Day: February 14, 2010

As Sunday goes, so goes the nation


Photo by Generik

“Given that St. Valentine was a 3rd century Roman priest who was stoned and beheaded, wouldn’t a more appropriate celebration of the evening be taking one’s steady gal to witness a brutal murder?” – The Big Bang Theory

I spent most of today cleaning and watching episodes of Doctor Who (“Time and the Rani” and “Paradise Towers,” specifically), which is…what? Isn’t that how any self-respecting single man spends his Valentine’s Day? Well, it’s what I did. I also worked on the New York Times crossword puzzle for a while and walked the dog. World on a string, has I.

It’s worth noting that I don’t dislike Valentine’s Day; it’s just a holiday that’s all but impossible to enjoy when you’re not with someone. (Or at all when it’s in movie format, apparently.) If I had a girlfriend or wife, I might feel differently, but for now…well, I’ll just have to settle for being amused by poems like this, images like these, the Sunday crossword, and horribly cheesy (but still surprisingly enjoyable) British science fiction from the ’80s.

The cleaning I can take or leave, actually.

This old House

Minor spoilers for this week’s episode of House, “9 to 5,” follow.

On the one hand, I liked this week’s episode of House, but on the other hand, I felt manipulated into caring about a situation that wasn’t relevant (and moreover was populated with secondary characters we’ll never see again and problems that are unlikely to ever recur), just so the writers could force me to care about a character who’s become increasingly marginal and, to some large extent, a genuine problem for the show. I like Lisa Edelstein, and I think the character of House does need some kind of foil, but the show has spent an awful lot of energy trying to convince me that Lisa Cuddy is interesting beyond that role, and I have to say I’m just not buying it.

As Zack Handlen writes

The constant reminders that Cuddy was a woman were unnecessary, given her current predilection for distracting low-cut tops, and also had an unfortunate tendency to remind the audience that, at this point, Cuddy’s major character trait is that she’s a single mom with a high level job. I wanted to like “5 to 9” more, and if I had to go out on a limb, I’d say I’m probably going to get criticized for not embracing it as much as I did “Wilson,” but distracting us isn’t the same as fixing a problem. It works for a little while, but when House comes back next week, Lucas will still be Lucas, and Cuddy will still be playing Den Mother. Who cares?

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