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More Andre Braugher!
by Nick Zaino, posted Sep 22nd 2009 10:00AM
I missed House. Plain and simple, no other show on television makes keeps me guessing what will happen next, and gives a more satisfying payoff, whether I've guessed the twist or not. That was the first thing I thought watching last night's season six premiere episode, "Broken." I'll even forgive the suddenness of a couple of plot twists (Dr. Nolan's father, and how House suddenly had keys to every room in the hospital when he needed a quiet place for a booty call). I know how those things fit into the plot, and I'll let the contrivance slide a bit. The other thing I thought watching "Broken" was that I also missed Andre Braugher. His character, Dr. Darryl Nolan, was the toughest, smartest I've seen him play since Homicide. (Note - I haven't seen everything he's done since, so if you have any suggestions on something to seek out, I'll take a look). It's not easy to hold your own onscreen with Hugh Laurie's House. It has been said lot, but it's worth repeating, Laurie is great in the role, and the role itself is one of the best on television (good enough that they named the show after him).
But Braugher did it well with Nolan, checking House scheme for scheme (see more on that in Jonathan's review). I'm hoping that Nolan isn't a one-shot deal. House doesn't make connections easily (that was the whole point), and if he sees any reason to speak to a psychiatrist later on, he won't seek out someone new. The natural next progression would be for him to speak to some of his colleagues, especially Wilson. But I'm hoping there's a reason or two for Nolan to pop back up somewhere else in season six.
The back and forth between Braugher and Laurie reminded me a bit of the "Subway" episode of Homicide, much of which concentrated on Braugher and Vincent D'Onofrio, who played a man stuck between a subway car and the platform who would die once the car was moved. That was a legendary episode, and "Broken" ranks up there with it.
Since it's been more than ten years since Homicide last aired, here's a refresher of that episode. Most of the best interactions happen later on, but you can't just watch part of this episode, so here's part one from YouTube:
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