Lisa James loves numbers, logic, and telling people what to do. So it should come as no surprise that one of her favorite TV shows was House, M.D. With its series finale having just aired, Lisa gives us a retrospective on the series and why it lasted when so many other shows get the Friday Night Death Slot.
I don’t really blog, but as this is a special occasion—House, M.D. is ending!—I thought I would give it a try.
I am not usually one to get hooked on a TV show, but House, M.D. got me hooked from the pilot episode, the one where the patient had worms. I guessed the diagnosis before House did. Now, to be honest, that was mainly luck, but it also possibly had something to do with the fact I was taking a parasitology class at the time as well. Either way, I was hooked.
That Love/Hate Relationship
House, M.D. is one of those shows you either love or hate; there isn’t really an in-between. For me, it is a love. In the eight years the show has been on the air, I have never missed an episode. I own every season and watch them regularly. I am not such a crazed fan that I wear the logos or anything like that, but I wouldn’t mind having a snuggly Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital hoodie. Anyway back on topic, the end of the show.
For those of us who have watched the show from the beginning, we have grown to love the disgruntled doctor. We have watched him struggle with addiction, pain, friendship, and love. We have watched as he destroyed buildings, set people on fire, and drugged his one and only friend (more than once!). We saw House fall in love, let go of love, and ultimately close himself off to it completely. We have seen him struggle with human connection, with emotional ties to friends as well as lovers.
Gregory House has never and will never fit the norm of society. He will always be the outcast, eccentric, egotistical genius. But that’s why we have come to love him.
The show has taught us that everybody has secrets, that everybody has something they want to hide. It has also taught us that everybody lies.
Each week, House, M.D. has taken us through puzzle after puzzle after puzzle, and we keep going back for more. We have watched as murder was committed, as addiction and rehab danced their dance, as love ended, and as we saw what life in prison is like. Yet through it all we still feel for Gregory House and his team.
Because through it all, they’re people, too. Which makes us ache all the more for House’s inability to connect.
The show has revealed the minds of the characters in it. Chase’s insecurities as a doctor. Cameron’s inabilities to let go of lost love. Foreman’s fear of not being the best. Wilson’s struggle to give up his friendship as the enabler. And Cuddy’s refusal to admit her love. The show has introduced us to a variety of people with real personalities and real problems.
And now, it’s over.
Who knows what House will do now? For that matter, who knows what I will do now?
I am not ashamed to say I don’t want this to end. I don’t want to stop watching the show. I don’t want to stop interacting with the show and loving these characters.
I need more. I need more puzzles. I need more deceit. I need more control issues and egotism. Put plainly: I need more House.
I have loved and will always miss my beloved Gregory House. But at least I can say he taught me two lessons I’ll carry with me from now on.
Everybody lies. Everybody dies.
What did you think of the House, M.D. finale?
Although I never got into House, the times I did catch it, I thought it was a great show. Early on, though, I noticed the similarities… if you still want that same fix, House’s character was modeled closely after Sherlock Holmes (even down to House’s apartment’s address). It may not be House, but Doyle’s writings are in the public domain and easy to find. 🙂