8 Things I Miss The Most About House 12 Years After It Ended

House ended 12 years ago on May 21, 2012, and there are a lot of things I miss about the Hugh Laurie-led show. A seminal medical drama, House remains popular all over the world to this day thanks to reruns and streaming. With shorter seasons and short-lived shows becoming more common in the age of prestige TV, revisiting older shows that ran for several seasons is always interesting. House did a lot of things better than some of its contemporary shows and stands out even when compared to some of the newest, most popular TV dramas.

A lot of House episodes, storylines, and jokes haven’t aged well. However, between great performances and strong character development, House’s legacy is quite positive. This explains why the show continues to find new viewers over a decade after it ended. Having watched House when it originally aired, I never found another show that hit the same notes as the Fox medical drama did. Rewatching House several years later has made me realize how much I miss certain aspects of the show. This ranges from Hugh Laurie’s portrayal of Greg House to the tone of the show.

8 Hugh Laurie’s Performance As Gregory House

Laurie Made House Into One Of TV’s Greatest Characters

It’s difficult to discuss the best things about House without mentioning Hugh Laurie’s performance. One of the greatest TV characters of all time, I feel confident to say that Gregory House would not have worked if played by a different actor. Laurie embodied the role of the pilot and continued to grow with the character, always showing different sides of House as the show went on. With an extensive background in comedy but an incredible talent for dramatic roles, Hugh Laurie elevated Gregory House into a fascinating character we always wanted to see more of.

No matter what the case of the week was, there’s one thing I could always count on when watching House – having fun with the titular character. Granted, most of House’s jokes were used as a defense mechanism, but that didn’t make the character any less funny. House’s humor was one of the best things about the show, but so was his more vulnerable side. Greg House was a tragic character, and Laurie’s portrayal of him made that clear.

7 House And Wilson’s Friendship

Wilson Was The Heart Of House

House had a lot of relationships, most of which did not end well. In hindsight, all of the key romantic relationships on the show met somewhat tragic endings. From Gregory and Stacy to Foreman and Thirteen, one could say relationships were always doomed in House. The only exception was House and Wilson’s friendship. While it also had a tragic ending – Wilson had a few months left at the end of the show – House and Wilson’s friendship lasted throughout the entirety of the series. In the end, House left everything behind to be by Wilson’s side during his final months.

Wilson and House’s interactions were always a delight, from the comedic bits to the dramatic ones. James Wilson was the only House character who truly understood who Gregory was and how he thought, which made their friendship fascinating to watch. Whereas House’s pupils were often confused about their boss’ motives and true feelings, Wilson could always tell what House planning. It is one of TV’s best friendships, if not the best.

6 House’s Obligatory Clinic Hours

The Funniest Moments On The Show

As an employee of a teaching hospital, House had to fulfill a certain amount of clinic hours. In the pilot, we learn that House has been way behind his schedule and owns Cuddy months’ worth of clinic duty. This set up one of House’s best recurring gags – House treating patients at the clinic every week. Whereas the main medical case of each episode was usually the one with the most drama and twists, the clinic appointments were when House could briefly turn into a sitcom.

From objects in weird places to partners lying to each other, we never knew what House was going to find every time he walked into the clinic. The fact that dealing with simple cases that barely needed a diagnosis was the exact opposite of what House liked to do as a doctor made those sequences even better. No matter how dark a House episode would get, I could always count on the clinic scenes to light up the mood.

5 House’s Relationship With His Pupils

House Had A Lot Of Great Characters

House would not have been nearly as good as it was without Gregory mentoring a team. While Laurie’s character was fascinating on his own, House’s supporting cast made it all even better. House was smart enough to know that he could not solve certain cases by himself and that having other opinions was essential for a fast and efficient differential diagnosis. For three seasons, Cameron, Foreman, and Chase learned from the best, and the relationship between them evolved in many different ways.

In a lesser show, House’s team could have been a set of supporting characters whom viewers weren’t interested in and only served to highlight the qualities of the protagonist. However, in several House episodes, I was more invested in the stories of certain supporting characters than in whatever Gregory was going through. House took a huge risk with the introduction of a new team in season 4, but it worked. House season 4 was one of my favorites and brought in a lot of great new players.

4 House’s Engaging If Not Always Accurate Medical Cases

The Next Case Was Always More Shocking Than The Last

House’s medical cases were often loosely based on real cases or at least had enough scientific basis, which doesn’t mean they were always medically accurate. One of the biggest problems with House’s cases is how fast they progressed. Within days, sometimes hours, we would see several stages of a condition that, in the real world, could take months to develop. House was self-aware of this, with the show even joking sometimes that Gregory House had a “one life to save per week” quota to hit. House normally only accepted one patient per week.

Regardless, a medical drama like House is not meant to be accurate but rather entertaining. While some House episodes were much better than others, the cases were always interesting to watch. From shocking twists to common conditions to diseases general audiences had never heard of, House constantly found different ways of surprising its characters and the viewers with the most unique cases.

3 House’s Character Development (Not Just For Gregory)

Every Character Went Through A Lot Across 8 Seasons

A question that House raised a few times was whether people can change. Regardless of whatever clever answer House and the others had for it, the fact is that House’s characters changed a lot throughout the show. Some doubled down on the traits that had shown since the beginning, whereas others chose very different paths from what we thought they would follow. For House’s original team, the biggest changes happened after season 3 when they finally began to work outside of House’s guidance.

Cameron and Chase’s relationship, which went from a one-time thing to a marriage to a divorce, is an example of how things were always changing in House. The titular character also went through a lot. House’s pain and addiction got worse as the show went on, which affected his relationship with Wilson, Cuddy, and everyone else. Between a mental hospital and jail, House took its protagonist in a lot of different directors across eight seasons.

2 The Humor In House

No Other Medical Drama Is As Funny

There are a lot of things that didn’t age well about House, including many of the jokes. That said, House was a funny show throughout, even when it was dealing with the most complex and tragic themes. The fact that humor was usually a defensive mechanism for Greg House contributed to that. No matter what or whom he was dealing with, House would always have a snarky remark or an insult ready to be used to protect himself. House also used humor to get under the patient’s skin and find out if they were lying.

While some House scenes were fairly uncomfortable, others were hilarious. Nearly every scene set in the clinic delivered a couple of funny moments, not to mention any dialogues between House and Wilson. For all its flaws and moments that haven’t aged well or were never really funny to begin with, House was quite consistent when it came to humor. This is something that isn’t easy to find in medical dramas, as seen with other major shows such as Grey’s Anatomy, Chicago Med, and The Good Doctor.

1 House’s Ethical Dilemmas And No-Win Situations

House Didn’t Always Have A Happy Ending

One of my favorite things about House was the no-win situations – episodes where, no matter if they found the right diagnosis, things weren’t going to have a happy ending. House episodes where the patient died were the exception and not the rule, which is why they were usually some of the show’s best. Even episodes where the patient did survive tended to include moral dilemmas and challenges that House and his team had to overcome, such as whether or not to tell the patient’s family something.

House worked under the premise that “everybody lies.” However, not even his cynical approach to things could make certain decisions easy. For example, in “Son of Coma Guy,” House and Wilson can do nothing but watch as a father who’s about to return to a coma decides to take his own life so that his son can receive a heart. These types of episodes where there were no easy ways out of a problem made House more than a medical procedure with a fun mystery to be solved every week.