I have always loved this show, and I was devastated when it ended in 2012. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, House was a medical show. What set it apart from other medical shows was the main character, Gregory House, who was a brilliant diagnostician who took on all of the medical mystery cases. Cases no one else could solve. While trying to diagnose his patients, he frequently used unorthodox means, which usually led to clashes between him and his team and also the Dean of Medicine. Apparently Sherlock Holmes was the inspiration for House. Also, he’s a jackass. He really is. He’s blunt, sometimes cruel, and likes to play mind games with people. He frequently refused to actually talk/treat his patients directly. He’d send one of his team to do it. He had a three-person team of doctors. But he always ended up solving the case and saving the patients’ lives.
Part of the brilliance of the show was the interpersonal relationships—how the doctors related to one another and how House related to them. There were a few romances, too, which made things interesting. But man, those medical illnesses (beware! Wikipedia link!) were sometimes crazy. I believe they were all real, too. Here’s a link to the Wikipedia page on the show itself. Beware, you might lose hours there. You’ve been warned.
The other thing is House’s addiction to Vicodin. He had some type of injury to his leg and uses a cane to walk and the Vicodin to handle the pain. That is addressed many, many times in the show, and he even went to rehab and a psychiatric facility to get clean.
Anyway, I was introduced to the show by my mom and sister, who’d started watching it. It was on Tuesdays. Started in 2004 or so, so I was still with my ex-husband then. That’s how long ago it was. Well, I fell in love. The show was amazing, and I enjoyed it so much. I especially loved Hugh Laurie’s portrayal of House. (Apparently, he’s English, but can do a really convincing American accent). Loved everything. And then in 2012, it ended with Season 8. It wasn’t canceled, thankfully, but I suspect they wanted to go out on a high note instead of getting canceled. They’d made some changes to the core team and while I did like the new people, I still liked the original team better. I imagine other fans may have felt the same. I know their ratings were going down. So they ended it. It was a really odd finale, but actually very fitting and true to the characters.
So one of our satellite TV channels runs a House marathon on Tuesdays and Saturdays. I usually try to watch at least a few episodes. It’s like going back in time to when I was watching it live. All the things I loved are there. I’ve always missed the show and have talked about doing a complete rewatch from beginning to end sometime in the future. This satisfies the craving, though, very nicely until I can, you know, find the time to actually sit down and do it. House is one of the shows that is on my very short list of Shows I Wish Could Be Resurrected But Properly list. (Bones, Gilmore Girls, and Dexter are the others). I’m already hooked again. It’s an addiction.
If you haven’t seen this awesome show, what are you waiting for? If you have, what do you love most about it? Would you want to do a rewatch? Is House a total asshole or is there some good in him?