grantss
Doctor Gregory House is the Head of Diagnostic Medicine at Princeton-Plainsboro Hospital in New Jersey. His, and his team's, job is to solve extreme cases, where the cause of the patient's symptoms has eluded other doctors. He is a genius, with a rare gift for deduction and diagnosis, and a love for solving puzzles. He is also a very unorthodox, obnoxious man, a man who deliberately and successfully puts people off-side.Interesting and, initially, highly novel series. The idea of a patient diagnosis as a puzzle, with information to be gathered, sifted through and collated and from it deductions to be made is ably demonstrated, time and time again. I have no medical background and very limited medical knowledge and found the process, and the knowledge required and reasoning behind it, fascinating.It does get quite formulaic after a while though. You know just how the episode is going to go: patient comes in with one symptom, they treat it and the patient starts to recover. Just as they are patting themselves on the back, the patient develops another symptom, often one that is very deadly and highly theatrical, e.g. coughing up blood (probably the most common example). Then it becomes a back-and-forth between different attempts at cures (usually a prescription medication) and worsening, or at least changing, symptoms. Then, just when everyone is about to give up on ever figuring it out, House has a revelation due to a throw-away line in a conversation, often with Wilson. Case solved.Keeping it from becoming totally predictable is the human drama running parallel to the medical drama. The human drama often involves House's personal life, though it could be other characters' lives too. This usually plays out over an entire series, so you have a bit more long-term engagement.The patients also have interesting backstories and issues and these often provide good philosophical themes.In addition, the ending is not always a happy one, or, at least, not always the expected Hollywood-type ending, so there is some variety in that respect.As with many TV series, House ultimately suffered from overstaying its welcome. By about halfway through Season 7, you could see the writers had run out of ideas. The personal side, involving House and Cuddy, was unnecessarily complex and didn't have any momentum. It just seemed like complexity and circular plots for the sake of them, with the results feeling quite implausible. Plus, we have the annoying Dr. Masters and her bizarre fire-rehire loop with House.Season 8, the final season, was easily the worst season: no Cuddy, Dr Chi Park was probably the most irritating recurring character on the show (though she became more bearable as the season went on) and the elevation of Foreman to House's boss seemed implausible, and merely a dramatical device. It has its moments but Season 8 felt more like a chore than entertainment.The long-term negative is House's personality. The curmudgeonliness was entertaining for a while but every now and again you want some positivity and niceness, but they never come.Overall, a great medical drama. However, not perfect.
lee-thorneycroft
I absolutely despise medical dramas. Most of them are dull, depressing and tonally grim. House, by way of miracle, is like the remedy for prescription drugs; with your average episode of Casualty being like your regularly dispensed antibiotic and your average episode of house being like your naturally home-brewed probiotic.
The latter is great at helping you feel better without poking holes in your immune system and making you cry. And, for me, this is what it all comes down to. House is a show that's upbeat and clever. It's also educating and fun. The patients suffer from unusual diseases every episode and, consequently, the audience is left to piece together a mystery every week.
This is what makes the show so fun. Most people watching are not going to be doctors or surgeons so the writers are depending on the uninformed viewer to be oblivious and sometimes even misguided. Not to mention of course the beating heart of the show: Dr House.
The character of House is such fun to watch. He's quirky, somewhat arrogant and, for the most part, ahead of everyone else. So he's not your average doctor.
And he's not your average man.
BUT he's not simply a clever man and a clever doctor either.
He's an intelligent man with complex emotionally issues buried beneath a hard outer shell.
And this is the reason why I feel so attached to the show emotionally. Your weekly medical drama (i.e. Casualty) is going to be emotional as well, of course, but what House does so well is educate you while also investing you in a complex character. It will make you cry from time to time as well but, with a show like House, that's hardly a bad thing.
mikey-242-435767
House, M.D. is similar to Diagnosis Murder in some ways and very different in other ways. Both have a genius lead doctor who has to think and act "out of the box", thereby incurring the wrath of more mainstream doctors.The only problem is that they occasionally do things that are not really right, medically. But, then, it is a TV show, not a medical documentary and they have to take some license to make the plot come out right.It is well written. As I call it "tight". Every word in every scene moves toward the resolution of the conflict.I like it a lot.
