"House M.D." is a wonderful show. That includes all 177 episodes. I would like to note that if this were a research paper, the previous sentence would not have been my thesis statement. I’m going somewhere with this, I swear. The show has a quality cast, but House is the one who makes "House M.D." People will complain that the show repeats itself endlessly with a plot that involves a patient spiking between life and death, saved at the last second by a miracle epiphany. To be perfectly honest, I kind of agree with those opinions. What I don’t believe is that this should disqualify House from being a beautiful piece of TV drama.
The humor itself is glorious, more than enough to draw in fans despite a repetitious plot. House’s deadpan humor and caustic verbal strikes entertain the viewers while also shedding some light on the history of a broken man. Still, the most entertaining part of the show was simply watching House at his work, which, in retrospect, was the whole point of the show. The entire show, based on Sherlock Holmes (did you catch the name pun), was meant to show off the brilliance of a detective at his work--his medical work. I am not a biologist. I don’t particularly enjoy biology. At some point in my life, I had entertained the thought of becoming a doctor. To be perfectly honest, it’s kind of like seeing a rock star on stage and thinking that it’d be pretty cool to be them, then taking another couple seconds to realize the work that goes on behind the scene. In any case, my point is the medical knowledge that went into the show was intriguing, but the display of House’s brilliance was what truly intrigued me. He is a jerk. He garners respect regardless. In fact, in one of the sappy, revealing moments of the show, House even opened up that this indispensability was the reason that he became a doctor.
House describes the story of a doctor in Japan, who was a social outcast by birthright. The doctor was brilliant and was able to garner the respect of other doctors simply because he was needed. In this story, I see an example of how beautiful it is to watch a professional at his job. Some will say that baseball can be a boring sport to watch. However, watching a brilliant pitcher who can control the wind up manipulate the ball is fascinating. A brilliant mathematician weaves ideas and algorithms to create new discoveries. Many people can think brilliant and artistic thoughts, but professional writers are the ones who weave them onto paper and into stories. People often talk about the beauty of art, but there is beauty in any profession.
In one single word, I see beauty. Whether it’s restraint of the body, manipulation of words, or simply control of a tool, the control of the craft is what sparks this beauty. Yes, "House M.D." is fiction. However, it is fascinating to watch his redirection of ideas and his attention to details, details that everybody sees, but that only he notices. I’m not pleading for a sudden binge-watch of the "House" series. I’m making a small request: next time that you have a chance, watch a professional and notice the fluidity with which they can attack their work.
