House, M.D.: Season One
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Movie Reviews of House, M.D.: Season One
Movie Review: CEREBRAL, ENLIGHTENING, AND GOBSMACKINGLY ADDICTIVE -- DR. HOUSE CAN HAVE MY NUMBER!
Summary: 5 Stars
If you have not heard of the brusque, straight-talking, rat-tatting part doctor part hotshot "too handsome to do paperwork" Dr. House, well get a hold of this brilliant series as soon as you can. It's a bit like The Practice, only from the medical world. A diagnostic thriller of sorts. It is only ever so often that a show comes along with such dazzling wit, riveting themes, fascinating characters, even a superlative soundtrack.
There is "detective" work involved here for sure. Patients in throes of some unusual disease. Lying out of embarrassment. Unfamiliar with what they did wrong. Indisposed. Or exhibiting conflicting symptoms. Somehow, episode after episode, you can't tear your eyes away from the screen. It's a mystery. What did he do wrong? What really happened? How will our eccentric Dr. House and his band of whitecoats figure this one out? It's real-time sleuthing work as we frantically explore the options along with them to beat the clock. Glued to the end.
Naturally, you'd suspect that a formula of diagnosing a key patient would wear off after a bit. But from prudish nuns, to seance-cursed kids, to 80 year olds with raging libido, the patients are delectably left of center. The production quality is top gun. The team behind this seems to have had its squirrels so well-herded that the byproduct is a taut, addictive show, one of the best to hit television in a long time. If anything, at least in Season 1, it only seems to have gotten sharper as we begin to relate to the interplay between characters, feel their own private tensions and idiosyncrasies.
While it is wittier than Scrubs (which shot off the gates with gusto but soon got jaded) and more thrilling than your ER or Green Hill or Chicago Hope, the best part is that the treatment is made accessible with a marvel of writing. All the medical jazz is propped with stunningly choreographed 3D imagery that shows what might have been going on with the patient, a visual vocabulary that is redolent of the top Discovery or Nat Geo programs.
And if all of that has not convinced you yet, it's a funny, funny script. "Ah, the Socratic Method. The best way we have of teaching everything-apart from juggling chainsaws." There is a sardonic look at the pill-toting, allopathy-reliant society of our times where people show up at their doctor's fearing "chronic fatigue syndrome" because they have been "tired all the time" or because their feet are aching after running six miles. Dr. House's treatment of these fillers is a blast. But his passion for curiosity and diagnosis makes you wish your own doctors were like him.
One of the few shows that will hold up to repeat viewings. Worth owning, not just renting. All the seasons thus far.
Movie Review: One Word- Dynamic
Summary: 5 Stars
House M.D. - Season One
My girlfriend had been telling me about this series for a long time. I brushed it off because it never seemed that interesting to me. Recently she retrieved this 3-Dual Sided Disk set from some relatives and forced me to watch it. What a serious mistake I have been making by not watching this.
House, played by the genius Hugh Laurie, is an amazing doctor. He works for a walk-in hospital. House has a horrible limp and needs a cane to walk. That aspect will be further explained through later episodes in the season. He is also the best doctor available at the hospital. However, his outrageous behavior often gets him yelled at by patients and the hospital owner, Dr. Cuddy. This outrageous behavior includes forcing patients into treatment, asking patients crazy questions, and only picking up cases that seem interesting to him. Dr. Cuddy decides to fix this problem by giving House many hours of clinical duty to deal with normal patients in between the interesting ones.
The first eight episodes run a normal routine. You are introduced to House and his team of medical experts, each with their own unique characters. Each episode will feature a new patient with a problem. House and his team will go through many different diagnoses before they figure out what is actually wrong with the patient. This always remains interesting with the use of seizures, vomiting, and other disgusting events. House will be providing comedic relief along the way.
Still, once these initial eight episodes are over you will begin to get tired of this same routine. Luckily, episode nine breaks away from the routine. While the first couple of episodes did a good job of establishing characters, the episodes that follow them create dynamic characters. House's history is revealed in a wonderful episode that you have no idea is even about him. House is one the verge of being fired. House goes on a date with his co-worker named Cameron. There is so much evolution of the already beautifully created characters.
The extras are some making of features and two extras talking about the character House. These are all nice extras, but nothing too great. The DVD is set up really well though. Each episode is given a summary before you begin watching. That way even if you do not remember the name of the episode, you can find the episode you are looking for. This is probably the best set-up DVD Set I own.
If you want dynamic character, intense and deep storylines, and comedy that does not take away from the effect, then check out House. The dynamic characters will keep you watching this until the great season finale. Do not thank House though, he will not care.
Movie Review: More addictive than Vicodin
Summary: 5 Stars
I have always said that if an author can write humor, he can write anything, and that if an actor can do believable comedy, he can do anything. British comedian Hugh Laurie has proved me right.
As a fan of British TV, I discovered the brilliant Hugh Laurie many years ago, actually doing justice to P.G. Wodehouse - no small feat - and was astonished to see him very unexpectedly show up one day playing an acerbic American doctor. And since there is no better reason to watch a show than Laurie being in it, I watched.
Despite the (excellently maintained) American accent, House is the type of character one sees more often in British TV than American - he is, in fact, almost exactly the medical equivalent of one of British TV's most popular detectives, Inspector Jack Frost (also played, not ironically, by a comedian, the utterly brilliant David Jason). Perhaps this is why I was both so completely taken with the character of House, and completely comfortable with him.
Hugh Laurie has found the perfect role for his wide range of skill as an actor - he is brash, angry, apathetic, deeply compassionate, even somewhat pitiful, and unbelievably funny (although I would love to hear that beautiful singing voice, and yes, that really is him playing the piano). I am thrilled that a whole new audience - make that a whole new continent - has now discovered him. Even for those who don't particularly like medical dramas, like me, Laurie is mesmerizing enough, and his character and relationships intriguing enough, that House is a must-watch.
That being said, the show is not for the squeamish - some of the scenes are quite graphic and can be disturbing, and it is too frank to be appropriate for children. Of course most jaded viewers will hardly notice.
House fans unfamiliar with Laurie's previous work across the Atlantic really should taste and see what the comic genuis can do. My personal favorite is season one of Jeeves and Wooster, especially fun if you want to see Laurie in a role that is in every possible way the exact opposite of House.
Now for the nit-picky stuff: the DVDs are fairly cheesily produced, not, as other reviewers have mentioned, truly anamorphic, and double-sided, which won't win any awards. My set even has a defect and will have to be exchanged. For the price they could have at least given us six well-made DVDs and a nice insert with descriptions of each episode. The special features are great fun, but too short.
The DVD set gets two stars.
The show, and its star, get five. But only because I couldn't give them more.
Movie Review: House Lives Up to its Hype...and THEN some!
Summary: 5 Stars
House MD's Creator/Executive Producer David Shore, in this week's New York Times, sends a polite tip of his hat toward the Sopranos' David Chase's refusal to tip his hand. "Obviously, he wants us to speculate on what it all means," reasoned Shore with regard to that sudden fade-to-black-did-my-cable-just-go-out finale. "Obviously that's what we're all doing."
Well, not all. Not since House premiered!
Thanks to Shore and his bloody talented crew, I'm not the least bit interested in mulling over whether Tony, Carmela, Meadow and A.J. ever made it out of that cozy family restaurant. Truthfully, I thought that last episode, with its multi-layered symbolism and Journey's Don't Stop Believing blasting on the juke box--jeez, such subtlety--was one big drawn-out, overhyped cartoonish bore.
Compare/contrast Chase's surprisingly stereotypical swan song to Omerta and ho-hum homage to the Godfather with House's quirky central themes according to Shore: "[R]esults vs. intentions and rationality vs. emotions. What's more important: kindness or truth? What are people hiding either knowingly or unknowingly?"
And whereas the Sopranos' huge cast of characters grew ever larger than life--some might even go so far as to say they ballooned into caricatures of themselves--Shore's carefully constructed House, Wilson, Cuddy, Cameron, Foreman, and, er, Chase, have been so subtlely fleshed out from day one, and with such heart-rending care that rapt viewers might suffer weekly cardiac risks.
House MD's deep interpersonal plot devices [kudos Katie Jacobs!] also rise amidst their dearth on cable and network TV. Shall we savor Season 1 and then fast forward to the next to last episodes of Season 3? "Family." [Such delicious irony]. One brother must suffer for another. Wilson's dog trashes House's cane. "Resignation." Forman fears turning into House's cranky clone. House and Wilson both secretly dose each other's coffee. "The Jerk." Forman's potential job is sabotaged. And House MD's Season Finale? "Human Error." On Forman's last day, House fires Chase, Cameron quits. House's life--if one could even call it that--is once again in total disarray.
Buy this DVD. In fact, buy all three! Do not hesitate. Do not wait!
Look out, HBO. And Showtime. ABC. CBS. NBC. Fox doesn't need a lead-in to bolster its ratings anymore. On Tuesday nights, at 9:00 pm, the surviving members of another dysfunctional House is America's favorite home.
Movie Review: Outstanding season, not so great packaging
Summary: 5 Stars
I've watched House in a catch-as-catch-can manner over the last five years, in first runs and reruns, but I just recently decided to buy the seasons on DVD and watch episodes back-to-back. Everyone has pretty much said all there is to say about this season already, since the DVDs for season one have been out for four years. I hadn't seen the arc with billionaire Edward Vogler that runs from midseason until about two episodes prior to the end of the season. He gives the hospital one hundred million dollars with the condition that he be made chairman of the board. Vogler thinks that the problem with medicine is that it is not run like a business, and he sets out to run it that way. Thus he and the tenured House quickly find themselves at cross purposes. Indeed, Vogler cannot easily get rid of House, but he can threaten his untenured staff, and it is interesting to see the two spar.
At the end of the season House's ex-girlfriend Stacy resurfaces with an ill husband in tow, asking House's help to diagnose and cure her husband. The husband is not only combative - he at first denies there is anything at all wrong with him - he also has all of the se x appeal of the Stay Puffed Marshmallow Man. She had to have married this guy on the rebound and furthermore he has to have known that. This rather unbelievable triangle plays itself out in season two.
Seeing the episodes in order I did realize I had seen several of them before, including the pilot. What impressed me was that at the time I saw it I didn't realize it was the pilot, or necessarily even in the first season. That's one thing that really impresses me about this show - from the beginning of the series the players are completely in character. House being assigned to clinic duty in the hospital - a task he most reluctantly takes on - allows the opportunity for short funny cases to break up the bigger mystery of the one large case that dominates each episode, and really keeps things going.
As for the packaging, this season is on dual sided discs, and that makes for easy scratching, so be aware of this if you decide to purchase this season used. All of the extra features are on the second side of the last disc, and this consists of a few interviews and a tour of the set. What was nice about the packaging of this first season is that there is a synopsis for each episode plus the original air date.
Highly recommended for those few people who are fans but who haven't purchased the DVDs of the series yet.