HOUSE premiere

I just watched the 2-hour season premiere episode of HOUSE which will begin on September 21 at 8pm to 10pm on Fox. I felt like I had been to a good movie, and one good thing, I could put it on “pause” to go to the bathroom which you can’t do in a theater. I have never watched HOUSE religiously. I don’t mean that in the religion way, I mean it in the way that people say when they do something all the time . . . religiously. But by the end of last season, I was getting into it more and this looked like a good place to start watching again.

It begins with House checking himself into Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital to break his addiction to Vicodin and possibly stop the hallucinations which have made it impossible for him to practice medicine any longer. He goes in voluntarily, but the doctors have to feel he is cured before they will release him. This entire episode concerns his attempts to bully his way out and then his decision to really try and help himself. His roommate, Alvie, is his accomplice in all of House’s efforts. Alvie is manic most of the time and raps incessantly. He did a wonderful job in that role. The actor is Lin-Manual Miranda, and he should have a long career ahead of him. Hugh Laurie, as House, was excellent in this role. It showed a different side to him – many sides, in fact. Andre Braugher plays the psychiatrist who has quite a time with House, but they come to understand each other. He is very good.

We don’t know what House will be like this season after his stay in the psychiatric hospital – it’s so much easier to just say loony bin. It’s easier to type that too. I know I’ll be watching to see what transpires. Whatever it is, it should be very interesting. I highly recommend it.