House, M.D.

Why is the character of Gregory House so popular? He’s acerbic, insulting, crude, and self-absorbed. By every conventional scale, he’s unlikable. Yet the show is enormously popular, and has won Emmy awards for writing and performance.

The extras on the DVD for season 1 include some speculation, that rests in the notion that House is popular because he speaks his mind, and doesn’t care what anyone thinks, and we all wish we could be like that.

Nah. Homeless people living on street corners don’t appear to care and many speak their minds quite freely indeed. We don’t all envy them.

Here’s the deal. House is the best damn doctor ever. So good that he can get away with rotten behavior, bad manners, constant insubordination, and even ethics violations. Hell, even breaking and entering, if it’s for the good of the patient.

It’s the so-damn-good part that is so enormously appealing. The guy is so good at what he does that he’s given a pass. And that’s what we all long for. The fantasy is, I’m the best at what I do, therefore you have to put up with me. The fantasy is, I don’t have to suppress who I am, I don’t have to kiss ass and swallow shit, I don’t have to obey, because my wonderfulness is enough. It’s a compelling fantasy; it’s the same one that fueled the show M*A*S*H, where Hawkeye Pierce was both invaluable and insubordinate. It’s the fantasy that fueled the dot com boom, where brash young techies could wear sneakers and no socks to work, as long as they got the job done.

At the bottom of the whizkid fantasy is a more universal wish. We all want to be loved, appreciated, and admired for exactly who we are. We all suspect that, if the facade we wear were stripped away, we would no longer be loved. In life, we fear, we are one bit of misplaced honesty away from rejection at every moment. House’s goodness outweighs his inner evil; something proven each week as he miraculously saves yet another life. Since we all have that inner evil, we long to be reassured that in us, too, our goodness outweighs it.

AND it’s a damn good show.

8 comments

  1. taijiya says:

    That was a big part of what made Mulder so appealing, as well; despite being an insufferably self-absorbed, half-mad ass much of the time, he was also incredibly brilliant and right more often than not (to Scully’s everlasting sorrow). 🙂

    Sorry, I roll on in and start fangirling without even a proper introduction. I’ve visited before but this is my first comment; I came in via Wildhunt.

  2. deblipp says:

    Hi Taijiya, welcome to the blog! X Files never captured my attention, and was on in the years I was not watching any TV. (I stopped in ’93 and started again 2 years ago when a knee injury put me on the couch for hours at a time.)

  3. Ken says:

    I’m a big fan of HOUSE (as you know…..), but I’m amused by the conflict between the idea that he’as a GREAT DOCTOR, yet at the same in time in almost every episode he’s wrong about 7 times and almost kills the patient a couple of time before he finally gets it right……

    Since you’ve watched the special features for season 1 I assume you watched the next to last episode, where House teaches the diagnostics class. That was the ep the kept me watching just when I thought the show had jumped the shark…..

    The show works because of two things – the writers haven’t caved and made House a marshmallow inside, and the brilliant performance of Hugh Laurie.

  4. deblipp says:

    I didn’t watch the next to last episode yet. I jumped ahead for the special features (I usually do that).

    Even though House isn’t a marshmallow deep-down, neither is he a cardboard bastard. The other night I watched the one with the schizophrenic mother. House is certainly capable of showing kindness and compassion, he’s just careful not to overplay it.

    But tell me last week’s episode wasn’t KILLER! I wish I knew of a good fan site…

  5. Ken says:

    I MISSED last week’s episode, dammit!@ Forgot it was on Monday night…. friggin’ FOX TV……

  6. deblipp says:

    OOOOOH NOOOOO.

    Must! Get! TiVo!

  7. kate.d. says:

    my boyfriend has this inexplicable antipathy toward House. he has never seen the show (nor have i), just the ads. for some reason, the 30 second spots are enough to convince him that he hates House and all that he stands for.

    my boyfriend is strange.

    and sidenote: ooooooh, x-files. now that was a show.

  8. Ken says:

    Time to get a new boyfriend….. 😉