The New Guy wrote:
There has to be somebody you care about. Or else the writing better be damned good. There was a show a few years back called Absolutely Fabulous which succeeded in spite of the fact that there was at most one redeemable character in it, and she was always getting dumped on. Generally, though, failure to provide the audience with a character to identify with will tend to turn an audience off.
I did my homework tonight (watched the show) so I could post here.
Honestly - over the last few months I’ve been consuming Blackadder, Fry & Laurie and Jeeves & Wooster obsessively because I think Fry & Laurie are geniuses but I just figured it out.
So now I’m all caught up on their careers so it was time to watch House.
Wow. Hugh Laurie sure can act. This is a complete 180 from the three shows mentioned above. I give him mad props for that.
However…not sure if I can hang with this side of Laurie. He’s so delictible as the other goofy characters, the serious American doctor character turns me off.
I think I will Netflix series 1 in the near future, though. Can’t hurt. I want to see this “best hour of television I’ve ever seen” stuff 
There are some likeable characters like Cameron, Cuddy, and Wilson. Though I don’t consider House to be a thoroughly unlikable character. Yes, he’s a jerk, but he acts that way to save the patient (ends, means discussion I guess). And looking at his affliction (and the constant pain with every step), I guess it makes sense for him to be a jerk.
I find it compelling stuff personally. I think House is a very original character, just as much as Adrian Monk (though some have refered to Monk as Rainman 2, so I guess it depends on who you ask about originallity)
I may be a HUGE fan, but he wasn’t exaggerate (well too much anyway) about the best hour of television. That episode was amazingly perfect. I can only hope the show starts to do things like that more often (the ‘formula’ being something just to build up the characters).
Colour me shocked (or unobservant, maybe)– I had absolutely no idea he wasn’t American. Yes, his speech pattern’s a little odd, but so’s Chris Walken’s and if you accuse him of not being American he’ll sic wild dogs and you and everyone you love.
Sure, he’s a jerk, but I love jerks. I may just be one. And I even get suckered into feeling for him, like in tonight’s episode when his ex was at the hospital and he tried to walk (though they screwed it up by CGIing that pill he popped- wtf was that?).
This is aways upthread, but regarding the assholery of Sherlock Holmes, or lack thereof: Yup, he was an asshole here and there. I recall one story wherein he, in one of his disguises, wooed and got engaged to a servant so that he could better be able to observe the master of the house. Watson found this rather callous, but Holmes couldn’t care less as long as he got what he wanted. Well, that and he was extremely fond of his own ability to disguise himself.
The only thing I don’t like about House is the aforementioned formulaic formatting. Patient comes in with a seemingly simple problem. Cure is administered. OH NOES they had the wrong diagnosis and the cure almost kills him/her. Repeat until quarter till. The real answer is finally found. The patient’s loved ones, who have just watched him/her almost die several times, are cajoled, tricked or browbeaten into allowing the cure.
The fun is in watching the characters play out. Those of you who just dismiss House as a jerk are doing the same thing that happens in the beginning of each show: Seemingly simple problem, simple diagnosis. Only since the TV show isn’t going to go into cardiac arrest, you don’t bother to examine your own diagnosis. I happen to think House is a very complex character, quite well acted. And as someone who has suffered from pain with every step, and walked with a cane far more often than someone my age should have to, I can identify with some aspects of his personality.
From some of the comments here, I can see that Hugh Laurie is struggling with Alec Guinness Syndrome, wherein a talented actor, no matter how many roles he or she plays, is remembered for only one. It’s dangerous to have a juicy, distinctive role these days, apparently.
I guess we’ll have to disagree. The writing better be good, period. If the writing’s no good, a “nice” character ain’t gonna save it. I might agree that there has to be somebody you care about, but they don’t necessarily have to be likeable. You can certainly care about Dr. House, but he’s not likeable. I really don’t believe it’s necessary to have a “nice” character. It is usually done that way, but only out of laziness and lack of imagination, because it’s the standard formula. There have, however, been very successful TV shows without even a single sympathetic character. “Married With Children” and “Seinfeld”, to name two.
I love characters like House, personally. I’m only 17, though, so I haven’t seen that many characters like him over the years. Definitely not characters from shows as far back as some of you mentioned…
I also wanted to say that the comparison between House and Holmes seems fairly accurate to me. If Holmes cared a little more about the people around him, he might behave more like House. I guess I’m saying that House is more of a jerk because he cares more…
Reading my post, I realized that the last part sounds a little weird. It’s hard to explain what I mean, I guess.
Uck. House is like Cox, I guess, only funny, clever, and with some actual emotional depth rather than the smarmy pathos they like so much on Scrubs. I can’t understand the popularity of Scrubs at all - it’s got a couple really funny moments each episode, but it always lapses into smug moralism. It’s just plain irritating, and the writing is so dull and generally free of wit that it leaves the actors hamstrung.
Yeah, House is a lot like Dr. Cox and that Ted Danson sitcom with the angry doctor…House is better than both of them, but it’s nothing new…
I hope this thread isn’t too old to revive. Based on you Dopers’ opinions, I went and rented a House season one DVD, and Mr. brown and I spent yesterday afternoon watching it. I love this show! I agree with a lot of statements that although the show is formulaic, the House character is brilliantly acted. You know, if I was in chronic pain, physically and emotionally, I might act like a jerk, too.
And what about this hospital where the show takes place? It looks like it was designed for the magazine Metropolitan Home. Everyone has a private room, walls are giant sliding glass doors, and the doctors’ offices are neat and uncluttered. In what universe?
The first attorney I worked for was a bit like House. He was a brilliant guy, a Harvard grad, and he could be extremely funny. For the most part, though, he was cynical and bitter, and tended to direct his flaying humor at the people he worked with. He was an unbeatable tax attorney, and clients loved him, but he tended to alienate co-workers. I asked an old friend about him recently, and he’s still unmarried at age 50.
To continue the statistical sample…he is quite authentic, it doesn’t sound faked to me at all. He sounds (to me) like he has the accent of on who lives on the West coast, but used to live in Massachusetts or New Hampshire several years ago. In other words, muddled and non-specific, like most Americans.
Also updating, I was the one who called that one show (“Three Stories”) one of the best hours of television I had ever seen.
It ended up winning the Emmy for Best Dramatic Writing. Not that it makes me feel all that vindicated–looking at some of the other winners–but at least I’m not alone.
I think one of the cool things about House is that he does NOT have a heart of gold. That is what makes him not a cliche. He isn’t all gruff exterior, soft interior.
He just doesn’t care what people think, doesn’t care if they know the bad or the good things he does. It isn’t a wall, it isn’t bitterness, he is just built to not have that emotional connection. He doesn’t even pat the shoulder of women desperately crying on his shoulder, he stands there stiff armed.
Given that, he isn’t at all emotionless, he does have a friendship, he once had a love, and he does have ethics and morals, and he certainly has a temper. He isn’t cold, he just doesn’t connect that way. He isn’t warm, and he isn’t ever going to be.
I like House, but solely because I like watching Hugh Laurie; the character is interesting for a while - even though it antihero has been done before, I think he pulls it off with real flair.
What bugs me is that the script is exactly the same every damn week, i.e:
**House: ** <Standing at whiteboard> OK, I want ideas; what could cause these symptoms?
**Cuddy: **Allergic reaction
**House: **Doesn’t explain the white count
**Epps: **Pituitary tumour
**House: **Wouldn’t cause the skin lesions
**Chase: **Allergic reaction and pituitary tumour
**Epps: **The chances of both at the same time are…
**House: **<interrupting, eyes rolling madly about the room>…A billion to one, but there’s a good reason, a reason you’re all failing to see, that these symptoms can’t be caused by either an allergic reaction or a pituitary tumour. Can anyone. Anyone. Tell. Me. What. That. Reason… … Is?
<House stares fixedly at the the others, who look blankly at each other for a moment, then at House, then at the floor>
**House: **Nobody? OK, I’ll tell you . What. That. Reason… … Is.
<dramatic pause>
**House: **The REASON, gentlemen and lady, is quite simple; we are, at present, only about ten minutes into the show; I would estimate that we have to unusccessfully try at least another two or three incorrect treatments based on hasty misdiagnoses, each of these treatments will progressively worsen the patient’s condition. Then… and ONLY then, will I reveal the obscure, yet retrospectively obvious, ailment.
Eh, the illnesses and doctor stuff are merely background for the character drama and writing anyway. 
Though they seem to be moving away somewhat from it this new season (leading some credence to my saying that the formula was simply to build the show up and they’d do different stuff once it was settled in). The last episode (with the kid with cancer) was very well done, IMO. And while the first show of the season had the formula involved, it was cut up by the other storyline about Cameron dealing with the terminal patient.
I forgot a bit…