5. House, MD (2004- )
“I find it more comforting to belief this [existence] isn’t simply a test” (Three Stories)
House, MD is a medical procedural series about a misanthropic doctor Gregory House (Hugh
Laurie) and his occasionally changing team of diagnosticians at the fictional PrincetonPlainsboro Teaching Hospital in New Jersey. It was created by Canadian Jewish David Shore
and has been on the air since 2004. It started its 8
th
season on Fox in October 2011.
5.1 Gregory House
Dr. Gregory House is a misanthropic who will insult absolutely anyone for whatever aspect
of them he finds mock worthy. He can come across as sexist, racist, intolerant, anti-Semitic
and misogynistic. However, he says all those things not because he means them but because
he enjoys getting a rise out of people and often what he says is sarcastic and funny. While he
finds patients intolerable because they always lie and are also boring, he enjoys solving
puzzles and rare or odd diseases are a great way for him to get his fix. He is also a drug
addict, eating multiple Vicodins a day to deal with the chronic pain from his leg.
He is an incredibly intelligent doctor who can solve any medical mystery presented to him.
He only takes on the hardest and most confusing cases that Princeton-Plainsboro gets.
However, he does not care for medical ethics and when watching viewers need to suspend
their disbelief not only because the medical symptoms are exaggerated and sped up, but also
because the crazy antics of House, while entertaining, should lead to House losing his job.
Despite this, House, MD is constantly one of the most watched series in the world. While
House can be a very unpleasant character, he is also a very fascinating and entertaining
character. His lack of adhering to social niceties can be refreshing and he is played with great
skill by Hugh Laurie who makes this possibly unlikable character enjoyable and makes his
many crazy treatments and the way he often behaves towards his colleagues if not
condonable then at least entertaining and understandable.
As an atheist character, House is the typical stereotype. He is angry, bitter and miserable and
often counts religious belief in his patients as a symptom unless it can be ruled out. He shows
little to no respect to people with different points of view to his own, and is ready to debate in
a hostile way with anyone who beliefs in God, whether they are a nun (1.5 Damned If You
Do ), a faith healer(2.19 House vs. God), rape victim (3.12 One Day, One Room) or someone
who crucifies himself yearly(7.8 Small Sacrifices). However, he has studied the sacred
religious texts of the major religions in order to understand exactly what he is dismissing, so
his takedowns of religious characters are done in a hostile yet intelligent manner. Most of the
other things he attacks in his patients and colleaggues he attacks because he can, but he attacks
religion because he finds the lack of logic and hypocrisy that are imbedded into religion, in
his view, unbearable. Even Dr. Allison Cameron (Jennifer Morrison), one of the other
nonbelievers in the series is constantly insulted by House because she is very emphatic,
feminine and naïve. Martha Masters (Amber Tamblyn), a medical student who was a part of 16
House’s team in season seven, is unwaveringly honest in every situation and even though
House professes to be a big proponent of honesty, he mocks her non-lying ways since it often
leads him to problems because it makes it harder for him to dismiss medical ethics when he
has someone who will not lie on his team.
While he can be funny, he often also comes across as arrogant, smug and patronizing. This isThis is
something that many fans like about his character, but as a representation of atheists it is
rather unflattering. He fits the atheist stereotype to a tee and conforms to all negative ideas
non-atheist people might already have about atheists. He certainly is not going to change
anyone’s mind about atheists as angry, hostile, bitter, miserable, argument prone, rule
breaking and morally deficient. He often works high, medical ethics or hospital rules mean
very little to him, he has sex with prostitutes, sometimes in the hospital, he spreads misery
everywhere around himself and has no interest in bothering with normal social niceties. He
shows no respect to anyone else because he has no respect for anyone else either because
their intelligence or points of view are inferior to his own intelligence or point of view. He
has intimacy issues and trouble connecting with others. He does not have Asperger’s
syndrome or autism yet he wishes he did.
Some of his behavior is explicable. He had a harsh, possibly abusive father who is not
actually his biological father. Ironically, his real father is a minister who has published a book
of sermons. House reads the book of sermons but find no commonalities with his biological
father. He is also in constant chronic pain because he had a clot in his leg which almost killed
him, but because he did not want amputation, instead they did a very dangerous procedure
that left his leg practically useless and him in constant pain. This explains his drug addiction
and his bitterness but often he goes too far in his behavior and father issues and chronic pain
are not enough to excuse them.
However, the fact that he has chosen medicine as his profession instead of science that would
give him all the puzzles to solve he wants, shows that he is not necessarily as cold and
cynical as he seems. He has also had some reflective moments during which he
acknowledges that he does not actually know for sure why certain things happen such as ‘the
white light’ that people with near death experiences see and he acknowledges that he is an
atheist because he finds that world view to be more comforting. He prefers the idea that
existence is not just a test organized by a superior being who is either indifferent to the
suffering of the world or malevolent (1.21 Three Stories). Occasionally he does connect with
a patient, most famously with a rape victim from One Day, One Room, an autistic boy from
episode 3.4 Lines in the Sand, Hanna (China Jesusita Shavers) from episode 6.22 Help Me,
and someone (David Strathairn) whose case was not interesting enough for him to try to heal
him from episode 6.17 Lockdown. While House’s personality is not the most welcoming, it is
good to see such an openly and honestly atheist character on television, especially one that is
not going to have a sudden conversion experience. House is way too cynical for such a thing
to happen.
5.2 Religious foil(s): Patient(s) of the Week
House, MD is the only series I examine in this study that does not have a strongly religious
regular character as someone with who House can regularly have religious debates. This role
is filled when needed by Patient of the Week (PotW), the subject of the weekly medical
mystery. 17
This dynamic is established early on. In episode 1.5 Damned If You Do, House’s patient is a
nun (Elizabeth Mitchell) from a monastery. Even this early on in the series House is allowed
to explain his point of view. He explains that he has difficulty with the concept of belief
because faith is not based on logic and experience. While he expresses his worldview more to
one another nun who is there to comfort the sick nun, he is somewhat even about it. He is not
overly hostile, he is jokey but not necessarily dismissive towards the nuns’ beliefs. Also, he
loses. One of the main themes of House is no one ever changes. The series is very committed
to this idea and it plays out over and over again with House himself and the patients. It is
always the most clear with religious patients. The nun was very close to losing her faith
during her illness when House kept misdiagnosing her and she thought she was going to die.
However, she ultimately managed to keep her faith once she was healed.
In episode 2.19 House vs. God the patient is a faith healer Boyd (Thomas Dekker) who
House gets into competition with. House is very dismissive of the patient, using most of the
patient’s religious experiences as a symptom, which some of them turn out to be. While the
faith healer tries to argue that God works through natural laws, for example, giving him a
tumor so God can speak to him directly, House thinks he is insane “No, you talk to God
you’re religious, God talks to you, you’re psychotic.” In the end, the competition between
House and God ends 3-3, the faith healer manages to make extraordinary coincidences
happen yet House fixes him in the end.
In episode 3.12 One Day, One Room, House makes a surprising connection with a rape
victim (Katheryn Winnick) who, for reasons she cannot express, feels like House is the only
one she is able to open up to. Before she is ready to talk about her experience, she and House
have long, complicated discussions on religion. She has studied comparative religion and is
also religious. They debate the existence of God, heaven and hell, abortion, and the
benevolence of God. She even gets House to open up about his own experiences. House is
very argumentative with her but she mostly gives as good as she gets. It is a very interesting
episode. It is also one of the few times House scores a ‘victory’. The patient starts out as antiabortion but in the end House manages to convince her that aborting her ‘rape baby’ is the
best option for her.
House does not interact much with the patient in episode 4.12 Don’t Ever Change, a Hasidic
Jewish woman (Laura Silverman) who became religious only six months prior. He is very
suspicious of her conversion, especially since she spent her life before the conversion living
the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle of sex and drugs. However, nothing comes off it. The patient seems
to be genuine in her new lifestyle and her conversion does not have anything to do with her
ultimate diagnosis.
An atheist priest (Jimmi Simpson) hallucinates Jesus in episode 5.15 Unfaithful. He lost his
faith when he was falsely accused of pedophilia and he was bounced around from one church
after another as a result. That experience made him question the foundations of his beliefs
and being a priest became just a job like any other. House is very interested in this patient and
the patient makes many of the same points House himself has and will make about religious
beliefs. However, in the end, all the multiple coincidences that lead him to House make him
find his faith again. It is facilitated by the apology of the boy who falsely accused him all
those years ago. House is very disappointed that someone who seemed so reasonable could
ultimately be so gullible.

A man (Mos Def) suffers from locked-in syndrome in episode 5.19 Locked In. He can only
communicate with blinking. House finds this fascinating. To pass the time the patient is given
some kind of virtual reality glasses so he can imagine himself on a beach with his children
and wife, and House. In his head the patient wonders about God and House makes all the
same points he always does. Once the patient is cured he has become convinced that God sent
House to cure him and House immediately loses interest in the patient.
In tribute to God for saving his daughter’s life in episode 7.8 Small Sacrifices, a man (Kuno
Becker) crucifies himself once a year. During the fourth time doing this, something goes
wrong and he is admitted to Princeton Plainsboro. House has multiple discussions with the
patient to try to make sense of his strange bargain with God. At one point the patient is
convinced that he has broken the bargain and that is the reason he is dying and refuses
treatment. House tricks the patient into thinking his daughter was not cured after all all those
years ago and the patient gets the right treatment and is cured. House is disappointed that
when he reveals his trick to the patient, the patient is able to make every outcome into the
will of God. If he is punished and dies, it is God’s will. If he and his daughter stay healthy, it
means God is truly good and merciful. House can respect such ‘cover all your bases’
thinking.
There has been only one properly religiously devout character during House, MD’s run.
During season four, when House was looking for new fellows to replace his old team that he
lost at the end of the third season, one of the applicants was a Mormon Dr. Jeffrey Cole (Edi
Gathegi), he lasted seven episodes until he was fired. House took much pleasure in annoying
him and talked with him about religious matters occasionally. Dr. Cole was given the
nickname “Big Love”, because of the HBO series about a polygamous marriage. While Cole
and House shared an interesting dynamic, he did not last long, unfortunately.

While the series always respects House’s worldview, might even view it as the right one, the
series never lets him win over a religious person. This is because of the ‘no one ever changes’
theme and while having a religion-mocking atheist as a protagonist is one thing, having him
win and convince people to lose their faith would most likely be unacceptable to an American
audience. Even the priest from Unfaithful regains his faith after years of atheism. Hence,
according to the series, conversion experience is impossible, hopefully from both sides, if one
does not have faith one will not magically get it, but if one has faith one will eventually
regain it.
The patients are not always given the best portrayal. Often they seem insane, such as the rock
producer who converts to a very strict form of Judaism and its 613 rules, the faith healer who
while having a seizure sings hymns and the patient who crucifies himself yearly. Once House
sarcastically quips that it is very hard to distinguish between religious behavior and insanity.

5.3. Religion in the series is general
The series is set in modern day New Jersey, so being religious is the default setting. While
the show has no devout religious characters, except Dr. Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) who
started connecting more with her Jewish heritage after she adopted a little girl, but even that
did not extend too far, just a religious naming ceremony. House mocks Cuddy’s hypocrisy for 19
picking and choosing when to be religious in Unfaithful. Dr. James Wilson (Robert Sean
Leonard) and Dr. Chris Taub (Peter Jacobson) are also secular Jewish, neither one of them
seem to be particularly religious.
Dr. Allison Cameron is an interesting character because of her beliefs. She has stated that she
finds humans trying to understand God, if there is one, the same as penguins speculating
about nuclear physics (House vs. God). While she never defines herself, House once calls her
the ‘most naïve atheist [he’s] ever met’ (1.17 Role Model). However, her beliefs fit more
with an agnostic atheist. She has stated that she does not belief in God, but acknowledges that
she cannot know and “if there is some higher order running the universe, it is probably so
different from what our species can conceive there’s no point even thinking about it.” (House
vs. God) This is the view point of an agnostic, and an agnostic that does not belief in God is
an agnostic atheist if one wants to define oneself very specifically.
Out of other long running characters, both Dr. Robert Chase (Jesse Spencer) and Dr. Eric
Foreman (Omar Epps) are ambiguously religious. Before becoming a doctor, Chase was in
seminary school studying to be a priest. He had a crisis of faith and did not go through with it
and became a doctor instead. He still prays and at the very least has faith in God, but he is not
devout. Foreman has shown incredulity at Cameron’s lack of belief and it was him that got
her to express her point of view in both House vs. God and Damned If You Do. In episode
3.21 Family, he is shown in the hospital chapel trying to deal with his actions, having
accidentally killed a patient in the previous episode. He often gets confused for an atheist by
the viewers (Sparks), but it seems that he is more ambivalent about religion rather than
completely rejecting it.

The cases dealt with on House often seem to stretch the bounds of medical science. But there is always a base of truth on which the show is built. By taking a look at actual medical situations that mirror the events on House, we find that the truth is at least as strange as fiction.

Yes, But Is It Art?
Season 7's finale, "Moving On," openly drew inspiration from Marina Abramovic, performance artist extraordinaire. The episode's opening sequence almost exactly copies her piece, "Rhythm 0," in which she laid motionless while the audience interacted with her, using tools from rose petals to scalpels.

It was only when the performance artist on House started turning Princeton-Plainsboro into her next performance piece that things started to seem more unrealistic.

Unrealistic until you start checking out bioart, that is. Bioart is a new field in which artists trade studios for laboratories... and then get really weird with it.

Ever want to surgically graft an ear to your arm? Better think of something else -- bioartist Stelarc has been there, done that. You could instead try injecting yourself with horse plasma to commune with nature. Oops! Marion Laval-Jeantet's "May the Horse Live in Me" has that covered.

While the scenario in "Moving On" hasn't happened yet, it wouldn't look out of place in the realm of bioart.

All True Altruism
Millionaires suddenly abandoning their families, while simultaneously donating everything to charity, probably wouldn't make the 5 o'clock news -- they'd be too busy covering the flocks of flying pigs. In reality, it would take more than Benjamin Byrd's malfunctioning thyroid gland (in season 8's third episode, "Charity Case") for that to happen.

Actually, meet scientist George Price. While studying kindness and evolution, he left a wife and two daughters in order to turn his house into a homeless shelter. Oh, and he gave away almost all of his possessions. To top it all off, he had previously had thyroid cancer. Although that has never been connected to his actions, it does raise some eyebrows.

Don't Let It Keep You Up at Night, Though
On most people's lists of fears, "Staying up 10 days straight and catching the bubonic plague" ranks somewhere below "Chupacabra attack." But this is exactly what happened in season 2's 18th episode, "Sleeping Dogs Lie." While the episode sounds far-fetched, it is actually a fairly plausible situation.

Just because you are not a medieval peasant, you are not immune to the Black Death. There are still 10 to 15 cases that pop up annually. In 2005 -- one year before "Sleeping Dogs Lie" aired -- Colorado alone had a nasty six-county outbreak. As in the show, most folks contracted the disease from their pets.

As for not sleeping for 10 days, that's literally kids' stuff. 17-year-old Randy Gardner once stayed awake for 264 hours as part of a science project. Of course, this was back in 1964, when parents thought this kind of thing built character or something.

Staying in Tune
Lou Gehrig's disease is a terrible affliction, and there's very little that's inspirational about paralysis slowly creeping through someone's body. John Henry Giles, in season 1's ninth episode, "DNR," should probably have been more concerned with the impending complete loss of bodily control instead of with playing the trumpet.

Or not. Ned Mann certainly wasn't. This jazz musician not only kept making tunes after his diagnosis with ALS, but he also produced the album, Finding My Way Home. As in, he produced it from his bed, completely paralyzed from the neck down.

Meanwhile, Nickelback maintains completely functional bodies while producing terrible music.

Sidas and Sidis
James Sidas, from season 6's ninth episode, "Ignorance Is Bliss," was a genius who had withdrawn from society. Hating his intelligence, he decided he'd rather spend his days happily in a cough-syrup daze rather than being smart and sad. But looking at real geniuses making millions off their inventions while buying fleets of yachts makes that plot somewhat hard to swallow.

That is, until you go back to the early 20th century and the case of William Sidis. Note the similarity of the names? William Sidis, who attended Harvard at age 11, was arguably the smartest man to ever live, with an IQ estimated between 250 and 300.

Too bad he barely did anything with it, since he dropped out of society 10 years later to work on streetcars. If they had had DXM at the turn of the century, he'd probably be chugging that while planning out public transportation systems.
Daniel Mikelonis

The House Car Crash

Although we love condescending, acerbic and self-destructive House, we always felt that at heart, he was a good (if massively dysfunctional) guy. We could not, however, forgive his complete disregard for human life when he rammed his car into Cuddy's house in a jealous pique. What was that? Did we miss the shark that his car jumped over because this over-the-top action certainly felt like a cry for help — and not just from his character.

A House Wreck (May 23)

When House sees Cuddy hosting a dinner party with a potential new beau on the show's seventh season finale, he is understandably jealous. But instead of, you know, talking to her about it, he drives his car into the side of her house in a furious rage. "If Greg House steps foot in my hospital again, comes anywhere near me, I want him thrown in jail," a livid Cuddy tells the cops. She's so mad that she's leaves for good! OK, Lisa Edelstein left the show after the finale was filmed, but how convenient was that for a feasible exit?