I love this show, but I learned after the second episode that, if I were being treated at this hospital, I’d have a seizure in the CAT scan machine. After all, most everyone does. I wonder if they’ve ever figured that out. It’s like the old show Emergency! “Start an IV with D5W and transport immediately.” I’m five years old saying the same thing, thinking, “How many times do we have to see that before YOU ALL catch on?”
During this week’s episode, when they got to the point where House said something the equivalent of “Well, it’s probably not this disease, but we’ll treat it like it is, so if he gets better, I guess it really is this disease, and if he starts to die, then we’ll know it isn’t…”, and I said, “Hey, it must be 8:30!”
It was 8:30.
Kinda predictable, dat.
But I still like the show.
I think House’s boss lady is kinda hot.
House’s boss, Dr. Cuddy, looks to be way, way, way too young to ever get a job with that much responsibility at a hospital of that size.
Not saying she couldn’t, but I would think most doctors her age are still trying to repay med school debts.
And also RSL’s character is House’s straight man, foil, what have you. If they are going to continue to unravel House’s backstory they need an “old friend” around with which to do it.
I started watching just for Hugh Laurie. Now, I like the show, am feeling happy that I know nothing of medicine, and wish that they would cut out all the silly diagnosing and just have the characters snark at each other for an hour.
I like the comedy and the characters, but I also do the thing where I look at the clock to see whether they’ve hit the right diagnosis. (Of course, I also do this during Law & Order to see if they’ve finally found the right perp, and look how popular that show is.)
The one other thing that seemed to violate my suspension of disbelief was that they seem to make a recurring habit of breaking into patient’s houses and apartments to sift through clues. To do it once in a fit of desperation…fine, whatever. But since they established this early on (invoking Omar Epps in particular as an experience breaker-inner), they seem to get into people’s places regularly, and you never see a key.
You mean doctors don’t go and break into my house when I’m sick?
Whew!
Yes, it usually goes:
- Doctors Cameron and Chase try to get House on the case
- They think it’s Disease A, and treat patient for it
- Treatment makes patient horribly sick. Out comes the chart.
- They think of two or three possible diseases, and argue for a while, with House randomly interjecting insults
- House goes back to clinic duty and insults/terrifies people
- While examining a clinic patient, House clues into what the disease of Really Sick Guy could be
- House finally goes to see the patient and gets a confession out of them
- Treatment is given, all is well.
And somewhere in there House will argue with, then flirt with Cuddy (and if she’s looking familiar to anyone, she played the call girl in the first season of the West Wing.). Yes, repetitive, but interesting. And hey, it’s career research - I need to remember House’s little comments for that future day when I’m a doctor. A disgruntled one, at that.
I keep meaning to make up a drinking game for House (except I don’t really drink).
Take a drink every time somebody suggest vasculitis as a possible diagnosis.
Take a drink every time somebody suggest a tumor as a possible diagnosis.
Take a drink every time House is caught watching General Hospital.
Take a drink when the patient has siezures the moment the first treatment is begun.
Take a drink when somebody mentions House’s disability.
Take a drink every time House takes a Vicodin in front of a patient or doctor.
Take a drink whenever you see a doctor performing lab tests that a doctor would never perform.
Take a drink when a clinic patient makes an offhand comment that helps house solve the Big Case.
etc.
I watch it, and I like it up to a point, but they could throw us a curve now and then.
Forgot to add: in just a few weeks, they’ve dealt with leprosy and rabies. Remind me to stay out of New Jersey.
Wasn’t it leprosy, rabies AND anthrax?
Chug a beer when they roll out the defibrillator!
"CLEAR!"
The other night, while I was watching, I suddenly realized something–these doctors are spending the first 3/4 of every episode misdiagnosing the patients. If they’re as smart as they’re supposed to be, will they eventually get any better at this?
Just think–by the third season, they’ll get the right diagnosis by the second commercial break, then they can sit around and trade witty insults for the rest of the hour.
I opened this thread just to post how awful Medical Investigation. That is the pinnacle of repetitive. In fact I am sure they just take out the disease names and patient names and switch them around every episode. They start out thinking one thing, then go through every possibility before they get the answer. Then the next week, the disease actually turns out to be the first one they thought of in the last episode but for some reason it’s the last one they think of in this episode. Every doctor/tech/pr person does the same thing every episode. Dr. Jake2.0 (sorry, this show and characters are so dull I don’t know any real character names) always gets to treat the pretty young girl. The woman doctor always has some sort of attachment to a patient. Head doctor and some other person on the team have a disagreement about procedure.
Anyway, I knew this show was crap when I came up with the diagnosis in the first few minutes. They were looking at a patient’s chest x-ray and I said, that’s a fungus, possibly cryptococcus. They go through all this crap of testing for every virus known to man (with help from a red herring of dumped medical waste), then they start on bacteria (even though it never responded to antibiotics), finally at the same time they do a lung biopsy and trace some sand that had been brought in to a desert in Arizona and bingo! it’s cryptococcus. Why wasn’t a fungus a rule out in the first place? Gah.
As for House, yes it has a lot of repetitive elements but it also has House and it’s worth it just for Hugh Laurie and his wise cracks. I’m one of those who couldn’t place where I’d seen the actor before until I saw it mentioned here.
Laurie definately carries the show but I kind of enjoy the predictable canter. My guess is that it will get changed up, but I kind of like the formula.
House himself is my third favorite character on TV, after the 2 Jacks (Bristow and Bauer).
Does anyone get the feeling that House might be gay?
Forgot to add:
I also love the premise that all patients lie. Very cynical but kind of true.
I missed the first few episodes where they set up the situation, but as it was explained to me, House has a job at this hospital because he’s supposed to be one of the best there is at what he’s doing, so, no, this is as good as it gets. Remember, they had a world-reknowned doctor (Chase, Sr.) along for the ride this time and they worked exactly the same way.
Well yeah, it’s repetitive. It’s a medical drama that focuses on one patient and one ‘group’. It’s like arguing that CSI or Law & Order is repetitive ;). There isn’t much you can do with the formula, unless you want them to solve the disease in 10 minutes in an episode ;).
What sets is apart though is the witty dialogue and it seems the characters are becoming more and more well rounded. It’s a really great show which seems to focus on the dialogue and characters, and if the plot is formulaic, so be it.
Anyway, it is wonderful to see an acerbic protagonist like House on American network TV.