shipperx | TV Guide's Roush on Tonight's TV

Tonight’s must-see: The premiere of House, which gives us the rare sight of TV’s crankiest doctor operating without a cane. House jogs! House skateboards! (“How rad am I?”) House even dresses better, and is so civil to a patient’s family the wife even says, “Thank you.” Don’t be misled, though. Even though he’s living without pain, at least for now, he can still be a pain. And his colleagues can’t help questioning his motives for taking on tonight’s cases, which is probably a wise thing. House is easily tonight’s best bet. (Programming note: Fox is airing House an hour earlier than usual, at 8 pm/ET, for the first month. It is expected to return to the 9 pm/ET time period October 31, after a baseball hiatus, and after, Fox hopes, establishing Standoff by providing such a solid lead-in.)

Which brings me to Standoff, which pretty well describes my ambivalence toward this disappointing new drama. I would love Ron Livingston to find a showcase worthy of his talent and charisma, but this isn’t it. A forced and awkward mix of suspense and relationship drama about FBI crisis negotiators who are romantically involved, this show overplays its hand in the pilot during a ridiculous scene in which Livingston’s character blurts out his heretofore secret relationship with his partner (newcomer Rosemarie DeWitt) during a tense negotiation, in earshot of everyone. Couldn’t they at least have waited until sweeps for this to happen? Seems to me the show would have been more interesting if they were trying to keep things secret. Now they’ll be negotiating the terms of their romance while involved with talking down the crazed hostage taker-of-the-week. Of the nights that Fox has launched so far, I get the pairings of Prison Break and Vanished on Monday (though Vanished is a poor substitute for 24) and Bones and Justice on Wednesday. But Standoff with House? Not a good fit. I’ll be amazed if this one will still be around to worry about relocation once American Idol returns in the new year.

Tonight’s cable must-see, if you’ve the stones for it: The fourth-season opener of Nip/Tuck, which is even filthier than usual when Christian picks up a mother-daughter team, whose debauchery revolts even this usually unrepentant swinger. Guest stars galore tonight include Larry Hagman (good for lots of testicle humor), Kathleen Turner (whose smoky voice is used to great effect) and Brooke Shields (whose character reversal by the end of the episode needed more of a set-up). The show is often so enamored of its ability to shock that it upstages the drama, but if you can look past the surface nastiness, there’s some very provocative material in the core triangle of Christian, Sean and Julia (the latter couple’s childbirth storyline is the sort of provocative, envelope-pushing, emotionally charged story only Nip/Tuck could get away with).