“House, M.D.” is excellent.
Tools:
Recommend review to a friend »
Witty, sarcastic, clever and emotionally riveting, "House" is the shot in the arm that television medial dramas have needed for years. Emotionally and physically scarred Dr. Gregory House (an unrecognizable Hugh Laurie) runs roughshod over his department, composed of three young-yet-talented physicians with various specialties. Allison Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) is an expert with blood borne pathogens and has a weak bedside manner and perhaps the biggest conscience of the crew. Eric Forman is a skinny white kid from Point Place, Wisconsin… wait, sorry, wrong Fox show (I mean really, why name a character Eric Forman…). Dr. Forman (Omar Epps) is a neurologist with a checkered past who House uses to circumvent traditional patient histories. Robert Chase (Jesse Spencer) is an Aussie-born bone specialist who is wrong as often as he´s right and bristles at the way House does business.
Independently they sound like interesting if overdone archetypes. But when combined with some snappy writing and interesting situations, "House" does a hospital like nobody has before. Part of the problem with most medical dramas is that they are rooted in reality; they take place in an average hospital where the worst that happens is a bad car crash, a shooting or a flu epidemic. What that leaves is a bloated and interchangeable cast that who are stuck in soap operatic circles. "House" eschews these stereotypes by using obscure, possible fictional diseases, and making an interesting problem that the team has to work together to solve. There are ideas thrown out, methods attempted, successes and failures as the group works to save a human life.
During the interim, while the crew works on processing tests and waiting for the results for their actions they are given a chance to have the brief character moments that we all experience at work. They aren´t hugely expository and feel natural because of their brevity and ancillary structure. Those scenes are organic because they take place within the work structure and don´t feel melodramatic or soap operatic.
That doesn´t mean there aren´t some strained character threads in the show. Forman has problems with House treating him like a thug. Cameron develops an unhealthy and unexplored adoration for her mentor. Chase becomes a belligerent idiot when faced with the choice of losing his job or turning on House. But these are by and large aberrations that appear toward the end of the first season, undoubtedly after the show was picked up and the writers had to struggle for material to create a larger continuity.
Speaking of the later episodes, what was a brilliant medical drama becomes its own worst enemy when a villain (not an antagonist, a full-fledged villain) is introduced into the mix. Chi McBride joins the cast as the evil billionaire Ed Vogler, a man who makes a sizeable contribution to the hospital and buys his way onto the board of directors. He takes a dislike to the lackadaisical feel given off by House and the way he seems to waste resources (i.e. money) in pursuit of saving money. Though the plot thread it dispatched in about six episodes, his character ruins the wonderfully quirky dynamic the show had enjoyed to that point and forces characters into conflict where they shouldn´t be. It feels uncomfortable and ultimately uninteresting.
Fortunately I think the rest of "House, M.D." is excellent. There are some heart wrenching moments in the series, when the doctors are forced to give up lives to save others. Where the team is racing against the clock to find a cure to a disease that has foiled them at every turn. I don´t want to mention some of my favorite moments in the program because, simply put, it would ruin them. But suffice it to say that the episode when Chase´s father comes for a visit stands out as one of my favorites in a sea of gems.
Average user rating (1-5):
Not yet rated.
Not yet rated.
[release]16293[/release]