What's now Doc?

So what's up now for Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) and the rest of the gang? House M.D season 4 finale was shown last week, and it certainly brings up some really interesting questions. While I'm not particularly liked this season for reasons I'll explain below, the finale thankfully brought something good in the series.

Season 4 started with House diagnosing a case on his own. After disbanding his team at the end of the previous season, House is adamant that he can work alone. Well, he's not actually disband them though. Foreman (Omar Epps) feared that he'll turned into House the longer he spent time around him and he resign. Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) too has had enough and also resign. Only Chase (Jesse Spencer) that was fired against his will, even though House gave the reason that Chase already learned everything he needs to know from him.


But after subsequent events Cuddy managed to convinced House to hired a team, but House being House, he didn't do conventional interviews. Instead he selected them through 'reality show' elimination process. He gathered all 40 applicants and inform them that he'll eliminate them one by one after each case, and the remaining 3 will be his team.

This is what I think the weakest part of the series though. Even though the series initial idea was 'CSI against germs', where House and his team must find the cure to mysterious illness, the show has evolved into something much more interesting in its 3 year run.


When House began the contest, it decrease the amount of personal interaction between House and the applicants (in subsequently with the patient) because of their sheer number. The best moments on previous seasons was when House is at odds with the people around him. House idea that love, humanity and faith is stupid constantly clashed with Foreman's values, Chase's beliefs and Cameron's ideals. And that's what makes it good. I love the way House constantly undermined his team, but he also secretly admired them in different ways. I also like the way House seemed to take Wilson for granted, but came through when Wilson finally need him. I also like the fact that Cuddy, who as his boss, often clashed with House, but there's a hidden fondness between the two of them, as both know each other like no other person do.

When House finally picked his team, the show was a little better (Although one could argue his team can be predicted since some names are too well known to be just another guest star), but I regretted that the writers can't come up with something new, since this new team, was essentially the old team but with different people.


Taub (Steve Jacobson) was the only people in the team who's willing to stand up to House and provide a medical diagnostic that House could appreciate, much like Foreman. Kutner (Kal Pen) wants to impress House so much, and willing to take the risk, much like Chase. 13 (Olivia Wilde) is gorgeous, idealistic but with a damaged past, which pretty much is what Cameron is all about.

Throughout the season, I can't help comparing it to previous seasons, because even though it has some great moments (Frozen was an excellent episode), it lacked what made it good in the first place.

However the last two episodes brought back what's good with the series and increased it tenfolds. In the 15th episode, aptly titled House's Head, we take a journey inside House mind, he suffered mild amnesia after the bus he was riding had an accident. It was interesting and superbly done, as House only remember someone's dying but he can't remember who because he can't remember anything before the accident. The last episode deals with the after math of the previous episode, and more importantly asking questions about House friendship with Wilson and Cuddy too (No, not THAT kind of question you perverts). I always wondered why Wilson put up with House all this time, and after the finale, I wondered no more.

All in all, this bad season was rescued by the superb finale, and thankfully this made the next season a whole more interesting.

Wow

It finally sink in after a week.

Can't you believe it? Double Champions. It's so good to hear that. Let me say it again. Double Champions.




Who would thought it eh?

Well certainly not 3 years ago, when we were trailing in the league by a mile behind Chelsea, and finished bottom in our Champions League group, scoring only 3 goals. We've come a long way since then.

Although we came close to similar achievement last year and was probably fucked up by injuries, we're a little more than prepared this season to win both. You can see it in our play. We've become more tactical more astute in defending, especially in Europe. We can shut out team and annihilate them equally. And speaking of which, while Ronaldo gathered most of the praise this season, Rio Ferdinand stand the tallest of the red shirt. Put it this way, if we have to play a Champions league final and have to choose between those to who to miss the game, I'd take Ronaldo any day.

Rio leadership at the back spread through out the team, even when he's not wearing the armband. Notable mentions to the likes of Anderson and Nani. New comers at the club, but kept their nerves in the penalty shoot out. Anderson, I thought was the biggest revelation this season. He managed the hardest thing to do at Manchester United: Making Scholes unavailability from the football pitch almost unnoticeable, especially during the league run in. His maturity is astonishing. His strength and willingness was came as a surprised. We thought we're getting a Ronaldinho kind of player, when in reality, he's more a all-arounder than the older Brazilian.

Not that the Ginger Prince didn't have his say this season. While only scoring two goals all season, he choose the perfect time to score his second. A scorcher of a winner to the top corner in the Champions League semifinal.

Ryan Giggs also wrote his name in the history book, if he hasn't already. Let see, broke Sir Bobby Charlton records of 758 appearance for Manchester United, won a record 10th league title (the most of any player in the English league) the previous week. And between that achievement, he also scored United's second in the 2-0 win against Wigan, which ensured the Premiership title, and he also the one who scored the decisive penalty in the shoot out against Chelsea in the Champions League final. Not bad for a player who's been dismissed as 'past it'.

So let me extend my gratitude to other players:
Wes Brown, Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra: Part of the best defensive unit in Europe and England. Especially pleased for Brown. A local lad, coming through the ranks, replacing the club captain, and he come out with flying colours.

Michael Carrick, passing extraordinaire and defensively underrated. Capello must be blind to overlook him in the England setup.

Owen Hargreaves, right winger, right back, central midfield, supreme penalty taker? No problemo.

Ji Sung Park: I'm sorry to see him missed the final, but he's more than worth his medal for his outstanding contribution in the quarter and semifinal.

Carlos Tevez, whose late goals was very Solskjaer-esque. Thanks for that equaliser against Spurs, Blackburn and Lyon.

Darren Fletcher, Arsenal season fucker.

John O'Shea, Mr Versitality.

And last but not least, thank you Edwin.

God bless.

I love this team.

A Perfect Start to the Summer

For those of you who lived in a tropical country like me, summer doesn't mean sunshine and holidays. But it does signal something else. It brought a whole bunch of blockbuster movies coming to the theaters.

The first of these movies, are Marvel Studio's Iron Man (2008), based on the company's comic book character. It hits the theaters at 30 April 2008, and based on last night viewing, if the rest of them is at least as good as this one, we're in for a real treat.

Prior to his involvement in the long running Civil War storyline in the comics, Iron Man wasn't one of Marvel A-list character. If one wasn't a comic book fan, he or she probably never heard of Iron Man before.

But I reckon after a few weeks, most people would know what he's all about. In the hands of Jon Favreau (Swingers, Daredevil), Iron Man looked like every bit a summer blockbuster should be. It's fun, it has fantastic special effects, it has also surprisingly good story and acting too. Perhaps it helps that the four main actors in this movie, was nominated for an Academy Award sometime before in their career.

As with any first comic book movies, this one starts with an origin story. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is a genius with a knack at electronics and machinery. Continuing his father business with his father old friend Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), he made his millions as a weapon designer and manufacturer, selling them to the US Military. As with people who have serious amount of money, Stark was living in the fast lane. He parties and slept with beautiful women. He spent ridiculous amount of money on art works, cars and everything else he can buy.

Stark life took a drastic change after he was captured in Afghanistan by a group of terrorist after he demonstrate his latest invention, a high tech missile called The Jericho. The terrorist ordered him to build this missile for them. But instead, being a resourceful guy that he is, he used the resources to built his way out of there, in the form of a high tech armor suit.

Stark's beginning to re-evaluate his life after this experience. He found that the terrorist already used some of the weapons that comes from his company. His friendship with Yinsen (Shaun Toub), an Afghanistan doctor who is a fellow captive, made him realised that his life doesn't have a purpose before. And he wanted to make sure that he had one this time around, by building a better version of the armor and put it to good use.

Even though as I said before, the cast was full of talented actors, this is clearly a tour de force by Robert Downey Jr. His acting hit the all right notes as the cocky and arrogant Stark, but still very likable. His personal journey from a jerk to a jerk with a heart was acted really well. I don't think I've ever seen an actor nailed a part like this so completely, other than Christopher Reeve's Superman.

The rest of the cast was pretty good. Gwyneth Paltrow played Virginia 'Pepper' Potts, Stark personal assistant (and love interest) well. She wasn't given that much, but she has good chemistry with Downey, and she doesn't play the annoying damsel in distress role. The writers did a good job in not forcing the romance between Stark and Pepper. Jeff Bridges, without giving too much away, was also really good in his role. Terrence Howard as James Rhodes, a military officer liaison for Stark company, was underused, but there are hints that he'll playing a much more important role in the sequel.

The special effect was breathtaking. Stan Winston really outdo himself in creating the armor suit. I like the fact that Favreau took the time to create an actual armor for shooting rather creating all the Iron Man shots with CGI.

I'm not particularly wasn't an avid reader of Iron Man, only read his comics here and there. But if this movie doing as well as I thought it should be, I reckon there'll be a whole new generation who will loved Iron Man because of it.

This is going to be a good summer.

PS: Oh, and make sure you stay until the credits end. There'll be a nice surprise for the comic fans.