Marie's TV Reviews

Hugh Laurie consistently delivers a brilliant, nuanced performance in this medical thriller as he continues to draw a devastating portrayal of Gregory House, a man trying to save patients' lives and hold his own life together while enduring intense pain every day as his injuries and pain medication cause his body to break down.

House is a flawed, complex and fascinating character based in part on Sherlock Holmes with whom he shares his musical prowess, drug addiction, fascination with unusual puzzles and genius for deduction based on seeing the pattern behind tiny, seemingly trivial clues. The mysteries taht come to the House crew are odd, even bizarre and it's riveting to see House's processes of diagnosis through tests, treatment and highly unorthodox investigation.

House can be both fierce and gentle, audacious and circumspect, soulful and cruel, all the while trying to heal himself and save his patients. But the clock is ticking. Since he is the doctor of last resort, often the patients he sees are facing imminent crisis, so there is an urgency pressing on his ability to solve the case. And there is an urgency in his own case as well: he is now searching for an alternative to the Vicodin that could eventually kill him.

Unlike mostly procedural medical shows (ER) or the romance-heavy Grey's Anatomy, House is about the solving of intricate medical mysteries (and even criminal mysteries) to save lives, but also it's about how to live a life, how to think about what's most worthwhile, and the puzzle of why people lie when telling the truth would save them.

"Everybody lies" is House's watchword and, inevitably, somewhere along the chain of information, the diagnosis is impeded because someone has omitted a critical fact, told an outright lie or tried to protect someone. Whether or not House is lying is at times some of the fun of the show: he may say something as though it's a lie but it turns out to be the truth. He's a teacher after all, and he very much wants those he's in contact to use their brains and come up with some smart ideas. Argue with the man convincingly, come up with something he hasn't already thought of and dismissed, and he's happy as can be.

Even though the medical mysteries make up the bulk of the show, make no mistake, Laurie's performance is the real highlight. It's no accident that he's won back-to-back Golden Globes and, most recently, a SAG award. His portrayal ranges from the blackest depths of a man's despair to his gentlest amusements, often using to great effect his superb musical skills. It is such a treat when House's hilarious barbed insights and witticisms are delivered perfectly, with subtle physicality, emotional intensity and immaculate timing. Nice.

Love him or lambast him, House never fails to surprise, exacerbate, annoy, exhilarate, honestly reach out , speak with incisive directness, voice killer sarcasm, observe with wise insight or just plain rise to the occasion: Laurie, not for the first time in his career, is truly a "major star."