Houses Best Episode Aired 19 Years Ago & Told Everything We Needed To Know About The Show

House season 1, episode 21, “Three Stories” is arguably the show’s best, and it tells viewers everything they need to know about the show. One of the best shows of all time, House was a groundbreaking series not in terms of medical dramas but procedurals in general. Although it followed the same “case of the week” structure as countless other shows, it did so while exploring the titular character and his team in a way that not many other series were doing at the time. While even House’s best seasons had highs and lows, the show had many incredible moments.

House’s first four seasons featured the original team consisting of Gregory, Cameron, Foreman, and Chase, with each episode usually giving all of them their time in the spotlight. However, there were episodes in which Gregory House was front and center, with the show diving into the mind of one of TV’s most fascinating characters. This includes “Three Stories,” one of House’s best episodes.

“Three Stories” Showed How Interesting House’s Procedural Formula Could Be

“Three Stories” Played With The Show’s Tropes

“Three Stories” is one of many House episodes that played with the show’s procedural formula and did something different from what viewers would expect. While House was an innovative show, it did follow a very strict formula in which most episodes would see Gregory and his team working on one or two cases that were solved within 40 minutes. In “Three Stories,” however, House spends most of the episode in a classroom covering for a professor who is sick. House brings three case studies for his diagnosis class, all of which have to do with leg pain.

Through House’s narration and the questions brought up by the students, “Three Stories” explores three different cases that happened at different points in time but were somewhat connected. House is not a reliable narrator, though, meaning that you could never tell whether the names or events mentioned by him were real. The students become part of the “flashbacks,” which are not exactly flashbacks since they are mainly hypothetical illustrations of the cases House was describing. In a fascinating narrative trick, House and the students work on the three cases as if they were happening in real time.

“Three Stories” Offered A Great Look Into Gregory House’s Character

The Episode Highlighted How Fascinating House Was

Through House’s lecture, we got to learn a lot about the character and the way he thinks. Given how House would run for eight seasons and become one of the most beloved shows of all time, it is easy to forget that much of what viewers know about Hugh Laurie’s character was established or at least set up in the first season. Before “Three Storie,” House had yet to reveal what happened to House’s leg and why he was always in pain. Not only did “Three Stories” reveal a lot about House’s past, but it also offered insight into how he thinks.

When narrating the three cases, House says “It’s a basic truth of the human condition, that everybody lies.” This quote, which is one of House’s most memorable, would set the tone for the show. House also tells the students that there will always be a correct decision and an incorrect one, regardless of what anyone tells them. He makes sure that they realize they will make mistakes and will lose patients, and that they will also have to make impossible decisions with minimal information. The fact that one of the patients was House himself made everything better in hindsight.

House’s Other All-Time Best Episode Was Surprisingly Similar To “Three Stories”

“House’s Head” Was Very Similar To “Three Stories”

“Three Stories” is not the only iconic House episode that is always remembered by fans as one of the show’s best. This list also includes “House’s Head” and “Wilson’s Heart,” a two-part story that used some of the same tricks from “Three Stories.” When House survives a bus crash and is rushed into the hospital, he begins to remember that there was someone on the bus who was about to die from an illness and needed to be treated as soon as possible. House’s team has to get “inside his head” to help him remember who that person was.

“House’s Head” ditched the usual case of the week formula and showed a fragile, desperate version of House who could feel something terrible was about to happen but could not do anything to stop it. Similar to “Three Stories,” “House’s Head” plays with unreliable narrators and makes viewers question everything House is remembering. The episode also includes a major twist that is as shocking as the one in “Three Stories” – the person House was looking for was Amber. House was never the same after “Three Stories,” an episode that elevated the show.

House

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House is a medical mystery drama in which the villain is typically a difficult-to-diagnose medical malady. It follows Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie), a world-renowned disabled diagnostician with a notorious substance abuse issue. With his team of world-class doctors, House has built a reputation as one of the most brilliant doctors in the world – an especially impressive feat when taking into account that he rarely actually sees his patients.

Cast

Olivia Wilde , Jesse Spencer , Lisa Edelstein

Release Date

November 16, 2004

Seasons

8

Network

FOX

Showrunner

David Shore