From the Boob Tube

If there is any big problem with cutting back on the columns (mostly due to a dearth of ideas for a little while) it's that once I finally have ideas for columns, I forget to write them. I was so well trained for a little while, and now I have to get back into the zone.

Be that as it may, I do have this rant. See, I got big time cable recently. All those channels that I kept telling myself I didn't really need, I wasn't missing anything... Well, I really was. I get to watch everything I want now, and since it came with the cable provider's equivalent of TiVo, I can watch it when I want and setup record times and everything. It's actually kinda cool.

One of the best things is that I get to watch all kinds of shows when I want with no problems arising if I'm not home to catch them. Two of the shows I've really gotten into will be reviewed now:

House, M.D.

Much as the name always makes me think of the bad series of horror movies that share the name, House is a medical drama. I really good medical drama. I used to be a big fan of ER, and I do still watch it, but ER is kinda... well... lame now. It's very watered down and all the plots are so damn predictable. But House is edgy and fun. One of the best things is that it doesn't tread the same moral tracks ER tries to. This is primarily due to the main character.

You gotta give em credit, House (the titular doctor) is not a very likable character, at least as far as we as the viewing audience are used to. He's mean to patients, generally curmudgeon-y. But they write him as damn smart and damn good at what he does. House, the show, is kinda like Medical CSI, but not nearly as boring as Medical Investigation. Again, because of the titular doctor. Each week we get a new medical mystery. Some patient comes in and start to have serious medical problems. The more the doctors dig, the more they find out what's really going on, and they start having to pull out the obscure possibilities. It all would be far fetched if the writing wasn't as good as it is.

Our doctor loves a mystery. Generally if the patient is working with House they have something no other doctor can figure out, which means, likely, it's obscure. The way it's handled, the passion of the characters, as well as the humor that's injected into the show... It's very watchable and well worth viewing if you haven't yet.

Boston Legal

Here we have the follow up series to the Practice. I dunno about any of you, but I never watched the Practice. The couple of eps I caught were really kinda downers. I think that's what most people generally thought, because after a little while, the producer scrapped most of the cast and brought on James Spader as the new big lawyer on the show. He revitalized the series, helped to end its run, and then got his own series with co-star William Shatner.

See, Legal is a law show with lawyers that tread that scummy line... quite often stepping over it, but so slickly they can't really get into trouble for it, and generally we're rooting for them as they do it. The lawyers, while somewhat scummy as good natured. They people they are defending aren't the worst dregs we've ever seen, so we can't really get caught up too much in the morality of the situation.

What really powers the show here though is the chemistry between Spader and the Shat. They have this on-screen friendship that is so much fun to watch. There's plenty of laughs in the show, but it is still a drama of sorts, and the plot lines are solid enough to carry you through the hour per ep. Definitely worth a recommendation just for Spader and Shatner.

I have been watching a bunch of shows from last few seasons as well. West Wing is getting better again. ER, as I said, is weak now. Not nearly as compulsively watchable as it was in years past. CSI is still solid, and I have yet to get sucked in by either of its spin-offs. And still, I feel the lack of Angel on the air. Damn you WB.