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House, M.D. Series Finale Review: “Everybody Dies” (Season 8, Episode 22)

In its early years, House was always one of my favorite TV shows. Seasons 1 and 2 are, bar none, the greatest procedural seasons I’ve ever witnessed; with a tremendous performance by Hugh Laurie, playing one of the cleverest ‘Sherlock Holmes’ updates of all time, and a string of fascinating medical mysteries, this was the rare procedural one could describe as genuinely unpredictable. It was surprising from week to week, if only to see how House himself reacted to a variety of situations, and I still enjoy revisiting early high points like “Three Stories” from time to time.

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I will miss House now that it’s gone. I’ll miss the good Doctor’s one-liners. I’ll miss Hugh Laurie’s flawless, iconic performance. I’ll miss the hallucinations, the cane, the whiteboard, the Vicodin, and the ball. I’ll miss many of the characters, especially Wilson, and I’ll miss the understated beauty of the Princeton Plainsboro set. I’ll even miss the medical mysteries, as repetitive and uninvolving as they got in the later years.

But what I’ll especially miss is the opportunity to examine one of the most fascinating characters in the history of television, a character whose own personal struggles revealed so much about the ways in which we all harm ourselves by clinging to our flaws to maintain a stable sense of identity. Gregory House was as universal as he was singular. There will never be another like him.