Happy 2005

Hi neighbors. Another year has passed and a new year is here at last. Are you ready for it? Have you gotten into the 2005 mind set yet so you won't still be writing 2004 for a month or two? It's always strange that it takes us so long to change over. I guess that proves the tenacity of doing things by habit.

One good thing about January's arrival is the new season of my favorite show "Monk." There are several other new shows starting with this month. Generally the hype is much better written than the shows themselves.

From past experience, the trailers contain all the best scenes of the new shows as well. So if the show description and the quick glimpses from the trailers don't grab your attention, there's not much reason to waste time watching the actual show.

Every now and then I'll stumble across a show I had ignored during its premier. Occasionally one of these shows will be at least better than re-runs of my favorites. One such show is "House." This medical show is a cross between ER, CSI, General Hospital and Becker. Well, Becker was about a doctor was it not? The main character is a grumpy, frumpy ill-mannered genius who makes snap decisions about diagnosing fatal conditions. The rest of the show is spent as his team finds his first, second and often third choices of treatment are wrong and just in the nick of time the correct information is obtained and the patient is saved.

Note that the only reason the patient is near death anyway is the lack of truthfulness with the doctor. Once everything is confessed the right diagnosis is made and the correct treatment started. Usually the patient who gets progressively worse the first 55 minutes recovered miraculously in the last five minutes.

The viewer soon decides the reason most patients aren't honest with him is that, like everyone else on the show, they don't want to talk to him any longer than necessary. His bedside manner is as intolerable as his desk-side, hospital-side and city-side manner.

Still, he is considered a genius and patients are told they should be grateful that he has taken their case. Often they never actually see him, as he disdains actually talking to them. His reasoning is "patients lie, so why talk to them," and his much more friendly lesser teammates do all the intervening.

Often he shifts the blame for the failure of his first two suggested treatments onto his staff, as they haven't found out the necessary information from the reticent patient.

Yes, it is a difficult show to get into.

But the lead character, Dr. House, is strangely intriguing; just as the character Becker was from that show of the same name. Why? Because we know under their gruff and arrogant attitudes they really care. They are just socially challenged heroes who can do great deeds, but can't communicate. Maybe that's why it takes a whole hour to figure out what the patient isn't telling him.

There was another show on for a short while about a medical team who had to find a diagnosis for a different horrendous disease or condition each show. Set up much like CSI, this show concentrated on doing forensic studies on living patients instead of corpses. The same intrusive camera tricks were used and, of course, the patient survived by the skin of their teeth each show.

Like the past year, these short lived series demonstrate how the intensity of a single hour or any period of time can better be put into focus once the time of scrutiny has passed.

These shows premiered as "fill-ins" for failed shows that had the spotlight before them.

Whether or not they will survive and reappear in next season's lineup is hard to predict.

How many television series do you recall that lasted one season or less? Many have, but do we remember them, or do they fade away unseen and unlamented? In our anticipation of the "next big thing" we ignore yesterday's news.

I've always thought remembering history helps us prepare for tomorrow. On the other hand, we face the reality that tomorrow is unknown and yesterday is beyond changing.

Until the next time friends remember; think about the past year, set some goals for the upcoming year, and if it all seems too overwhelming -- smile. Monk is on the way!