Obviously, Dolly Parton didn’t know anything about being a hospital administrator.

Good lord am I glad I’m not Lisa Cuddy.* She has to make the hard decisions. Up at 4am to exercise (yoga), taking care of a sick baby on her own (as evidenced by the shower scene and a naked baby in the back half of the stall, crying her fool head off. Dress, hair, breakfast, baby sitter, last minute sex (sort of) with her private detective boyfriend before heading off to the “office”. In this case, Princeton-Plainsboro Hospital has an overly zealous trouble maker, an insurance company that would rather save money than insure patients get an outstanding level of care and that the hospital continues to run smoothly, a boyfriend who makes bets about their sex life, a pharmacy worker who has been supplying a meth lab for nearly 3 years after lying and saying she was only trying to lose weight, oh, and did I mention an overly zealous trouble maker?

A brawl??? Doctor fisticuff is so not sexy. Yes, even if Doctor Chace is involved. The pharmacy tech comes back and she’s a total bitch and Cuddy decides that she might as well preempt the board, since the meeting with the insurance company didn’t go the way she planned, and quit. But House talks her down off the ledge, the insurance company gives Cuddy the deal she wants and our bad ass director of medicine is back on track at 9pm. Not everything is solved (still have to deal with the guy who’s thumb was fixed but who still wants to sue because insurance won’t cover everything and the pharmacy tech is really, really not nice) and House is still a troublemaker, but life will go on, her job is secure and this was a nice slice of life with just enough House for this to still be his show, but not too much to take away from it being Cuddy’s day.

*PS, I typo’d Cuddy’s name as Cuddly. It made me laugh so I thought I’d share.

The season 6 premiere of House was good. I believe in getting psychiatric help. I also know that some medicines can absolutely change who you are. I’ve seen the effects of what good psychiatry can do. I loved that House raged against the machine, but the possibility of House becoming someone that can love and let love is fascinating for the storyline. i can imagine that no one would believe him and that fight for belief would take him back to his old ways.

The episode started with Radiohead’s No Surprises. What a great song for the opening. If you remember the video (and if you didn’t, it’s above), Tom Yorke’s head is in a tank. Water fills until his head becomes submerged in water. He’s singing pre-water fill up and post drainage, but his head become submerged for so long that you wonder that he can take it. That was an appropriate song for this entire episode. We are watching House finally get his head above water.

The way House looks when Alvie starts singing Brick House is priceless. Time to rage against the machine. For an hour we watch as House uses every trick at his disposal to cause discord, hoping that the need for a peaceful psych ward will force the psychiatrists into giving him what he wants, a signed statement saying he is ready to practice medicine again.

House will do anything to keep himself from doing what other people want him to do.

But then House begins to know his fellow patients, from Alvie, his Puerto Rican roommate to Freedom Master, a kid who lost his wife and now feels like he’s a superhero. I love Derek Richardson who played Freedom Master. He was my favourite part of Men in Trees. There’s something just so sweet about him that it was very devastating when he gets hurt. It is after Freedom Master’s accident that House wants to stop being whatever it is he is. He takes his medicine, he talks about his feelings, he falls in love with a married woman. He imagines someone will choose him (this is beginning to sound very Grey’s Anatomy “Pick me. Choose me”).

The center of the episode sagged for me. While it is good that House is sharing his feelings, it really seemed like the episode went nowhere. In parts, it felt like a made for tv movie about a grumpy old man who gets his groove back. That this grumpy old man is House and that it means something (especially that Braugher may become a regular guest) is what keeps me watching. Also, House is gonna make it with a married woman? What about Cuddy? I guess the need for human contact, which House hasn’t had since, what, season 3, prompted the act. Also, I can see how people wouldn’t like the act just before the ending. Most people abhor the use of sentimentality in television, but since I like it, I did enjoy 2 things about the scene: Freedom Master actually getting to be the hero and Greg House being right.

It was weird not having a medical emergency. I guess I just felt like I was left hanging without the rest of the crew there, but I didn’t hate it for not being a normal episode of House. It was a bit refreshing, like eating watermelon after enjoying a tasty and tart hummus. Now I’m ready to tackle the season ahead with this remembrance of the old House, who he became and to try him again. Maybe I’m leaving the tart hummus and going on to some spicy bean dip with goat cheese crumbles, but even though it’s different, it can still be just as good.

What does this episode mean for House, the show? I mean, if Greg House isn’t overly narcissistic and sarcastic, completely uncaring of others while being completely miserable, then are we just gonna be watching something made for CBS? According to the commercials, I’m relatively sure we will have the show we crave, but will it be good/better?

What do you think? Did you enjoy the premiere or were you upset because the show was not the House we’ve come to know and love?

Even with Twitter giving hints to a shocking death (I didn’t watch House last night as I normally do, but earlier today), I did not follow the clues or even accept the truth when Foreman and 16 found Kutner dead.

I don’t know what to say. The emotional toll a fictional character’s death takes is a testament of good writing. Even as I watched, I turned into House, wanting to go back through last season and this season trying to figure out what we missed. I have the advantage of knowing that Kal Penn is moving on to a job as Arts liason for the White House, but for the characters on House, they are faced with the senseless death of someone who they all thought was happy. Hell, I thought he was happy.

I noticed that he was coming up with more and more answers, and he did seem happy. He seemed always to be smiling. I can’t picture him any way other than smiling.

There was so much blood. Foreman and 16′s reactions were so real, it was the shock it should have been (even with the TwitterSpoilers). The subdued air of everything, the eventual death of the patient, even with the answers, was the right foil to the death with no answers.

Death can be a hard thing. Some people affirm life. Some people abuse life. Some people withdraw. Some people pull closer to the ones they love. I hate that we will not see Kutner again, that there is no chance of him coming back, but even as I do, I know that this is the right step for the show. The characters have been moving about like bubbles in a lava lamp. No uniformity, no cohesion, just House misbehaving while the others try to work within and around his demeanor. We know that will continue, but now we get to see the characters up their game, but not only that, we get to see how the writers will grow.

Every Monday, I watch House on Fox before switching over to NBC for Heroes then to ABC for Castle. I hate that I miss 24, but it’s a show that’s easy to catch up on the next day. Once again, I don’t watch Chuck because the writer’s strike cut me short and I never got back into it. I finally caught up on Life, maybe I’ll be able to do the same with Chuck and find out why Tricia Helfer was such a bitch last night!

It was nice to see Mos Def on House. I think I’ve grown to like him as an actor with his lazy voice. He always does such a great job. I like the way this story was told, from the voice over from Mos Def’s head to the “virtualization” in his head. Almost makes me mourn going back to normal storytelling.

Heroes has been getting really good. This week finds Silar and Danko teamed up, searching for a shape shifter. This ends up being a very convenient storyline. Angela Petrelli and Peter are holed up in a church as god is brought into the fray (ultimate superhero?) and Claire and Nathan are having daddy/daughter time in Mexico. I have to say that although the last couple of episodes have been very exciting and this one was just okay, the thing they succeeded in doing was making me anticipate next week’s episode, something that hasn’t really happened since the first season.

Castle is fun as ever in this case about a philandering politician who is found dead, rolled in a rug in a couple’s new apartment. Castle and Beckett solve the crime at the release of his newest book, the book that contains the death of his most famous and popular character. My favourite part is the end, when he’s reading some pages for his weeping, adoring, female fans, and Beckett walks in looking smoking hot and he can’t finish reading. Also, when she finds out the name of the character based on here. Nikki Heat. Ha!

Monday has always been a good day for television. Let’s see what Tuesday brings!