DVD Reviews

House, M.D.: Season Six – Blu-ray Review

By Jeff Swindoll Sep 13, 2010, 16:56 GMT

Get ready for a full dose of medical mysteries with 21 episodes of the riveting drama series, "House". Hugh Laurie is joined by James Earl Jones ("Star Wars"), Laura Prepon ("That \'70s Show") and David Strathairn ("The Bourne Ultimatum") in guest appearances as he returns to his Golden Globe(R) winning and Primetime Emmy(R) Award-nominated role as Dr. Gregory House. In this brilliant sixth season, House finds himself in an uncomfortable ...more

Dr. House finds himself going somewhere Sherlock Holmes never went... to a psychiatric hospital. He is also traveling to Blu-ray for the first time with the Season Six release.

After a quick trip to the psychiatric hospital, House is soon back in the saddle and diagnosing again and so continues the next season of the popular medical drama.

As any follower of the show knows, Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) is a surly, badgering genius diagnostician who has a predilection for Vicodin and works at the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in New Jersey. This time he checks himself into the Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital under the care of Dr. Nolan (Andre Braugher) to get the monkey off his back and his mind right.

House’s best friend and “Watson” is Dr. Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) and House’s every move is watched by hospital administrator Dr. Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein). This causes a lot of tension in the workplace, which House doesn’t mind, but she also causes tension in his love life as she is “the woman.”

His medical team consists of neurologist Eric Foreman (Omar Epps), immunologist Allison Cameron (Jennifer Morrison), surgeon Robert Chase (Jesse Spencer), Dr. Chris Taub (Peter Jacobson), and Dr. Remy “Thirteen” Hadley (Olivia Wilde).

This season finds the team tackling the case of an ailing, reviled African dictator (James Earl Jones) who was responsible for genocide, so the team has moments of doubt as to how to treat him, a virtual reality game developer (Rick D. Wasserman) with “burning hands,” a police officer (Jon Seda) who awakens during his autopsy, a porn star (Troy Garity) with eye pain, the hospital goes into lockdown, marriage trouble, and Cuddy and House coming to terms with their tensions.

If only diagnostic medicine were so easy, we’d all be diagnosed and hopefully cured in 45 minute or less. Sadly medicine isn’t like that and some folks go years without a correct diagnosis, but that’s television for you. Though not everyone that our record-time-diagnosing doctors treat survives.

We keep tuning into see Dr. House not because he’s a likeable guy but to see what oddities are going to show up on the medical front. Well, Hugh Laurie adds superb acting to the character (does everyone know that he’s a Brit and speaks with an English accent?) and makes us like the maniacal medico.

The cast is peopled with similar interesting people and good actors that also make the subplots of interest.

House is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (1.78:1). Special features include commentaries on “Broken” (director Katie Jacobs and writers Russell Friend and Garrett Lerner), “Wilson” (producer David Frost and Robert Sean Leonard), “5 to 9” (Lisa Edelstein and producer Thomas L. Moran), and “Help Me” (director Greg Yaitanes and technical advisor Larry Collins). The rest are in high definition. Each episode features a U-Control (picture-in-picture) feature that gives you a beginner’s guide to diagnostic medicine.

Next is an 10 minute exclusive short “Before Broken,” the 23 minute “A New House for House” making of, the 9 minute “New Faces in a New House” about the new characters, the 23 minute “Crazy Cool Episode: Epic Fail” about making that episode, and the 7 minute “A Different POV” about Laurie directing. The disc is also BD-Live and Pocket Blu enhanced and has the My Scenes bookmarking ability.

Dr. House and company continue to enthrall both in medical mystery and acting ability. This season does add more interesting medical conditions and some special features that actually highlight them. Not only that but the arcs of several characters move into interesting territories that should make next season interesting.