Dr. House

Normally when I watch a series, I mildly enjoy it and wander through the series mindlessly, particularly with sitcoms. On very rare occasions, a show will pop up that I enjoy the main actor so much I follow him around for a couple years. This happened with House.

Hugh Laurie plays the part so perfectly and does this incredible thing where you absolutely hate him and love him at the same time. You want him to be happy, but you also can't help but feel like he deserves some of the things he goes through.

The thing that impressed me the most about House is the fact that House stays House from the first episode of season one to the last one of season eight. His personality doesn't waiver for one second, and that's a feat in and of itself.

While all of the medical jargon wasn't necessarily accurate and they had a habit of people coughing up blood in almost every episode, I did find it far more fascinating than any of the crime dramas that pop up. That might just be my personal opinion. It did get old the last couple of seasons though. "It's lupus!"

Probably the best part of the whole show was House and Wilson's relationship. All of my favorite moments surround their crazy shenanigans. Like the chickens. Ah, the chickens...

The worst part is when it's over. You are depressed for a few days. You know a show is good when it does that to you. I wholeheartedly recommend you go watch House.

Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) revels in solving the hardest of medical riddles. He chooses his team which changes over the years. Dr. Eric Foreman (Omar Epps), Dr. Robert Chase (Jesse Spencer), and Dr. Allison Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) are the three original underlings. Dr. James Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) is his only true friend. Dr. Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) starts as his boss.

Hugh is a British actor playing an American doctor who has a badly damaged leg. He's a grumpy caustic know-it-all. Too bad for everybody else, he is almost always right. He is inevitably the smartest man in the room. Oh did I mention that he's a drug addict. It's master acting class from Hugh. It's physical. It's accent work. It's character work. It's a great character.

This show is just a perfect riot, even though it is a drama. It is tightly-written, and there are at least as many layers to the characters as there are to the medical mysteries. The worst part about the show is having to wait a whole week for the next episode to air.

The bickering and bantering among the doctors involved add an appreciable depth of humour and humanity as they work together to solve each case. The process they go through with each case shows the human fallibility of doctors as well as the fear and frustration of those waiting for the doctors to save their loved ones, and the show pokes fun at, justifies, argues against, dismisses and ultimately humanizes the arrogance for which doctors are infamous.

The cast is absolutely fantastic - I just love how these people work together. They are absolutely real and human as their characters alternately combat and cooperate with each other. They are the reason the plots hang so well together. And Laurie is just supreme. The sarcasm, the barbs, the snide remarks, and even the insults are so ridiculously honest one has to laugh.

Kudos to the casting people and the writers as well as the creator - this is one of the best shows ever. I hope it lives for many many seasons, and I can hardly wait to see where it leads!

Hugh Laurie as Dr. House is my new hero. This is a terrific show with some absolutely great writing. A little over the layman's head as far as medical jargon, but the characters, plot and script more than make up for any questions about a diagnosis. The show is really carried by House, but the team of doctors who work with him add dimension and depth to his character.

Any negative comments I've read about the show dealt with complaints about how the television doctors don't diagnose the way the viewing medical professionals do. May I point out to these people, this is a television show. Please get a grip on reality and watch it for it's pure entertainment value.

I hope this show has a good following and I'm already hoping for, and looking forward to, more seasons.

Let me put it simply. I am a physician, and as an inviolable rule, I HATE medical shows. Granted, TV series tend to be one dimensional, due to inherent difficulties in the genre, but "doctor shows" are something I avoid like the proverbial plague.

And then one evening I caught "House, MD" and was completely drawn into the show. In House I find the anti-hero that I've been waiting for in a medical show. The guy who knows everything, but is wrong often enough to keep us all guessing. I enjoy the contrast of House and his cadre of young fresh faced colleagues, complete with starched white lab coats, who struggle as much with their professionally imposed constraints, and sense of decorum, as they do with his personality. And, wonder of wonders, the use of ironic and tragic comedy is without peer in what I've seen in the TV world in recent memory. In a nutshell, I really never know what any given character will say or do and it's that freshness that will keep me coming back for more. Somewhere there is a team of writers who actually know their craft, and an acting ensemble that knows how to pull it off. Now I can watch my TV one hour a week........