I remember Hugh Laurie being on a BBC show in the late 80's/early 90's called Tales of Beatrix Potter. It was sort of actors with talking animals. Way better than that horrid movie with the squinchy Renee Zellweger, who I heard this morning described as sexy as potato casserole. There, that gets food into the conversation!

Great quote, and thanks for saving me from the wrath of TPTB. EL

And in another demonstration of his versatility, Laurie played a memorable Bertie Wooster in adaptations of P.G. Wodehouse's comic novels.

The problem with this series, as EL points out, is that the plot is entirely and oppressively formulaic: Someone comes in sick; successive diagnoses bring the patient to the brink of death; Dr. House has a last-minute epiphany. We watch the show not for the medicine, but for the interactions of the characters, and the plot scaffolding gets in the way.

Oh, please! Discussion of real TV, as in, entertainment watched by real people, is not encroaching on David's territory!

I loved House until this week. The Ego has just gone over the top. I'm done.

Hugh Laurie was one of Cruella DaVille's henchmen in the remake of 101 Dalmations. He does comedy well.

Hugh Laurie also played the bumbling foppish sidekick to Rowan Atkinson's Blackadder character back in the day.

One of my favorite shows.

A bad episode of House is still much better than most of the other horrendous shows thrown at us. Not including Law and Order:SVU, of course!

I wouldn't worry about encroaching on David's blog. It appears that David has encroached on the Swamp, the Sun's political debate.

Maybe the Sun should get rid of all the individual blogs and just have one giant blog. Let's put the copy editors alongside the new moms and the Ravens beat writers in the same pool as the gospel lady.

Until TV guy starts blogging about TV you're not encroaching.

1) You are awesome
2) I just saw the first episode of this season. It was so sad. It's amazing how they moved the characters along and showed the deep flaws in House and his "friend" Wilson. It was great and it was really sad.
3) You really should catch the last two episodes of last season; they go together. They are brilliant and set up the current season.
4) My favorite characters on TV are House, Detective Goren from L&I:CI (Underrated Vincent D'Onofrio), and Monk. That's not a good sign for me, since they all live in their minds and have no or terrible luck with women. Thank god in real life I'm not a damaged brilliant loner.
5) Keeping tortured characters tortured is good for TV. I'm planning for a big fun weekend with Bourbon Girl, so reality is sometimes better than TV, but only sometimes.

Oh and Don Draper from Mad Men. Talk about deeply damaged.

And I have 30 Rock to look forward to. Tina Fey ... she goes to 11.

Hugh Laurie has been one of my favorites for years.

And he is the only exception to my hate of Brits trying to do "American" accents - second only to American trying to do British accents. He sounds so natural 99% of the time.

Never watched House but I get ya. That's why I still like 30 Rock (my one network show) and Weeds. The plots and acting just continue to evolve and amaze. And, OMG is right - you are awesome and definitely not encroaching!

Laurie was also good in Sense and Sensibility, the one with Emma Thompson. At for you Mr. OMG, you realize you're just in love with Sherlock Holmes right? Both House and Goren and self-evidently and intentionally modeled on Holmes. That said, I'm not sure how Don Draper fits in with my theory, though he does share something with Sam Spade.

I watch a LOT of tv and my favorite shows are alway canceled also. Veronica Mars was only one of them. I don't however watch House, never liked it.

Given the frequency with which contributors (I don't want to say Sandbox for fear Mr OMG will come after me again [I'm feeling really un-loved]) make huge swerves with topics, so as Empress of the Known and Un-know Universe, we won't object to swerves from the top.

RtSO - How do we know she is Empress of the Unknown Universe?

(I hope I didn't make you feel unloved, btw. It wasn't the intention, if I did.)

I didn't say I was in love with those dudes, just that I liked or idientified with the characters. I also really identify with Dr. Cox from Scrubs, who once summed up his dysfunction by saying "I'm in love with a woman I hate". I would like to clearly place that in the past, as I believe that my days of choosing borderline psychotic women are over.

Well, aren't all great detectives descended from Holmes? Certainly these cerebral ones - maybe not Shaft (he's a baaad mutha. Shut yo mouth!). One thing that I saw on the last House ep and have seen at least once before is that the street number on his house is "22B". Anyone? Sherlock Holmes lived at 22B Baker Street.

Um, I tried to watch House but he is such an obnoxious A-hole that I couldn't. But my parents and others really like the show so, to each their own.

My favorites, that are no longer around?
-West Wing
-The Wire
-Ed
-Homicide, Life on the Street

yeah, they are on other cable stations but anticipating and then seeing the new versions was TV Crack.

But I love me some Boca Veggie Chili with shredded cheese! (to keep this a food comment!)

We've visited about West Wing before, PCB Rob...great show that could have gone on.

As to Ed, Mrs. Bucky actually owns a Stuckey Bowl bowling shirt. She loved that show so much, I had it made up for her one Christmas.

Used to love "Lost"--not so much anymore. Just couldn't turn on "Fringe" knowing that it came out of the same shop. And we are bailing out of "True Blood" after two episodes. Not our proverbial cup of tea (another food reference!)

I tried to watch "Fringe" but it doesn't do it for me. EL

Whoa, you stay away for a day and see what happens. I happen to know that every character on House eats, so this is totally appropriate. And you eat in house sometimes. And they always mention liver.

Sad is an understatement. I agree that sometimes I don't care what crazy disease the POTW has as long as the characters progress. The arc where Wilson is dating Cutthroat B**** was really interesting. It gave Watson's, I mean Wilson's, characters more complexity.

I'm glad they minimized Barbie and Ken. She was sweet eye candy and he was a little more feminine than her. I was bored with them.

You should check out the last 4 or 5 episodes from the last season. I really liked last season with the choose new assistants reality show he did where he would vote people off the hospital. 13 is beautiful, but CTB was so interesting, a real maneater. Grrrr... The last two eps where she died was heartbreaking.

I think Greg House's character is truly tragic. King Lear comes to mind. He has sunk to new depths. Yes, he is a first class a-hole but his anguish makes it interesting. And like all true tragedy his siffering is caused by himself.

I love House's take on grieving. What did he say? Something like Amber's dead, move on to Onyx? Something like that.

What next?

RevEd wrote I love House's take on grieving. What did he say? Something like Amber's dead, move on to Onyx? Something like that. Sounds like great material for a funeral--not!

Dahlink, I think your reference to True Blood already got in a food reference!

I'll confess that I'm finding the show to be kinky fun, and definitely not in the network formula, which is covered so well with 3 L&Os, 3 CSIs, CSI in a hospital (House), CSI at the federal level (Bones), etc. Don't get me wrong, I love me some crime/mystery procedurals, but I find the different twist of True Blood intriguing so far.

Oh - and a shout out to Sarah G. about Veronica Mars! Missing it and hate the movie rumors, because I think they're just going to break our hearts.

I was addicted to ER for years, but gradually lost interest after Anthony Edwards' character died.

Bravo shows the occasional episode of The West Wing. It's like fine wine, and just as heady.

Now I'm addicted to CSI (Las Vegas) and NCIS. I don't know if the forensics are true-to-life, but they sure are fun.

NCIS is pretty good, I have to admit. As a Navy vet and had some dealings with their precursor (NIS), its kinda neat to see what the up-to-date TV version is like.

Agreed Bucky, we did visit the West Wing thing awhile back, I just wanted to list it among my all-time favorite TV shows that have since gone by.

Bartlet for President!

Love Mr. Laurie - but what is it about bringing Brits over to USA TV? Sure, it's easier for them to impersonate our "accents" (at least the eastern one). But, come on, don't we have equally talented actors?

English people (not Britons) don't need to impersonate our accents. They just need to stop putting on the silly affectations that they sport. The educated Northeast U.S. accent is closest to the true accent in southern England 250 years ago. Extreme social stratification in England leads to their absurd manners of speech. English actors are typically trained through national and regional theaters where they are taught stage English, which is horribly affected and unnatural - meant to project unamplified speech to crowds.

That being said, there are just a lot more jobs here. Also, the BBC pays very low wages and good English actors can be bought for cheap. Plus there is vastly more quality and high quality television being produced in the U.S. now. The average production values for British TV are terrible. Look for example at Spooks (or whatever it's called here.). It was designed to be an American-style action drama, getting much inspiration from 24. The first two seasons have some laughably bad writing, acting, photography, directing and editing. And yes, I have seen every episode. The didn't really hit their stride until Season Three, when everything got noticeably better. Adding the lead guy with blond hair and getting rid of the stagey pale guy with bad skin was key.

Look at a show like Without a Trace. Anthony LaPaglia and Poppy Montgomery are both Australian. The middle black woman agent is from England and rocks a crazy Brooklyn accent.

English actors here? As Cheese Girl might say, it's all about the chedda.

Addendum - I found Laurie's Oxbridge accent in MI-5 very annoying, as well as his manner. I saw some of his comedy work and hated it. But as House, he is really cooking.

BTW I find Irish and Scottish accents delightful. Please don't make me quote the speech from Transpotting again.

Veronica Mars - Mmmmm..... Kristen Bell is great. Sassy.

Speaking of Kristin Bell and TV, Heroes is back tonight. It amuses me that they have so little new programming they're having an hour "red-carpet" special before the actual episode. Seriously?

So, will D@L have an Emmy wrap-up? (Always stirring to pot, oooo an almost food reference.)

That speech from Trainspotting is classic!

West Wing was also a favorite of mine. I just started watching NCIS last season, I like it better than CSI. I also like How I Met Your Mother, Chuck and Pushing Daises. Loved the first season of Heroes but have not finished the 2nd season yet, it is on my DVR. To also bring it back to food, Pushing Daises has a restaurant called The Pie Hole and they serve pies that look mouth watering. I am still wondering why if Veronica Mars was so loved by all who watched why was it cancelled, though I would love to have a movie.

Sarah G, agreed on Pushing Daisies. The photography and set design was so sensual that you could almost taste it. And the pies! Mmmm... can't wait for more.

OMG and Sarah G., we liked Pushing Daisies as well. Great cast and some fresh writing. But that "Desperate Housewives"-style opening voiceover is rapidly becoming annoying. (Add DH to the list of shows we no longer bother to watch ...)

I wonder if there is some kind of list of the pies from Pushing Daisies? They look so delish in the ads. I saw the first episode and loved the relationship between the boy and the girl, but I didn't see any lemon meringue. It's a good pie. Sweet and tart. Maybe I can get season 1 from netflix.

You guys aren't so bad after all. I guess I have to come here for any sort of open minded discussion. After seeing this post, I went to the Tv blog on the Sun, but that dude doesn't seem to own a TV or really hates his job, because there isn't any discussion of actual shows.

Now he's pimping himself out about some journal article he wrote a million years ago and talks about himself in the third person. Take the buyout dude. I posted a couple of comments about the lack of actual tv drama or comedy show coverage and he erased them before they got posted. What a jerkwad. Who needs some blowhard puffing up himself for watching tv for a living. I'll take that job. But I digress, sorry. It's so aggravating when you find out a blog is just an ego trip. boo Sun. except for here.

The TV blog is a major disappointment. It's an ego blog, like Rodricks, not like this one. It's hard to tell what it wants to be because I get so bored and eye-strained by tv guy's 1000 word paragraph rebuttals to every opinion that doesn't support his. I think he's trying to sell himself to the world as Serious Deep Thoughts TV Guy. Good luck. Zzzzzzz......

The one thing that I always respected greatly about Roger Ebert was that he loves the movies. John Irving once said that he understood why critics were such bastards - because they had to read books that they didn't want to ... for money. Ebert clearly loved his job and suffered through hundreds and hundreds of very bad movies. Yet his joy of the medium was always on display. Same with EL, she must have to endure some dreadful experiences, but it never shows. (Maybe a little on infamous Single Serving Monday 8>)...)

I can only conclude that tv guy wishes he was doing something different, because there's no joy there. Better to return to our humble Joy Division than kick against the pricks elsewhere. Ten points if anyone can untangle that referential Gordian knot.

OMG, shouldn't you be obsessing less about TV and focussing more on the care and maintenance of Bourbon Girl, or is that over?

Stop busting Tv guy's chops. He's on a different trip than you (us). He refers to himself in the third person as "Zurawik" (An unlikely superhero name. What would he be? Super absorbent?) and uses the Royal "we" when discussing himself, which he does a LOT. Be happy you have a home here.

There used to be a guy who covered the local TV news. He was good. My guess is Mr. Z is bucking for a different job. Good for him.

More importantly, House is on tonight at 8. I hope there's food in it, so EL has an excuse to open another post.

More importantly, House is on tonight at 8.

Most importantly, NCIS is on tonight at 8. Mark Harmon is pushing 60 and looking good. Keeps hope alive.

Oh! So much TV, so little time. Can't catch either one, since I have my origami for the blind class tonight.

Yessssss!!!!!!

The new Kinght Rider premiers tonight.

A simple package delivery becomes more complicated than it seems when Mike and KITT learn the package is actually a man with top-secret code decryption built into his DNA.

Bucky,
Sounds more like a job for FedEx. "When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight."