House

This show has been on my to-watch list for quite a while. I recently saw this webcomic by the talented KC Green, and it finally got me to start trying the show out. So far I've gotten through  the first season and a couple of episodes from the second.

It's a pretty formulaic show; this guy House is a genius with attitude problems who loves fixing patients with weird diseases. At the start of every episode, the patient is introduced getting some nasty symptoms, and then House and his crew get ahold of him or her. They then spend about three quarters of the show screwing everything up with incorrect diagnoses, and then House has a lightbulb explode in his head while examining some inconsequential patient and fixes everything. As of yet no patient has died, but I'm told that will happen at some point.

House himself is of course the most interesting part of the show. His acting is very good, and his psychological/physical problems make for some entertaining empathy. The rest of the cast is usually pretty bland with a few shining moments here and there. For some reason though, this show is addicting as freeze-pops, and it supposedly gets even better. It's gonna be a fun ride.

It's not lupus.

The Walking Dead

Zombies are always fun. I'm not all that knowledgeable on the classic zombie, and I haven't seen all the major movies, but I usually enjoy anything having to do with them. This is no exception.

The Walking Dead is an ongoing comic series dealing with a bunch of people trying to survive a zombie-infested apocalypse. It started in 2003, and a new comic is put out pretty much every month. I just started reading a few days ago and I'm all caught up, now issue 56. It's been quite a read.

This comic isn't great just because it's a zombie rag; no, it's much more than that. It's a an essay on the human condition. Of course I might just be talking out of my ass there. I don't really know anything about the human condition apart from what I've seen in various (mostly fictional) media. Anyway I think that's why it's so gripping. It has a realism not found in any other undead drama. Anyone can die, not just the red-shirts. Sure; they drop like flies, but the well-developed characters can get the axe just about as easily. People go insane, there are sadistic dictators serial killers, inner turmoil to the max, and lots of really cool gore scenes.

The zombies are in the Romero style as far as I can tell; I haven't seen much Romero. They're slow, mostly brainless, and have a taste for living flesh. It doesn't seem restricted to humans though; some animals are tragically torn apart from time to time. Gruesome stuff.

The characters are great. This Robert Kirkman dude is a fantastic writer. I wouldn't say he quite hits Moore levels but gosh darnit he's good.

Once again my writing capacity is severely lacking. I blame school. CURSES!