bironic

Hohhhhhh... That was *exactly* what I needed.

For whatever reason, I needed House tonight like the titular character needs Vicodin. Is it possible to develop a physical addiction to a show? All day I was irritable and antsy, and when it came on, it settled me right down like a fix. I feel entirely better now. Weird, huh?

Anyway, I'd been looking forward to tonight's ep, "All In," with its promise of tuxedos, poker and drama, for quite a while, and it did not disappoint. You know I enjoy things more when they take their time. Well, "All In" created more delicious tension than the hectic episodes, because instead of rushing everything, it made you feel the pressure building, everything set at night, everyone's eyes increasingly bloodshot, the team's slow speech and careful deliberation, double- and triple-thinking decisions, and longer camera shots to complement the shift in approach. I heart the longer camera shots.

The premise was also different enough to be gripping in itself: House steals Cuddy's young patient because he (the patient) is starting to exhibit the same symptoms an elderly woman did before House failed to save her 12 years earlier. He (House) has apparently been obsessed with this woman ever since, seeing her mystery illness in patients where it does not exist and trying to treat them for it so he can set his mind at ease. ("Have you read Moby Dick?" Wilson wants to know.) This boy is his latest attempt to put that case to rest. Because the kid is on the show, we know this time House (a) is probably right, and (b) will probably save him in the nick of time. Still, the show is too good for its predictable structure to matter, and for some inexplicable reason, I at least hold out hope that maybe *this* will be the time he doesn't win. I will not spoil the ending for you.

So -- Character-wise, go Cameron for finally being able to tell the next of kin that their loved one is probably going to die. I was just thinking today that it was a shame they dropped that storyline this season.

No go for Wilson and Cuddy being useless some more, unless you count Wilson's last-minute stand-in for the clinic patient in supplying the golden nugget of seemingly unrelated information that gives Holmes House the key to the case. Okay, so I spoiled the ending for you. But for a Chief of Oncology and a hospital administrator, they are both pretty (in both senses) ineffectual doctors, at least as compared to House, which, granted, is bound to make any ordinary or plain-old excellent doctor look bad.

Go Wilson, however, for totally kicking ass in the poker tournament, for calling House on his completely flawed plan to treat one patient based on another's lab results, for faking a British accent badly, for making up ridiculous codes on the phone with House, and for all the faces he pulled throughout the show, from protracted closed-eyes wince to wicked laughs of success to that special, genuine grin to a sudden gravity when House tells him about the sick child.

Oh, and score one for Cuddy for saying her stack is bigger than House's stack, for scoffing that he should pay more attention to his cards than to her breasts, and then for telling him to go brood in a dark room. And also for getting in a good speech when she yanks her patient away from him. So score four.

Foreman continues to stand up for himself. I expect that is going somewhere. The ducklings are all getting fiesty, with House resorting to yelling more to get them to comply. The preview for next week shows that he now has to threaten to fire them to keep them in line. Should get interesting when he finally has to try reasoning with them. I also expect the rising sexual tension between House and Cameron (see below) is building toward something, though after the House/Stacy debacle, the screenwriters can take their sweet time with it. Chase got a couple of good moments too, chatting up a woman at the party spinning tall tales about punching sharks in the nose and then looking puppy-dog disappointed when House, to put it mildly, steps in.

House himself was all over the place, from unashamed humor (waggling a cigar at Wilson and spouting speeches about penis size in the animal kingdom, and WTF with the toenail polish comment? Wilson's pause was because he was weighing the risk of false rumor, right?) to unbridled frustration (tipping over the whiteboard, raising his voice, etc., see also table-slamming and "Wilson!"-yelling in "Skin Deep"), and stubborn determination all the way through. He held my attention rapt, helped by some of the most character-driven dramatic moments since "Detox" or "Three Stories," and as in the best episodes of this show, of which I believe this was one, he kept me vacillating between condemnation and admiration. For instance, he hacks the padlock off the security grill of a snack kiosk -- note to self, add "Cane Fight with Foreman!" to the House drinking game -- so he can get some coffee so he can go straight through the night to figure out what is about to start killing his patient. Or when he spends eight minutes trying to resuscitate the kid after an attempted biopsy, only to repeat the procedure so he can get his sample to test and ignores the horrified discussions around him about how the kid is probably brain-damaged. He forces you to ask, to what extent is this obsession about curing a patient versus easing his own conscience and solving a long-irksome mystery? and does it matter, when either way a life is saved?

Less philosophically, gods, but everyone looked pretty: House in rumpled shirtsleeves, RSL -- I can't think of a better word for it than "smooth," but he looked clean and handsome and, well, smooth --, Cuddy in deep blue with nicely-styled hair, Chase in dark shirt and tie (I liked it better than the tidy suits, actually; tuxes don't do it for me), Jennifer Morrison allowed to be lovely instead of made-up-looking, and Foreman in nice duds. House's reaction was priceless when he turned around and saw Cameron's dress for the first time; Hugh Laurie managed to make it look both unabashed and bashful. It was like the old DS9 days when there would be "special" episodes where the episode template would go out the window and/or the crew would wear something other than their normal uniforms. Thus Wilson was the least impressive because we have seen him in suits before. Nonetheless.

I am trying to think of my favorite line. Gosh, there were so many, as always, and teh pretty was so darn distracting. But it might be ?Foreman's incredulous "The disease is lying?" Just when you thought the writers couldn't improve on the founding principle of the series, even after Cuddy brought it up again last week with her "That's your big idea? Somebody's lying?" comment. Best out-of-context quote is hands-down Wilson's "I nailed his ass!"

In sum: At first blush, one of the show's best.