Is There a Doctor in the House?

In a network world full of Law & Order (oh, don't we wish!) and CSIs, it's refreshing to turn on the TV on Tuesday nights at 9 PM (EST), flip the remote to the local Fox affiliate, and sit back to watch America's favorite physician at work. Now, the twist to this is that the "American" physician is really British, and the show was supposed to be more of a CSI with diseases as the bad guys.

Since its debut in November, 2004, HOUSE has won various media awards and catapulted its star, Hugh Laurie, to greater fame (he's already a well-known comedian in England as well as producer, serious actor, novelist and accomplished keyboardist with his "Band From TV" musical group). As Dr. Gregory House -- diagnostician specializing in nephrology (study of kidney diseases) -- he heads a team of doctors at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in New Jersey. When a patient develops a puzzling malady, the team meets to discuss and diagnose the problem (normally they use what House calls the "Socratic method" or "differential diagnosis" - a systematic style of identifying causes). Invariably, no matter what possibilities are offered by the team, the stubborn House will discount each one, believing that something is still missing from the diagnosis. And they'll misdiagnose at least once or twice -- even at times administering the wrong medications -- because the patient lies about symptoms; thus, House's famous catchphrase, "Everybody lies ..."

The ascerbic House doesn't like to actually interact with patients, and does a lot of verbal sparring with his boss, endocrinologist Dr. Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein). Whatever the issue, it always seems to intrude upon either his time or his frame of thought. Occasionally having to fulfill a required stint as physician at a "walk-in" clinic, he can confuse patients with his unorthodox and sometimes abrupt bedside manner while showing apparent disinterest in them (sometimes playing a hand-held video game while patients talk to him), yet still arrive at the correct diagnosis and treatment.