…and I might add medical comedy too. Part of House’s appeal is that nobody since Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry is this tough, is such a professional purist who is allowed to continue practicing that profession for more than ten minutes, and last but not least has such funny one liner remarks.

House is rude to his patients and avoids them whenever possible, but part of what makes him repugnant to almost everyone around him is that he is about the search for pure truth, and superficial niceties have no place in his life. He doesn’t wear a lab coat, and he sports tennis shoes and a scruffy beard. Thus when he does actually talk to the patients he lays it on the line and expects them to do the same. However, they almost always lie to him, something that he says he expects and one reason he avoids contact with them in the first place.

So why would such a rude unkempt character be so popular among viewers? Possibly it could be because as a nation we are sick of being lied to in every aspect of our lives by blow-dried poll-tested representatives of large corporate interests who are only interested in image, profit, and covering their backsides, and House is the antithesis of all of this.

This particular season has some superb episodes. Several said they did not care for the arc with House’s ex-girlfriend Stacy Warner, now married to a man with all of the s ex appeal of the Staypuffed Marshmallow Man, and who is still unable to walk while recovering from an illness that House treated him for at the end of season one. I personally liked the arc because it showed the side of House that was capable of love. Stacy has already made the admission to House that he was “the one guy” for her, but that there was no room in House’s life for her and there was room for her in her husband’s life. This sets up the possibility that House and Stacy may reunite. First, however, House has to find out the absolute truth of Stacy’s relationship with her husband – and what House does to get that information costs him dearly when Stacy finds out. House does make a new friend this season – a rat living in Stacy’s attic whom he names “Steve McQueen”.

As for the individual cases, they are interesting as always, but there are three episodes that really stand out. Two of them consist of the two-parter “Euphoria” in which Foreman is infected with a deadly disease that is of unknown origin and an unknown method of transmission. It turns out that Foreman, who is the most similar to House of any of his assistants, is different from House in one key way. He is willing to use any means necessary to preserve his life regardless of the possible future quality of that life. The final episode has House being shot by a disgruntled ex-patient. The big question left unanswered here is not so much will he survive, but will he be able to recover the use of his leg as a result of the shooting. You see, for Foreman the important issue is just staying alive, because he has no first-hand knowledge of life with chronic disability. House has been dragging around a useless but painful leg for five years now, and when the chips are down, for him just being alive isn’t enough.

The extra features are spread out over the discs this season and include:
“An Evening with House” featurette
“It Could Be Lupus” featurette
Blooper reel
Alternate takes: the “Valley Girl” versions
Producer commentaries

The extra features here are better than the season one features, and I really enjoyed the commentary on the final episode “No Reason”. Another improvement is that this season is spread out over six single-sided discs rather than the three dual-sided easily scratched discs of season one.

By calvinnme “Texan refugee”