Review for House

Audience: Teen to adults

The purpose is to express an opinion about that television show to persuade or dissuade readers to watch the series.

House is an American medical drama series that debuted on the Fox network on November 16, 2004. Created by David Shore and directed by Bryan Singer, the show revolves around the cynical yet intelligent Dr. House, who leads a team of diagnostics at a teaching hospital. Much like a mystery series in a sense, each episode consists of him and his team uncovering complex cases of patients who have usually failed to receive a correct diagnosis. House has has gained high ratings ever since its premiere and has received many awards and nominations including including a Peabody Award, two Golden Globe Awards and three Primetime Emmy Awards.

The show usually starts off with a scenario set outside of the hospital, revealing a series of events that lead up to the symptoms of the main patient in that episode. Then, Dr. house and his team attempt to diagnose and treat the patient. However, as the show progresses, they realize they made an incorrect diagnoses as the patient has hits a critical state. House then comes up with assumptions of his own on what the patient might be suffering from due to other character's remarks or vague symptoms missed by the team. Most of the time, his team has doubts about his theories and controversial insights, making it hard to convince his boss to perform medical procedures he thinks is necessary. In the end, though, his hunches turn out to be right and the patient is saved. Although the show revolves around trying to uncover the patient's disease, it mostly focuses on the characters along with their sub-plots.

What I enjoy most about this show is that there is a little bit of everything wrapped into one. For example, there is mystery involved with the patients' cases House and his team uncover, but there is also romance and drama as well intertwined with the character's personal lives. For instance, House has an addiction to pain killers and hallucinates about one of his deceased team members. Also two of the team members, Chase and Allison have an affair. There are some events in the episodes that are quite risque making it an adult targeted series, for instance in one episode House has a Bachelor party involving alcohol and strippers/pole dancers. The character's have a lot of depth and dimension as well. House is not you average doctor; he's sarcastic, rational, immature and unorthodox, but a medical genius none the less. Not a lot of the character's are fond of him, which makes there interactions quite humorous. However, past the tough exterior he proves to be quite intelligent determined and reliable, adding more dimension to his personality.

The only negative thing I could say about this series is that sometimes the conflicts and illnesses that the team faces go a little overboard to the point of being unrealistic. Besides that, it's a great series full of suspense, mystery and at most times humour. It's also one of those series that you don't have to watch all the time in order to keep up with the plot because most of the time it's random. House is currently on it's fifth season and there is word that a spin-off, centering on a character introduced in season five, will be created.