Burnin’ the House
Last night I watched “House” on Fox. It’s not the first time I’ve watched it, but I’ve probably seen it less than ten times. And it’s been exactly the same every time.
Don’t get me wrong, “House” has the makings of a good show, and it’s obviously popular. The problem is that the writing is extremely formulaic. Every episode sees some patient come in with a mysterious set of symptoms that eventually leads to House and his team to realize that said patient suffers from some bizarre condition that occurs once in every two or three million people. Often, to complicate things, the patient suffers from several such conditions or diseases that complicate the situation and produce conflicting symptoms, which make the source of the problems even harder to diagnose. The patient also, inevitably, has some sort of personality quirk or an issue with friends or family that either makes things more complex and sensitive or produces disagreements among House and his team, or both.
The show also lacks realism in that the team handles every type of medical condition imaginable, and, to my knowledge, doesn’t specialize at all. They actually perform brain surgery, for goodness sakes. Maybe I’m missing something, but no doctors have that kind of specialization in so many fields.
Finally, consider Houses methods for treatment. Last night he prescribed mushrooms for a boy, starved him, and conspired to get the boy’s mother out of the room so he could antagonize him. That’s in one episode. House would also have been sued more times than he could count at this point. There is no way he would have kept his medical license this long.
Now that I’ve totally ragged on the show, I can cover its positive points. The show’s saving grace, is, of course, characters. (I originally wrote “characterization” but to be honest, the characters are still pretty flat. They’re one dimensional, but that one dimension is usually well chosen). We put up with crappy storylines because we love to see House himself at work. His scathing wit and caustic comments, not to mention his intellect put my own to shame. Hugh Laurie plays his parts excellently. Almost as fun is watching House’s coworkers and subordinates deal with him from one episode to the next.
In short, House’s stories stink, but the characters are good. Let’s be honest though. No one watches “House” for something as deep as characterization. We just like to watch someone being a total jerk. (As I understand it, that’s the reason “American Idol” has so many viewers. I don’t know. I can honestly say that, as of May 21, 2007, I have never watched a single episode of “American Idol” and I have no wish to. Sue me)
House Rating: 6 Tails
