Thinking of criticising the critically acclaimed TV series House, which is widely considered to be one of the best shows of all time?
Not on Hugh Laurie’s watch.
It’s been 22 years since the medical drama premiered, introducing the actor’s titular character Dr Gregory House, a man as grouchy as he is a genius.
While fans across the globe were transfixed by Dr House and his team working medical wonders, the series also gained a reputation for its bizarre cases, which ranged from a woman having the bubonic plague to a boy absorbing his twin in the womb.
A freelance journalist called Janet Murray shared on X that she had recently watched season one for the first time… and she wasn’t impressed, claiming that it was the ‘same narrative every episode’.
Outlining her complaint, she continued: ‘Patient has mysterious illness. 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?’
Since being posted, the tweet has been viewed 1.3 million times – and one of the people who saw it was none other than Hugh, who wasted little time in responding.
‘Thanks for your critique, Janet,’ the 66-year-old began. ‘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.’
Are you a fan of House?
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Yes, I love it!
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I’ve seen it but I’m not a fan
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I’ve never watched it
The Night Manager star continued: ‘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??’
Concluding, Hugh emphasised that perhaps House simply isn’t Janet’s cup of tea, if she believes every episode is a repeat of the same thing each time.
‘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,’ he quipped. ‘Nonetheless, I look forward to your first novel!’
Hugh’s response – which has been viewed 4.1 million times and has been liked 72,000 times – has received a mix of reactions, with many people praising his retort, and others claiming that he appeared to be ‘thin-skinned’.
‘Doctor House is in the house yall,’ @PhotoModeGamer commented, while @mightydudbolt wrote: ‘This is an extremely good post by Hugh Laurie. “Formulaic” television like House can actually be a very good arena for creativity, because it presents the challenge of seeing how many interesting variations on the formula you can come up with. This is one of the reasons I like Burn Notice so much. Or even take something like The X-Files.’
‘I love that he’s still passionate about his show after this long,’ @IMAO_ added, while @babybeginner stated: ‘I am NEVER leaving this app. This is my favorite post of the year!’
One person called @soilysound admitted that they found Hugh’s response ‘classless’, to which the actor nonchalantly responded: ‘OK.’
Janet also replied to Hugh’s tweet, saying: ‘Well this was unexpected. And not the slightest bit patronising 🤣.’
House ended 14 years ago, but if this X interaction is anything to go by, whether people find the TV show repetitive or continue to hail its brilliance, its legacy certainly lives on.
House is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video and Netflix.
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