Well, the bad news is that the House, M.D. winter hiatus will be longer than originally planned (blame network programming). No new episodes until January 25! Two months is a long time for a show to go on break, but I will try to help you all (and myself) fill the time with some special pieces, a couple of ārevisitedā reviews and a poll or two. So, sit back, relax, grab a cup of egg nog or a latke (preferably homemade) and letās talk House.
First a little news: I hear tell that Hugh Laurie is slated to direct episode 17, which will air March 22. This is great news because he knows the show and characters as well as anyone. Heās directed before back home in the U.K. (Fortysomething and commercials) and it will be interesting to see House through his eyes.
There are lots of other rumors flying around the Internet about upcoming storylines, which I wonāt comment upon here, as this is a spoilerphobe-friendly space. But Iām hoping to arrange a couple of good interviews early in 2010 to give some insight into whatās coming up on the show.
I thought I would start the festivities with a ābest ofā poll. Itās very hard to come up with a shortlist of nominees for the single best episode in five seasons and a half seasons, so we will do this as a series of polls: one for each season, and then have a run off. I will do ārevisitedā commentaries on each of the five top episodes with arguments pro and con to be debated.
Voting for the best should be based on writing, acting, directing, furtherance of the main story, compelling guest actors ā or whatever you deem ābestā means.
I have selected the top five episodes from each season (not necessarily my favorites) based on the results of last monthās survey on my personal blog. I will run the poll for one week, and then the runoff. You will notice that there are no season six episodes listed, and that is intentional. I will add āBrokenā to the run off poll as the season six entry, but I didnāt want to do a poll for season six based on only half a season. So dive in, and spread the word! Donāt like my choices? Write in your vote in the comments below.