House and Standoff

Last season, the spouse of a former patient walked in off the street and shot Greg House. This season picks up eight weeks later, House having undergone a treatment allowing to walk, even jog eight miles to work, pain-free.

I enjoyed watching House play with his new abilities, the way a reluctant superhero might relish the loss of his powers. House reaches out to the family of a wheelchair-bound brain cancer patient. The family thanks him, and he doesn't know how to take it. In the end, he's still the House who can't resist a puzzle, but acting for once from concern for the patient as opposed to his usual cold reason, House may be endangering a life more than he ever has before. The last couple of minutes—as Cuddy decides whether to follow House's recommendation, which may allow the patient to walk—are heart-wrenching.

Standoff, about two romantically-linked hostage negotiators, was next up. I liked Ron Livingston and Rosemarie DeWitt as the leads and Gina Torres as their boss. I don't know if I can take a hostage crisis every week. The show opened with Livingston's character negotiating with a father behind the wheel of a car holding his two sons hostage. The father was played by good ol' boy Tom Wopat.