House

I ain't talkin' bout no Dollhouse. I ain't talkin' bout no Full House. I'm talkin' bout House.

(Then we can dig it.)

Gregory House is probably the most interesting and best-developed single character of the 2000s, and the FOX drama House is probably the smartest television show week-to-week I've ever seen. House makes medical diagnosis fun, but that is not why the show is so smart. It is smart because every episode balances out diagnosis with complex psychological speculation and character building between characters who are each, in their own right, brilliant, people with dangerous minds forever in psychological battle, trying so hard to understand one another and how best to function in such an environment.

Sure, the show's openings and House's sudden realizations can get a little old. (Of course, I think that teaching the concept of epiphany in high school and college English got a little bit easier in the advent of House. Eat that, James Joyce.) But the show, and the massive brain known as Gregory House, are aware of these things, shuffling the show's own weaknesses into the interplay that makes House so definitive, so monumental.

In practice, my favorite shows of all time are LOST and X-Files. In theory, my favorite show should be House. (In practice, however, House is not too far from the top.)

Jack Coleman

Actor Jack Coleman. I was never all that big on Heroes, but even as Noah Bennett I could sense that Jack Coleman was probably the best actor on the show. With Ando Masahashi, Noah Bennett was one of the only characters I wasn't completely annoyed with by the end of the first season, probably because these were regular human beings who showed great courage without having insane power to back it up. That said, I really don't want to talk about Heroes. I want to talk about Coleman's performance as political adviser Joe Dugan on a recent episode of House, which is easily one of the best guest performances all year. If you blinked you may have missed him, but he also had a cameo on The Office as an unnamed possible love interest for Angela. The Office needs more breaths of fresh air like Coleman. As a matter of fact, I'm already willing to offer him Michael's job at the end of the current season, but you know that I'd rather they finish the show right. My beefs with Heroes and The Office aside, I want to say that I really look forward to seeing Jack Coleman on my small screen.

Jennifer Morrison

Actress Jennifer Morrison. As Dr. House welcomes a new female doctor to his team, I think it's a good time to look back to the first female on his team, Dr. Allison Cameron played by Jennifer Morrison. If you watch House then you know this character inside and out because of how well the original crew was developed. And if you're anything like me there's a good chance that you have a crush on her and feel kind of sad that she's no longer on the show. Well, Cameron isn't dead, so there's always guest appearances, but if that's not enough she can be seen weekly on How I Met Your Mother. Morrison plays Zoey, a complicated married woman whose place in the storyline is still pretty questionable to me, but it's good to see her face on screen once again.

Hugh Laurie

Actor Hugh Laurie. Since 2004, Hugh Laurie has been quite possibly the most consistently amazing actor on network television as Dr. Gregory House on FOX's House. It's not often that virtuosic acting skills combine with reliability of performance, but when it does you've found yourself a star that can burn bright without worry of extinguishing all too soon. That star is Hugh Laurie.

Top 5 Season Finales, Spring 2010

Ahem. Spoiler Alert.

5. 30 Rock

I'd like to say that this finale was great because Jack Donaghy finally chose one woman to love, or because that woman was pregnant, but I can't say that. This season finale was magnificent for two reasons: 1. Matt Damon was hilarious as the pilot named Carol, and 2. the finale suggests that we're going to see a lot more of Damon next season.

4. The Office

There's only one storyline that still interests me on The Office, and it is the remaining feelings between Michael Scott and Holly Flax. The fact that the season finale was easily the funniest episode of the entire season (a season that I was tired with almost from the beginning) was not enough to make it a good finale. The fact Holly might be brought back to the Scranton Branch of Dunder Mifflin as a thank you gift for a good deed - now that's something to get excited about.

3. Community

A brilliant ending to a brilliant first season. If you know anything about me, you know I rant about this show pretty much daily. I've never really encountered a better first season in any comedy program, and they ended the season true to form. They even planted clues to the Jeff and Annie romantic ending: 1. the debate team romantic encounters, 2. Annie dressing like a teacher, 3. Annie and Jeff walking together at the beginning of the episode. It was subtle and magnificent. When I saw this finale I thought nothing could top it this season. This just attests to how great the first and second best finales were.

2. House

How was I supposed to know that House was going to deliver the best episode in the entire series? Basically in this episode we see all of the ramifications of House's therapy and what it means to really care about people. It amounts to the greatest agony and the greatest joy on the planet, and both of these things were balanced magnificently in the finale. There was no particular moment that made this episode a shining star. Every scene was perfectly delivered. Bravo!

1. LOST

I know this is going to be a hard sell. There are so many people who simply hate LOST because of how annoying LOST fans are. And a great deal of people who have loved LOST from the beginning didn't get all of their questions answered and are doing a whole lot of pouting. LOST has always been about troubled characters and redemption. In the finale they resolved the stories of all of the characters and offered redemption to some of the most disturbed individuals. It was sweet and honestly, somewhat understated. It wasn't the ending we expected, but it was the right ending.

Olivia Wilde

Actress Olivia Wilde. You may recognize her as Dr. Remy "Thirteen" Hadley from FOX's House. I found her interesting when she played Alex Kelly, Marissa's temporary lesbian lover on FOX's The O.C., but it wasn't until the season five episode of House titled "Last Resort" that I fell forever in love with Wilde. In this episode, Thirteen and House were held hostage by a patient with a gun, and every treatment, no matter how horrible, needed to be tested on Thirteen before the patient would allow it to be performed on him. Insanity! And beauty.