Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Top 10 House Episodes: 1-3

Almost forgot these. As a refresher, here's the rest of the top 10:

Top 10 House Episodes: 8-10


Top 10 House Episodes: 4-7


 3 - All In (S.2 E.17)
Special Guest(s): None

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize you'd come back for seconds. I figured that after that girl on the stairwell you'd be done for the night." -House
"He's joking." -Chase
"No Adam's apple, small hands. No surprises this time!" -House

Why I Love It: Nothing better than a good Moby Dick story, especially if Ahab gets his white whale*. From a character development perspective, this does a great job explaining the nature of House's obsessive mind and does a good job reminding us that House has always been like this, pre-leg. Probably my favorite parts of the episode though, are the poker scenes. The ace poker player angle is well-tread territory for shows, but I don't know of any that have had so much fun with it.

*I'll immediately come forth and say I don't actually know how that book ends, but I'm assuming the whale wins.

"Have you read Moby Dick?" -Wilson
"It was a book?" -House

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2 - Occam's Razor (S.1 E.3)
Special Guest(s): Faith Prince

"I think your argument in specious." -Wilson
"I think your tie is ugly." -House

Why I Love It: It's the perfect House episode. It's the best execution of the episodic House formula. And, it has one simple lesson: House is always right. Love him or, more often, hate him he is always right. They spent the next 8 years trying to disprove that notion and any time it did so successfully was to the detriment to the series. By episode 3, they have established that House is a highly imperfect character, but he was also enlightened in a way no one else was. Now, I'm not one to say the character shouldn't've changed. I will say he should never have been diminished which all the mental wards and prison stays did. Here was House as a force of nature, that could be stopped, but shouldn't be.

"Beauty often seduces us on the road to truth." -Wilson
"And triteness kicks us in the nuts." -House

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1 - Three Stories (S.1 E.21)
Special Guest(s): Sela Ward, Andrew Keegan, Carmen Electra

"You know what's worse than useless? Useless and oblivious." -House

Why I Love It: Let's call this my favorite hour of TV ever. I don't have a list compiled, but this feels safe to say. What starts out as a funny, interestingly structure throw away story reveals itself as a brilliantly crafted narrative and a deeply revealing episode that serves as a deeply effective origins tale for the version of House that the series follows. I basically love everything about it. The cases are all interesting. House's team is well represented. I lose count number of cases House solves, including the illness of the doctor he is filling in for. Stacy is introduced brilliantly for her story arc. Even the med students are fleshed out by the end of it. This is the only episode of House that was ever awarded an Emmy for writing and for good reason. So much is going on that it is hard to believe it's a regular-sized episode, and it's rare to find an episode that is so good it feels longer than it is. Such a good episode.

"You find it more comforting to believe that this is it?" -Cameron
"I find it more comforting to believe that this...isn't simply a test." -House

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Alright, there you have it. It took a little longer than I intended to write this [because I'm lazy], but there you have it. My favorite House episodes. Now, I guess it's time for me to trim down my DVR list in preparation for the summer.


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