Glimpses of New: 'The Hunger Games,' 'Parenthood' S3, 'House' S8 & 'The Mentalist' S4

I was among the millions on the east coast who were without power for days – thanks Tropical Storm Irene – so on the night that the ever-so-brief first trailer for the upcoming film The Hunger Games was released I was playing Scrabble at the kitchen table by candlelight. And since I just got internet service back (believe me, it was frustrating to be an observer of pop culture when I couldn’t observe it), this morning was my first glimpse of what folks saw during the MTV VMAs.

It’s not much. It’s not very substantive. But it’s not horrible and doesn’t make me cringe, which is good. It was just too brief for me to make an assessment. My 13-year-old daughter and Hunger Games fan still has grave reservations about how Jennifer Lawrence will play Katniss Everdeen.



That being said, the promo for the third season of NBC’s Parenthood doesn’t offer us much new either, except the knowledge that the show will flash-forward in time, several months in fact, taking viewers from the moment when Kristina told Adam she was pregnant in the season finale, to her being in full bloom/almost-ready-to-pop pregnant and Adam is apparently terrified.

Wonder if Adam will have found a job yet when the new season begins? Imagine them having to move in with Zeek and Camille and Sarah and Drew?



House’s brief promo for the eighth season of the drama shows Dr. House incarcerated, not, as he was a couple of seasons ago, in a mental facility, but this time, in prison. Guess it wasn’t such a smooth move to drive his car smack into the front of Cuddy’s house, now was it?

How will House do now that Lisa Edelstein has jumped ship and will now be appearing in The Good Wife remains an open question. Her absence will leave a startlingly gaping hole, kind of like the one House left in Cuddy’s home

I’m beginning to think that House, the show, has a serious woman problem.



Another lead character who’ll be starting the fall season behind bars is Patrick Jane from The Mentalist who, in the season finale, fatally shot the serial killer in the middle of a shopping mall as said killer, Red John, was taunting him about how Jane’s wife and daughter smelled when he murdered them. Doubt that Jane will be getting many hot cups of tea in the clink.

What new show/film are you most looking forward to seeing?

'House' Season 6 Promo: A New Direction?

During the All-Star Game, Fox ran a provocative promo for the House's sixth season premiere in September.

When we left off last season, Dr. Greg House had been committed to a mental institution. From the looks of this preview, he's still in there when the season begins. "What happens when the doctor becomes the patient," the ad asks. This only begs questions: Will the new season be re-booted and no longer be an explicit, diagnose-the-mystery-disease-of-the-week? How long will it feature an institutionalized House? What would that kind of a show look like and would people still want to watch it?

Despite the formulaic way in which House episodes typically unfold -- patient with a weird/rare case comes in, House & Crew try a treatment, it doesn't work, they learn something about the patient/patient's family, they try something else, it doesn't work but in the nick of time, they (usually House) figure it out and the patient (nine times out of 10) survives -- I've been drawn to the complex characters, not the cases. Having a show built around a caustic medical genius who maintains a friendship with a nice, doormattish kind of guy, supported by a cast of people who love/hate the main character, is the makings of good drama. What happens when you put that central character in an asylum?