I’ve watched House in a catch-as-catch-can manner over the last five years, in first runs and reruns, but I just recently decided to buy the seasons on DVD and watch episodes back-to-back. Everyone has pretty much said all there is to say about this season already, since the the double-sided disc set for season one has been out for four years. I hadn’t seen the arc with billionaire Edward Vogler that runs from midseason until about two episodes prior to the end of the season. He gives the hospital one hundred million dollars with the condition that he be made chairman of the board. Vogler thinks that the problem with medicine is that it is not run like a business, and he sets out to run it that way. Thus he and the tenured House quickly find themselves at cross purposes. Indeed, Vogler cannot easily get rid of House, but he can threaten his untenured staff, and it is interesting to see the two spar.

At the end of the season House’s ex-girlfriend Stacy resurfaces with an ill husband in tow, asking House’s help to diagnose and cure her husband. The husband is not only combative – he at first denies there is anything at all wrong with him – he also has all of the se x appeal of the Stay Puffed Marshmallow Man. She had to have married this guy on the rebound and furthermore he has to have known that. This rather unbelievable triangle plays itself out in season two.

Seeing the episodes in order I did realize I had seen several of them before, including the pilot. What impressed me was that at the time I saw it I didn’t realize it was the pilot, or necessarily even in the first season. That’s one thing that really impresses me about this show – from the beginning of the series the players are completely in character. House being assigned to clinic duty in the hospital – a task he most reluctantly takes on – allows the opportunity for short funny cases to break up the bigger mystery of the one large case that dominates each episode, and really keeps things going.

As for the packaging, this season was originally on dual sided discs, and that made for easy scratching and even some problems on some discs that showed no signs of scratching, so be aware that these dual sided versions are all over the place if you decide to purchase this season used. This new version’s primary feature is that it is on single sided discs.

By calvinnme “Texan refugee”