House

For all the mogul pundits who offer their two cents every week following the latest broadcast of Mad Men, why, I ask, is the best show on television overlooked so criminally? Hugh Laurie fits so perfectly, so graciously, albeit with his signature limp, into the shoes of Dr. Gregory House MD. Once we take for granted his faultless accent, his mannerisms and his persona, the fool is he who asks for more, and yet, series 5 surpasses all those that precede it. The craft of his character is stunning, the depth and the intricacies, the detail and realism make everyday relationships lifeless by comparison. House's gift for rationalism, his gift for diagnostics, and his gift for human observation are all prey to the fatal flaw that underpins not only the beauty of his character, but also the conclusion of the series; his addiction to neurotic painkillers proves, ultimately, too much. Laurie irrefutably destroys the criticism of the show's predictability. Watch the scene in which he semi-blindly succumbs to Vicodin overdose and resorts to a self-induced seizure, or the scene in which he leaps across his bathroom floor, stretching and yearning for one final pill. Secondary characters become distractions, tangents that play out in the shadow of our protagonist, our tragic hero. But still, all paths lead to one, and the zenith is reached in a tender closing act. A series of conflicts are introduced and developed: happy v. sad; gain v. loss; reality v. delusion, and every follicle of your being wants more. Dear reader, I cannot wait.