MickeyHouse Rules
Some people say that "Rules are made to be broken." Unless elected to public office, these people will likely some day be called upon to fill a gas tank, and so evolution is kind of tilted against them. Still, there is that wild thread in our hearts that tends to idolize the wild man, the rebel, the way cool dude who can break the rules and get away with it. Who among us, at some time, hasn't accepted Ferris Bueller as our own personal savior?
Doctors are trained in the fine art of the "bedside manner," to exude a mixture of warm compassion and knowledgeable confidence, in order to put patients at ease in an intensely uneasy part of their lives. On House M.D., Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie- remember him from Blackadder?) exudes a mixture of barbed wire and a sense of reveling in his own disdain for the rest of humanity. He is a misanthrope's misanthrope, often appearing to care little or nothing for the patient- rather, he seems most interested in the challenge of figuring out an illness that defies conventional diagnosis.
Therein lies his ability to flout the expected mores of how a doctor is supposed to act. House isn't merely good at his job; he's brilliant. His skill is untangling the complex and often contradictory battery of symptoms a patient shows (often even the ones the patient won't even admit to). To Dr. House it's a game of wits, his mind and expertise against whatever disorder the patient has. Curing the patient is almost incidental; for House the challenge is in solving the puzzle.
The one thorn in House's side is his recurring duties in the hospital's clinic. House very much prefers not to interact or even meet with his patients- as long as he knows the symptoms and sees the test reports and scan images, what's the point in actually talking to one? It was in the clinic that his brusque You're-wasting-my-time-by-your-very-existence attitude pissed off a police detective Tritter (David Morse). Tritter noticed House taking pills for his chronic leg pain and made it his mission to bring House down, digging and digging until he could bring him up on illegal drug charges.
In TV Guide Tritter was hyped as House finally "Meeting his match." In the end, it was no match at all; I can't imagine anyone in the audience actually rooting for Tritter. It had nothing to do with House being the title character on the show and all about House being so damned GOOD at his job; we wind up not caring about his biting sarcasm, his antisocial elitism and his pill habit. He's a flawed character- deeply flawed, in fact... but we wind up loving the bastard because none of his flaws interfere with him doing his job. He's the best at what he does, and so any comparatively minor flaws like insubordination and felony narcotics violations are not just forgiven, but accepted.
All we ever saw of Tritter was his vendetta against House- that obsession aside, how good a cop was he? We'll never know. We do know how good a doctor House is; that's what makes the antihero the hero.
Doctors are trained in the fine art of the "bedside manner," to exude a mixture of warm compassion and knowledgeable confidence, in order to put patients at ease in an intensely uneasy part of their lives. On House M.D., Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie- remember him from Blackadder?) exudes a mixture of barbed wire and a sense of reveling in his own disdain for the rest of humanity. He is a misanthrope's misanthrope, often appearing to care little or nothing for the patient- rather, he seems most interested in the challenge of figuring out an illness that defies conventional diagnosis.
Therein lies his ability to flout the expected mores of how a doctor is supposed to act. House isn't merely good at his job; he's brilliant. His skill is untangling the complex and often contradictory battery of symptoms a patient shows (often even the ones the patient won't even admit to). To Dr. House it's a game of wits, his mind and expertise against whatever disorder the patient has. Curing the patient is almost incidental; for House the challenge is in solving the puzzle.
The one thorn in House's side is his recurring duties in the hospital's clinic. House very much prefers not to interact or even meet with his patients- as long as he knows the symptoms and sees the test reports and scan images, what's the point in actually talking to one? It was in the clinic that his brusque You're-wasting-my-time-by-your-very-existence attitude pissed off a police detective Tritter (David Morse). Tritter noticed House taking pills for his chronic leg pain and made it his mission to bring House down, digging and digging until he could bring him up on illegal drug charges.
In TV Guide Tritter was hyped as House finally "Meeting his match." In the end, it was no match at all; I can't imagine anyone in the audience actually rooting for Tritter. It had nothing to do with House being the title character on the show and all about House being so damned GOOD at his job; we wind up not caring about his biting sarcasm, his antisocial elitism and his pill habit. He's a flawed character- deeply flawed, in fact... but we wind up loving the bastard because none of his flaws interfere with him doing his job. He's the best at what he does, and so any comparatively minor flaws like insubordination and felony narcotics violations are not just forgiven, but accepted.
All we ever saw of Tritter was his vendetta against House- that obsession aside, how good a cop was he? We'll never know. We do know how good a doctor House is; that's what makes the antihero the hero.
