ran screaming around the waiting room because of a cockroach in his ear.
offers $50 to any patient who's willing to go home.
strikes a deal with Cuddy that he gets $10 for each patient he diagnoses without touching and pays $10 for each one he has to touch.

All of this is cute and fun and leads to some classic House lines, but it's just setup for the real story, which starts when one of the patients reveals she's been raped, so

"House" Recap: Episode 11, "Words and Deeds"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 12:17:36 -0800

Is a "House" without Vicodin really a "House" at all? That's the big question in Tuesday's episode, when House stuns everyone by checking himself into rehab — and stuns 'em again later by revealing that a guard has been sneaking him pills. Meanwhile, the rest of the doctors try a memory-erasing treatment on a patient who has heart attacks every time he sees the woman he says he loves, only to learn later that his memories of her were false.

That patient is Derek, a firefighter who can't stop shivering. Meanwhile, House is in court, pleading not guilty to forgery and taking illegal drugs. When he returns to the hospital, the team briefs House on Derek's case, but House has bigger things to worry about, like jail. Cuddy tells House it's time to suck it up and apologize to Tritter.

In shocking twist No. 1, he actually does! But Tritter isn't buying it, even when House tries the magic words "I'm sorry." Back at the hospital, House is zoning out on a meeting about Derek when he suddenly announces he's checking himself into rehab. To see how that works out,

House Recap: Episode 10, "Merry Little Christmas"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 11:39:57 -0800

I guess it's not surprising that for a person as cranky as House, even the best Christmases wouldn't be exactly merry and bright. But last night's holiday episode of "House" made things look downright bleak for the doctor, who reveals the darker side of his Vicodin addiction and realizes he might go to jail.

Things start off on the wrong foot for House, who walks into the hospital and discovers Wilson and Detective Tritter waiting for him. Wilson and Tritter tell House there's a deal on the table, and if he pleads guilty to the charges against him, he'll get two months in a rehab facility — and no jail time. House says he won't be locked up in one place he doesn't belong just to avoid being locked up in another place he doesn't belong, and he tells them he'll never take the deal. Tritter tells House he has three days to decide.

Now that everyone's in such a great mood, House gets introduced to his patient: a teenager named Abigail, whose lung has collapsed. Both Abigail and her mother are little people, and House makes a round of inappropriate jokes about "tiny" things and "short" fuses. "Delightful," says the mom. "Usually we just get the elf jokes this time of year." House briefs his team on Abigail's case, and they set off trying to figure out what's wrong, so