(S05E01) "This is Dr. House. He's too brilliant for introductions." -- Thirteen to House's patient of the week

Another season of House, another patient with a mysterious ailment. If there is one thing that has not changed in the five seasons that this medical procedural has aired it is the fact that someone is going to enter Princeton-Plainsboro with an illness that can't be determined until the very last minute. It's why House is still on the air. Well, there's that, and then there's the fact that Hugh Laurie is a damn fine actor. Oh, and the others on the show don't do so badly themselves.

So, what can one viewer look forward to for this new season? If you think same-old, same-old then you would be absolutely, totally....incorrect. Because things are a-changing in Greg House's universe -- actually have been changing since the death of Amber in last season's finale -- that he can't, or won't, stop. The result? Well, I would be writing my own death sentence if I revealed it to you here. So, come and join me for a recap of this week's episode.

(S10E01) We were spoiled this year with Big Brother. The winter season of BB was arguably the only good thing to come out of the WGA strike (if you're a sucker for low-brow television like me). And now it's back again in its regular summer schedule.

Speaking of schedules, Jackie and I will be covering the show this summer. I'll be doing Sunday episodes with Jackie covering Tuesday and Wednesday. You can also count of TV Squad for Jackie's Live Feed Reports and I might post a few updates from Big Brother After Dark which airs on ShoToo (I knew there was a reason I added Showtime to my cable bill. And I thought I was just getting The Tudors and Secret Diary of a Call Girl.)

Okay, let's get to what happened last night.

(S04E13) Damn, that should have been my epiphany.

Tonight's episode of House made me wish it was 1995 and I was still living in the freshmen dorms at Trenton State College. If I were back in college, I would be able to wander out to the hallway right now and start a philosophical conversation about what is more important: your happiness or your health? I mean after all, bra, what's the point of being healthy if you're unable to enjoy it? I could then go on to question whether the color blue was the same for me as it is for everyone else. Deeeeeeeeep.

Well, I don't have a freshmen dorm at my disposal, but I do have TV Squad. Epiphanies, philosophy, and syphilis after the jump...

(S02E04) "Oh Golly" - Sylar, grade A meanie.

I really want to thank all you guys who sent in such positive feedback on the new format for Heroes reviewcaps. JJ is going to follow a similar structure, as he displayed last week, so we can have some consistency from week to week, episode to episode.

The above quote was one of the single most hilarious moments ever on Heroes, which is usually suffering from too much drama... or more accurately melodrama.

This week saw the introduction of Micah's extended family, the return of a clean-shaved Nathan Petrelli and the answer to who is Molly's monster, so lets get it started.

(S04E01) We had a lot of discussion last year about The Office's precarious balance of sitcom-type humor and soap-opera drama. There were times when the Pam/Jim/Karen/Roy love quadrangle threatened to overwhelm the show. Other times, Michael's increasingly cartoonish boss went so far off the reservation as to completely shake our suspension of disbelief.

If anything, tonight's episode proved while the sitcom elements are certainly important, it's the soap opera that gives us our unique connection to these characters. I don't know about you guys, but seeing Michael and Jan and Angela and Dwight and, most especially, Pam and Jim back on the small screen felt like slipping out for some coffee with my old friends.

Yes, I'm completely aware that this feeling might be the beginning stages of paranoid schizophrenia, but I don't care because The Office is back! On to the review...

*Warning, spoilers for the latest 24 episode ahead*

(S06E16) Okay. This episode was a bit better than hour 15. Not substantially better, but somewhat better. Although I must say, about halfway through this episode, I was complaining bitterly that Jack Bauer seemed like, as some critics have complained, a guest star on his own show. He barely appeared in the first 30 minutes to do anything more than chat on his cell phone.

The episode's conclusion -- not including the bit with the renegade former Russian general Gredenko, who had given the suitcase nukes to the "bad" terrorist Abu Fayed -- did wake me from my bored stupor. Sick of seeing new story lines or potential conflicts abruptly introduced and then, just as abruptly resolved in a simplistic fashion, this unexpected turn at the end of the show was at least entertaining.

(S06E15) *Warning, spoilers from recent episode ahead*

It's really sad when the best part of a show is the last minute of a program, when you have to slog through 59 minutes of other material of so-so quality that seems very much like filler in order to get to something good.

That's how I felt about this new episode of 24. Did anyone in their right mind really believe that Nadia was a mole? Of course not, but I didn't expect her story to be resolved so quickly and simply, in less than an hour.

(S06E14) *Warning, spoilers from the recent episode ahead*

Jack Bauer must really be hurting, more so than ever before. More so than he was when he emerged from two years of being tortured by Chinese officials a mere 14 hours ago. Or during other seasons when he was tortured via any number of weapons or devices (though not by a cigar cutter . . . or plastic wrap).

For the second consecutive week, 24 viewers barely saw our boy Jack. He sustained rib injuries in the Russian consulate that caused internal bleeding, necessitating heavy bandages around his mid-section.(Though we did get glimpses of his severely scar-ridden upper torso.) When Jack was doing something other than groaning in pain, he was either close-talking with his sister-in-law, or perusing files from the CTU archives while an unmanned aircraft carrying a live nuke circled over California.

(S06E13) *Warning, spoilers ahead from the new episode*

What do you get when you mix together the following ingredients:

A blended shirt that doesn't wrinkle, a mysterious Denver connection, raspberries and kiwi from Mel's, a bungalow, a mental institution, Russian carnage, getting "stirred up" and Ricky Schroder?

A heck of a good 24 episode . . . though I must admit to laughing at scenes where the show's creators likely weren't going for guffaws. But when you bring back three old characters and put them in an awkward (Man was it awkward!) love triangle and sprinkle in some potential world destruction via nuclear bombs, you gotta chuckle, at least a little bit.

(S06E12) *Warning, spoilers ahead from the new episode*

Now, we're gettin' somewhere.

Argue all you want to about whether season six has been a rehash of other seasons. Nuclear weapon detonation? Been there in season two. President getting undermined by conspiring underlings who don't think he's being tough enough? Done that in season two. Tried to frame Muslim terrorists for something they didn't do when some sinister white dudes were behind it instead? Ditto.

And even though the fresh episode of 24 contained yet another repetitive story twist that viewers have seen in previous seasons, it was done surprisingly well, except if you're involved in one of those human rights groups who think 24 is a scourge. Those folks wouldn't have liked this episode at all.

(S06E11) *Warning, spoilers ahead*

Holy presidential secrets, Batman.

House arrest?

After conspiring to have a president killed?

And the public doesn't know about it?

I know that the White House press corps really hates being kept in the dark, but when the reporters find out about this doozy of a secret, boy are they gonna be angry. Keeping a secret of this magnitude under wraps, even in the wake of a nuclear bomb blast, is going to make run-of-the-mill White House leaks look like child's play in future seasons.