A Review of the Television Hit "House"
Created | Updated Jan 23, 2006
Why do we love Gregory House so much? He’s sarcastic, obnoxious, not even always funny, he means what he says in those nasty comments so we can’t even write it off to his wit or sense of humor that is dry, and yet he works and lately, just lately, I’ve noticed that women everywhere are falling for Hugh Laurie. Are they gluttons for punishment? Do they just want the bad boy and we’re gong through that syndrome again or is there something about Gregory House that digs deeper to the bone and makes him someone we actually like in a perverse way and that women especially find attractive.
Let’s face it; Gregory House is, in his way, ruggedly attractive. On looks alone, though he smiles little and his eyes do not twinkle in any all American boy way and nor does he have those “boyish good looks” he still manages to come across and probably precisely because he is a man and not a boy.
He is a real man (and there are plenty of grown up males who remain boys, not real men, there is a difference) which makes one think that Laurie could be perceived as more threatening in this role. He is far from soft and cuddly.
Yet still, his suede blue eyes appeal, the color of light denim, soft and inviting. Even his two day beard growth which on most anyone else just looks stupid, on Gregory House just works. He walks with a limp. He takes enough Vicodin that he could get an entire small town addicted if he so desired and yet we know he is not addicted. Not in the sense that addiction means when we toss the word around too casually. No, House has legitimate pain and though most of that maybe pain from his leg (the back-story of which is in one of the episodes, so we do find out), most of it seems to be emotional pain – a deep rooted pain in the heart; an emotional pain.
Each episode presents a new challenge and unlike most formulaic programs (someone gets ill, perhaps terminally, handsome doctor comes along to save the day and so on) House manages to overcome the formula by adding a different story to each episode, which is his own story – that of a previously failed relationship, his inability to form attachments to almost anyone, male or female but especially female as we discover with the co-worker Cameron who has a curious attraction to her boss and maybe the feelings are returned and maybe they are not, but what they do tell us is that Gregory House is not capable of handling a relationship with anyone of the opposite sex, at least not yet. He keeps it just secret and vague enough that we come back every week for more.
We come back for House’s story; the rest of it, while interesting, is really not so different from many of the other programs about doctors running about curing weird and wonderful diseases. There are many of these programs these days – everyone seems to have the lingo down and as a friend astutely pointed out, in the beginning someone really researched these terms but now, it seems that each program just borrows from another.
Today, we all know the meaning of “petechial hemorrhaging” Now, we can throw around words like Disseminated intravascular coagulopathy (DIC), Streptobacillus/Rat bite fever, Bacterial endocarditis, and more. But to give credit where credit is due, the Fox House website actually lists the terms and takes the reader to actual sites whre you can learn more about what these things actually are. How refreshing that we don’t just mind-numbingly along with it, but that we can actually, my god, learn something from the television (remember the good old days, before reality TV took hold and when people spoke normally and not everything held some pithy comment about so and so and what they did and to whom. At last we have found some intelligence on the dial.
It’s not the program or even the writing, which is excellent writing to be sure (obviously someone else agreed, thus the Emmy for David Shore), but even with good writing, a lesser actor could not carry this program. That credit goes to Hugh Laurie. David Shore may have and did win the Emmy for best writing of a Drama series for the program, but he did so with the acting ability of Hugh Laurie and together they seem to be an unstoppable force. The supporting cast can only be an asset provided it remains the same and stable. As it stands, the chemistry is just right.
It will be interesting to see where the next season takes us and how the program develops, but one thing for sure, we have, at last, found intelligent life on the television set. When Frasier ended it seemed that all of the intelligent or cultured people in the world let out a collective sigh of disappointment and now, Frasier difficult to find even in reruns. Few programs had the wit and humor and chemistry that Frasier had and sustained for so many seasons. Yes, there are other intelligent programs on television and especially on public television and one hates to single out one program as outstanding above all others but that is what a review is, or does. We contrast and compare, we take the best picks and present them and obviously, others agree because House has a loyal following Kudos to Fox for bringing intelligent life back to television and hats off to the whole cast but most especially Hugh Laurie for having the ability and conviction to play his role so convincingly.
Gregory House is so good (and by his own admission he would tell you so) as we learn in episode, Humpty Dumpty when he says, “I can be a jerk to people I haven’t slept with. I am that good.” He has developed House-isms of which you can find many at http://www.fox.com/house/ along with other information about the program. Visit, laugh, and unlike House, live – jump in and don’t be afraid of the water. Life is there for the taking and remember, it’s just television. Surely Laurie has a very full life.
s.r.p.
