I'm in the midst of a hectic adjustment period to a new job, so as much as I wanted to keep my "American Idol" coverage going in a timely manner for the final on Tuesday, circumstances just did not allow. I think I'm still going to write analyses of those last performances when I finally catch up on the DVR, but for the time being it's time to start putting content in this space on a more regular basis.

The reason I couldn't make time for "Idol" tonight is because I just couldn't wait to watch part 2 of the "House" season finale after watching part 1 (and a handful of episodes from before that) last weekend. Part 2 ("Wilson's Heart") wasn't quite as excellent as the cliffhanger first half ("House's Head"), which featured among other highlights a Dr. Cuddy stripper pole scene. I enjoy "House" when the writers play things straight with the viewers, as they do with most of their standard-structure medical investigation episodes. But the show really finds an extra gear in the instances when it messes with time and layers of reality, as in the one where House gets shot or the one where he explains to a growing audience the story of how his leg became the way it is. The season finale this year, after a kind of awkward season, ranked with the series' best in that vein.

It was time for the "House" format to be shaken up, but this season's beginning reality-show concept worked out less well in practice than it must have seemed in theory. It was fairly crafty of the producers to win some points back with a last couple episodes that got back to playing the show's strengths and added some post-dated relevance to a few of the reality-show contestants.