[Note that I haven’t updated this in quite a while because I discovered iWeb was only allowing full, rather than incremental, updates to sites. Given the massive size of the streaming videos on my site, this often meant 30 minute uploads for any update. I’m hoping the iWeb upgrade has fixed this or I might go another four months without an update to the site]

House is an extremely impressive show not for the quality of its medical science (which, as far as I can tell, is pretty dismal) or the reality of its insights into medical practice and decisionmaking (again, I’ve heard on multiple occasions that medical practitioners are almost livid about its portrayals), but rather for its sharp humor and keen insight into human interaction. Flawed, frankly unlikable characters dodge and twirl and jab in intricate and ongoing plot arcs. While the show is vulnerable to a certain predictability (two wrong diagnoses before a correct one), I’m far less bothered by this than in prior series whose formats dictated similar repetitiveness (“reset button” anyone? And don’t even get me started with the middle of any season of “24”) for a couple reasons. First, I actually tend to watch the show on my DVR, rather than live, so watching the clock is less distracting if I’ve been drawn into the storyline. Second, the show’s creators themselves are certainly aware of this issue and consciously try to mix up the show’s format (beginning an episode with an outcome [lawsuit] and then gradually layering in the bases for the suit, for example). But as I said above, the show is ultimately saved by the fact that I largely don’t give a damn about the precise diagnosis the case will produce: that tends to be the skeleton upon which the real interesting content (the humor and smart interaction between the principal characters) is hung.

I think my favorite episode so far is “Three Stories” (spoilers at http://www.fox.com/house/episodes/121.htm ). I guess it’s not available through iTunes yet, but I highly recommend it.