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House MD: Season One
Directed by: Deran Sarafian et al.
Starring: Hugh Laurie
Genre:
Drama/Comedy
Run Times: Vary
Release Date:
November 2004
On The Web:
Official
Site
Teaser:
Movie Trailer
Reviewed by
Byron Merritt |
I've got one big complaint
about HOUSE that I must mention. I work in the medical field and one
thing is glaringly missing from this otherwise excellent series:
ancillary staff. Where are the nurses, radiologists, and lab techs?
Trust me, doctors do not start their own IVs on patients, or run the CT
machine, or draw blood, or process viral cultures. If they attempted to
do all of this, there would be zero time spent on patient care.
Hmpf! Okay, I've got that off my chest.
Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) is who this series is about. He's a doc with
a keen sense for disease. And he's also damaged goods. Years before the
series even begins (and as the story progresses) we learn why Doctor
House hobbles around on a cane. One of his thigh muscles infarcted
(died) due to ischemia (blood and oxygen deprivation) thus killing off a
lot of muscle tissue. This has hardened him as well as causing a lot of
pain, which he quells by popping Vicodin as if they were M & Ms.
The head of the hospital where he works (Dr. Cuddy played by Lisa
Edelstein) forces House to work in the hospital clinic; something he
loathes ("Oh look! A runny nose. How exciting!") Obviously House feels
this is beneath his skills as a disease specialist and this is very
insightful into his character. Not only does it show the audience his
uppity attitude but it also shows his amazing diagnostic abilities. He
figures out pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases, niacin toxicity,
and even paranoid delusions in the blink of the proverbial medical eye.
This might sound as if it would come off as completely ridiculous, but
the writers of this show have given Doctor House such an excellent
persona that it comes off being completely believable.
Although I had problems with the glaring omission of ancillary staff,
the producers of House made such a screwed up character with remarkable
brainpower that I found myself completely engaged in the series. And
although there are several holes in how things "really happen" in
hospitals, I found myself sitting on the edge of my seat, waiting to see
what barbed comments doctor House would throw out next at the clinic, at
his staff, or at the hospital administrator ("I don't have a pain
management problem. I have pain issues. Or maybe I do have pain
management problems but I'm just too stoned not to realize it" or "She
just ran six miles for the first time in years and her legs hurt. Hmm. I
wonder what's causing that?") As mentioned earlier, I work in the
medical profession and part of the appeal of this series is that Doctor
House holds back nothing. He's completely, brutally, honest, which makes
him both rare and unsettling. We in the medical profession would often
love to say some of the caustic things that come out of his mouth, but
we hold back for fear of a) losing our job, and b) being sued back to
the stone age.
Even so, the writers of this excellent series have created a great
character who makes us both cringe and laugh.
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Image from House
DVD cost: $42.99
Purchase:
BestPrices.com
Film Review Stew
Favorite? No.
Stew Poo-Poo? No.
Newsworthy:
The character of House is
inspired by the fictional character Sherlock Holmes, particularly with
regard to drug use and his capacity to solve the insolvable. References
to the sleuth range from the obvious (House's apartment number being
221B) to the subtle (his friendship with Dr. James Wilson and the
similarities between the names House and Holmes, and Wilson and Watson).
In the pilot episode the patient's last name is Adler, and in the last
episode of season two, the last name of the man who shot House is
Moriarty.
Movie Quote: "I
don't have a pain management problem. I have pain issues."
Other Actors/Actresses
from House
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