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(S01E08) Fox has decided to show the final two episodes of The Sarah Connor Chronicles (which is still on the bubble for a second season) in one night and treat it as a two-parter. I, on the other hand, will be treating them as two separate episodes for the purpose of these reviews. I will link to the second one at the end of the first so it's sort of like two-Two-TWO reviews in one.

As always, I'm amazed at the sophistication of the television Terminators. One of the reasons Arnold was so great at the role was that he acted stiff naturally. A young William Shatner or David Hasselhoff might have similarly been able to pull off the role. Now that better actors are available, some subtlety and nuance is required in the performance. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

(S04E04) Wilson -- You're quite impressed with yourself right now, aren't you?

House -- Who wouldn't be?

After a brief baseball break, House returned with a pretty decent episode. Not only did we get to see a further fleshing out of the new characters, but also witnessed additional connection between the old and new team members. Plus, we found out that trying to find a job outside of Princeton-Plainsboro when you worked for House was not the best thing to do.

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(S03E19) "Work smarter, not harder." If those weren't the words that summed up Dr. Gregory House's way of doing things, then I'm not sure what would be. That said, when he uses them on Dr. Chase - the least likely candidate of his team to get a compliment like that - it's even more proof that his way of doing things, from the straight diagnosis down to his habits, rubbing off on the team. Strangely, I think that's a good thing.

This week, we had a fantastic combination of a very cool medical case, drama between Cameron and Chase, and some interesting developments with Cuddy and Wilson, even if some of it is being driven by House. And remember what we'd been talking about a few weeks ago regarding how this show was (hopefully) not going down the too-much-sex route as far as plot goes? Well, this week sex was behind the medical issue going on, but not in the way you might have thought.

(S03E04) Quick question: a) is House getting a little bit unrealistic this season or b) am I just off my gourd? I'm not usually one to nitpick at television shows, because c'mon, they're television shows, and only partially reality in the case of a show like House. I've got to say that there were a couple things last night that bugged me, most prominently Foreman's quick-to-grab attitude when he wanted to bring Adam, the autistic child, into a scanner, and he was complaining about only having half an hour to do so, and grabbing at the kid's PSP unit to try and take it away and move him along. If there's anything on this show that is just not going to happen, especially in the case of an autistic child, it's that. Just seemed a little out of place, though not necessarily out of character for Foreman. Now, don't get me wrong, this isn't to say that I'm in any way frustrated to not be watching this show, it just seems to be a bit "different" to me.

What I *loved* about this week's episode was how Cameron kept trying to diagnose what House was doing by having his meetings with his team in various rooms in the hospital, since he said he would not work in his office until the old carpeting was back, with his bloodstain from last season's finale. Additionally, it was fascinating to see Cuddy and Wilson discussing the possibility that House could have Asperger's Syndrome, which is a "mild and rare" type of Autism, so perhaps that was why he took the case in the first place. Wilson's primary belief for this was how his pal reacted to not being able to have the carpet in his office, and how he was compensating and "fighting back" elsewhere, such as taking the conference room at the same time Cuddy was set to have a meeting. Best of all, this week, we have the return of House's teenage stalker.

(S03E01) [Some spoilers ahead! If you don't want to hear more about the premiere, then stop here!] As one of the early-on season premieres of the fall 2006 crop of shows, House will probably get a decent amount of "drop in" viewership for tonight's episode. Those who are just dropping in for the first time will see a very different Gregory House than the show originally presented, and those who have been along for the whole ride - even if you just caught up this summer on DVD or rerun - might just have a lot of wide-open mouths, even as the show opens up. The good doctor, who we left in a hallucination at the end of last season after he was shot, has apparently seen some big changes since having surgery, combined with Cuddy's ketamine treatment.

The show opens, as always, in dramatic fashion. A man, seemingly bound to a wheelchair with some unknown ailment, is seeing flashes of light combined with his particular reality. This reality includes his son, wife, and other family members participating in a barbecue, around a swimming pool. In some deliberate fashion, in what seems to be an attempt on his own life, the man moves his automatic wheelchair towards the pool, surveys the scene, and moves it forward, leaving us to see him sinking in the deep end just before the opening credits. And so it goes.

Love Interest. That's what Stacy has been for House throughout her presence on the series so far. Well, maybe it's former love interest. Or maybe I'm just lost and these two don't know what they want to be doing. During this week's episode, "Failure to Communicate," the pair are in Baltimore to "defend" House's billings to the government - and since Foreman has been so diligent in getting the paperwork done since he took over as "boss" of the group, I'm sure there are plenty of things to look over. At the same time, the rest of the team are back at the hospital when Cuddy comes in asking Foreman for recommendations of other diagnosticians who can do as good a job as house can, because a well-known journalist has come down with a particularly odd affliction - and she doesn't seem to think Foreman, Chase and Cameron can handle it without House in the building. After convincing her otherwise, they get the case, and Fletcher Stone is admitted. Turns out that he knocked his head on a desk during his editor's last hurrah at the office, and when he got back up he was speaking, but random words were coming out. He thought he was talking normal, but the people near him were just hearing what amounts to pointing at a word on the first five pages of the dictionary, and then constructing them into a sentence.

Stacy manages to pull a fast one on the man reviewing House's records, effectively "bribing" him out of bringing down the house on her client, so to speak. The good doctor is amused by this, and the fact that Stacy managed to get on a different flight than him, so they wouldn't have to ride home together. Unfortunately for her, flights are delayed due to weather, and he's still sitting in the airport when she arrives to do the same. All the while, he's been back and forth on the phone with Foreman & Co., giving them some ideas on what has been happening - because Cuddy called him. So as much as she likes Foreman being in charge, she still doesn't think the other docs can do their jobs as well without the fearless leader.