John C. McGinley is underrated in my opinion & I wish his agent would book him in some better roles other than Wild Hogs & Are We There Yet?/Are We Done Yet?. Cox is way cooler then House. Most would disagree I'm sure but I seem find Dr. Cox more likeable then House. Scrubs has kind of fell off the radar with critics in the last couple of years, which is a shame.

House is very formulaic, but so is almost every current CBS Crime Drama. The CSI's are the biggest offender of being way too repetitive. CSI: Miami is the winner for most formulaic television show. Some episodes are so much like the last you wonder if you where watching a new episode or a repeat. At least NCIS, Criminal Minds, etc... mix it up a bit sometimes.

MadTV covered this pretty well last year:

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To elaborate on the formula even more... my barebones script:

An old man is coughing and reaching for his chest. His perfectly healthy looking grandson rushes over to help. Suddenly the grandson starts bleeding from the eyes.

Opening Credits

The crew brainstorms. They instantly shoot down each other's theories with seemingly obvious facts that for some reason the theorizer didn't think of him/herself. They debate:
Cameron: "It's athlete's foot."
Forman: "No, it's gingivitis."
House: "We'll treat him for both athelete's foot and gingivitis. Somebody's right, and somebody's a moron."

The ideas fail.
House: "It turns out you're both morons."

The underlings illegally break into someone's house for clues. They find a crack pipe. House visits patient. "You said you weren't taking drugs. Which means you're either lying, or you're a moron. Or you're lying AND you're a moron." House gets new theory and wants to cut into the guy's brain. Cuddy: "You could paralyze him!"
House: "Maybe you'd rather I cure him with your cleavage?"

During the operation things get much much worse. "We're not curing him, we're killing him!" When things looks most dire, House sees a donut and instantly realizes the answer.
House: "Its a ringworm."
Cameron: "But we tested for ringworm!"
House "We tested his brain for ringworm, we didn't test his pancreas. The ringworm is shutting down his megareceptors, the brain is overcompensating and causing the bleeding. Get him on metaphrenocil to kill the worm."

rotfl ^^^ LOL, nice

http://www.flg.com/images/bullseye.jpg

*DING* We have a winner.....

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http://www.badmovieplanet.com/3bthea...ars/bears7.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Peterlupus.jpg

Is it my imagination or is Sarcoidosis always mentioned?

To me the reason to watch this show always came down to one reason only...

http://www.the-planets.com/star-biog...-Biography.jpg

Exactly. And that MadTV sketch is spot on.

Glad it wasn't just me. My wife and I were addicted to this show when it first came out. Then after half a dozen or so episodes we dumped it because we could tell it would always be the same show. Hard to believe it is still around and people are still watching it.

I can't imagine anyone actually sitting down and watching season sets or even several episodes back to back. That's like watching episodes of The Incredible Hulk back to back. My brain would explode from formula overload.

I got tired of how formulaic it was, but I still enjoy it. The actual medical part of the show is useless to me, but the interaction between characters is what keeps me going.

I've gone the DVD route for S1 and S2. Works just fine if you do a disc over a weekend. Granted, I couldn't do the entire season in a weekend - that would just be painful.

Funny to see this thread. I just started to watch S1 on DVD and 3 episodes in I was thinking the same thing.
My friend kept telling me the show is great and he watches it religiously. When I asked him why it’s just the same thing over and over he said, I wouldn’t get the show because I’m not in the medical field. He’s a physical therapist. I laughed. I guess when you massage asses repetitively each day, you wish your work was a little more along the lines of House.
This show is so formulaic I was able to start predicting lines and twists. I will finish up the season but will not return for season 2. I don’t see this one lasting to long on TV, eventually the hardcore fans will catch on to the formula.

It isn't really hard to be "spot on". Everyone knows the formula and House doesn't really hide it. That sketch was painfully unfunny to me.

Sort of like Scooby Doo, Where are you?

Because formula procedurals with little to no character development frequently fail (aside: whatever happened to that <i>C.S.U.</i> show).

Viewers know the formula, and they're content with it. They won't "catch on" to it any more than viewers of <i>Lost</i> will "catch on" to the dual timeframe structure. Shows like this generally thrive in primetime, and the entertainment value of House himself should ensure a long run of success as long as he continues in the lead.

das

At least for me, I don't watch House for the fascinating medical mystery of the week. I tune in for the characters and House's witty dialogue.

The main question posed in this thread becomes particularly acute when watching the shows on DVD rather than just once a week (at most) when it airs, having just watched S1 that way myself.

Also, it's amazing how many times this line is used: "It could cure him, but it could also kill him!" That's kind of like the House equivalent of 24's "We're running out of time!"

And yet flocks of people (especially the over 50 crowd) turn into one indistinguishable crime/hospital drama show after another like it's some sort of religious experience. I don't get it. Never have, never will. My wife has orders to smother me in my sleep if she ever catches me intentionally watching CSI-Anything.