Pilot

The pilot of House, M. D. hasn't aged well in how it treats women. At the end of the episode, House tells Dr. Cameron he hired her because she's beautiful, implying her looks - not her skills - are her real value. He even suggests that being attractive should have opened easier doors than medicine, trivializing her professional achievements. What makes it worse is the power imbalance: a boss reducing his employee to her appearance. The show frames this as witty banter rather than harassment, reflecting a broader early-2000s TV pattern where male "genius" characters got away with sexist behavior. What once passed as edgy dialogue now reads as a stark reminder of how normalized workplace sexism was on screen.

I know it's not fair since I've just finished the Pitt, but all of this is mediocre at best. I cannot stress enough how none of this holds up to modern standards. The editing and shot choices are worse than modern YouTube movies, acting is so bad it could've been done by Germans, colour grading is horrifying, plot and pacing is just so predictable and bad, the medical stuff is absolutely laughable, the Sherlock Holmes of it all is the opposite of subtle and completely unearned even in the pilot, and the character of house is a one dimensional joke. Only thing that's remotely okay is that the rest of the characters when not talking about medical stuff seem like real people. Again, it's good for the mid 2000s but man has TV come a long way since then.

Filmed much like a theatrical movie, the pilot for HOUSE, M.D. wastes no time in establishing the show's recurring theme: an individual falls ill, and Greg House and his merry crew spend the next 45 minutes or so trying to diagnose the illness before the patient croaks. Few episodes have varied from this pattern, for better or worse. In the pilot, House treats a young teacher (movie actress Robin Tunney) for an aphasia that gets worse by the minute. The symptoms pile up quickly. Eventually, she becomes paralyzed from the waist down and decides she wants to go home to die. House wants to do some more work on her instead. The incredibly intense scene that follows between the ailing teacher and House is what makes the episode. We also have all the basic characters introduced without a lot of wasted time, including the very sharp neurologist (Omar Epps), the emotionally charged immunologist (Jennifer Morrison) and whatever the heck the surfer-looking Aussie is (Jesse Spencer). Dr. Wilson (Robert Leonard) is the staff oncologist and House's closest friend. And Lisa Edelstein is House's incredibly nagging but sympathetic boss, who as time goes on we discover may have had a relationship with House in the past. Only time will tell. HOUSE is the best TV show since LAW & ORDER, hands down.

I have been watching TV for over 50 years, and when starting a new series, as a viewer it is sensible to allow the writers and actors some time to get into the swing if it. But this episode is outstanding. Acting excellent, storyline epic, cinematography amazing and passion in abundance. Well done to all involved. Only problem moving forward is they have set a high bar. Can they deliver the same.

Being British I have grown up with Hugh Laurie, so I am confident of his abilities, from the beloved Blackadder characters series 3 and 4 to Jeeves and Wooster with National Treasure Stephen Fry.

Can't wait to watch more.

House MD starts off in a very smart way because, with the exception of a few moments in some scenes, it could be any other episode. The show's structure from episode to episode relies on it being a case by case basis for the doctors to work on, and this one involving a kindergarten teacher (Robin Tunney), who collapses suddenly in her classroom while teaching, isn't exclusive as being something that could only happen in a pilot episode ala alien abduction in The X-Files. This goes for House's clinic cases too, in this case being a man who's completely orange (looked like someone out of Willy Wonka for a moment) and a boy who can't figure out what asthma is. Already creator/writer/producer David Shore sets up the dynamics of House's personality- acerbic wit, sometimes razor-sharp, but he does care deep down about what he does even it takes a lot, like the patient not wanting to live anymore in Tunney's case, for him to show it. And already right away Hugh Laurie displays his incredible ability to balance out how a man with quick thinking (usually with the conceit of 'oh, I just got it while talking about something else') and a cynicism that comes with the job, and a leg problem.

So why not exactly a great pilot, or rather something that could right away be one-upped? I think, really, it has to do with the direction from Bryan Singer, and specifically a technical decision. I know some may admire how Singer and his DP put a sort of purple-ish tint on the whole episode, but it just does not work, at all, especially in the context of the rest of the series which does not feature it again. It's a choice that didn't add anything dramatically to the episode, except perhaps to be something akin to what's done on CSI. It's too much of a distraction in scenes that should just be focused squarely on not getting in the characters/actors' way (the constant tracking shots, a trademark since the days of ER, is paramount), and keeping the mood tense during the moments of crises with the patient. It's not that it isn't decent what Singer's doing with Shore's material, and most notably this comes with the shots going inside of the patient's system to see what's going wrong, a visual effect probably taken from Singer's days doing X-Men. But that one tint makes what is otherwise an excellent pilot a downer.