The Pendulum
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Thursday, April 26,20071 Page 19
‘House' provides
strange medicine
RJ Kraft
A&E Editor
On the surface, the television show
“House” appears very straight forward.
Every week Dr. Gregory House [Hugh
Laurie] and his team of three solvea new
case at the Princeton-Plainsboro teaching
hospital.
Throughout the course of an hour they
test different theories or “differential
diagnosis.” Some more complications arise
with the patient and then magically, in the
last 15 minutes, House and his team solve
the case. However, this show offers so
much more.
Some medical shows like “Grey’s
Anatomy” or “ER” focus much more on
the personal and less on the cases, but
“House” lets us understand the characters
while still keeping the focus on the
medical cases.
The main element of this show that is so
fascinating is Dr. House. He displays his
brilliance as a doctor though his ability to
cure rare infectious diseases and by his
title as head of the Department of
Diagnostic Medicine. House is a risk-taker
and will stop at nothing, taking any
actions necessary to save his patients.
However, the character is flawed. Due
to an infarction is his right leg, he has
Very limited use of that leg, andmust use a
cane. He frequently pops Vicodin, and his
abuse of the drug is a majo rissue during
the show’s three-year run.
House always looks for the worst in
people and is disappointed when he can’t
find it. He takes pride in bullying and
harassing his team of three fellows. Dr.
Poreman, Dr. Chase and Dr. Cameron,
played respectively by Omar Epps, Jesse
Spencer and Jennifer Morrison. No matter
how much he berates them, they always
Want to come back for more because they
wish to learn from the best. And House is
the best.
He constantly pokes fun and cracks
wise jokes about his life, his patients and
Some of the situations they are in, while
still being a genius doctor.
Lately, he has taken to meddling in Dr.
Cuddy’s [Lisa Edelstein] personal life-
The fact that she is his boss complicates
•natters even further. House is growing
•nore and more attracted to her and
doesn’t want her dating anyone else.
One of the strong centerpieces of the
' show is House’s friendship with Dr.
Photo courtesy of MCT Campus
Hugh Laurie has won numerous awards ,
including the 2007 Golden Globe award,
for his portrayal of Dr. Gregory House on
“House."
Wilson [Robert Sean Leonard], Wilson is
House’s best, and sometimes only, friend.
Throughout the three seasons, Wilson has
tried to get his friend to seek help for his
Vicodin addiction while still helping
House be the extraordinary doctor he is.
Wilson and House’s friendship was
tested by police officer Michael Tritter,
played by guest star David Morse. Tritter
vowed to make House pay for his bad
treatment as a patient and tried to use his
Vicodin addiction to have House thrown
in jail. Wilson agreed to a deal to get
House to go to rehab instead and House
was furious at this. Eventually, the charges
were dropped because of Dr. Cuddy’s
testimony and House and Wilson have
patched up their fnendship.
“House” is a great show because it fol
lows a hero that is not perfect House
battles through the day, dovraing Vicodin
and always triumphs professionally by
saving whatever patient he has. With the
exception of Wilson, he has no real human
connections, making him a tragic
character. Watching the show, the
audience always gets the sense that House
enjoys being miserable and abrasive
towards people because he wouldn’t know
what to do if he was happy. Between the
perplexing and mystifying medical cases
and the character of House, this show is
truly one of the best on television.
Contact RJ Kraft at 278-7247 or
pendulum@elon.edu