The series "Doctor House": reviews and reviews, seasons and actors

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

"House" is a series produced in the USA. The story revolves around the gifted but troubled diagnostician Gregory House and his team of doctors. At the center of each series is one patient with symptoms that are difficult to recognize and make a correct diagnosis. The series also focuses on House's relationships with subordinates, superiors, and best friend. The show was an incredible success and made lead actor Hugh Laurie a worldwide star.

Concept

Initially, the idea of creating a series about a team of doctors who diagnose diseases with unusual symptoms came to the mind of screenwriter Paul Attanasio. His partner David Shore helped Paul refine the concept of the project and, together with producer Cathy Jacobs, they held the first pitch for the FOX channel in 2004.

After the channel gave the go-ahead for the production of the pilotseries, Shore decided that the series should not focus on a team of characters, but on one main character. He began developing the show's central character. It was important to the writer that the character suffer some kind of injury, and David originally planned to "chain" House to a wheelchair, but the channel did not approve of this idea.

It was decided to name the series "Doctor House" after the name of the main character. Fans have found many references to the Sherlock Holmes stories in the series and the personality of the central character. Shore himself admitted to drawing inspiration from the work of Arthur Conan Doyle.

Creation

The director of the pilot episode, Bryan Singer, known for the films of the X-Men series, was involved in directing the pilot episode. He also took an active part in the selection of actors. David Shore served as showrunner for the project. In addition to him, more than two dozen writers managed to work on the show for all seasons of the series House M. D.

The series takes place in New Jersey, but most of the filming was done in one of the areas of Los Angeles. Singer, who was actively involved in the casting, insisted that an American actor should play Gregory House.

Cast casting

The creators planned to invite popular TV actors Dennis Leary, David Cross, Patrick Dempsey and Rob Morrow to play the main role in the series House M. D. However, when British actor and comedian Hugh Laurie auditioned, Singer and Shore immediately made their choice. director, notbeing familiar with the past works of the Briton, I was sure that he was a Native American because of the impeccable accent of the actor. Fun fact: Laurie recorded the audition video in a hotel bathroom in Namibia, the only place he could find proper lighting while filming in Africa.

Hugh, in his own words, was sure that Dr. Wilson would be the main character of the series, because he did not believe that someone would launch a project with such a repulsive character as Dr. House at the center of the plot. The actor himself is the son of a doctor and took inspiration for the role from his biography. Excellent reviews about the series "House Doctor" are associated precisely with the acting of Lori, who, thanks to the project, received many prestigious awards and became famous in the United States and around the world. The rapid development of Hugh's career is illustrated by his salary. For the 1st season of the series House M. D., he received a fee of 50 thousand dollars per episode. By the sixth season, the Brit's salary has increased eight times, making him one of the highest paid television actors in the world.

Robert Sean Leonard was chosen for the role of Dr. Wilson, the best friend of the protagonist. According to his own words, he did not do a very good audition, but his friendship with Singer helped him get the role. Chief Medical Officer Lisa Cuddy was played by Lisa Edelstein, who had come to the attention of Shore a few years earlier with a small role on The West Wing.

Patrick Dempsey auditioned for the role of Dr. Chase, but didn't getwork and soon became famous thanks to his participation in another medical series - Grey's Anatomy. Chase was played by Australian actor Jesse Spencer, for whom the writers changed the nationality of the character. Omar Epps and Jennifer Morrison were cast as the other two doctors on House's team.

Plot and seasons

The first season introduces the main characters and follows a standard procedural structure, focusing on individual patients and not introducing too many sidelines. In the second half of the season, a cross-cutting plot appears with millionaire Edward Vogler, who makes a huge donation to the hospital and gains power over House, trying to break him. The character was added due to the demand of the channel's executives and was soon removed from the plot, largely due to the negative feedback from viewers.

In the 2nd season of House M. D., the main through line is the main character's relationship with his ex-girlfriend Stacey, whose husband is his patient. She later breaks up with her husband, gets a job at a hospital, and rekindles her relationship with Gregory, but this time too, they break up. In the season finale, House starts using Vicodin and gets rid of his limp.

In the 3rd season of House M. D., the writers continue the line with the main character's ketamine addiction, and also introduce a new antagonist, a police officer, whom House is rude at the reception. As a result, a disgruntled patient begins to investigate Gregory's dependence on painkillers, in particular, onVicodin.

The creators decided on major changes in the 4th season of the series "House M. D.". The protagonist fires his old team and begins a painstaking process of selecting three doctors for vacant positions. As a result, after a few episodes, Taub, Kutner and Hadley, whom Gregory simply calls Thirteen, become House's new subordinates. Foreman later returns to House's team, the other two doctors continue to appear on the show.

Following the death of Wilson's girlfriend in last season's finale, the fifth season in the first half concentrates on House's relationship with his best friend. In the season finale, House realizes that he is suffering from severe hallucinations and voluntarily enters a psychiatric clinic, leaving Foreman as the leader of the medical team.

The sixth season follows House's struggle with drug addiction and the growing tension with Cuddy. As a result, in the finale, the characters finally begin a romantic relationship, on which the entire seventh season concentrates. As a result of the breakup in the last episode, Gregory has a nervous breakdown and drives his car into Cuddy's house.

At the start of the show's eighth and final season, Dr. House is in jail following his breakdown and is soon released on parole. There are new changes in Gregory's team, and in the season finale, he learns that his best friend has cancer. He decides to fake his own death and spend Wilson's last months with him, thus losing the opportunity to be a doctor again.

Characters

Gregory House - the main character of the series, the head of the diagnostics department. A brilliant doctor who, at the same time, has difficulties in communicating with patients and colleagues, largely due to his complex nature, constant pain in his leg and drug addiction. Due to an old injury, House walks with a cane and regularly takes Vicodin painkillers. At the same time, he is able to make even the most non-obvious diagnosis and has incredible intelligence. The only character to appear in all episodes of all seasons of House M. D.

James Wilson is head of oncology and Gregory House's only real friend. Wilson's personality is almost the complete opposite of the protagonist, often acting as a moral compass for the character. He is the second most regular appearance of the hero of the series.

Lisa Cuddy is the hospital's chief medical officer and House's romantic interest. During the first seasons, they play off the sexual tension between them, but soon Gregory begins to more persistently seek her favor. It was she who decided to hire House as the head of the diagnostics department and often defends him, despite the strange methods of work and obnoxious nature. In the fifth season, he decides to adopt a girl, in the sixth he begins a romantic relationship with House, which ends after the resumption of Gregory's drug addiction. When the main character enters Cuddy's house in a car, she leaves the post of chief physician and does not appear in the eighth season.

Eric Foreman is oneof House's team of doctors, specializes in neurology. Hired by Gregory a few days before the events of the first series. He is romantically involved with Thirteen for several seasons, but later breaks up with her due to professional differences. In the eighth season, he becomes the head doctor after the departure of Cuddy.

Robert Chase is a member of the House team, a surgeon. After being fired from diagnostics, he continues to work in the same hospital as a surgeon. Begins a romantic relationship with Allison Cameron, then marries her and divorces her in the sixth season. After House's presumed death, he takes over his position at the hospital.

Allison Cameron is one of House's team doctors, an immunologist. During the first seasons, he is romantically interested in House, after which he begins a relationship with Chase.

Chris Taub is the new doctor on House's team, a former plastic surgeon. The hallmark of the character is his complex personal life and constant infidelity, which the series often focuses on.

Lawrence Kutner is the new doctor on House's team. Quite quickly left the series after the actor playing the role accepted a position in the administration of President Barack Obama. Commits suicide and appears in several episodes as a hallucination of House.

Remy (Thirteenth) Headley is the new doctor on House's team. It is distinguished by special secrecy and mystery. She has been in a relationship with Foreman for several seasons and is also romantically interested in women. Left the hospital after being diagnosedincurable disease. After several times she returned and helped House with the diagnosis.

Awards and nominations

The project was nominated for many awards in eight years, but won relatively rarely, despite being considered one of the best series at the time. House M. D. was nominated four times for the Emmy Award for Best Drama Series of the Year, and Hugh Laurie could win the statuette for Best Actor six times, but the show never won the award. David Shore won an award for writing an episode, and "House" won an award for directing in 2008.

On account of Laurie, however, two awards "Golden Globe", two statuettes from the Screen Actors Guild of the USA. In just eight years of existence, the series has been nominated for almost forty awards, winning only a third of the time.

Critic reviews

Reviews for House M. D. have been almost 100% positive from the very beginning of the show. Critics noted the high level of scripts and the well-written protagonist. In recent seasons, critics' ratings have declined slightly. In reviews of the series "House Doctor" one could often find complaints about the excessive sentimentality of the scriptwriters. Nevertheless, throughout the first five seasons, the series consistently found itself on the lists of the best shows of the year, sometimes taking even the first place.

Ratings and viewer ratings

During its first season, the series ranked twenty-fourth among all American TV shows in terms of ratings. ATIn subsequent years, more and more people began to watch the series "Doctor House". Of all the seasons of the project, the third was the most popular. After that, the numbers began to drop, and during the airing of the final episodes, the series ranked nineteenth in the US.

However, thanks to the sale of the rights to show in other countries in 2006, House M. D. became the most watched series on the planet. Despite the annually rising level of television shows, the project still holds extremely high ratings on the IMDB and Kinopoisk websites. Reviews about the series "Doctor House" from ordinary viewers are almost entirely positive.

Influence and legacy

Many lines from the show, including "everyone lies" from Dr. House, have become an important element of popular culture. Gregory himself was voted the second sexiest doctor in TV history, behind only George Clooney's character from ER. The creators of the show made money not only by selling the rights to show "Doctor House" in other countries, but also discs with the official soundtrack of the series and various merchandising of the show were also sold with great success.

Real doctors about the series

Reviews of doctors about the TV series "House Doctor" and videos where they analyzed entire series of the show, looking for inaccuracies and artistic exaggerations, were very popular on the Web. Almost all of them came to the conclusion that the series suffers from a lack of realism, but many of them admit that this was done solely to increase viewer interest and make it more entertaining.script.