This show centres around the misanthropic and condescending doctor, Dr Gregory House. Although he is well-known he relucts to treat patients and worse, he refuses to see patient. His reason? Simple. He assumes everybody lies. Which in reality pretty much true. I lie before. Everyone lies before. For the first three seasons, Dr. Cameron, Dr. Foreman and Dr. Chase are members of his team. Dr. Cameron always believes that the patient's family or lovers trust the patients. Especially regarding romance. She thinks romantically involved couples trust each other implicitly. Nothing to be judged. Nothing to be questioned. Too bad for her. It might affect her professional views. Dr. Foreman always disagrees with what House says and Dr. Chase, on the contrary, agrees with whatever House says.
Then there are another two characters. Dr Wilson is an oncologist and House's only friend. He is the only one House feels happy to confide in. Their background is complicated and explained in the episode "Birthmarks", my favourite episode so far. Dr. Cuddy is the hospital administrator. She is in charge of everything about the hospital. While Cuddy has the power to shut down the entire building and stops House from making impromptu moves on patients, she is too vulnerable to House's convincing lies. Dr. Cuddy is also House's doctor while House suffers from thigh muscle infarction, which is why he is having the cane and popping Vicodin
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At the end of season 3, House fires all of his team members. First episode of season 4 is by far probably one of the most interesting episode. Cuddy pesters House to hire a team, in which House refuses, and he remains headstrong even when his intimate friend, Wilson, badgers him to have the interviews. Trying to prove that a team is not needed, House accepts a case and diagnoses the patient alone. Hence, the title of the episode is "Alone". Although he manages to find the underlying problem, Cuddy makes him realises that a team would have diagnosed her earlier. Eventually House realises that, and begins to hire a team. But before he hires a team, he creates a game, where 40 people who come for interview are the games. Those who get the diagnosis correctly stays, those who don't, leave. But of course, House, being a misanthropist and pain-in-the-ass, is picky. He makes arbitrary moves and fires whoever he wants to fire, without an appropriate reason.
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Amber is named "Cutthroat bitch" because of her trait. She is annoying, but you'll find otherwise if you finish watching season 4. I'm not giving spoilers here. Eventually House narrows them down into 3 people: Thirteen (true name kept secret), Kutner and Taub. They are the ersatz 'Cameron, Foreman and Chase'. Their personality are completely different compared to them. Later, Foreman, because of violating hospital rule, gets fired and keeps being blackballed. He has no place to go and Cuddy, showing sympathy, hires him to be her 'eyes and ears' of House. Cameron becomes the head of ER and Chase becomes a surgeon.
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"House's Head' and "Wilson's Heart" are by far the highest rated episode in the series. In "House's Head", the episode opens with House realising himself suffering from amnesia. He then finds out his head is split open and he needs medical attention. Upon leaving the strip club he is unable to remember how he got there, he sees an overturned bus, and remembers he was on the bus. He remembers he saw someone dying, but he can't remember who specifically. This episode ends with a cliffhanger. "Wilson's Heart" continues where "House's Head" ends.
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Personally, I like this show. The first episode I watched was Sleeping Dogs Lie, in which the patient who hasn't slept for 10 days remains awake after popping down a bottle of pills. This scene engaged me. I wanted to know what the lady is suffering from that caused her to be unable to sleep. And it turned out to be Bubonic Plague. At first I dislike this show because I find this show quite similar to Medical Investigation, another medical series which unfortunately doesn't survive long.
House contains a lot of jokes. For example:
Dr. Foreman: I should sue you.
House: I'm pretty sure you can't sue someone for wrongful hiring.
House: You know another really good business? Teeny tiny baby coffins. You can get them in frog green or fire engine red. Really. The antibodies in yummy mummy only protects the kid for six months, which is why these companies think they can gouge you. They think you'll spend whatever they ask to keep your kid alive. Want to change things? Prove them wrong. A few hundred parents like you decide they'd rather let their kid die than cough up forty bucks for vaccination, believe me, prices will drop very fast.
House: Another reason why I don't meet patients. If they don't know how you look like, they can't yell at you.
House: I fired you.
Kutner: No you didn't.
Amber: He fired you. You're number 6.
Kutner: No, I'm number 9.
House: I approve of your shamelessness. You're still fired.
Jokes and the medical mysteries are what keeping the show alive, and now it has run for 7 seasons. The seven season is being aired in United States right now. Too bad Malaysia is not airing this series. Except Astro. I wonder why they never air this show, maybe because the show is full with jargon and the subtitles writers aren't able to translate them? Too bad for Malaysia. And yes, I'm being patronising.
As I watch this show I learn a lot of medical knowledge. For example, I learn the adrenaline is called epinephrine in the hospitals. Epinephrine overdose can cause cardiac arrest. I know that eating pork can promote the growth of tapeworm, or specifically neurocysticercosis in the brain. I know we can be allergic to light, it's a genetic disease call erythropoietic protoporphyria. I learn that an undigested toothpick can steal a person's life. I learn that a woman who exceeds 40 years old should not be pregnant or else risking the foetus's health (lowering expectation, like House did) and the mother will too suffer from maternal mirror syndrome. I also learn that when the brain is surgically split into two, a person may suffer from alien hand syndrome, a condition in which the hand seems to have a life on its own. And it may unbutton a shirt without the person's knowledge. And I know how horrible scurvy can be and I know that vitamin B12 deficiency causes guilt. What troubles me is I never dare to write 'guilt' as a symptom of deficiency of B12 in biology.
But of course, many medical errors are being done in the series. There's a website where a doctor writes reviews and post it. Apparently House doesn't know the difference between cardiac arrest and heart attack. Many more. The more season is produced, the more errors begin to show. That's the con as the show progresses. But I still love the show. I voted this show as the best show ever in history, and I hope this show survives without the jokes growing less.
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