monday kicked off with “House” which started exactly where season 6 ended… with Cuddy and House about to land in bed. the medical mystery or the patient of the week could be classed as sidelines (or even nonexistent) because the entire episode more or less focused on the Cuddy/House relationship, them taking a day off and having sex. the most entertaining part was doubtless the “patient” of the week, the only neurosurgeon on the premises of princeton-plainsborough who apparently suffered from a case of food poisoning after attending a seafood festival and eating toads eggs. the team of house was tasked to “cure” the sick surgeon as soon as possible otherwise the ICU and ER of the hospital would have to be shut down since there has to be a capable neurosurgeon present at all times. after drugging that poor surgeon with various weird drug cocktails he was totally stoned and couldn’t resist to take his clothes off… hilarity ensued. but apart from that not an overly exciting episode which clearly served to set the theme for the season to come: House and Cuddy having a relationship and how that will affect their work.

monday was also the premiere of “The Event“, a brand new tv series about, well, “the event”. my decision to give it a go was solely based on the “logo” of the show and the fact that Laura Innes (Kerry Weaver from ER!) appeared on the cast list. i don’t want to write too much about it because that would spoil your enjoyment… however, it can be best described as a mixture of “24″ meets “Lost” meets “Fringe”. be warned tho, the first 15 to 20 minutes can be utterly confusing but bear with it and i am sure you won’t be disappointed. it eventually leads up to what i assume is “The Event” and that can only be described as a proper “WTF” moment. by the end of the first episode you are left with a lot of questions that according to the masterminds behind the show should be partially answered as soon as next week. it definitely managed to get me hooked and looking forward to the next episode.

on wednesday there was the premiere of “Undercovers“, the new show of J.J. Abrams (Alias, Lost, Fringe). the name is quite telling, it’s about a married couple of former agents that gets called it whenever the CIA has a difficult or too sensitive case on their hands. it’s very much a spy series and reminded me a lot of Alias but i found it funny and entertaining. it is not as riveting or engaging as “The Event” and i don’t think that is even the intention but it’s solid entertainment for sure.

last but not least the premiere of season 3 of “Fringe” was aired on thursday. season 2 ended with a cliffhanger and a lot of  unanswered questions so i was quite eager to see how the story will develop. again, i cannot write too much about it but the episode mainly focused on Olivia (which was also the name of the episode) and it set the theme for the season to come. again, i am curious and eager to find out how they will resolve the current issue regarding Olivia.

• intel or nvidia chipset? thats the big question regarding my new computer i am about to build. i am perfectly happy with my current intel chipset and hence going for a motherboard with an intel x48 chipset would be the logical choice. however, there is still that big question whether or not i should invest into SLI which means i have to get a nvidia chipset (like the 790i) for SLI to work since it does not play nice (or rather not at all) with intel. i am really not sure if SLI is worth the trouble and if a 9800gx2 (instead of 2x 9800 GTX) will suffice. meh.
• i finally caught up on the forth season of House and now i am looking for a new tv show to turn my attention to during summer. i am going to give Lost a try since it is something different than House and having J. J. Abrams as co-creator/writer/director/executive producer is always a plus.
• oh my, why do Maxim Recovery Bars in the flavour Banana with Chocolate coating taste so unbelievably good? the downside is that they are rather hard to come by here. why can’t Powerbar create something similar tasty? 

finally, “heroes” is back! the second season premiere started out as compelling as the very first episode, if not more so! the ongoing story is advanced, we meet familiar characters and new faces. i like it how the show gets away with a huge cast and so many simultaneous storylines that are all connected.  i really don’t want to spoiler here, so go and watch it, it’s highly recommendable!

i haven’t watched the first episode of the forth season of “house” yet, since i am still catching up with seasons 2 and 3. although it is not strictly required to watch the episodes in a chronological order, it surely enhances the overall experience.

we’ll have to wait until january 2008 for the seventh season of “24″. after a horrendous season 6 (at least in my opinion, although i recently read somewhere it isn’t that bad when you watch all episodes in a row and not with several week long breaks inbetween), i do not get my hopes up. still, i am curious how jack bauer is going to save yet another day and if the writers can “save” the show from its current dive.

in the late 1990s and early 2000s i was watching quite a lot of television and among my favorite shows were medical dramas like Chicago Hope and ER. since 2004 i have been watching few selected shows (24, Alias, Frasier) on DVD only. there are various reasons i gave up on watching “real” tv like the annoying commericals and inconvenient scheduling. as far as the medical dramas mentioned are concerned, Chicago Hope’s last season was aired in the US in 2000 and ER just became boring with only one actor of the original cast remaining.

around the time i stopped watching television, a new show hit the screen: hailed as the “hottest” medical drama on current tv, “house, md”. i only became aware of it a few months ago and it took me a few episodes to get hooked. however, it is not your average medical show though. surely, it takes place in a hospital and there are doctors and conditions to be cured. the protagonist, dr. gregory house is a complete jerk, he is antisocial, up front honest and may come across even rude, but he is a diagnostic genius, one hell of a medical sherlock holmes. its a refreshing new take on the outworn medical drama concept. television will need to keep reinventing itself in order to ensure its future. i think this trend of coming up with something new and unprecedented started with “24″ and recently found a masterful execution in “Heroes”. with the fierce competition of the internet and online games, the traditional media like television would be in a deep crisis if it wasn’t for those fresh and hot shows that keep the audience interested. after all, we want to be entertained!