House MD...

"Everybody lies..."

-Gregory House

I've wanted to do this blog for quite some time. If I'm honest, my dog woke me up at 7 o'clock in the morning, so I was kinda left with the quandry of what to do, seen as once I awake, its extremly hard for me to go back to sleep. My laptop beckoned me, and as soon as you can say...well...just about anything, I was watching an episode of House.

House is pure genious. There is no show out there like it, and its is by far the best fictional medical show on modern TV. For me it surpasses Scrubs, because, whereas in Scrubs, a lot of the drama comes from either the medicine in the hospital, or the relationship and struggles outside, House seemlessly blends the two together. Its very hard to seperate between the two in House.

An example of this is the previous episode I've just watched. For those of you who don't enjoy spoilers, look away now.

» Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «

In the episode "Simple Explanation," the team is treated to a surprising turn of events with the suicide of one of their own collegues.

What is most surprising about the fact is that I cried...quite a lot. And that's odd, because I had had a gander at Wikipedia to look at what was coming up in the later episodes. But it didn't matter, it still made me cry. It captures the RAW and real emotions of the charcaters so well, the I couldn't help but cry.

It truely is pure genious. And that's only one reason. The way they film each episode is brilliant. It seems which each episode, the director wants to give that episode its own flare. A really great episode which demonstrates this is "Locked In" in which we a based inside the head of an apparent brain dead man, who actually has locked-in syndrome. For the majority of the episode, due to the syndrome, the director lets us see the diagnosis from the man's view point, unable to speak or move, yet we can hear his thoughts. I would say that is one of the most clever devices I've seen.

Acting is top notch. The only actor I had even remotly heard of before watching the show was Hugh Laurie. Its fair to say though that each of the cast in the show gives a stellar performance each time around, whether it be the ever detailed and compassionate Robert Sean Leonard, to the clever thinking and antics of Kal Penn. All of these things contribute to the sucess of the show, and we haven't even gotten to the best part.

House himself.

I could write for hours on his cynisism, his wit, his humour, his pain, his intelligence, his ability to somehow come up with an impossible diagnosis each time and still get it right. The man is miserable, and I think that's why we connect to him, because at some stage in all of our lives, we all feel like House. And I think its the fact that instead of wanting to wallow in his own pity, he actually fights through it...OK, there is the small matter of his addiction to Vicodain, but you get the picture.

Like I said, I could rant on for hours, but I think the only way you'll appreciate the show is to actually spend time with it. Go and watch it. If you've never watched an episode, give it a go, not only will you appreciate the acting and film work, you'll be challenged by the morals displayed by the characters. Just look online, you're bound to stumble across somewhere to watch it. And remember...

"It's easy if you don't give a damn..."

-Gregory House