 
Being the fanatic I am (and despite all the positive press), I avoided watching House during its initial weekly run on Fox, for no other reason than I missed the first few episodes and didn’t want to play catch-up without having seen how the series was being set-up from the beginning. As is the case with most shows these days the first season was released on DVD a few weeks before the start of season two (September 13th), giving folks like me a chance to see what all the hoopla was about and I’m here to say the hype is well-justified and I’m glad I waited. Here’s the set-up: Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) is a crotchety, but brilliant physician who specializes in infectious diseases, but harbors serious anti-social tendencies. He walks with a cane due to nerve damage in his leg and pops Vicodin like candy. He handles the cases that no one else can diagnose and is assisted by a hand-picked team of experts who all excel in their respective specialties. The problem is, House likes to treat illnesses - not patients, so when the Dean of Medicine and hospital administrator demands that he spend several hours a week working in the walk-in clinic or risk losing his research position, he’s forced to acquiesce. With virtually no bedside manner to speak of, he treats his clinic patients brusquely, but honestly, cutting through all the crap most of us have come to expect from the medical profession. At first, it’s a bit of a shock, but I came away wishing more doctors were as direct as he is. As far as the difficult cases are concerned, they are indeed tough and the cause of the illness is usually incredibly obscure. House and his team are often forced to change the course of treatment when the patient takes a sudden turn for the worst and is on the brink of death. If this sounds a bit like CSI meets ER, you’d be correct, except this show is possibly more interesting than both of them. My only complaint is that when House is not on-screen, the show starts to sag. The rest of the cast are all fine actors, but they’re relegated to handling details, while Laurie gets all the meaty lines. He’s a formidable presence every moment he’s in front of the camera and his hangdog appearance makes him the antithesis of most leading men on TV. This may be a moot point, since he’s in nearly every major scene, but it’s the kind of role that most actors would kill for and kudos go to whomever cast him for the part. If you haven’t yet seen House, now is your chance to catch up with a unique and most entertaining program on disc, or Tuesdays at 9pm on Fox. - David Bassin
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House, M.D.:
Season One