History Series / House

''House'' (also known as ''House, M.D.'') is a television series which debuted in November, 2004 and is still ongoing. Centered around Dr. Gregory House, an expert diagnostician at (the fictional) Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. House, a DeadpanSnarker played by HughLaurie, suffers from chronic pain in his right leg and is quickly identified by the cane he uses as well as his regular (or not so regular, depending on the season) downing of Vicodin. He is abrasive socially, professionally, and personally; he usually refuses to take on a case unless something about it piques his interest and he is known to engage in bizarre (and not always legal) hobbies and pranks while working. [[BunnyEarsLawyer However, he is such a genius in diagnosing patients]] that the Dean of Medicine, Dr. Lisa Cuddy, allows him to continue. His only friend is Dr. James Wilson, head of the Oncology department.

* TheMainCharactersDoEverything: Once in a while, we see a surgeon or radiologist in the background doing their jobs. Most of the time, it's one of the main characters. It's possibly due to Cuddy's lack of any actual control over them, but you'd think the technicians and surgeons would be upset that these guys from Diagnostics are doing their jobs. Also, the main characters tend to do a lot of nurse-work, as on most medical drama shows.
** Interestingly, in the two episodes from Season 6 where the POV is switched from House ("Wilson" and "9 to 5"), the nurses (or at least the ones serving as personal assistants to Wilson and Cuddy, respectively) have a bigger role, so it seems that this trope applies more to House's team than to the hospital as a whole. The trope is played however painfully straight with Chase, who, despite being an intensive care specialist, once he got magically transformed intop a surgeon is able to handle any surgery under the sun.

** House's new fellows have problems too. Thirteen is [[spoiler:dying from Huntington's. (Her mom died from it too.) And had to euthanize his older brother who was 'also' dying of Huntington's (and spent six months in jail as a consequence - it's complicated).]] Kutner's parents were killed in a robbery when he was six and in Season 5 he [[spoiler:commits suicide, and nobody knows why; not even House can figure it out]]. Taub [[spoiler:cheated on his wife, causing him to lose his ability to practice his specialty]], and has financial problems in Season 5. [[spoiler:His marital problems continue in Season 6, where his compulsion to cheat seems even more powerful than House's Vicodin dependency used to be.]]

* SingleIssuePsychology: Both played straight and averted. If the PatientOfTheWeek has any kind of psychological problem, you can be pretty sure it's because of single underlying cause or traumatic event which will come to light and/or be resolved by the end of the episode. However, it's averted in the case of the main cast, especially with House himself: other characters repeatedly have to remind him that fixing his leg will not automatically make his life better and his problems are much more deep-seated.

** Cameron or Cuddy throwing some type of hissy fit because House did/wants to do something rude, risky, or dishonest.

* LittleNo: [[spoiler:Wilson, when House revealed that he replaced the wall between their offices with a remote-controlled garage door]]

*** Plus, most hospitals don't have a room 13, they go 12, 12A, 14.

* NotSoFastBucko: If a convincing diagnosis is made at all before the end, it's usually made around the halfway mark. Of course, it'll be the wrong one. Alternatively, it's the right diagnosis, but other things get in the way - for example a patient is correctly diagnosed as having Strongyloides, but his helper dog eats the pills the doctor in charge gives him. Result - one dead patient who didn't get his medication, one dead dog who did. or House suspects Erdheim Chester's in both an old woman and a young kid in "All In" within the first fifteen minutes, but the tests were screwed up because of the timing and they went through about fifteen other things.

* CassandraTruth: In one episode involving an agoraphobic patient, House for the most part doesn't mock or even argue much with Cuddy. When House's team asks why, he replies "[[IfYouKnowWhatIMean I kinda hit that last night]] so now she's all up in my jock." The team naturally asks what the real reason is. House simply repeats himself in a loud clear voice, and they don't press the issue. The only thing they don't know is that he wasn't lying.

*** Although according to this troper's nurse wife, this isn't out of the realm of possibility. She's seen patients do some pretty idiotic things. Like swallow suppositories instead of using them properly, etc.

* AddictionDisplacement: It's subtle, but we see House hitting the bottle (usually bourbon) a lot more after he gets off Vicodin (presumably replacing only the psychological effects of the drug, considering that he's on high-dose ibuprofen for the pain).

* {{Adorkable}}: Masters. If you don't feel the urge to hug her everytime House brings her down, you should take an X-Ray of your own chest to make sure nothing's missing.

*** The finale of Season 6 subverts this when House wonders if he's hallucinating. Then he realizes he hasn't actually taken any drugs yet.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Masters apparently

* BittersweetEnding: The Season 6 finale. [[spoiler:The patient House genuinely cared about dies and Thirteen's condition gets worse. However, House does not relapse into Vicodin and gets the oh-so-desired RelationshipUpgrade with Cuddy.]]

* BreastAttack: in Season 5, Foreman gives House a massive "double titty-twister" as a substitute for paddles in order to shock him out of a drug-induced heart attack; House then extends his sympathies to Thirteen.

* CassandraTruth: In one episode involving an agoraphobic patient, House for the most part doesn't mock or even argue much with Cuddy. When House's team asks why, he replies "[[IfYouKnowWhatIMean I kinda hit that last night]] so now she's all in my jock." The team naturally asks what the real reason is. House simply repeats himself in a loud clear voice, and they don't press the issue. The only thing they don't know is that he wasn't lying.

** He gets a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2xoO_tU7HI&feature=related full-blown musical song]] when Cuddy is knocked out for an operation.

** And Season 7's Last Temptation is this for Martha Masters [[spoiler:before she intentionally causes a 13-year old girl to go into cardiac arrest all so she could then chop off her arm, then she resigns, before falling over a chicken.]]

** When we first meet Wilson he has been divorced two times and his third marriage is on the verge of complete collapse. In Season 1, he proclaims that, "I've only got two things that work for me: this job and this stupid, screwed-up friendship [with House]." Before Season 2 is over, Wilson finds himself divorced again and homeless. In Season 3 his assets get frozen while attempting to keep House out of jail and it's revealed (surprise, surprise) he's suffering from depression. In Season 4, his [[spoiler:girlfriend, Amber, dies,]] and in Season 5 it's revealed that his long-lost, homeless brother that is mentioned in Season 1 is also [[spoiler:schizophrenic and that he blames himself for him running away]].

* ExactWords: Mixed with TemptingFate in the Season 4 premier episode.

** AmyLandecker 's appearance as Darrien

* [[{{Homage}} Holmage]]: Multiple ones to ''SherlockHolmes''. "Holmes" sounds like "homes", hence "House"; Dr. Wilson's name and role echo those of Dr. Watson; House's Vicodin addiction parallels Holmes' cocaine use; House's soap operas are a nod to Holmes' monographs; both Holmes and House live at number 221B; both stories involve a character named "Irene Adler", and both House and Holmes have had a guy named "Moriarty" try to kill them. Also, it's theorized that Watson had three wives (the stories are unclear and Doyle is somewhat vague on this point), mirroring Wilson's three divorces. And in a rather self-conscious homage, Wilson's present to House is a book on Dr. Joseph Bell ("You remind me of him"), who was the real-life physician Holmes' deductive ability was based on.

-->Either that costs more than 25 bucks, or I'm seriously starting to doubt Steve Jobs' business strategy.

** And now House's Korean assistant.

* OneOfOurOwn: Used sparingly compared to other medical shows, but Foreman has been infected with the week's mystery disease and Cameron has had an AIDS scare. Played straight in [[spoiler:the fourth SeasonFinale, "House's Head"[=/=]"Wilson's Heart", where House spends the entire first part trying to figure out why he was involved in a bus crash and which of the other passengers is dying, only to figure out that it's Amber Volakis. The trailer for the second part uses the exact trope name]]. There is also the episode where Cuddy ''appears'' to get Meningococcus.

* YouCalledMeXItMustBeSerious: [[spoiler:When Foreman thinks he's dying in Euphoria (part two), he apologizes to Cameron for stealing her article and exposing her to his disease - and calls her Allison.]]

* AmbiguousDisorder: Lampshaded and subsequently averted in "Lines in the Sand".