Check it out Day 1: House

So the month of obscure recommendations and picks starts with an internationally acclaimed TV series everyone will have heard of? Well yes it does, but for a reason. Just because everyone may be aware of the show doesn’t mean they ever watched it or enjoy it, I’ve known about the series for years but only recently with the latest series have I really gotten hooked on it. One of the great things about House is the fact that you can kind of dip in and out, it is much more self-contained than many other shows such as Heroes or Lost that you really need to have seen from the start. Each episode has its own story, pay-offs and whilst there are on-going character arc running in the background these are less prominent than on other shows. In case you’ve never heard of it House stars Hugh Laurie as the titular doctor who runs a team specialising in obscure diagnostics – they get the cases no-one else can figure out. From that simple premise comes one of the most involving, interesting and funny TV shows of recent years.

The writing on the show is uniformly superb, the dialogue is razor sharp and the cases each week compelling not just because of the mystery elements (which act as a sort of medical whodunit) but the attention that is given to the patients as characters. Each week is distinct and manages to pull together complex moral issues and situations whilst remaining entertaining and mixing things up. It’s like a ridiculously complicated balancing act that the show pulls off week after week. Laurie of course anchors the show, without House it would fall apart and his performance is magnificent, right from the start he inhabits the character in such a way that even though I know it’s him he dissolves in the role. His accent is flawless and the characters acidity and self-destructive sides help paint a very unusual TV star. He is rude, unemotional and addicted to pain killers (for a bum leg which causes him to walk with a cane) and yet Laurie still makes him likeable and empathetic. However able work is done by the whole cast, Robert Sean Leonard stands out in particular as Dr Wilson House’s friend and colleague, and maybe the only person who can truly stand House on his own terms.

There isn’t a lot more for me to say really, I’ve been devouring the DVD box-sets of this recently and encourage you that if you haven’t checked it out yet give House a try, be warned you may soon find yourself hooked.