After rewatching some early episodes of House MD, I can still enjoy Hugh Laurie’s impeccable line deliveries and the formulaic “case of the week” structure (odds are the medical mystery will be solved after Sherlock/House finds a metaphor in a random comment made by his best friend Watson/Wilson).
What changed for me is that, back then, I used to think of House as the rockstar of diagnosticians: we would all be lucky to have him if, God forbid, we see ourselves at the center of a medical puzzle! What I hadn’t noticed was how virtually EVERY puzzle was created by House and his team in the first place. They would start with a shot in the dark, and each round of \[incorrect\] medication would kickstart life-threatening conditions that the patient wasn’t experiencing when they got there.
The answer would often point to a rare yet easy-to-treat condition that’s tied to some information the patient did not disclose \[i.e. they said they ate nuts while traveling through South America, but didn’t specify they were in Brazil and those were Brazil nuts which cause whatever Brazil nuts can cause\].
And considering how manageable those conditions and original treatments were in the first place, all those times the patient seizures and flatlines right before the commercial break were the result of House's treatment plans making them sicker. So yeah, the show remains super enjoyable, but its formula has a vital flaw that I find it hard to ignore on a binge-watch 20 years later.
Dr mike reacted to some episodes of house (and other medical shows). If anyones interested what a doctor thinks of these shows.
7
miggovortensens2 days ago
-2
I've seen this video, and I remember Dr. Mike mentioning that in House MD every case would never be solved by following the directive of "when your hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras"- it will never be the most obvious diagnosis, which makes sense, considering that House was a renowned diagnostician and people would come to him as a last case scenario.
But the weird thing is how House was creating those zebras and the solution often involved one week of antibiotics to fix the original symptom plus the sequence of life-threatening ones that were created by the incorrect medications lol.
-2
Shufflepants2 days ago
+7
I think the thing you're missing is that, yeah, he often almost kills his patients, but the point is that he does end up figuring out the real problem and fixing it. BUT if they had any other doctor, they would just never figure out the correct diagnosis and the patient would die. His methods are crazy, unethical, and would get a real life doctor fired and arrested. But in the fiction of the show, this is balanced by the fact that he was those patients' only hope. Standard tests, diagnoses, and treatments would treat the wrong thing or fail and the patient would die with the doctors only finding out what actually killed them in the autopsy if at all.
7
drainfrog_922 days ago
+3
It’s basically “medical Scooby-Doo”: the real mystery is how the patient survives House’s guesses. Watching it now, I treat the medicine as fantasy and focus on the character study instead.
3
miggovortensens2 days ago
-1
I treat the medicine as fantasy too, because the cases are too outlandish even when the medical science behind the mystery of the week is sound. It's the idea of House being a Sherlock-style genius that doesn't hold up for me now. As in: House and his team often interpret Symptom B (kickstarted by their treatment) as part of a condition that also includes Symptom A, so while they are guessing, they aren't even being good guessers.
-1
WelpSigh2 days ago
+3
house nearly killing his patients is just part of his process. generally, many episodes follow plots that are roughly something like cuddy saying "house, the patient is tired of you constantly pumping them full of sulfuric acid. they nearly died three times. no one even thinks you're trying to treat the patient anymore, it seems like you just really enjoy pumping them full of sulfuric acid while making weird quips."
then house goes to the patient and convinces them to let him to do it, explaining they'll die if he isn't allowed one last ride. during the injection he notices a small twitch on their pinky which somehow indicates the patient is actually allergic to the detergent used to clean the hospital sheets. another successful case, see you next week.
3
snotboogie2 days ago
+3
House is the least medically accurate show I've ever seen. Greys anatomy is second
3
BonoChris2 days ago
+1
Surely it's lupus this time!
1
M4rkusD2 days ago
+1
There used to be a blog doing medical reviews of all House episodes. Very interesting but they had to take it down. It’s still on the Way Back Machine.
1
M4rkusD2 days ago
+1
There used to be a blog doing medical reviews of all House episodes. Very interesting but they had to take it down. It’s still on the Way Back Machine.
1
UHeardAboutPluto2 days ago
+1
How many times was is botulism?
1
HorizontalBob2 days ago
+1
The idea was that the cases weren't being solved. He turned down any case that would have just been a test and a prescription/surgery.
1
MassiveWillingness502 days ago
+1
Many episodes were based on real cases. Not a fan, but its no Grey's Anatomy
1
miggovortensens2 days ago
+2
I seem to remember that the medical science is sound, but it's like the science in The Martian or Project Hail Mary: the concepts are proven, but the circumstances are pushed to places only fiction can go. In House MD, the rare and real medical conditions are what the patient originally had when they were admitted and that House solves at the end, but the complications that occur in between are often the result of a chain effect (i.e. what would happen if this dormant bacteria was hidden in this organ, and then the medication caused a chain effect and other organs were compromised etc).
2
MassiveWillingness502 days ago
-2
I'm an RN and I think you're right. This is why I don't watch most medical shows. Nurse Jackie, The Pitt and St Denis are it for me
-2
Exorsexist2 days ago
-6
When i rewatched the house MD 3rd time i just skipped all the medical stuff, saved a lot of time.
16 Comments