What changed? Oh, bad writing.

Monk is sort of like House on a smaller budget. USA network must be pinching pennies everywhere.

One day, back in January, I was leaving my building and slipped on a patch of black ice, slamming my face into a car on the way down. A couple of days ago I noticed that the shiny red sports car that is always parked in that spot has a dent very near where I hit it. I wonder if my face did that.

If they managed to pull it off, I think they'd have a brilliant show, given the caliber of the actors. Really, what they'd have is House.

The problem with House is that they run the exact same episode every week. A patient with a mysterious illness is admitted to the clinic in the first act, and the team prescribes a regimen. The patient gets much worse in the second act, so House tells his team they're idiots, and prescribes a different regimen. The new regimen almost kills the patient in the third act, so Cuddy tells House to stop the treatment, and House calls her an idiot. House finally visits the patient in the fourth act, and berates the patient's loved ones into telling him whatever they've conveniently forgotten/lied about. House calls them idiots, but finally puts it all together and saves the patient. At this point, they're even starting to repeat medical conditions. They've already done two episodes about chemical poisoning. And they got the science badly wrong in at least one of those.

If House was a real doctor, he would've been fired years ago. He's spit on a surgeon to stop an operation. He's had the Aussie doctor lie to a patient's mother by faking a phone call from the CDC to get his way. He should've had his license revoked any number of times.

That said, Laurie is very good in the role, and the writers occasionally will do some good scenes, like the speech about sex that ita liked so much. I watch it, but I think it's way too formulaic to be all that brilliant.

I wonder if my face did that.

Your face didn't look misshapen to me.

Emmett's in the tub singing "Hail Freedonia." I paid him to come into my office and help with my filing. I hate filing so much, I need to dragoon another person in to keep me company. He assisted with two-hole punching and label application, while I put away a stack that had been sitting there for two months. Yay, Emmett! Yay, tricking yourself into doing tedious jobs.

After our afternoon baseball workout (which was totally fun and focused), he begged and begged to do some extra hitting practice at Kezar Stadium, even though it was dark out. They had the little lights on (for joggers on the rubberized track - not the stadium, night game lights), but he and JZ took their turns and whacked tennis balls all over the field.

It feels like spring! I'm sun burned. I played baseball. We saw a robin yesterday. My allergies are killing me. Must be spring.

If House was a real doctor, he would've been fired years ago.

I don't know. I've heard of extraordinarily bad, abusive, completely unsocialized behavior by doctors that nobody much blinks at. Especially among surgeons, where it is pretty well expected. And I heard this from medical students and nurses.

Maybe I should've said "should've."

DX is me, wrt House. I think Hugh Laurie is brilliant, but he's not doing anything different ever. And I don't mean different in the "This isn't my Monk!" way in which I also agree with le nub. He hits the same beats on the same pages every time.

What upset me about the Monk finale especially was that Shalhoub (and the kid -- how cute!) were doing a great job. The plot failed them. YOU DON'T GIVE THE KID TO A STRANGER! Especially not an OCD one who can't hold down a job or make it through a day on his own. Not for ten minutes. However, I thought it was the kid that made him able to roll around in the grass. Not that I think it should have been possible, I just read a different catalyst for the improbable act.

When they had the pathos on for him, Shalhoub hit it out of the park, and nailed all the comedy too. But then it became a bit more like we were supposed to be laughing at him, and mocking him too. And now they've come around a bit strangely on the other side.

You know what's stupid? My utility company wants to charge me $2.00 to pay the bill on line, and is hyping it as a way to avoid paying for the stamp.

That's stupid, or maybe they think I am.

Well, it would be cheaper to pay online, if when you pay by mail you feel compelled to include a bunch of rocks with your check.

They must mean it's cheaper for them.

So much cheaper that it's a profit....

Shades of Milo Minderbinder.