House, M.D.: Season One

House, M.D.: Season One Review

. . . now that its available on DVD. If the show continues on its present path it may never leave the air.

HOUSE (AKA "HOUSE M.D.") concerns the antics of the brilliant, incisive, completely cynical, vicodin-addicted Dr. Gregory House, who works at Princeton University Hospital as Chief of Diagnostic Medicine. He has a covey of extraordinarily bright and ambitious students. He has a boss, Dr. Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein), with whom he trades barbs and the occasional leer. Cuddy is usually irritated at House because of his rude and dismissive attitude toward other doctors, patients, hospital staff, administrators, and the Board of Directors, but she defends him to the utmost, realizing that he is a brilliant doctor. House's best friend is Dr. Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard), Chief of Oncology, whom he frequently shanghais into assisting with cases.

All the characters have depth, wit, intelligence, and verve. HOUSE rarely misses a beat. The writing is crisp and stiletto sharp. This is a very adult-oriented show.

House is a despiser of political correctness, and often capsizes preconceived notions with a turn of phrase:

TO AFRICAN-AMERICAN DOCTOR: "You! Get away from that whiteboard! Hey, it's not MY rule."

or

WILSON: "I don't like semantics."

HOUSE: "Why, you Anti-Semantic S.O.B!"

He also enjoys making not-very veiled references to Cuddy's anatomy or his students' sex lives.

Hugh Laurie is an English actor who plays the American House without a trace of an accent. When he screen-tested for the part he showed up, did his lines, and left. After he was hired, he came to work speaking "English"; the producers wanted to know why he was putting on the accent. THAT'S how good he is.

House walks with a cane. Partially paralyzed from an accident, he has become a pill-popper. This isn't a secret. In later seasons he's forced to confront his paralysis and addiction.

If HOUSE has a single flaw, its the fact that each week the patients suffer from ridiculously complex symptoms, which send House and his team on a scavenger hunt of tests and procedures to discover the cause of why Margie had a headache which is gone, but then her fingers turned green, after which she had trouble breathing, and then her hair fell out, leading to the discovery of an undescended testicle, and that's why her name's really Mitch. Just once, I'd like somebody to show up with a cold.

But the game's afoot . . . HOUSE is very consciously patterned on Sherlock Holmes in which House = Holmes and Wilson = Watson. Just in case that's too subtle, House has an ex named Irene Adler, and Cuddy is sometimes referred to as "The Woman."

Dr. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is smiling down from Mystery Writers Heaven.

House, M.D.: Season One Overview

Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 02/10/2009 Rating: Nr

House, M.D.: Season One Specifications

He pops pills, watches soaps, and always, always says what's on his mind. He's Dr. Gregory House (Emmy nominee Hugh Laurie, Blackadder). Producers David Shore, Bryan Singer, Katie Jacobs, and Paul Attanasio haven't rewritten the hospital drama--at heart, it's a cross between St. Elsewhere, ER, and C.S.I.--but they've infused a moribund genre with new life and created one of TV's most compelling characters. More than any previous medical procedural, it resembles Attanasio’s underrated Gideon's Crossing, but House is lighter on its feet. As fascinating as he is, the show wouldn't work as well if it were all House all the time (that would be like Sherlock Holmes without Watson or Moriarty). Fortunately, he's joined by an intriguing cast of characters, portrayed by a combination of experienced vets (Omar Epps, Lisa Edelstein, Tony winner Robert Sean Leonard) and new faces (Jennifer Morrison, Jesse Spencer). Aside from the complicated cases they tackle each week, the sparks really fly when House's brilliant, if naïve charges are put to the test--and as the head of a teaching hospital, it's his job to test them (although his tough love approach is constantly landing him in hot water with Edelstein's administrator). From the first episode, House attracted a talented array of guests, including Robin Tunney ("Pilot"), Joe Morton ("Role Model"), and Patrick Bauchau ("Cursed") as Spencer’s father. In addition, Chi McBride and Sela Ward appear frequently (with Ward returning for the second season). Viewers who first watched these 22 episodes on Fox will be gratified to note that the music has survived the transition to disc, such as the Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want," as featured in both the pilot and season finale ("Honeymoon"). The only apparent omission is the credit theme (Massive Attack's "Teardrop") from the pilot. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

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