Let’s step things up a notch – you either saw the episode or you didn’t. The episode’s mockumentary format was executed in a far better way than when Entourage tried to pull it off. More importantly, House faced an existential crisis. He senses his diagnostic skills are being put on tilt by the hot female doctors he has surrounded himself with – Michael Michelle’s CIA doctor and Olivia Wilde’s Thirteen. Wilson thinks this is hysterical and House struggles to understand why Cameron did not distract him. Wilson comes up with the theory that House forces attractive women to work under him because he does not know how to start (and maintain) relationships with them. For once, House completely agrees and how he follows Wilson’s advice might determine the course of the next few episodes.

This is a major spoiler but like I said in the beginning, you have either scene it, or not. Michael Michelle’s CIA doctor gets fired at the end, at which point House promptly asks her out. This amuses most of the other doctors but House gets the cold shoulder. I think House fired her because her suggestions were not as good as Thirteen’s. At the same time, since House followed Wilson’s advice would it also follow that House fired the doctor he was most interested in having a relationship with? That seems mildly unlikely because the people House had previously been attracted to, Stacy, Cameron and Cuddy, were all intelligent AND hot.

Meanwhile there is some hint that Olivia Wilde’s Thirteen is jealous (even if it is the smallest of green monsters) of the attention House is obviously bestowing on Michael Michelle. We already know, from the episode with the impersonator, that Thirteen knows House thinks she is hot. She does her best to impress him and occasionally, flirt with him. And she had a smile on her face when Michael Michelle hit the road. I think a House-Thirteen relationship would be pretty interesting – something that could start soon and end in the season finale when the new wannabes are sent packing when the old term returns. Maybe I’m a little biased because I think Olivia Wilde is GORGEOUS, but who knows.

Caught on camera is Cameron who flubs some answers and blurts out, “I loved House. Wait, I love house.” Or something like that. While we already knew Cameron HAD loved House, we were led to believe that was in the past. Her serious relationship with Chase and her exclamations that she had moved on from House seemed convincing enough. But she certainly second-guessed herself and her admission of undying love sounded very convincing. Is Cameron going to return to her star-crossed-in-love-House phase? I have to say, I would be fine with that.

So, what is going to happen? Probably nothing. Now that Michael Michelle is gone – and House’s easiest shot at a one-night stand, he probably is not going to get anything. It is increasingly unlikely as episodes go on that House is going to get anywhere with Cuddy, and House has never been ready to jump Jennifer Morrison (something I would do in a second). So that makes the Olivia Wilde option slightly more probable than the others, but that does not say a hell of a lot.

Could “Avatar” Win Best Picture?

By Brett Hogan

 

Last week, the trailer for James Cameron’s sci-fi experiment “Avatar” debuted. While initially unimpressed with the teaser, I began to wonder: Could this film win best picture? 

 

Buzz has been generating for this movie for years. Years. The technology to make this movie didn’t exist when Cameron conceived it, so he invented it. When is the last time you heard of a director spearheading the invention of anything? The casting started in 2005. Most movies these days, even epics, are done in half that time. I could go on. 

 

The most important thing to take away from all of this is that people are saying this will be the future of movies. Now, I don’t agree with the idea that CGI will become more prevalent than it already is. But I do believe that this will set the bar miles higher for sci-fi. I mean, that is what Titanic did. And that won some awards if memory serves.

 

I’ll bet you’re asking yourself, how can you even suggest that a film like this will win Best Picture when the initial trailer was nothing better than visual stimulation? Well, there are a couple of reasons. First, the Academy has expanded Best Picture to ten films. This doesn’t guarantee anything other than improved chances for most films on the cusp.

 

Second, after last year’s Oscars debacle, which saw the best film of the year, “The Dark Knight,” not only get shafted in awards but nominations as well, the Academy is pulling out all the stops to appease those with the loudest voices in the film industry, the fanboys. Now, the Academy probably didn’t lose anything because of that other than some viewers of the award show. Perhaps if people are again outraged with the winners or nominees, the heads of the Academy would lose their jobs. So this is all about the Academy protecting itself, which is not so outrageous.  

 

 

Third, there is an economic motive here. I’ve heard this film will cost $190 million, not counting the R&D costs associated with Cameron’s inventions or the cost of getting 3-D cameras into every theater in the country. The Academy will do everything in its power to get people into the seats and make this the next “Titanic” or “The Dark Knight.” But the Academy doesn’t have much power, besides nominating and awarding, so they will slap the “Nominated for Best Picture” moniker onto every commercial and print ad to get the people who didn’t believe the critics to relent and see this movie.

 

Of course, all of this is pure conjecture, and no revolutionary film (Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, etc.) has ever won the Best Picture category because it changed the game. Except maybe Titanic. But still, could this movie actually win? My answer is no but a nomination is certain and who knows what could happen from there. We’ll know more come February 2010.