The infectious humor and heavy depths of “House” still stand the test of time.
The infectious humor and heavy depths of “House” still stand the test of time.
In the cemetery of medical dramas and sitcoms, between the dusty tombstones of “St. Elsewhere” and “Scrubs,” there’s a grave for one of the most sarcastic yet sincere shows of all time — “House.”
“House,” a medical dramedy aired on Fox from 2004 to 2012, was a carefully concocted cocktail of clever casting and pinpoint writing. Its premiere celebrated its 20th anniversary Nov. 19.
Dr. Gregory House leads the series as a diagnostician specializing in medical mysteries at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. Portraying Dr. House, Hugh Laurie faked both an American accent and a debilitating leg injury for the role.
Counteracting House’s immature antics, Robert Sean Leonard excels as the often-exasperated oncologist Dr. James Wilson while Lisa Edelstein struts the line between cool and compassionate as PPTH’s Dean of Medicine Lisa Cuddy.
“House” is an, albeit loose, adaptation of “Sherlock Holmes.” With House acting as Holmes and Wilson as Watson, the show is a healthcare whodunnit, misleading viewers with red herrings like lupus — after all, “It’s never lupus” — and ending with unexpected, uncommon diagnoses.
The Holmesian format lends itself extraordinarily well to “House,” which delights in witticisms and banter defined by offbeat humor. House doesn’t toe the line between “dark” and “offensive” — he steps over it entirely.
Laurie (“A Bit of Fry & Laurie,” “Veep”) delivers lines with droll ambiguity, making the audience unsure if House is being serious, sarcastic, both or neither.
The edgy, emotionally-stunted brand of masculinity, exemplified by Shawn Spencer of “Psych” and Adrian Monk of “Monk,” reads as dated to today’s audiences. But “House” was never meant to be a how-to guide — it’s a one-of-a-kind time capsule.
“Everybody lies,” House says countless times throughout the series, both as an accusation and an admission of guilt.
His cynicism is a refreshing contrast to the mopey melodrama of shows like “Grey’s Anatomy.”
Along with his team of Eric Foreman, Allison Cameron and Robert Chase, House interprets the Hippocratic Oath as a faint suggestion rather than a morally-binding promise.
He eats lunch in a coma patient’s room and would rather play with his Game Boy than complete clinic hours. His bedside manner is nonexistent — it’s not an episode of “House” if he’s not being reprimanded for being rude. House, though, doesn’t need to be a good person to be a good doctor as his crass means are justified by their results.
The writers of “House” often bent and broke the repetitive formats of typical network TV programming. In “Three Stories,” the penultimate episode of season one, House’s backstory is revealed as he discusses a series of hypothetical cases with a lecture hall full of students. The episode plays with time and reality, seamlessly transitioning between House’s lecture, his imagination and his actual backstory.
An inescapable fact of “House” is the titular doctor’s addiction to the painkiller Vicodin. His addiction worsens his already-shaky mental health, strains his relationships and threatens his job. These graver moments, though, are a necessary break from the avalanche of one-liners and gags.
Wilson serves as the semi-reasonable foil to House’s non-politically-correct prankster nature. Despite the friends of 20-odd years working in different departments of PPTH, they bicker and banter constantly and even live together several times throughout the show’s eight seasons.
At times, their friendship dips into more-than-a-bromance territory. Strangers commonly assume they’re a couple — a misunderstanding propelled by Wilson faux-proposing to the doctor in the season six episode “The Down Low.”
Despite being her employee, House shamelessly and sleazily flirts with Cuddy. After years of courtship, the two find mutual understanding and balance each other’s cynicism with genuine warmth — until the end of season seven, when House crashes his car into Cuddy’s house, breaking them up for good.
“House” has been dug out of its grave in the cemetery of long-gone TV series with the help of TikTok. Gen Zers revel in schmaltzy edits of the show, claiming characters as their resident “babygirls” and producing crack videos about “mouse bites.” The absurdity of the fandom’s revival is a match made in heaven — or perhaps hell — for the equally absurd escapades of “House.”
“House” is available to stream on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Hulu and Peacock.
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