umpteen plus one
I have known people who can't watch the same thing twice. "Haven't you already seen that?" they ask, and when I reply in the affirmative, their mouths pucker. "But you already know how it ends." These are the people who completely miss the art in television -- and movies, and books, and probably music. These are probably the people who believe you can actually have too much of a good thing.
I can definitely watch the same movies or shows over and over again. In fact, I prefer to. It's only in the re-viewing that we catch the best, subtlest details -- and life, my friends, is in the details. Especially if you don't have much of a life outside TV.
I was supremely disappointed to learn that tonight's episode of "House" is a rerun; after all, I want to find out what happens in the current storyline. But my disappointment ebbed away when I saw in the listings that they're re-airing "Three Stories," my so-far favorite "House" episode of all time. Actually, I'm being wimpy by qualifying that with "so-far." It's just my favorite episode of all time.
Everything works in this episode: The dialogue is snappy; the characters are true; the narrative devices used are brilliantly clever. I'm not the only one who thinks so -- this is the first-season episode that won an Emmy for writing, which is probably why Fox is airing this one instead of a newer installment.
So watch it tonight (9 p.m., Fox). Even if you've seen it before, it's still the crème de la crème from the best show on TV. Trust me -- I've seen it umpteen times.