Okay. I'm getting a slight bit of happiness from watching the effects of the writers' strike on the programming of the few shows that I actually bother to watch on network television. Take tonight's House, for example. It was the bloody Christmas episode. Why didn't they air it at Christmas? Presumably because Fox only had three episodes of the show left (at least, that's what I've read.) and television ratings for regular shows are somewhat lower around Christmas. So, given only three episodes of one of the higher-rated shows on television, Fox decides to sit on them for a while. But then, someone makes the seemingly strange decision to put an episode of House on after the Superbowl, which I thought was usually a spot for introducing a new show. Now, Fox can't very well air the Christmas episode after the Superbowl, which takes place in godsdamned February. It would look ridiculous. And House this season seems to have just enough of an ongoing story arch that they want to keep the episodes in order. So, with (allegedly) only three episodes of the show left, Fox is forced to burn through one precious episode of the show in order to show another episode after the Superbowl (a quick sidetrip- the Superbowl represents the greatest success that marketers have ever pulled off. For one night a year, people forget that they always change the channel during advertisements, and some bastards actually watch what is usually a boring football game for the specific purpose of watching commercials. How fucked up is that? 364 days of the year and they dislike ads, but for one night, it's almost one's duty as an American to take notes about which commercial "won". Right now, the only part of the Superbowl I expect to watch is the Tom Petty show at halftime.) and that's how Fox wound up deciding to use up two-thirds of their House episodes in less than a week.
Tonight's episode was almost pretty good. It wasn't, in no small part because the new staff is so fucking boring, but I could see the places where a good episode almost broke through (hint- it was in the clinic storyline, and the looks exchanged during the last scene.) During the episode, I was thinking about how House just might be the most formulaic show on television. It's still one of my favorites, but that's entirely because Hugh Laurie is such a fantastic actor.
The next thing I'm planning on watching on television is the new season of Lost, which I think starts on Thursday. I've only watched the show on DVD, and I have a feeling that only watching one episode of the show a week will be irritating. The show is often so intentionally byzantine and frustrating, that without the instant gratification of watching two or three episodes in a row, I might actually wind up just waiting for the DVDs for this season. Although the writers' strike could very well fuck all of that up anyway.
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