House M.D. DVD Review:

With the surplus of medical shows on television it seems impossible for any of them to succeed any more than the others. Although I am not speaking of success with ratings or awards, House has the much more fulfilling success of capturing my attention above all other medical shows. There is also the fact that House is not like medical shows. Although there are patients involved, they are often more of an unsolved mystery case than they are usual ER type victims. House plays in many ways like CSI in a hospital.

Dr. Gregory House is a brilliant doctor, who also happens to be crippled and completely void of tact and manners when it comes to his patients, who he prefers never to meet, and his brilliant staff. Forced to work in the clinic of a very expensive looking hospital, Dr. House hates his job all of the time except when there is a strange case in his vicinity. At these points he gladly grabs a hold of the mystery and obsesses over it with his team of four young and brilliant doctors until the case is solved and the patient healed.

Although my skepticism for the large amount of strange and obscure medical cases presented in one hospital remains present, it is easily obscured by my amazement for how quickly I am drawn into each case, as well as the entertaining value Hugh Laurie brings to the role of Dr. House. House is extremely rude, which is often hilarious, especially when he is talking to an ignorant or lying patient. He also seems to be addicted to pain medication, which he claims is for his leg but he excessively uses. Most of the time he doesn't even seem like a doctor, but more like an advising physician. He allows his team to do all of the work with the patient, never needing to see them in order to solve their case.

The other element which makes this show work so well is the variety of characters which Dr. House has in his team. In the first couple of episodes we find that he picked one of the doctors because he was a juvenile delinquent as a child and the other because she is attractive. In some odd way these reasons make sense to House and in turn help to save lives. Each doctor has a unique and distinct personality, small pieces of which are allowed to come out within each episode. Although the show is very formulaic, there is great character development of these doctors as the season progresses. Even Dr. House shows a small amount of change.

There is something subtly dark and creepy about the way that House is shot, and the music seems to further advance this ominous feeling. This makes the special effects shots, which enter into the body in order to allow us to see the body ailment, even more disarming. It is fascinating and brilliantly beautiful at the same time.

The twenty-two episodes on season one are all fit onto three double sided discs. The artwork of this package is simple, but it looks great. From the cover photo of Laurie sitting on a bench with his cane to the great photo as seen from the patients view on the inside, the whole package looks classy and sharp.

There are also a few special features, which are mostly featurettes. There is a tour of the set, which is the expensive looking hospital. There is also featurettes on the medical cases which are shown in the episodes, the concept of the show, and House-isms. There is also a casting session with Hugh Laurie.

Ryan Izay