House, Hospital TV Shows Dominating Airways

Over the past decade, the proliferation of the hospital-based TV show has been astounding. What began with ER and Chicago Hope back in the 90s has developed into its own genre, much like what Survivor did for the development of reality shows in which women get naked for cookies and peanut butter. But unlike reality shows, hospital-based shows occasionally require mental acuity, and at times, consciousness, thus explaining why reality shows continue to dominate the ratings.

The hospital show, despite what some may think, comes in several different flavors. ER, for example, which apparently plans on giving The Simpsons a run for the longevity past-staleness award, centers on victims being admitted for a variety of suspenseful and exotic reasons; relationships supplement the story.

Grey's Anatomy is quite the reverse, choosing to throw a patient into the mix anytime the show requires that two doctors of the opposite gender find a way to bump in to one another so that they can bump in to one another in the on-call room in the next episode.

Scrubs breaks the mold by focusing on laughs rather than hook-ups. Soon to be wrapping up its 6^th season (both ER and Grey's will also be back), the comedy that stole the brilliant writers of the original Family Guy episodes during its sabbatical continues to entertain with both originality and clever, laugh-trackless humor.

But there is another show that doesn't quite fit in with any of its cohorts, and that is Fox's House, MD. Anyone even slightly aware of the show's premise understands that House is so brilliant in terms of diagnosing illnesses that he is able to remain employed despite a complete lack of bedside manner. There are no dumb questions with House, only dumb people, who need to be reminded that their question was also dumb: House provides that. Although the pattern of the show is becoming predictable, with the viewer able to gauge whether or not House's theory on an illness is correct based on how much time is left in the episode, House's rude and clever wit, on top of the side stories, keep the show highly entertaining and a must-see. The viewer needs absolutely no medical background to enjoy the show, but they must, however, be able to handle an insensitive or politically incorrect remark, because they're kind of House's thing. Well, that and Vicodin.

But even without the mystery and suspense, or the racially insensitive jokes that make the show great, House's ability to read people is reminiscent of Bill Murray in Groundhog Day when he knew everything about everyone and no one knew how. Although he hates clinic duty and has a tendency to avoid it by sneaking off into a comatose patient's room to watch TV, when present he is usually able to figure out a patient's problem almost immediately. Whether it's a man with athlete's foot in his nose because he used his toe-nail clippers to trim his nose hairs, a patient with diarrhea from the sorbitol present in nicotine gum, or a genius who can't get his contact lens out because, as House points out, he isn't wearing one, House only needs a few minutes and he's already solved the mystery.

Because he's so good at what he does, House is able to get away with having absolutely no bedside manner whatsoever. He bypasses the formalities that have resulted from years of frivolous lawsuits and common courtesy and gets to the point. In fact, House might be the only doctor who can deliver great news and still manage to irritate the patient.

Those in the medical community, however, tend to be annoyed by the show, pointing out that medicine isn't nearly that glamorous (although 22 rare cases a year doesn't seem like it would be that much of a stretch). But then again, even Scrubs did an episode making fun of House, MD, re-iterating that medicine is typically filled with the same monotony every day (i.e., fat people and smokers).

Hopefully, the upcoming seasons will figure out ways to keep the show fresh; can't imagine it'd be that hard, Prison Break did it.