But this show is not about the disease. Or the treatment. Or the patients who so carelessly get constantly misrepresented. In fact, all of this plays a secondary role to the main idea behind this whole convoluted drama.

Dr. House is anything but life-affirming. The complete opposite of what one might consider humane. In fact, he disregards and ridicules any aspect of humanity. He isn’t in medicine to save the lives of his patients, just as the show isn’t set out to publicize the diseases that affect them. He is obsessed with solving a puzzle. His utter and almost depraved control over every situation is imperative to his eventual diagnosis.

And, yet, what is it that eventually always leads to the diagnosis? Why is House so obsessed this sense of control anyway? And, what is the one thing above all else that Dr. House holds as true? There is no God.

In each epsiode, Dr. House is led the the diagnosis through a phenomenon. An utter coincidence that leads to an epiphany. Even though House makes such enormous efforts to control every aspect of the lives and situations that surround him, it is through luck, chance, destiny that he is able to find each solution. The emphasis is never on the solution (the treatment) or the problem (the disease). It is on the manner in which the solution is reached. House is obsessed with control because he is defying a grander controller. Underneath the gruesome images of human suffering and glossed-over methods of treatment, there is a recurring theme. And although the show does touch on complex issues of our culture in a crast manner–pain, sex, predjudice etc–it is merely to contrast the plights of humanity to the silent omniscient benevolence of the most important member of the cast.

The show is about religion, people.

I would not consider myself a religious person, nor would I a strong television critic, but I can spot a reoccurring themed-subplot when I see one. Especially when the main premise of the plot is so transparent. Honestly, it’s not even worth mentioning that sarciodosis is overly-hypothesized, or that the struggle for the victim of pain is not over when the show ends. It’s like you’re saying Baywatch isn’t a accurate depiction of lifeguards and minimizes the issue of drowning. Baywatch isn’t about lifegaurds! Or drowning! It’s about breasts. And rushing out to save lives from murky waters simply allows them to reveal their grand and impressive power. Even if Pamela Anderson never quite does the Heimlich quite right…

And to clarify, “differently abled people” is not “PC”, no matter how much you might think it rightiously clarifies between that and “normally abled persons.” People first language is always preferred in describing any population, whether it be people with dogs to people with disabilities. And yes disabilities is okay to say. A disability can be described as a condition that makes it more difficult to engage in the activities of daily life. No need to sugarcoat it. And to be honest, that category of people may be wider than you may think. The term I’ve just given isn’t too narrow is it? But differently abled implies that there is a standard level of ability, which is untrue. The range of disabilities is limitless. In fact, one might consider the human condition one big disability, especially when compared to its counterpart.

It is usually just a disease they test for, and the lack of African-Americans is probably due to the low number within the area of Princeton itself.

I was recently diagnosed with Lupus, and I sent out a text to all of my friends explaining to situation. I immediately got about 20 texts messages back with smiley faces and, “IT’S NEVER LUPUS! HOUSE SAYS SO!”

They didn’t realize I was serious. It took quite a few phone calls to convince them this was not a prank.

But, the reality’s often *awful.* Like, I understand that minimizing disease and illness can be very damaging but I can’t imagine trying to watch a show that was a perfectly accurate recounting of someone being miserable and incurable. I certainly wouldn’t like a show that was all like “oh I’m so depressed and crazy! What’s that, you have a pill for me? Better now!” but I would never watch a show that was just a series of failed attempts at treatment and a documentary of the patient’s slowly decreasing will to live either (I get plenty of *that* reality from some of my friends…)

It’s pure fantasy that there is a way to fix everything, but even if that fantasy isn’t for everyone it doesn’t mean it’s a useless one to have. I like my nihilistic reality mixed in with some (false) hope, yanno?

Umm. I don’t know how many episodes you have watches, but the Dr House’s own current condition stems partly from rejecting an operation simply because he did not want to be submissive or docile.

Second – at least if he mentions sarcoidosis and puts people on prednisone every episode, more people will hear about the disease.

What annoys me is the way they act as if the person doesn’t go on prednisone “stat” they will die within 24 hours, but hey, that’s television.

I used to love the show but it is very repetitive.

My mom, a nurse, watches this show with me, and she just laughs at some of the diagnoses they make. In reality, one hopes people don’t rely on a fictitious television show to give them medical answers. Ask a real doctor.
If people are that stupid, maybe they don’t deserve to be cured.

I’m just sayin’.

He had an infarction in his thigh muscle, leading to them having to do surgery to remove part of that muscle. (It’s actually more complicated than that, but that’s the basic story.) So he needs to use a cane to walk, and the surgery left him with a lot of exposed nerve endings, leaving him in a lot of pain, so he’s also addicted to Vicodin.

(They’ve actually been really inconsistent about how damaged the muscle actually is — there have been a few times when, through various drug treatments, he was totally or almost-totally pain-free, and one of those times, he was running several miles, making it look like the limp was totally the result of him guarding the muscle from pain, but the other time, he was still limping some, as if the muscle were weakened, but he was able to put more weight on the leg without pain.)

Bearing in mind I’ve not seen the show, nor do I really intend to, I’m curious about this: “The main character himself is a differently abled person and this seems to function as justification for the writers to take creative license with the experiences of others.” What disability does Dr. House have?