LOADINGERROR LOADINGActor Hugh Laurie apparently was not pleased with a writer's critique of his long-running medical drama, "House." Still, his response to the criticism seemed like it came straight from the cantankerous Dr. Gregory House himself.
On Saturday, U.K.-based writer Janet Murray, who usually gains social media attention for her anti-trans writings rather than her television reviews, made a post on X in which she mentioned she had just started the first season of the medical procedural. She then mocked some of the tropes of the show, which aired on Fox from 2004 to 2012, including the fact that House always seems to fail twice at diagnosing a patient's problem before he has what she called a "last minute leftfield idea" and gets the diagnosis right. Murray then asked, "Eight seasons of this?"
Some people appreciated Murray's take and brought up other plot elements commonly used in the series, while others pointed out that the predictable aspect of procedural dramas like "House" is a feature, not a bug. But no one — especially Murray — expected Laurie to chime in with a brutally mocking yet hilarious response that also sounded like it could have been written by Dr. House himself.
"Thanks for your critique, Janet. We actually tried a couple of episodes where House (Hugh Laurie) (please put the brackets in the right place) gets it right the first time, but they were only 6 minutes long. NBC weren't happy," he wrote. "Then we tried some where House never gets it right and the patient dies. The audience wasn't happy. One could apply your trenchant analysis to other art forms: JS Bach wrote 30 Goldberg variations on the same chord structure; Frida Kahlo painted 50 portraits of herself; Henry Moore, what??" he continued. "The point is, or was, variations on a theme; if all you see is hospital, medical blah blah, then it wasn't meant for you." He finished off his response by telling Murray, "Nonetheless, I look forward to your first novel!"
