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House

Hugh Laurie as Doctor Gregory House in House
  • Posted at 5:15pm
  • 28 May 2009
  • by AlisonGraham-RT
  • 14 comments

It's always galling when a major broadcaster loses interest in one of your favourites so they ditch it completely, give it to a channel you can't get or move it around to the point that you need a team of sniffer dogs and a powerful torch to find it again.

You know what I mean - you stick with a show, you enjoy it and look forward to it. All right, it might be showing signs of weariness, but, hey, we television viewers are nothing if not loyal until the rug is pulled out from under our feet and we sit there on the floor, nursing bruised knees and wondering where it all went wrong.

You doubtless have your own list of the departed or the disappeared, and after a quick think I've come up with 30 Rock, Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Shield, all of which have effectively been put out in the back yard with the bins.

30 Rock, the best US comedy since Frasier, and The Shield were tucked away on Five USA after runs on proper channel Five, while Curb was dropped by BBC4 and taken up by More4, where I eventually grew tired of trying to find it.

This week the new series of House arrives on British television. But not to its old home on Five, which has rented out House's room to The Mentalist. No, House arrives on Sky1 and Sky1 HD (Sunday), with lots of fanfare and big posters overlooking bus stops.

As you can imagine, this hasn't gone down too well with House fans who can't get Sky, but it's a cold, hard world out there, where broadcasters face tough financial imperatives - The Mentalist is a hit, routinely winning audiences much bigger than those for House. End of story. As for the show itself…well, if it's any comfort to disappointed Sky-less House-lovers (and it probably won't be), it's hard to escape the feeling that it's past its best.

I'm not saying House has become a hopelessly bad case or that it's unwatchable. But there's a sense that House's character has nowhere left to go, he's stuck being a misanthropic, deeply unpleasant man who can't move forward because he's so deeply entrenched in his rut.

Last season was patchy, though I didn't hate it as much as a lot of fans who objected to the arrival of a new team of interns. I, on the other hand, could only applaud any move that took screen time away from the Three Stooges - the deadly Chase, Cameron and Foreman.

Cheeringly, Chase and Cameron make only fleeting appearances in the first two episodes of the new season though, sadly, the tediously sanctimonious Foreman seems to have been given a bigger role.

Dr Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) is sounding a little bored and who can blame him, as he does the same thing every week. A dying patient with a logic-defying mystery illness arrives at the hospital, House subjects said patient to lots of pointless treatments, then - bang! - he looks into the middle distance in the last five minutes and realises what's wrong.

Even the humour isn't as gloriously black as it used to be, though it still has its moments. Sadly, not enough of them.

**

Alison Graham is TV editor of Radio Times.

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Comments

  • Posted on 02 October 2009
  • at 8:15pm
  • by gertie

Just watch Season 5, Alison [won't you have had access to it already?]Anyway, it progresses to brilliance and the end is a heartbreaker. I agree, 'Chase' and 'Cameron' are kind of sweet, 'Foreman' _is_ a bore while '13', 'Taub' and 'Kutner' are OKish.

BUT Hugh Laurie is brilliant, funny, and oh so sad. But I reckon most women would be happy to sit and stare at the man - a kind of latter day Mr Darcy!!!

It will of course come to an end, hopefully not dwindling badly like all the greats like 'ER' and way back to 'St Elsewhere' - but all good things must come to an end [hopefully not Hugh, though!!!}

  • Posted on 23 September 2009
  • at 8:36pm
  • by raspberry rimmer

Alison Graham is truly boring, whereas House is sharp, funny and interesting. Yes, House is a procedural, but it's writing is excellent, as millions of fans testify. Graham deserves the Homer Simpson award for being so DUH!!

  • Posted on 13 June 2009
  • at 6:49pm
  • by tooodle

ahh such an amazing blog i agree with lynn(e) and gemmalina

  • Posted on 11 June 2009
  • at 8:14pm
  • by Lynn(e)

I love this blog!

  • Posted on 11 June 2009
  • at 8:13pm
  • by Gemma

i just think alison graham is Awesome !!

  • Posted on 05 June 2009
  • at 9:44pm
  • by Lizz

Im a UK viewer, but have seen the whole of season 5, and although the first few episodes are great, it does dip... but then it picks up with such a massive, massive, excellent WOW arc that its well worth watching. Season 4 was patchy, yes, but this season is brilliantish. I dont think it beats season 2 or 3 though.

  • Posted on 03 June 2009
  • at 8:13pm
  • by Ash

I too have already watched Season 5 of House and can honestly say that the second half particularly is the best yet! I have yet to meet anyone else who has seen it disagree with me!

  • Posted on 31 May 2009
  • at 2:03pm
  • by Catherine

This article distresses me because I have been excited about season 5 for quite some time now (I don't have Sky) and I trust Alison Graham's opinions on American drama 100%. Five has made me proper angry now. But I nonetheless live in hope that Dominic O'Key is right about the season improving as it goes along, and therefore that my inevitable purchase of the DVD will not be a big waste of money.

PS It's already been lupus!

  • Posted on 30 May 2009
  • at 11:37pm
  • by Alex K

I've already watched season 5 in america and believe me, it is 100 million times better than season 4. You will not be disappointed one bit. Last season was so stilted because of the writers strike and tensions within the FOX camp, this season though is coming back with a bang and no-one should say it is past it's sell by date, because it is one of the best original concepts and scripted dramas on the television right now. The Mentalist might be pulling in good numbers but it doesn't have the quality of House, and I fear it never will. House fans have tasted what amazing, brilliant, talented writing is and they have set the bar higher for any other television show willing to compete with that.

I's a shame that Five didn't give House the recognition it deserves and has got in 42 other countries. If they held onto it and nurtured it, they would be rolling in money. Sadly, bad decisions have caused them to lose House to FOX show gamekeeper Sky1.

But one thing is for sure, this season is the best ever yet. Believe me :)

  • Posted on 30 May 2009
  • at 5:46am
  • by JMA

As an American viewer who just finished watching Season 5 (don't worry - I shan't give anything away), I want to say that after 2 episodes I would have agreed with your comments (except about being glad there was almost no Chase.) After 10 episodes I was only watching because I'm a Hugh Laurie fan.

But hang in there. The second half of the season is as good as anything they did in the first 4 years.

  • Posted on 29 May 2009
  • at 1:22pm
  • by M. R.

I echo MazY's sentiments over Fox wringing the last bead of life out of House - because they will, and it's not exactly news to anyone who's loyally followed a popular American show in the UK, only for the channel to dump it later on.

The bigger and more interesting discussion to be had is over UK broadcasters treating their audiences like jerks, supplying a show and then pulling it after a few seasons. It makes me glad that I don't contribute to their ad revenue by watching them on digital TV; instead, the internet provides a regular stream of these shows cheaply, on demand, when and where I want them.

  • Posted on 29 May 2009
  • at 12:45pm
  • by Dominic O'Key

Having already seen all of season 5, I have to say Sky 1 have definitely came in at the right time. Season 4 was great, but Season 5 has more plot development than 1,2 and 3 put together, yet at the same time is both tragic and comedic.

It is great.

  • Posted on 29 May 2009
  • at 10:06am
  • by MazY

Hoozah! The return of House! Yes, it's repetitive, and yes, some of the characters are tedious. But Hugh's performance is spot-on.

House is not going through anything that every other American drama series doesn't go through, that being having every last bit of life squeezed out of it, until you are sick at the very mention of it, let alone at having to watch it. For now, I'm happy to be carried along a while longer.

Besides, you'll see, one of these days that mysterious illness will indeed be Lupus!

  • Posted on 29 May 2009
  • at 10:04am
  • by Ceri

I think the fact that we get to watch and admire Hugh Laurie as often as we do because of House is enough for me. Its the fifth season. Any show that's in its fifth year will have peaks and troughs. I would rather watch him in that show then see him going to waste on some rubbish British advert. At its worse House is still much better and enjoyable then most things on tv. I appreciate your opinion but I will continue to love and enjoy the show as long as its on air

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