Seems like that point when Top Ten¡ are in order. It was a tough gig to find just ten but ...

My top ten Season Two


1) 'House, this is God' (Skin Deep)

Too awesome for words. Fabulously funny and wonderful too because this was an angst fest. House and Wilson at their best- beating lumps out of each other with canes and snark and then something oh so sweet.

2) Steve McQueen and House/Stacy angst in the attic (Hunting)

Beautiful scene, House smiling, Stacy (cause she's my big if I were straight crush) and Stevie Mac - pretty much a nirvana moment.

3) 'I¦ve been lying to you in increasing amounts' (Daddy's Boy)

Loved this whole ep and the bike scene runs it close but this was pure House/Wilson gold.

4) Foreman injecting House with anti/anti/migraine drug and subsequent Differential On The Carpet. (Distractions)

Sublime acting choices- Hugh understating House's pain, Omar beautifully playing Foreman perfectly in a rare moment of empathy. Cameron and Chase talking quietly, the lighting, everything was nail on.

5) Stacy telling House about her fight with Mark over nothing. (Failure To Communicate¡¦

Camera work was superb, they are both such expressive actors, poignant scene and summed up (in my book at least) why Sela was perfect as Stacy and it gave a wonderful showcase for Hugh¡¦s expressive range.

6) House, NotCoke and Wilson (Autopsy)

Love the scene, the sparse office, the dark and the distance between House and Wilson. It's a bitter speech from House and Wilson's reaction, so interesting.

7) House, Cuddy and That Scar (Skin Deep)

Got a much bigger wince (and I'm a big wuss with the gore) than any of the many. many blood and guts scenes this season. Pretty heart-breaking and kudos to all concerned for making it such a tough yet compelling watch.

8) Functional Vampirism (House Vs God)

Wilson in all his f'ed up glory as the tables turned at the poker night and the street fight was fabulous.

9) House spaced out on morphine (Who¡¦s Your Daddy)

Wonderful scene, book-ended the opener- stark and dark.

10) 'You have been hiding things and lying to me all day' (The Mistake)

See 2) I loved Stacy even more when she was 'pissed' (stupid American talk making me leave off the 'off'now :)) and she was a lot in this ep. Kind of cheating and making this 11 because I love the end scene when House is asking what they are supposed to do. Unlike most I could have lived with many, many more scenes like that- what's with that Southern accent that it is sooo damn hot??

Honourable mentions -

House's Mwahahahahaha laugh in Sex Kills
House's 'Cameron, I love you' swab in Need To Know
House/Wilson 'Bros before..' scene
The 'basketball player you dated' comment

Come on people there are a million more... :D

Obviously haven't seen the whole season yet but...

Great choices. One scene I definitely think should not be overlooked is the PianoAngst scene from Skin Deep... as I've heard/seen the whole episode is chock-a-block full of good acting, but sitting at the piano with Vicodin is very House, and it's very telling character-wise, as well as beginning the set-up for the second half (I see the second half as the pain Post-Stacy) of the second season.

I agree. A perfect House/Wilson scene... they could have been arguing, they could have just had House stare at the ceiling, but they showed us the great friendship that House and Wilson have, and the way that Wilson instinctively tries to distract him from the pain (and the claustrophobia/discomfort/heebie-jeebies of an MRI): They're like a couple of kids, and it's great fun to watch.
We see House just staring at the ceiling, looking pretty worried... and then we see him laugh. That's enough to make it oh so sweet in this angstfest.

Two interesting scenes from this episode: There's the fight that House and Wilson have, as far as I can remember the first 'go to hell' type fight that we see them have (although I might be wrong) as well as the aftermath in House's office (I stacked a combo, signed consent forms), where House is fiddling with a playing card (geez his hands are big) in the dark, and they have a sort of quiet make-up/recognition (totally did not mean for that to sound slashy, I swear). Interesting and well played.
The other office scene is at the end, after the autopsy bit.

I think House's long line here (she genuinely is a self-sacrificing saint...) is one of the best this season if you're not just counting witty one-liners. The whole episode is very good, I think... in terms of the character stuff and the acting. Some very good sarcasm there.. I think if I had to name it I might call it the Sarcastic episode. Maybe the Sardonic episode.

Yes. Even though I'm not that squeamish, so I don't have a problem with blood and guts, the emotion and the great acting in this scene made it a real draw.

Great picks Benj... I might not compile a top ten until I've actually seen the whole season... I'd probably take out one House/Wilson moment and the scene from Failure To Communicate and replace them, but that's just me. Very nice. :D

Other honourable mentions: House high in the shower, "I'm not terminal, merely pathetic", House and Cuddy in Humpty Dumpty: 'What, can't work as a cripple?' 'She's a rock' - Autopsy. House getting shot, perhaps? House angry, especially at his frustrated best in Euphoria.

Off-topic, I really love the way they've chosen to portray House angry in the show. It's restrained, and that's true to the character, not just the misanthropic personality thing. We saw another side of House for the first time when he yelled at Chase for stuffing up that MRI.

Autopsy is one of my favourite episodes in S2, I think, and I definitely think that, on a whole, the episodes from the 'second half' are better.

Cheers.

Definitely some of my favorite moments there too. :)

Great picks, Benj. I'll have to steal some of yours. ;) These are in no order.

1. I'm jumping on the bandwagon. The "House, this is God" scene belongs on the top ten. ("Cameron? Damn, she always asks me why bad things happen!")

2. I also have to give the "Cameron, I love you" swab scene a spot. I howled.

3. Technically more than one scene, but the stuff that went on during the ending song in "Acceptance." I thought it was beautifully done. The ending scene with House and the five stages of grief, especially. It gave me chills.

4. Foreman and House's "the drugs will bring back the pain" scene in Euphoria.

5. Just the general idea of House keeping score between himself and God. *eyebrow twitches*

6. House: "Yesss, misstress..."

7. House's cane snapping in "Safe." Wilson and House were both priceless in that scene.

8. House's "let's molest Cameron with a robot" scene in "No Reason."

9. The part where everyone finds out Chase kissed Andy. "autopsy" wasn't one of my favorite episodes, but that was hilarious. ("THIS is why I don't let you touch my markers.")

10. House and Wilson's lunch scene in "Spin." ("Trouble in paradise, two o'clock." "Your two o'clock or my two o'clock?")

Great topic!! And it is tough narrowing it to just ten. Since there are soooo many, and you've picked some of my favorites, I'm going to have to go over the season again and pick some of the others instead.

List coming soon, got one more night of watching and tonight won't be it (Have a graduation to go to. Not mine unfortunately!). But come on, where's the rest of the group? You guys have got to have at least a few that pop into your mind immediately!

Okay, here goes, though FWIW I've sort of been overwhelmed by my own graduation last week--I don't know if I'm more relieved that all the hustle and bustle is over or if I'm said that my time in the spotlight is over, at least temporarily-- and deciding what to do with myself from here on in.

I agree with many of the moments that have already been listed. I can't really rank them so in no particularly order,

-- House gets out of bed in the episode after Stacy leaves. House in his natural habitat, so to speak.

-- Hallelujah at the end of Acceptance. Yes, I know it's over-used, especially lately and probably a calculating tear-jerker move; in some cases, not this one, it's overkill because you already know the character is devastated about something, but I just love that song and have since I first heard it (in the movie Shrek of all places). The thing is it's appropriate for House the show and the character, especially the verses that never seem to get played. Rather than reproduce the whole song here I'll post it elsewhere or you can look it up (for the record the version in the show was apparently Rufus Wainright, but if you can't find it under him, the original performer/writer is Leonard Cohen).

-- House entertaining himself/fidgeting while waiting for the results of Andi's final surgery (after the reboot), for the "(not-so) stupid House tricks", for the window into House's real feelings (as we discover later it is possible for him to care immensely about a patient, not just the diagnosis, he just chooses to display/admit it very rarely and he doesn't feel that way about all patients), and for the song fragment that plays during the scene ( I don't know what it is and haven't looked it up yet).

-- House the choreographer from the rehearsal for Andi's surgery. Just too funny, nothing more to say.

-- Wilson and House using the MRI. Everyone has already covered all the awesomeness of this moment so I'll just second (third? fourth? whatever?) it.

-- House and Wilson's "dish washing war". As I said when I saw it I was expecting it to go into a stand-off, as it has with people I've known, where both refuse to do any dishes until the other does until all the usable dishes in the apartment have been used and then only wash one dish at a time on an as needed basis. The prank war as a whole was pretty funny too, but as I mentioned before I was a little disturbed that the final prank had moe than average potential for harm, but, as I concluded on the original disucssion, we are obviously not meant to take it too seriously, so I won't but it does keep it from being a favorite.

-- House sitting stumped next to the rapidly decompensating patient in All In. Again nice to see House involved in a case and see a demonstration of his doubts, no matter how small they usually are. When it really comes down to it, House is much harder on himself than anyone else could be. Again, he just keeps his thoughts very much to himself.

-- House's anxiety and palpable relief when his final diagnosis in All In proves to be true. For the same reasons as above: another great view into what House generally tries very hard to keep hidden.

-- House begging Cuddy to give him the injection in the spine. Again, vulnerable House. Heartbreakingly so, as he's both figuratively and literally revealing his wounds to some who is at times an adversary. I still dont' know how I feel that she betrays that trust. On one hand, given that Cuddy is supposed to have known House so long and so well, it's hard to imagine that she wouldn't know how dire a sign it is that he's being that open about anything, on the other, she's doing what she thinks is best for him (shades of Stacy, whom I don't think I can blame) and believes that ultimately what she did will solve his problem when giving in will just exacerbate it.

-- House getting out of bed, pacing, and ultimately searching for his morphine stash in Who's Your Daddy. The trend continues for House vulnerability, but as I said, House is so excruciatingly beautiful when he's in pain (and by extension more vulnerable). I felt for him when to top it all off he's on top of the stool, the phone starts ringing, and then in an attempt to get down he falls on his butt from a height (my tailbone, having suffered similar abuse, aches in sympathy). While I have not suffered that level of pain and hope I never will, I have definitely had that kind of morning/day.

As you can see, I'm all about vulnerable, and thus more open, House. I also enjoy seeing House and Wilson act like teenagers (IM not so HM, men never entirely progress beyond that point anyway, of course there some days where I haven't either).

So many great moments have been mentioned already! Here are three more:

(1) When House breaks the MRI in Euphoria Part 1 -- the look on Cuddy's face and House's delivery of "My bad" were priceless.

(2) House and Chase at the end of House vs. God -- the way Chase wiggles the marker before awarding House his final point is adorable, and it's a nice, rare moment of bonding between these two characters.

(3) Near the end of No Reason, after House has robot-eviscerated the patient and the bullet falls out of the patient's hand. House looks at his crew and says "goodbye". It's easy to miss the impact of this moment, since it is sandwiched between much more dramatic scenes. But I think it is really beautiful. House has done what he set out to do: he's brought the illusion to an end. He doesn't know, however, what that end entails. He could simply be hallucinating due to the trauma, or he could be dying. If it is the latter, then the end of the hallucination may be the end of his life. So he very sincerely, without any snark, says goodbye to his team -- or, at least, to his mental representations of them.

At some point, I will sit down and actually come up with my own list, but for now, I continue to be too lazy and will simply say that I love Catlady's list - and completely agree about the prank war.

One thing - the version of "Hallelujah" used in the show was done by Jeff Buckley. I only know because I was confused about who did which version and had to be corrected.

It'd take me awhile to create a top ten, and other folks have done a great job already, so I'll just ramble.

I always like inside jokes, the ones they make about other TV shows-

"Level 3? Call Jack Bauer!"

And of course the Sherlock refs - 221 B and such.

When they had House tivo-ing Blackadder, I just about fell off the bed laughing at the idea of Hugh tivoing himself. (You want weird? Watch an ep of Blackadder right after House . . . you get an idea of just how versatile Hugh is. From snark to silly, competent to incompetent. It's amazing.)

Anyway, hurrah.

Does anyone know when Season 2 DVDs are coming out?

Actually, the real shock is watching Stuart Little right after House. Looks like House, sounds like House, but he's just so darn happy/G-rated (don't know the UK/international equivalent, but all audiences in the U.S.). I did that once as I was flipping through channels looking for something to watch after House and spotted Stuart Little. I saw most of it once a few years ago, but that was before I knew who Hugh was so I decided to check it out again. Surreal does not even begin to cover it--and it led me to believe that the "cat mafia" need their own movie; clearly whoever wrote those cats has owned more than a few. I caught part of Stuart Little II as well (yeah, I don't know what I was thinking either, guess it was a very slow night) and I have to say that the part where Mr. Little goes through an elaborate speech about how much he loves his wife and how it's an honor for him to do the dishes for her even though he's already had a turn that is in fact a dodge to avoid having to change the baby did seem moderately House like (House would of course not do either voluntarily, but in an either/or situation I could see him doing something like that).

And it's hard to believe he's the same person in Blackadder. It seems though that the only episode that Hugh is in that I manage to catch is the first on of Season 3 (Balders becomes an MP shudder), though I did once see part of the episode featuring "the Scottish Play", again pre-Hugh infatuation, and remembered it because, scary though it may be, actors are really like that (even the ones who teach university and have PhD.s).

Yes. They are.

Speaking of which...If you want to try the "Mr. Little" vs "Dr. House" switcheroo, they will both be on simultaneously tomorrow night.
"House" is on Fox from 8-10PM Eastern, and "Stuart Little 2" is on one of the Disney channels during the same time period. ;)