Golden Globe winning actor Hugh Laurie returns as the cranky, misanthropic Dr. Gregory House in a third season of medical mysteries. This fine series has a flawed hero that you’re going to love watching him work.
Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) is a grouchy, yet brilliant, diagnostic physician that solves medical mysteries from week to week. He is assisted in his diagnosing by Drs. Foreman (Omar Epps), Cameron (Jennifer Morrison), and Chase (Jesse Spencer). He’s the thorn in the side of chief administrator Dr. Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein). He’s also friends with Dr. Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard).
Disc 1:
Cane & Able: A medical case has never been more out of this world than when a young boy claims to have been abducted by aliens and the team uncovers medical evidence that backs him up.
Informed Consent: House and his team find themselves at odds with one another when a patient – and renowned medical researcher – demands they help him end his life.
Lines in the Sand: When House develops an unusual relationship with a severely autistic boy, he finds his own personal grudges may help break through the boy’s shell.
Fools for Love: A young couple’s related illnesses have House playing sleuth into aspects of their married life that most outsiders never see.
Disc 2:
Son of a Coma Guy: Family ties are being tested when House awakens a man who’s been in a coma for ten years in order to uncover what might be ailing his son.
Whac-a-mole: A young man is faced with the most difficult choice of all when House’s treatment forces him to decide between his own life and custody of his two orphaned siblings.
Finding Judas: It’s time to lay down the law when House is forced to take a young patient’s divorced patients to court in order to get his treatments enforced.
Merry Little Christmas: It’s the time for peace and goodwill to all, but House feels none of it when he discovers that Wilson has ratted his Vicodin problem to Detective Tritter (David Morse).
Disc 3:
One Day, One Room: In order to repay Cuddy, House reluctantly works clinic duty, where he meets a rape victim who compels him to examine his own life as he attempts to help her.
Needle in the Haystack: House and his team try to help a 16 year old with internal bleeding, but the young man’s family refuses all modern medical treatment.
Insensitive: A car crash victim arrives at the hospital, where it quickly becomes evident that he is unable to feel pain, which makes for a difficult and dangerous diagnosis.
Half-Wit: A musical savant whose talents inexplicably appeared after a bus accident comes under the care of House, who continues to struggle with his own health issues.
Disc 4:
Fetal Position: The picture isn’t pretty when a celebrity photographer’s unborn child is threatening her health and even her life.
Airborne: Drama is at a whole new level when a violent and contagious illness spreads among the passengers on House and Cuddy’s flight home from Singapore.
Act Your Age: When a 6 year old girl collapses, House’s team quickly realizes that her symptoms are usually found in much older patients they race against the clock to find the cause.
House Training: Foreman’s judgment of a young underprivileged patient causes him to reflect on his own humble background, while House delves into Wilson’s romantic past.
Disc 5: Resignation: House stubbornly sticks to his original diagnosis of a severely sick college student despite the fact that her symptoms suggest there may be another cause.
The Jerk: An obnoxious chess prodigy arrives at the hospital with mysterious symptoms and an obvious ability to annoy everyone on the staff.
Human Error: A Cuban couple makes a life-threatening journey across the ocean in order to receive medical treatment from House.
Season three finds House supposedly cured of his limp, but as the season progresses he gets more back to his old ways. He also finds that his Vicodin consumption has come to the notice of the authorities.
What is fantastic is Brit Hugh Laurie playing an American doctor. Think Sherlock Holmes since he and the worlds greatest consulting detective share many characteristics, including an addiction to narcotics.
The series won a Peabody Award in 2006 and was judged TV program of the year by the American Film Institute in 2005. Laurie has only been nominated for an Emmy, but he has won two Golden Globes for his excellent performance.
What is grand about the show is the mystery aspect (again something in common with Holmes) and how House discovers what ails the various patients.
House is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) and enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features are spread out over the five discs in the set. Disc 1 has a 1-minute alternate take from “Cane & Able” with Edelstein and Morrison doing their parts as Valley Girls.
Disc 3 has a commentary on “Half-Wit” with creator/executive producer David Shore and executive producer/director Katie Jacobs. Disc 5 contains a 5-minute blooper reel. It also has the 21 minute “Anatomy of an Episode: The Jerk” which explores all the production that went into this specific episode.
“House Soundtrack Session with Band from TV” is a 7-minute featurette about a charity band that Laurie formed with other TV stars. “Open House” runs 3 minutes and has producer Jacobs taking us on a tour of their offices. “Blood, Needles and Body Parts” runs 3 minutes and has property master Tyler Patton showing us the props used in the show.
House is an excellent show only made better by a grand performance by Hugh Laurie. Hopefully more awards will grace his fireplace mantle because of this wonderful show.
House, M.D. - Season Three is now available at Amazon . It is available for pre-order at AmazonUK for a Nov. 4th release. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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