# Anybody else watching House?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-watching-house/278673
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [December 8, 2004, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-watching-house/278673 "2004-12-08T02:55:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2004, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-watching-house/278673/1 "2004-12-08T02:55:19Z")
Stop me if you’ve heard this one: A patient has a mysterious ailment. The doctors misdiagnose and mistreat the patient in several different ways. Some of the treatments seem to help, but then it turns out it doesn’t really work. Some of the treatments are useless. Some of the treatments make them sicker. Ten minutes from the end, we figure out what’s really wrong with the person and the correct treatment is given. They get better. The end.
Yet, despite being stultifyingly formulaic and loaded with medical technobabble, _House_ delivers more snort-out-loud moments than anything else in the current lineup.
We’ll probably keep watching it.
Anybody else have an opinion? “Differential diagnosis!”
---
### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2004, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-watching-house/278673/2 "2004-12-08T02:58:07Z")
Never heard of it. Is it supposed to be some knock-off of Scrubs or what?
---
### Author:  [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2004, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-watching-house/278673/3 "2004-12-08T02:58:47Z")
The local Fox station keeps pre-empting it to show ISU basketball, otherwise I’d be watching. I’ve just seen one show – the one you described 🙂 I liked it.
What’s your guess on the relationship between House and the hospital administrator? Exes? Or has that been done too much?
---
### Author:  [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2004, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-watching-house/278673/4 "2004-12-08T03:05:05Z")
I love this show. I really don’t think it’s too formulaic. How many hospital shows do this? Most do the route of
“we know exactly what’s wrong, here’s the treatment. The problem is it’s expensive/risky.”
I think House is unique in that they don’t seem to know what’s wrong with them. Although is DOES seem to pack in a lot more medical technobable than other shows. Tonight’s episode was like, “how many viruses can our researches find that might show the symptoms the babies have!”
Since I kinda skipped back and forth between it and scrubs (why do they show opposite each other? :mad: ) I missed why he decided to become the woman’s main prenatal doc. Can someone fill me in? I caught the last few seconds, and it seems like he was watching something on a tv in a comfy chair (he made a comment about it.) Was he watching her exam? Did he take it cause she’s a hot chick? 😕 I’d like to think he’s a little more ethical than that.
Oh, and **friedo** , it’s not like scrubs, more like ER. It’s a drama, that is. Although inlike ER, each episode focuses on one case (with the occaisional free clinic case for humor.)
---
### Author:  [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2004, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-watching-house/278673/5 "2004-12-08T03:20:23Z")
> [@bouv](#):
>
> ] I missed why he decided to become the woman’s main prenatal doc. Can someone fill me in? I caught the last few seconds, and it seems like he was watching something on a tv in a comfy chair (he made a comment about it.) Was he watching her exam? Did he take it cause she’s a hot chick? 😕 I’d like to think he’s a little more ethical than that.
Uh, just barely. 🙂 The comfy chair is in the OB/GYN lounge. That’s where he was at the beginning of the show, and they yelled at him and told him he couldn’t hang out there. (This was just before he overheard about the sick babies.) After he helped the woman sort out her paternity issues, she begged House to do her prenatal care. He kept refusing, but then he realized that if he took on her case, he could watch General Hospital in the comfy chairs in the OB/GYN lounge and they couldn’t kick him out.
See, now, I think that’s funny. IMHO it’s unfortunate that they have to have a tedious diagnostic plot to hang the funny bits off of.
---
### Author:  [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2004, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-watching-house/278673/6 "2004-12-08T03:24:27Z")
Sherwin Nuland, the doctor who wrote “How We Die”, wrote a scathing review of the show from a medical perspective.
[From Slate](http://www.slate.com/id/2110251)
---
### Author:  [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2004, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-watching-house/278673/7 "2004-12-08T03:39:56Z")
I’m watching it, though I had to tape it tonight. Will watch it in a couple days. Love Hugh Laurie.
---
### Author:  [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2004, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-watching-house/278673/8 "2004-12-08T03:51:09Z")
Wow. Nuland’s ticked, ain’t he? I sure can’t argue with anything he said, but I don’t think he has to fear that anyone’s going to emulate him.
Can we look at Dr. House the same way we look at Alan Shore (Boston Legal)? They’re both over the top, outrageous, unrealistic, and funny. Nobody wants to be like them, but they’re fun to watch, mostly because of other people’s reactions to them. It’s like these guys bring out the best in others – who are better than they might be otherwise, because they have to counteract the effects of the House and Shore’s bad behavior.
Or something like that. 🙂
---
### Author:  [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2004, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-watching-house/278673/9 "2004-12-08T04:08:40Z")
I’d like to watch it, since I’m a big Hugh Laurie fan, but it’s on against The Amazing Race, so…
I’ve caught a bit of it here and there during TAR commercials. I have to say, the bit I heard tonight where they talked it out and realized that the maternal antibodies were messing up the tests they were doing should have been caught by everyone involved, including the guy mopping the floors in the lab. That’s so basic it’s…just BASIC! Ah, well.
---
### Author:  [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2004, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-watching-house/278673/10 "2004-12-08T06:55:51Z")
I have been impressed by every episode so far. I was a little worried when, in an earlier episode, Dr. Accent asked out Dr. Hot Babe, because I don’t think the show needs a romantic subplot to dilute it. But that fortunately seems to have been dropped (for now). Dr. House has asked some tantalizing questions about Dr. Hot Babe’s past – I look forward to finding out more.
---
### Author:  [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2004, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-watching-house/278673/11 "2004-12-08T14:12:28Z")
> [@Smeghead](#):
>
> I have to say, the bit I heard tonight where they talked it out and realized that the maternal antibodies were messing up the tests they were doing should have been caught by everyone involved, including the guy mopping the floors in the lab. That’s so basic it’s…just BASIC! Ah, well.
I enjoyed the part where someone said, “Viruses are harder to treat than bacterial infections. After all, we haven’t cured the common cold.”
Yeah, I’m sure a _room full of MDs_ needed to hear that viruses are harder to treat than bacteria.
That bugs me about CSI, too. The need to have some “mad scientist’s daughters” around to explain stuff to, so they don’t have to tell _each other_, “Now I’m going to dust the surface with fingerprint powder. This will adhere to the oils left behind by the ridges on the suspects’ fingerprints and make them visible to us.” _Gah!_
---
### Author:  [@SavageNarce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SavageNarce)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2004, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-watching-house/278673/12 "2004-12-08T14:17:54Z")
I can see the basis for a lot of Nuland’s objections to “House”, but I’m not sure I agree 100% with his thinking. After all, this is TV - I don’t think any viewers actually think they can visit Gregory House and avail themselves of his diagnostic skills, any more than they would expect to receive surgery from Dr. Turk from “Scrubs”. His attitude and bedside manner (or lack of same) are, after all, a dramatic device. All it does in my mind is set House up as an “anti-Marcus Welby” - and that’s a good thing!
Did “Becker” get the same kind of vituperation for the essentially identical role? No, because it was a sitcom. “House” gets it just because it is classed as a dramatic series, and therefore _must_ be taken seriously. Sort of like “Alias” or “24”, I guess… 😉
---
### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2004, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-watching-house/278673/13 "2004-12-08T14:35:27Z")
I just want to know why Hugh Laurie is doing that horrible accent. There are English doctors in America. Where is he supposed to be from?
---
### Author:  [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2004, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-watching-house/278673/14 "2004-12-08T19:21:20Z")
I’m loving this show. I’m a sucker for sarcastic brilliant misanthropes, so Dr. House is right up there on my list. It’s not surprising he was partially based on Sherlock Holmes, another favorite character.
Loved what he told the clinic patient last night: “You’ve got a parasite… Some people learn to love their parasites…give them names…dress them up in tiny clothes…arrange playdates with other parasites…” 🙂
---
### Author:  [@thwartme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thwartme)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2004, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-watching-house/278673/15 "2004-12-08T22:31:04Z")
Really liking this show, so far. I usually tape things and catch up on the weekend, so this one suffers a bit because I often end up watching it back-to-back with Medical Investigation, but so far House wins.
Favourite moment so far: the “little tiny coffins for babies” bit, talking to the mother who didn’t believe in immunization.
thwartme
---
### Author:  [@5que](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5que)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2004, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-watching-house/278673/16 "2004-12-08T22:38:50Z")
> [@winterhawk11](#):
>
> I’m loving this show. I’m a sucker for sarcastic brilliant misanthropes, so Dr. House is right up there on my list. It’s not surprising he was partially based on Sherlock Holmes, another favorite character.
I’m with you on that. He’s great to watch (Tivo is helping me out on this one.)
I like when he throws out the weird “truths” – the orange guy’s wife was cheating on him, the woman who used to be have a cold was about to get fired. I especially liked when she said she didn’t like people telling her what to do, so then he schedules her for a full body scan. He saw a soul mate.
---
### Author:  [@Mycroft\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mycroft_H)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2004, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-watching-house/278673/17 "2004-12-08T22:43:25Z")
I love it so far. Maybe just because it’s fun to see how far Bertie Wooster has progressed. (Or, for _Blackadder_ fans, the daft Prince Regent. I’ve always been a sucker for actors in roles totally different from ones I’ve pigeon-holed them into.)
I wonder how long the interest can be maintained. An irritating and sarcastic but ultimately likable doctor and a different extremely rare condition every week - will it soon just all get annoying? The stories seem to be interesting and well written with doses of wry humor decently mixed in. A pleasant change for now from the rest of TV’s drek.
---
### Author:  [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2004, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-watching-house/278673/18 "2004-12-09T00:08:12Z")
> [@Podkayne](#):
>
> I enjoyed the part where someone said, “Viruses are harder to treat than bacterial infections. After all, we haven’t cured the common cold.”
>
> Yeah, I’m sure a _room full of MDs_ needed to hear that viruses are harder to treat than bacteria.
Actually, if I remember right, the room full of doctors were explaining it to the parents of the child. And this may suprise you, but a lot of people have no idea what the difference between a virus and bacteria is.
---
### Author:  [@spiralscratch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spiralscratch)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2004, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-watching-house/278673/19 "2004-12-09T09:10:44Z")
Five minutes into my first viewing of this I thought “It’s Seth Cohen, 25 years older and with a medical degree”.
Not a bad show. I’ve enjoyed it. The review by that doctor is mostly right, but seems to forget that it’s fiction. If I want to see real medicine on TV, TLC will still occasionally show a medical show at 1am after some crap _Trading Places_ marathon.
---
### Author:  [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2004, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-watching-house/278673/20 "2004-12-09T20:23:57Z")
> [@bouv](#):
>
> Actually, if I remember right, the room full of doctors were explaining it to the parents of the child. And this may suprise you, but a lot of people have no idea what the difference between a virus and bacteria is.
Nope. I’m I’m well aware that the General Public doesn’t know a bacterium from a virus from the ghost of my Aunt Fanny, and I would have expected a line like that if they were explaining it to a non-medico. It was definitely in their little meeting room with the whiteboard, no parents present.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-watching-house/278673.md?page=2)