Search - House, M.D.: Season Five on DVD

House makes NO medical sense, but is sensational

Marion Rundell | Houston, TX USA | 08/30/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have been watching the series for 6 months on USA channel. Although, as a physician, I know that the presentation is totally ficticious from a real medical standpoint, this series is very entertaining. It is impossible for someone to destroy their liver in two hours, and to need (and receive) a heart transplant within one day. It is impossible for a physician to treat a patient with whole body radiation without knowing a real diagnosis. However, this series presents medical syndromes, and other very rare disease possibilities, causing even the most astute phyisician to do a double take as to what is involved with the syndrome they present. This is a seriously sensationalistic medical presentation, but still very entertaining...even to the most discerning of physicians. Please do not take the sense of urgency seriously. However, understand that this is a good emotional representation of what physicians go through in trying to make a serious diagnosis, and a diagnosis in difficult diseases can be extremely difficult. It is obvious that "House" is a modern day version of Arthur Conan Doyle's "Sherlock Holmes", but "Sherlock Holmes" was patterned after Dr. Joseph Bell, a famous physician in Europe in the time of Doyle.

"Dr. Bell observed the way a person moved. The walk of a sailor varied vastly from that of a solider. If he identified a person as a sailor he would look for any tattoos that might assist him in knowing where their travels had taken them. He trained himself to listen for small differences in his patient's accents to help him identify where they were from. Bell studied the hands of his patients because calluses or other marks could help him determine their occupation." The Chronicles of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

So, "House" takes this full circle. Very entertaining and worth the time, just to refresh rare syndromes and their symptons and the character interactions are also fun."

House, M.D. - Season Five

Joseph Haggard Jr. | 07/15/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Hugh Laurie and company returned for a fifth season of "House", the medical mystery series about that cranky doctor and his medical colleagues. And while season five of "House" was a very good one, I felt it wasn't as good as the previous four seasons.

There's still lots to like in season five of "House". Of course the main reason why this show still works is because of Hugh Laurie. He still makes this character watchable in every area. He's cranky, crabby, and very funny. The supporting cast has been terrific from the start and everyone delivered the goods in season five. Especially Lisa Edelstein, who plays House's boss Dr. Lisa Cuddy. She's been good the previous four seasons, but I felt she really came out on her own in season five. This character, who's been yearning to become a mother, finally got the chance to explore the adventures of single motherhood by adopting a baby. Plus there was the possibility of House and Cuddy getting together for more than just medicine. Whenever she was on screen, Edelstein was superb every time, and she should get an Emmy nomination this season for the terrific job she did (she probably won't, knowing how stupid the Emmy voters tend to be year after year). Also very good in season five, Robert Sean Leonard, who once again plays Dr. Wilson, Dr. House's only true friend. The early episodes when Dr. Wilson was grieving over the death of his girlfriend Amber (the young medical student who tried to get on House's new team in season four but failed) which led to his resignation at the hospital were handled very well, and it gave Leonard some of his best acting on the show. Like Edelstein, he's been unwisely ignored by Emmy voters as well, and he'll probably be ignored again this season. I imagine Laurie will be back in the Emmy hunt again this season, as well as the show itself for Best Drama Series. But I'd like to see it get more nominations than just the show and its star. It would be nice to see the supporting cast get recognized for a change.

The standout episode of season five was "Last Resort", which is episode 9. This was the extended episode where Dr. House, Dr. Hadley (aka Thirteen), and others are taken hostage by a person whose ill and has seen many doctors but none have found out what's wrong with him. So he forces House to find out what's wrong with him. The actor playing the man who takes Dr. House hostage is Zeljko Ivanek, who won an Emmy last year for the critically acclaimed Glenn Close series "Damages", and could be in the running again this year for guest actor in a drama series for his powerful guest stint here in this episode. This is far and away the best episode of season five. It's one of the best episodes of the show ever, and it shouldn't be missed. Another strong episode is episode 20, "Simple Explanation. This is the critical episode where a major tragedy strikes the team. In addition to Ivanek, there are terrific guest appearences by Judy Greer, who guest stars in another of my favorite episodes of the season, "Here Kitty" (episode 18); and longtime veteran actor/filmmaker Carl Reiner, in the final episode of season five "Both Sides Now". And episode 4, "Birthmarks", is a very funny episode in which Wilson drives House to his father's funeral and the two encounter some comical mishaps along the way.

I did have a couple of quibbles about the fifth season. Unlike the past four seasons where almost every episode was compelling, there were some episodes in this season that I felt weren't as interesting as they should have been. Plus I liked the show better with the original team. It was more fun watching Dr. House bounce ideas off of Foreman, Cameron, and Chase than off of the current team of Taub, Kutner, and Hadley. As a result of the new team (introduced in season four), I got kind of ticked off at the very little screen time Cameron and Chase had in season five (they also had little screen time in season four when Dr. House was picking his new team). I figured they would be back with more screen time in season five but that wasn't the case. Jennifer Morrison and Jesse Spencer are attractive actors and were very good on the show in the first three seasons. But after the major change at the end of season three when Chase got fired and Foreman and Cameron resigned we've seen less of Morrison and Spencer. Omar Epps, who plays Dr. Foreman, actually got more screen time because after his character returned to Princeton-Plainsboro early in season four Dr. Cuddy hired him back (he's now working for her and not Dr. House) and put him on Dr. House's new team to work with the newcomers. That's a good thing. But it made me mad in a few episodes where you only see Dr. Chase on screen in one episode for one minute; then on screen in another episode for two minutes; and so on. Same thing with Cameron. Morrison and Spencer deserve better treatment than this, and I think the writers apparently heard the criticisms of this, and responded by giving both of these actors more screen time during the latter portion of the season. That was also a good thing. Even though we still didn't see them quite as much as we did during the first three seasons, it was great to see more of these two characters on screen more often late in the season as compared to earlier in the season. Also I had one more quarrell: this may be a stupid complaint, but with Peter Jacobson, Kal Penn, and Olivia Wilde onboard as series regulars, why wasn't the opening credits sequence changed and these actors' names added to it? The opening credits sequence is exactly the same as it was for the first four seasons, with the new cast members' names appearing after the opening credits sequence ends. To me, that didn't make any sense. Especially since Jacobson, Penn, and Wilde got far more screen time than Morrison and Spencer. Of course with Dr. House's new team they're going to get plenty of screen time. I know this is probably a stupid thing to complain about, but I'd like to see the opening credits sequence changed for season six (I'm sure it won't) and see Jacobson's and Wilde's names on there (Penn departed from the show late in the season to pursue a career in politics with President Obama).

Despite these problems, "House" season five still has alot of great things going for it, and it'll be interesting how season six progresses. Dr. House started facing a major headache towards the end of season five with the hallucinations he was having in seeing the ghost of Amber (season four star Anne Dudek returning for a couple of guest appearences). Hopefully he'll get back on track in season six."