Someone Complained About ‘House MD’ And Hugh Laurie Shared His Thoughts

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House MD ran for eight seasons and has an 8.7 rating on IMDb, but it’s clearly not for everyone. Though the medical drama first aired in 2004, a freelance journalist who just recently watched it took to social media to share her thoughts — and the show’s lead actor responded directly.

His response has gone viral online, especially because fans of the show think it sounds a lot like something his character might say.

The critic of the show said each episode has the “same narrative.”

And while some people thought it was a fair critique, fans of the show defended it and argued that its procedural nature is kind of the point (and not a flaw). On X, the journalist, Janet Murray, noted that she’s “late to the party,” but has “started watching Season 1 of House.”

After watching some episodes of the show, she suggested that she didn’t really understand the hype. From her perspective, each episode follows the “same narrative.” “Patient has mysterious illness,” she wrote. “Hugh Laurie (House) gets diagnosis wrong. Patient nearly dies. Hugh Laurie gets diagnosis wrong again. Gets threatened with being fired. Patient nearly dies again. Hugh Laurie has last minute leftfield idea. Gets diagnosis right. Doesn’t get fired. Eight seasons of this?”

Hugh Laurie actually responded directly to the post.

The actor’s response, in which he explained why the show is like this, has gone viral. “Thanks for your critique, Janet,” he wrote back. “We actually tried a couple of episodes where House (Hugh Laurie) (please put the brackets in the right place) gets it right first time, but they were only 6 minutes long. NBC weren’t happy. Then we tried some where House never gets it right and the patient dies. The audience wasn’t happy.”

He also gave some other examples of other things that might seem a bit repetitive to those who don’t appreciate them. “One could apply your trenchant analysis to other art forms: JS Bach wrote 30 Goldberg variations on the same chord structure; Frida Kahlo painted 50 portraits of herself; Henry Moore, what??” he continued. “The point is, or was, variations on a theme; if all you see is hospital, medical blah blah, then it wasn’t meant for you. Nonetheless, I look forward to your first novel!”

Clearly, when Janet shared her opinion on the show, she wasn’t actually expecting the lead actor to see it and weigh in, and yet, here we are. So, she wrote back too. “Well this was unexpected,” she said. “And not the slightest bit (patronizing) 🤣”

A lot of fans loved his response, though. “Hugh Laurie (House) was really channeling his inner House there!” one of them wrote.

Some people argued that they were both correct.

While some fans of the show could see how it would come across as formulaic, they argued that it’s not a problem and that it made sense at the time. “Every episode is just a mystery to be solved, it’s the whole premise of the show, the problem solving and the clues being put together,” someone argued.

And that appears to work for a lot of people. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” one person wrote. “It’s entertaining, and fun to play along.”

As someone else pointed out, the show first aired before binge-watching was a thing, so its repetitive nature was less obvious. “I think people also forget this show came before streaming,” they said. “Repetition doesn’t matter as much when you have a week between episodes.”

Many fans could see both sides. “I was on her side at first and then I read Hugh’s (House) response and now I agree with him,” one person commented, while another person said “neither one of them is wrong.”

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Paige Sheffield (she/her)