I’ve been a fan of Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion” since 1982. I used to plan my Saturday’s around the two hour public radio show, especially the weekly monologues in which he rambles on for 20-30 minutes about life in the fictitious small town of his youth, Lake Wobegon, Minnesota.
It wasn’t until Keillor started using the publically-funded program to promote his political agenda that I began to find other ways to spend my Saturday evenings and now listen only occasionally and on-line.
Now, I’ve now gotten hooked on another form of broadcasting entertainment; “House.”
This “doctor show” as some call it, has been around for five seasons and, although I’ve caught a snippet here and there before, I’d not sat down to watch an episode in it’s entirety until a couple months ago; a re-run on the USA network.
Its main character is Dr. Gregory House..who heads a special team of doctors at a big New Jersey hospital that takes on medical maladies that are too tough for others to diagnose.
What makes the show so fascinating is that House, played brilliantly by British actor (accent-free) Hugh Laurie, is not only the smartest and wittiest guy in the room he’s also one of the biggest a-holes to ever come in contact with the human race. He takes handfuls of vicodin to ease the pain from his crippled leg for which he needs a cane to hobble around the hospital barking at bosses, co-workers and patients.
There’s irony here in that House can find the cure for nearly every patient that crosses his path except himself which is probably why he’s such a cranky, sexist, obstinate pig. But there’s also a hint of lovability on those rare occasions when we see brief moments of compassion. It’s just fun to watch House and his team solve medical mysteries.
The series..seen Monday nights on FOX..is intelligently written, wonderfully acted and emotionally stimulating and now that re-runs can be seen every night for two hours at a crack on USA..House is taking up way to much of my time. I even watched an episode on the computer last night.
I could really use a diagnosis and prescription from House himself to cure this addiction I now have to his show.