Customer Reviews
Amazing 
2008-07-04
House is one of those shows that you miss when it has run its first season and you missed it, yet you constantly hear your friends talk about it. You think that because it's so popular, it must be terrible, as that's simply the way it goes sometimes as TV shows that have such a massive mainstream popularity tend to be shallow and generally not very good. House is different, so different in fact that they have a great British comic actor play a genius M.D. by the name of Gregory House.
Medical shows through the history of television tend to be quite cliché and something that aren't too gripping. House is different. It brings the American medical drama into a completely new direction and revives the whole genre. House specialises is mystery cases and most of the time the simplest answer isn't always the right one. For an American show the intelligence of it is inspiring. It doesn't take you for an idiot and uses the medical terms in the way they would be used in life. Tt doesn't patronise the viewer, and it manages to teach you about the rare condition in a way that doesn't treat you like a moron.
Hugh Laurie is truly amazing and I think a star that nobody expected to work in the role. The character of House is amazing, he's a genius doctor who, in the sub-plots when he's placed in the walk in clinic the character really shines. We are given someone who seems to not care, he seems simply un-interested in his walk in patients. That's not the case at all as when he engages in the patients, he gives them a diagnostic within seconds and sends them on their way. He's a true modern eccentric that, when dealing with a serious case he is willing to do whatever necessary to help cure the patient. Needless to say that with shows like this you can be given an excellent main character and a less than mediocre supporting cast. This separates House from the crowd once again, as the supporting cast are equally brilliant in their roles. Omar Epps, Lisa Edelstein and Jesse Spencer are just three of the overly amazing supporting cast of the show.
I only caught this show for season 4 after a friend of mine convinced me to give it a go. I was skeptical at first but now feel like punching myself for overlooking such a remarkable show. Although Laurie has won golden globes for the show, I have no doubt that if they took the risk and made a movie Laurie would win an Oscar. Which in my book would be well deserved.
Great TV Show! 2008-06-17
I have never watched this show on Fox and never even watch Fox, but I had heard this was a great TV show and wanted to watch it. Amazon.com had a great offer where I purchased the first 3 seasons for about 69 bucks. The first episodes were good but made me nervous. I am not a mystery or detective fan and this show is basically a medical detective show. There is character development though and after awhile the show grew on me more and more. I began to really like House and the doctor who has a crush on him. At the end of the season there is another female character who sparks House's interest too.
Better than Grey's Anatomy! 2008-06-11
Before I watched this show, Hugh Laurie used to creep me out when previews would come on TV. But after randomly watching one episode, I was instantly hooked! This really shows that medicine isn't always perfect, but the kind of mysteries are well done.
I love the entire cast! Chase is hot, Foreman is a jerk, Wilson is the dork, Cuddy is the drill sargeant, Cameron is the sensible one and of course... House is our lovely pill popper, limping, cynical doctor. Laurie really steals the show with his mean comebacks and dark personality. This season was good to learn about the characters' past and attitude, though it was a bit short. Highly recommended for anyone who likes Grey's Anatomy and BONES.
House 2008-06-02
I love this series!!!! I know that a lot of people when they first heared about it, thought that it was going to be a knock off of E.R. But House, M.D. takes it one step further. There is no other show like it. Though a lot of people find Hugh Laurie's character rude and abrassive, it's what brings the show to life.
Great first season 2008-04-23
Not many shows get my attention -- especially shows which are still in production. I got hooked on House during its second season, and I had never seen the first five shows before I got the first season on DVD as a gift. If you are unfamiliar with the show, I will warn you the main character, House (played by Hugh Laurie), comes off as a jerk. What Laurie brings to the table is his own interpretation of House. Without his excellent talent, this show would not have appealed to me. Somehow, he can play a jerk but still be appealing. The medical aspect of the show always leaves me guessing, and I'm the type to solve mysteries within the first five minutes of a show. It certainly makes this series more enjoyable for me that I am kept guessing until the end. Great cast, great scripts, just a fabulous series.
CEREBRAL, ENLIGHTENING, AND GOBSMACKINGLY ADDICTIVE -- DR. HOUSE CAN HAVE MY NUMBER! 2008-07-25
If you have not heard of the brusque, straight-talking, rat-tatting part doctor part hotshot "too handsome to do paperwork" Dr. House, well get a hold of this brilliant series as soon as you can. It's a bit like The Practice, only from the medical world. A diagnostic thriller of sorts. It is only ever so often that a show comes along with such dazzling wit, riveting themes, fascinating characters, even a superlative soundtrack.
There is "detective" work involved here for sure. Patients in throes of some unusual disease. Lying out of embarrassment. Unfamiliar with what they did wrong. Indisposed. Or exhibiting conflicting symptoms. Somehow, episode after episode, you can't tear your eyes away from the screen. It's a mystery. What did he do wrong? What really happened? How will our eccentric Dr. House and his band of whitecoats figure this one out? It's real-time sleuthing work as we frantically explore the options along with them to beat the clock. Glued to the end.
Naturally, you'd suspect that a formula of diagnosing a key patient would wear off after a bit. But from prudish nuns, to seance-cursed kids, to 80 year olds with raging libido, the patients are delectably left of center. The production quality is top gun. The team behind this seems to have had its squirrels so well-herded that the byproduct is a taut, addictive show, one of the best to hit television in a long time. If anything, at least in Season 1, it only seems to have gotten sharper as we begin to relate to the interplay between characters, feel their own private tensions and idiosyncrasies.
While it is wittier than Scrubs (which shot off the gates with gusto but soon got jaded) and more thrilling than your ER or Green Hill or Chicago Hope, the best part is that the treatment is made accessible with a marvel of writing. All the medical jazz is propped with stunningly choreographed 3D imagery that shows what might have been going on with the patient, a visual vocabulary that is redolent of the top Discovery or Nat Geo programs.
And if all of that has not convinced you yet, it's a funny, funny script. "Ah, the Socratic Method. The best way we have of teaching everything-apart from juggling chainsaws." There is a sardonic look at the pill-toting, allopathy-reliant society of our times where people show up at their doctor's fearing "chronic fatigue syndrome" because they have been "tired all the time" or because their feet are aching after running six miles. Dr. House's treatment of these fillers is a blast. But his passion for curiosity and diagnosis makes you wish your own doctors were like him.
One of the few shows that will hold up to repeat viewings. Worth owning, not just renting. All the seasons thus far.
House!!! 2008-07-14
All I have to say is House is very addicting and it's awesome. Great characters, storylines, filled with drama and comedy. It's simply amazing.
Truly Brilliant 2008-07-12
House, can only be described as brilliant. Not in the way as a teenager would describe it in the way of being cool or just generally entertaining, but brilliant as in genius. I could talk about season one for hours as it's truly the season that defines the character and sets in stone Hugh Laurie's cracking of America. Hugh Laurie, for those who don't know is a famous British comic actor best known for his work with Stephen Fry. Such shows as Jeeves & Wooster, A Bit of Fry & Laurie & Blackadder made this man a true comic god. Upon hearing that Hugh had taken up the role as the American Dr. Gregory House, I'm sure a lot of people took a big sigh and said to themselves "Oh, please god no." How wrong those people were when Laurie stepped onto the screen in the pilot episode, with that incredible accent and the inclusion of his comic wit.
The Story? Well the show is based around Dr. Gregory House, a medical genius is the head of a team of diagnosticians who specialise in solving those medical cases other doctors just can't figure out. House isn't the conventional Dr, however, because he's rude, selfish and doesn't like to follow the rules. He sets himself the task of curing his patient and makes sure he does just that. Whether that means sending his team to break into the patients home to see if the condition was taken in by the environment or not. Also House doesn't see the harm in interrupting a surgery to save his patient by spitting on the surgeon himself. If I were to have some criticism about the first season of the show it would be the character Vogler. Vogler becomes the hospitals chairman of the board after donating $100 million to the hospital. Vogler begins to throw his weight around as he wants to run it like a busines with clinical trials, rather than a hospital. This becomes a problem for House as his department eats a lot of the hospitals funds and saves only one person per week. The two characters immediately clash and Vogler sets on his own mission to get rid of House. The criticism I have is that from the very start of Season one every character has a certain chemistry with each other which helps the show blend together much better. I didn't see that chemistry with the Vogler character and for the episodes he was a part of it, it really dragged the show down. Don't let this put you off though as he's only in the show for a few episodes.
This is just the first season but the drama and the characters aren't the only things that make this show unique. The dialogue is spectacular and I have no doubt in my mind that Laurie has some input about some of the classic one liners. Below are a few of my favourites.
From Episode 3: Occam's Razor:
House: "Hello, sick people and their loved ones! In the interest of saving time and avoiding a lot of boring chitchat later, I'm Doctor Gregory House; you can call me "Greg". I'm one of three doctors staffing this clinic this morning."
Cuddy: "Short, sweet, grab a file."
House: "This ray of sunshine is Doctor Lisa Cuddy. Doctor Cuddy runs this whole hospital, so unfortunately she's much too busy to deal with you. I am a board ... certified diagnostician with a double specialty of infectious disease and nephrology. I am also the only doctor currently employed at this hospital who is forced to be here against his will.
That is true, isn't it? (to Cuddy)
But not to worry, because for most of you, this job could be done by a monkey with a bottle of Motrin. Speaking of which, if you're particularly annoying, you may see me reach for this: this is Vicodin. It's mine! You can't have any! And no, I do not have a pain management problem, I have a pain problem ... but who knows? Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm too stoned to tell. So, who wants me? "
From Episode 5 Damned If You Do:
Nun: "Sister Augustine believes in things that aren't real."
House: "I thought that was a job requirement for you people."
From Episode 9 DNR:
Wilson: "So your philosophy is, 'If they don't want treatment, they get it shoved down their throat, but if it might cure their paralysis, whoa, better slow down'."
House: "Yeah. My old philosophy used to be 'Live and let live', but I'm taking this needlepoint class and they gave us these really big pillows."
This is an amazing show and you're seriously missing out if you're not watching it.
One Word.... GREAT! 2008-07-09
I am playing catch up on this series. I just purchased the first season of House. I was well aware of the show but I never watched a single episode on TV because I was propably too busy watching whatever was on ABC. I figured "it's a medical show and it obviously can't be nearly as good as Grey's Anatomy.. so why watch it?" Eventually I was convinced to watch it buy the same person that introduced me to "The Office" (The original BBC version). House is great from start to finish. I cant wait to purchase the other seasons.
The beginnings of a beautiful love-hate relationship 
2008-07-07
This review is primarily for season one, but will mention seasons two and three a couple of times.
House begins promisingly. The show has many guises - mystery, comedy, drama, tragedy - and wears them all pretty well. Great characters deliver laugh-out-loud lines. But right at the midpoint of the first season, things go downhill in a hurry. Let me elaborate.
Dr. Greg House a brilliant doctor obsessed with saving his patients by diagnosing and treating rare illnesses. The only trouble is, he rarely likes his patients. That's the central premise of the show: he wants to save lives but doesn't suffer fools, and most of his patients are fools. But House isn't mean-spirited (at first) or an outright jerk. He's saracastic, biting, and insensitive. But he's usually right, rarely cruel, and often speaks his mind in order to cut through the bullshit. For the most part, it's a joy to watch him in action. He's a bit of a wounded spirit, too, living in chronic pain, and driven to prevent the kinds of mistakes made in his own medical history.
House is great fun as long as the show sticks to its original strengths: it's a cut-the-crap show that skewers the American Health Care system without siding with the system or with patients. As much as you want to cheer for House, sometimes he's out of line or makes a bad call, which is all the more believable. The characters are developed in the context of each new medical mystery, which always takes center stage and is always a nail biter.
For the first 12 episodes, this is a must-see show. But then, something happens. Maybe ratings were down, or a producer was unhappy, or there was dissension among the writers - who knows. It is a Fox show, after all. Whatever happened, the show becomes wildly inconsistent and a whole lot less fun.
Suddenly, a "villain" character is introduced. He's one-dimensional and evil. He walks all over House's boss (which you don't believe for a second, given her actions in the early episodes) and suddenly stubborn House becomes the Hero of the day. *yawn*. The medical mysteries become irrelevant. Four clumsy episodes are devoted to House standing up to a bully, and suddenly, the bully vanishes as quickly as he arrived and is never mentioned again. Clearly, the writers knew they had made a mistake. But the show never recovers. The supporting cast, with the exception of Wilson, is yanked in all directions. First Chase is bemused, mellow, a bit of a peace-maker, with views stemming from a wealthy background. Then he is a sulky, scheming backstabber who hates his job, his boss, and his coworkers. Cuddy goes from being House's formidable conversation partner to a mere prop, protesting every now and then and basically powerless to reign him in. Cameron initially befriends House, but then she's in love, and then she's not, etc. House becomes a parody of himself. And on, and on.
The botton line is this. House, as a show, experiments so inexpertly that you simply start filtering out actions that don't match your conceptions of the characters. Some episodes are so-so, some are a return to form, some are awful. It's extremely hit or miss. I give the first season four stars only because I absolutely love the first half. After that, the series is entirely optional. It's also much less funny. Things that define the early episodes go by the wayside (no more jokes about General Hospital, much less clinic time, etc). The series almost becomes the kind of medical soap opera it set out to usurp.
You stay with it hoping that they'll learn their lesson, but they never do: in season three, a new villian appears cut from the same mold as the first-season bully, only this time it takes eight episodes before he disappears in a puff of irrelevance. These DVDs are worth it for the early episodes, but be ready to call it quits.
