I've always been a sucker for medical TV-shows. Not the soap series like St. Elsewhere (I won't deny I've never seen St. Elsewhere, but it's not very high on my list), but series with a touch of action to them, like Diagnosis Murder (Dick van Dyke is OK in my book, especially with a name like that. ;) ) and ER.
Over the past three months or so, I worked my way through three seasons of
House M.D.. I saw my first episode during the plane ride home from Tokyo, and I liked it. House is a total jerk, whose only goal in life is to solve mysteries. Most often medical, mind you, but the beneficial side-effect of saving a life seems more like a perk than a necessity, sometimes.
I told my friends Thomas and Marlijne about it, and they lent me their three DVD-boxes containing three seasons of the show.
Now that I'm finally through it, I must say that I'd like to see more, but in very small doses.
You see, just about every episode has the same premise; some person (ranging from a total schmuck to a well-known celeb, but who knows the difference, these days) gets a mysterious disease which will eventually kill him or her. No regular doctor is able to help the person, so they turn to House and his team.
Throughout the episode, they try to assess the case and cure the disease before said person kicks the bucket.
A show like that would become pretty boring (disease-of-the-week), so they throw in a little extra, which makes it bearable, but only just. I usually watched the episodes on double speed; my player still shows the subtitles so I can make up what's going on, but it removes some of it's repetitiveness.
Another pet peeve about the series; the hospital is too clean, the equipment is too fancy and the gowns are a little too expensively looking for an institute which claims to be a teaching hospital without very much money.
If you compare it to ER; County General hospital is just what you'd expect. Kind of run down, fluorescent lights, wear and tear on the doors and the spots where people usually walk, some very wrong pastel colours, old equipment and computers and telephones which can take a beating.
House's telephones have a fancy TFT-like display in them (which does nothing, by the way).
Product placement is also very much in your face; Philips makes medical equipment, and we will see that in just about every episode (MRI's are ordered easily, you know).
But despite all that, it's also fun to see what happens, as some episodes are just brilliant, and the writers really capture the suspense.
I'd just rather buy a season of ER than a season of House. ;)
Chears, K.