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I Got Totally Addicted to House M.D. (OMG, the Dialogues!)

All in all, I’m pretty boring.

Sure, I read a lot. Give me a good thriller and chances are, I won’t hear the phone and forget to eat. But reading isn’t trendy—some would even consider it as a shameful pastime. I’m from the MTV Generation, but when it comes to music, I don’t know many of the new bands—unless you still consider Pink Floyd, Guns & Roses, Bob Dylan etc., are “new bands” (in which case, you are worse than me).

I don’t watch much TV. I never did in France, and programs are even worse in Canada. When I do find something interesting, I usually lose track of what I am watching because there are so many commercials. The last TV series I actually watched and liked was Friends, quite a while ago. I watched ER a bit when I was in high school in France, where it was dubbed and called “Urgences.” Oh, and Heartbreak High, an Australian soap opera which was, for some reason, quite popular in Europe. I like some Seinfield episodes and the Simpsons, which rerun constantly in Canada. That’s about it.

But recently, I fell in love with House M.D. Oh, I know, you guys all know the series already, after all the 5th season is currently airing in North America. But I had never watched it before. See? That’s what I’m saying. I’m out of touch with pop culture.

I love House. I’m hooked.

Until now, I had always kind of avoided medical dramas. First of all, a close-up of a brain surgery is not a great way to start your dinner, and second, well, it’s too much drama. If I want to see people die, I can just turn on C.N.N. Oh, and I’m a bit hypochondriac (my friends would say I like to call myself a hypochondriac just so that I can claim a condition), so I hate to see that on TV, headaches invariably equal brain tumour, that a sore leg often results in an amputation and that cutting your finger will lead to a rare but deadly infection.

But House is a bit different (desperately trying to justify myself…).

First of all, episodes are organized around a medical mystery, kind of like “C.S.I. at the hospital.” I like thrillers, I like mysteries, I like finding the truth. Second, diseases are always rare and difficult to diagnose but they are also often treatable. Eh, I like happy ends.

But the main draw to the series is the characters… or even the character, Gregory House, Chief of Diagnostic Medicine and a major pain in the ass. The thirty-something doctor is a genius, a painkiller addict, “cleverly has no personal life,” is an endless round of contradictions, hates patients (but like diseases), is an atheist, a misanthrope, an “obsessive son-of-a-bitch,” a cranky curmudgeon… the list goes on. He spies (on his few friends), steals (Vicodin, the powerful painkiller), lies (his motto is “everybody lies”), cheats (to get his way)… he is not the kind of guy you would want to work with. Yet, he is brilliant and quite lovable. A complex man—don’t we all love that?

The series is famous for the “Housisms,” Greg House’s witty comments. Several websites offer his pieces of wisdom (Housisms and House MD Quotes for example) and I almost love reading them as much as I like watching the show:

House: The truth of the human condition is that everyone lies. The only variable is about what.

House: If we don’t talk to them (the patients), they can’t lie to us, and we can’t lie to them. Humanity is overrated.

House: See that—they all assume I’m a patient because of the cane.
Dr. Wilson: Then why don’t you put on a white coat like the rest of us?
House: Then they think I’m a doctor.

Dr. House is the anti-hero. He is disabled and he walks with a cane because of a leg injury he suffered (it wasn’t diagnosed properly because the hospital staff thought he was just seeking drugs). He has chronic pain and resorts to large amounts of Vicodin to manage it. He admits being an addict but is fine with that: “I said I was an addict. I didn’t say I had a problem. I pay my bills, I make my meals. I function.” He doesn’t do politically correct. He is needy but can’t stand anybody. Finally, someone normal in this sterile world!

Try it. You’d love it.

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Zhu

French woman in English Canada.

Exploring the world with my camera since 1999, translating sentences for a living, writing stories that may or may not get attention.

Firm believer that nobody is normal... and it’s better this way.

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