My Review of House MD

I started watching House MD. midway through the first season. I am hooked. It was the first time in a long time that I had the feeling the executives at Fox weren't complete idiots. Aside from the show 24, there was nothing much happening on Fox in my opinion.

Then I was blessed to be introduced to Dr. Gregory House, M.D. who turned out to be the most arrogant, sarcastic, cruel, and bitter schmuck to ever wear the white jacket on television. Dr. Benjamin "Hawkeye" Pierce would have picked up a gun and shot him within five minutes of meeting him. And I love him. While he is all of the negative things I have mentioned, Dr.House is brilliant. He is brilliant, damaged, angry and annoyed with the world at large.

If you have never seen the show, let me give you an overview. The cane wielding Dr.House is the head of a small team of young doctors who specialize in diagnosing and treating the patients that other doctors have failed to correctly diagnose or help. They solve the medical mysteries, and are quite effective at it. House, in the process of helping his patients, tends to drive his staff, as well as his best friend and the hospital Chief Of Staff, to the verge of insanity. He is a pill popping, genius and lets everyone know it. And at his core, he has a heart. He hides it well, but it is there.

In the midst of his brilliance and sarcasm of Olympian proportions, he either does the wrong thing for all of the right reasons, or he does the right thing for all of the wrong reasons. What you see is what you get. And what you see, for the most part, is a mess. And you root for him. Every week, you sit there and know that if he was your boss, you and everyone you work with would rise up and slay him, but yet, you are on his side...even when he is wrong.

Hugh Laurie, the actor who plays Dr. House, delivers this character to us with what appears to be seamless ease. The British born actor shows no trace of his British accent on the show and for those unfamiliar with him, you would not readily guess that he made most of his bread and butter doing comedy, often playing the buffoon. He has fantastic comedic timing and transitions into serious gravity in a blink of an eye… and you go with him. He takes you by the hand and shows you the journey that House is on, and while House hides his heart and feelings to his co-works, you have the sense that he has opened it up to you. Hugh Laurie lays House bare for all of the viewers each week while at the same time keeping him cloaked to the characters surrounding House.

The writing on this show is sharp, witty and shameless. House says and does what the rest of don't or won’t. He rarely pulls his punches, he is crass, and he is alone. While he doesn't come right out and say "why me?", you can feel him saying it with every vicodin he takes, every patient he treats, every sarcastic comment he delivers and every outlandish stunt he pulls to get his own way. There is a fearlessness to the way he practices medicine that is only overshadowed by his fear of personal feelings and relationships.

House MD, while outrageous, is intense, solid and takes no prisoners. It is worthy of your time.