House decided to go all “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” on us this week. Rapper/ actor Mos Def guest stars as man who is thought to be brain dead, but due to the good fortune of being in bed next to House in the hospital (House was in a motorcycle accident) his misdiagnosis is turned over to the team.

After determining that his fully paralyzed state wasn’t caused by his accident, the team flails around trying to figure a diagnosis. As usual, the path to treatment is full of twists and turns, false positives and dashed hopes. Eventually, it looks like the patient has had   a complex infection which killed his liver and caused his locked in syndrome. After treatment, he begins to come out of his state and the happy ending is achieved.

While all this is going on with the patient, Taub has a crisis about what he really wants to do and its revealed that House is in therapy. Though there are some interesting details in the revelation that House is in therapy, it generally it feels like another dead end. Taub’s midlife crisis felt propped up as well, though judging from the preview of next week’s episode it could be made much more important.

Much of the episode is shot from the patient’s perspective. Its a gimmick but it works. Mos Def does a fine job of conveying the desperation of the patient trapped inside his own body. The perspective shots are interesting without overwhelming the rest of the story. It really did go a long way in setting the mood.

Despite matching the standard line for the show, this was an excellent episode of House. Fine acting from the guest star and a truly compelling illness made for an episode that showed that House still has a lot of vinegar inside its beaten up premise.

(S02E20) “Remains of the J”

It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to, right lil J?

In an attempt to not be forgotten, and, let’s face it, to not be out done, Serena throws Jenny a Sweet 16 not to be forgotten. Too bad that when the birthday girl requested chili and family board games, Serena didn’t get the hint that she wasn’t talking about Sorry.

Clearly love is in the air. Not only was it happening on Serena’s bed during Jenny’s all out rager, but cupid also found his way to the icy hearts of Blair and Chuck. Not for each other mind you. Oh no, this couple is switching partners. Nate and B are having another go at it and Vanessa and C are, well, just going at it.

If you ask me, there’s nothing more boring than the same old hormone driven tune sweeping through the upper east side. Now if you were to, say, bring on some more of that lost brother drama Lonely Boy almost stumbled into, well, that’d be music to my ears.

XOXO ~ Dena

(S02E17) “Chuck vs. the Broken Heart”

Could Ellie and Awesome’s relationship be turning, well, anything but awesome?

On tonight’s Chuck, the Buy More boys throw Awesome a bachelor party he won’t soon forget (except maybe that part where he was tranq’d by a CIA agent.) That’s right, not even the holy grail of boy bashes is immune to a little government interruption when it comes to Chuck’s life as a walking government database.

In need of a hospital pass only Awesome has, Sara’s observer Agent Forrest takes down Awesome. The action not only puts his relationship with Ellie at risk, but once again puts Chuck’s life at risk. One thing leads to another, and just before being forced to walk out of Chuck’s life forever, Sara manages to save his life. But is it for one final time?

I think not. With both a heartfelt Chuck and protective Casey on your side, not even a General can take this ship down.

As a even bigger perk to the conclusion of this episode, Sara intended to leave Chuck the one of the best good bye presents ever. He’ll finally be able to know the location of his Dad. We’re left with teasers for next episode that promise not only a family reunion but a little family espionage as well. Who doesn’t love it when they keep it in the family when it comes to careers like this? By the way, I’m still rooting on Orion as Chuck’s dad. That’d just be… awesome.

Whedon delivered on his promise last week of a compelling episode last week and I had my hopes up that the momentum would carry over this week. Unfortunately, it was a miss match of an outbreak-like plot and an attempt at filling in some backstory.

A shady company run by a shady nobel prize winner has a created a drug that has gotten loose. Because of the doll’s vegetative states, Topher believes they can infiltrate the campus to recover the drug, or something like that. It really didn’t make much sense. Echo is the only doll excluded as the campus is the same as the one we’ve seen in her flashback segments.

Former agent Ballard is confronted by his planted active/ girlfriend who wants him to quit the case after her assault last week. He refuses and she leaves in tears. Its an understandable move but it seemed unconvincing.

The super dangerous drug is proven to be passed by touch. No I’m serious, by touch. It also seems that the effects wear off after a few hours. So then why all the urgency if all they have to do is quarantine everyone?

Echo suddenly breaks off from a fantasy gig thus allowing her to wear a ridiculously sultry outfit and turns her attention to the campus. That too is never really explained properly. While she journeys back we get lots of insight into her life leading up to the mind wipe. A hippie dippy Echo, real name Caroline, along with her boyfriend was attempting to get video of the shady corporation’s evil treatment of lab animals.Caroline and her boyfriend were caught by security and the boyfriend gets shot trying to escape. In turn, Caroline is captured and forced into becoming a dollhouse zombie for a few years as payment. That’s the big surprise?

After arriving on campus, Echo meets one of the earliest victims of the drug and the two try to infiltrate the lab the same path as she had taken as Caroline. Finally making her way to the lab with her new friend in tow, he doses her with the drug. He turns out to be a the source of the entire crisis. He wanted to steal the formula and sell it to the highest bidder. After getting punched out by a sobered up Boyd, he too ends up rounded up by the Dollhouse and in the end, he looks to become another active on their roster.

It all felt anticlimactic. The drug was essentially a short term danger with only minor consequences and all we learned about Echo and the Dollhouse was that they came together through an ridiculously mundane set of circumstances. Though the doped up dialogue between Topher and the English ice queen where pretty funny, it wasn’t enough to save this one. Hopefully the teased-at active uprising in Dollhouse’s preview cashes in more of the promise of last weeks episode.

Killing an Ewok

The only thing on TV Thursday night that could soothe my soul after the loss of the Memphis Tigers was a new episode of 30 Rock. Sadly, it wasn’t their best effort. Jack is planning his 50th birthday party, Tracey wants to go to space and Liz’s degenerate ex-boyfriend Dennis rears his head again.

After seeing some of his childhood home movies of his birthday, Jack is inspired to celebrate his success. After an offhand comment by Kenneth, Jack’s happy birthday suddenly becomes dour and reflective.

Dennis, now claiming to be a sex addict, has been calling all his former partners claiming he needs to make amends. Because of this Liz discovers that Jenna and Dennis also had sex. Liz confronts Jenna and the two bond. They decide to give Dennis a piece of their minds, which he turns against them. The next day, Jenna is doing a sketch suspended on a high wire. Liz neglects to tell her about a clip on her wire harness and Jenna is injured. Despite their best intentions, Dennis has driven a wedge between the old friends.

At Jack’s birthday party, its clear that the only people who came are business associates and strangers. Feeling depressed and alone, Jack decides to invigorate his birthday by finding out what was the birthday present that made him so excited in his childhood home video. After getting a deaf person to decode his words, he discovers that the toy that made him so happy is replication of the Apollo moon lander.

Jack decides to placate Tracey’s dreams of space travel. The only way to do so is to fake a spaceship flight using the TV studio. Tracey falls for the elaborate trick hook, line and sinker.

Though it was funny in general, the show felt sloppy this week. 30 Rock usually tries to tie things up at the end, but this one just ended on a gag about Liz’s early acting job as a model for a phone sex commercial. Its hilarious, but it just didn’t wrap the episode up properly. Although 30 Rock is still the king of network comedy, this episode showed some chinks in the armor.

(S02E20) “Do the Right Thing”

I was thrilled to see Taye Digg’s wife, Broadway star Idina Menzel on Private Practice tonight (in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if this wasn’t the last we see of her), but I must admit, that’s about the only thrilling thing that came to Oceanside Wellness.

Mostly the show was full of love-sick drama. Who’s the primary guilty party? Addison of course. Could her and Dr. Noah’s on-again off-again romance get any more pathetic and over exaggerated? How could any one fall in love with a man like that? I mean he all but blamed Addison for his mistakes in missing his pregnant wife’s symptoms and causing her to almost die. How romantic. Worst off, you can tell she was super proud of herself after making out with him in the rain then pushing passion aside to shut the door in his face. Yea, way to go Addison, you sure put your own feelings aside for the greater good.

As for Cooper and his high opinions on how to parent children, well there’s our controversial subject for the day. A twelve year old child’s having sex so her mom puts her on the pill and in steps an authority figure with a different point of view. I’m not saying he was wrong in his opinions, and I’m also not saying he was right. What I am saying is that once again Private Practice manages to take a controversial subject and present it in a very opinion-skewed view. There’s nothing that bothers me more than when a show does that to an audience. When they make the decision on how they should feel for them.

(S05E17) “Elevator Love Letter”

Izzie’s alive with a brain that’s tumor free. MerDer have officially become an engaged couple and after nearly being choked in her sleep by Hunt, Cristina, against all desires, decides to call it quits. What an episode of Grey’s Anatomy.

So what did we learn from tonight? Well, first off, Karev and George care very deeply for Izzie, but they sure are awful at showing it. Meredith, on the other hand, is completely selfish in my opinion as she turned everything that happened tonight practically into something concerning her. Will you marry me Grey? Ooh no, it’s not a good time. She might be right, but with all the guy’s been through and has coming up you wouldn’t think she’d make him jump through hoops. Also, worst of all, she wasn’t there for Cristina like she should have been. Yang didn’t need a bodyguard, she needed a friend.

Regardless of their faults though, it was still “a beautiful night to save lives” at Seattle Grace. We have a lot to look forward to people.

Scrubs is in an interesting place as a series. Its been kicked back and forth between NBC and ABC and while NBC was ready to bury it, ABC seems ready to give it a fair shake. ABC though has seen fit to try to push a new cast onto old fans of the series. The new interns have been a mixed bag. Some have fit right in, others seem to be stage props.

JD has now assumed the mantle of agitator that Dr Cox left behind when he became the new chief of medicine. Flush with his new sense of respect, JD proceeds to annoy and frustrate everyone around him. Elliot is tied up once again with Katie the intern who has no feelings. After Katie makes a wrong call on a biopsy test, she learns the reason why interns aren’t allowed to make those kinds of calls on their own. Sunny the overly positive intern comes into conflict with the Janitor. As usual, interactions with the Janitor are the comedic high point of the show.

Basically, other than JD getting his jollies being the new head man in the hospital, there was very little interaction with the traditional cast. ABC’s concerted effort to push the interns as possible replacements for Carla, Turk, JD and Elliot is pretty clear. I’m not sure if its a good idea. Though I think it makes a certain amount of sense, its really difficult to get an established audience to accept this many new cast members at once. If Scrubs isn’t careful, it could lose its built in audience without finding a new one to replace it.

(S02E19) “The Grandfather”

You want the Gossip? I’m the girl.

Carter was easy to dismiss, apparently all one needs to flee the country is a little jet plane and a lot of dirt. But don’t worry, that can’t get Blair down. She’s already as low as she can go.

Arriving at the Archibald reunion to throw all regards of etiquette to the wind, we quickly find out she’s not the only one throwing relationships out the window. Nate joins her in a class- A job at getting rid of old acquaintances in order to embrace destiny. While B’s plans include a rotating door of boys, his are aimed towards whatever puppet-master Grandpa can come up with. I just don’t see V joining that crowd. Too bad, no European summer for her.

Onto other juicy tidbits, were you able to catch a peak at Lillian’s master list? She’s got more names in there than facebook does wannabe celebrities. Poppa H simply can’t keep up. Good thing his hearts got the space, he’s gonna need it for her luggage.

Was that chemistry between S and Dan – again? Will V ever get her own storyline? Could that Bluefly glimpse be a teaser to more fashion forward Jenny episodes? One can only hope to overhear some more juice next week.

(S02E16) “Chuck vs. the Predator”

Tonight’s Chuck has left me bubbling over with questions. Like, who is the Orion? I’ve heard rumors that he may just be Chuck’s dad. That’s a sad story if Orion actually died tonight, but I highly doubt it. Also, could the General be bad? Sure, she’s all about protecting her country at the risk of sacrificing a few in order to take in the bigger picture, but could she have lost all touches of humanity? Surely she’s destined to split Sarah and Chuck apart for good. Which leads us to my last question, could Yvonne Strahovski’s days be numbered as Sarah?

In the end though we are left with a few good answers. Chuck can indeed get the intersect out of his brain someday – thank God- though that may just mean our show has a foreseeable final act. Also, it’s finally been said out loud that the CIA’s job is strictly to protect Chuck whilst turning him into a spy, they are not there to return his life of “normalcy” back to him. Poor Chuck, sure being a spy’s cool, but it’s no way to live.

Then again… imagine the possibilities.