Network television has always been accused of being formulaic, because it often is. Over the weekend, freelance journalist Janet Murray posted on X about how she wasn’t impressed by House’s particular structure. To which the star of the early 2000s’ medical drama, Hugh Laurie, gave a characteristically snappy response.
“Late to the party, but I’ve started watching Season 1 of House,” Murray posted. “Same narrative every episode: 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?”
Laurie’s Response
“Thanks for your critique, Janet,” Laurie wrote the next day. “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. 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?? 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. Nonetheless, I look forward to your first novel!”
To be fair, this isn’t a new criticism either. The 2010 The Simpsons episode “The Squirt and the Whale” makes almost the same joke with different math. “Ugh, Bart, please!” I’m trying to hear Dr. House’s third incorrect diagnosis before his final correct diagnosis,” Lisa yells during one scene. So it’s not like Laurie has never heard this before.
House, like most storytelling, follows a pretty clear pattern; it’s what’s underneath it that many viewers are looking for.
