Hugh Laurie Defends House From Claims It’s Repetitive

It may have been more than a decade since House came to an end, but its leading man Hugh Laurie has made it clear he’s still poised and ready to jump to the show’s defence at any given moment.

The British actor played Dr Gregory House in all eight seasons of the US medical drama, which came to an end in May 2012.

Over the weekend, one viewer claimed they’d just started watching the show from the beginning, but found it a little far-fetched and repetitive.

“Same narrative every episode,” they claimed on X. “Patient has mysterious illness. Hugh Laurie (House) gets diagnosis wrong. Patient nearly dies.

“Hugh Laurie gets diagnosis wrong again. Gets threatened with being fired. Patient nearly dies again. Hugh Laurie has last minute leftfield idea. Gets diagnosis right. Doesn’t get fired.”

“Eight seasons of this?” they pondered.

Days later, Hugh responded to the post directly, with a counterargument.

“Thanks for your critique,” he wrote back. “We actually tried a couple of episodes where House (Hugh Laurie) (please put the brackets in the right place) gets it right first time, but they were only six minutes long. NBC weren’t happy.”

Hugh continued: “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??

“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.”

When another X user replied questioning whether it was “really worth going to such an effort to put someone who thinks it might be a bit ‘samey’ in their place” given how long ago the show – which they pointed out “was a popular, long-running series and consensus is that you were great in it” – came to an end, Hugh issued another curt reply.

“I put no more effort into my message than you have into yours,” he noted. “It just happens to be closer to my heart.”

During House’s original run, the show was nominated for 25 Emmys, winning five, including for its writing and directing.

All eight seasons are now available to stream for free on Channel 4.