Kashif Ahmed, 12/09/2007
More medical musings, acerbic witticisms and wry one-liners as cynical, anti-social genius Dr. Greg House (High Laurie) returns for duty in Season 3 of Bryan Singer & David Shore's consistently well written TV drama. After the somewhat melodramatic assassination attempt on House at the end of Season 2, its good to see the writers get down to brass tacks and dish out a number of fiendishly complex medical conundrums for our heroes to solve. On hand, as always, are the good doctor's put upon staff (Omar Epps, Jesse Spencer and Jennifer Morrison), best, and perhaps only, friend Dr Wilson (the ever excellent Robert Sean Leonard) and his hassled hard-case of a supervisor; Dr. Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein on fine form again). But the show, as its title suggests, is all about House and Hugh Laurie, an actor best known for playing upper class English twits, continues to surprise audiences with his fantastic portrayal of the Vikaden addicted M.D. with a chip on his shoulder. Who'd have guessed that Laurie's jobbing in films like 'Maybe Baby' and playing second fiddle to a talking CG dormouse would spur the advent such an awesome, latter-day revelation as House?
A lot happens in Season 3; some of the most memorable episode cases include the fate of allying research pioneer Dr Ezra Powell, the disturbing truth behind a young-couple-in-love's simultaneous sickness, the mysterious affliction of a seemingly happy karate student, an off-the-cuff bone marrow transplant, House forced to interact with an STD victim (features an excellent performance by Katheryn Winnick as the patient) some hilarious banter between House, Wilson and Cuddy and a series thread featuring an increasingly serious tête-à-tête between House and a cop played with menacing subtlety by David Morse. An excellent programme, as fresh and relevant today as 'E.R.' was in the 90s, and amongst the glut of TV medical dramas 'House' easily outranks 'Bones', outsmarts 'MI' and makes 'Grey's Anatomy' look like the saccharine fluff it is; brace yourself for the unexpected ending, who knows where it'll go from here, or in the words of the great man himself: "Like I always say, there's no "I" in team. There's a "me" though, if you jumble it up."
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