Review by Tess Clare
Rating:
**possible spoilers**

Season 5 of the series House ended memorably with a well-edited contrast: family and friends at warm wedding vs. Wilson watching the broken doctor as he checked himself into a hospital on a cold and gray day. Season 6 starts off with House (Hugh Laurie) in treatment for his vicodin addiction, an addiction which had fueled a series of devastating (yet revealing) hallucinations. Viewers know how House treats “normal” people (that is to say, not with warm and fuzzy feelings) and in the beginning of Season 6 they are treated to House interacting with “abnormal” people. House, ever the equal opportunity offender, does not seem too changed by his stint in Mayfield hospital. Andre Braugher (of “Homicide”) was well cast as House’s experienced, nothing-shocks-him therapist, able to go head-to-head with House, and there is a guest role by Franka Potente (“Run Lola Run”) as a beautiful visitor to the hospital with whom House has a brief relationship.

The writers are able to take House out of his comfort zone, surround him with multi-dimensional characters, and still have House stand out. Don’t expect any blatant epiphanies in therapy for House about why he is the way he is. Is it the pain, is it the drugs, his relationship with is father, is it the curse of being a genius? There are no resolutions to go back into the “real world,” settle down and live happily ever after. Thank goodness!

The epiphanies are of course saved for the hospital, when House returns to work. He gradually becomes more confident in his ability to solve cases. Even after five previous seasons, the writers are able to come up with all new cases and all new characters for House to read right through.

That being said, Season 6 delves more of the personal lives of the characters than prior seasons: Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) as she balances being a mom, with a love life, and with the demands of her job; Cuddy and House; Taub (Peter Jacobson) and his wife, Thirteen (Olivia Wilde) and Foreman (Omar Epps), Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) and House (some of the best dialogue from the show still occurs between those two), Wilson and his ex-wife. Of particular note, Dr. Chase (played by Jesse Spencer) finally gets some great story lines dealing with secrets, morality and ethics (which the show has always been great at raising discussions about). By Season 6, Robert Chase is no longer the doctor who always tries to stay on House’s good side, or agree with House, or play it safe. In past seasons, it was Foreman who had to gain independence from House. In Season 6, Cuddy struggles with it, Taub struggles with it, Wilson starts to and Dr. Chase definitely does, but with severe professional and personal consequences. Of course, there was also the strawberry body butter incident(season 5). Gotta love the variety in the show!

In past seasons, there has been at least one reference (that I can recall) to a patient who died while under House’s care. In Season 6, viewers witness other patients not making it. When it happens to House or his team, there will be and were huge ramifications.

Overall, another great season for House. Even after five seasons, Hugh Laurie is able to make House a multi-dimensional character, capable of stinging one-liners but also of conveying internal trauma. How he could not have won every Emmy and golden globe since House was on the air is beyond me. Don’t award committees love drug addicts, people pulling off accents, and people in mental institutions? It’s the trifecta!

Regarding the famed House/Cuddy relationship, I was probably in the minority by not being too keen on the idea, I thought it might get too “Grey’s Anatomy” if you’ll pardon the other medical show reference. However, the writers managed (who knows how) to put an original spin on their relationship, it is certainly kept far from the soap opera-ish realm of workplace romances, probably because the characters involved both have complex motivations. It will be interesting to see if House and Cuddy can make it, and in any case, it at least won’t be a television cliché.

House fans have come to expect changes in House’s team each season finale and true to form, Season 6 does not deviate as one cast member seems to be departing.

Bravo once again! Bravo!

Review by carol irvin
Rating:
If you are interested in watching a character develop other than Hugh Laurie as House, stop right now. The round robin of supporting doctors continues and the only ones for sure who remain constants on the series are Wilson, Cuddy and Forman. These are the only characters you can count on seeing week in and week out. They are all dwarfed by House as the lead too. These other three do pretty well with him but still, if Hugh Laurie suddenly quit, I very much doubt you’d have a show called Forman or Wilson or Cuddy. The show would be DOA.

So realizing that House is more than ever the whole show, how is it? If you have always loved House the character, and I have, it is better than ever, because House is better than ever as a character. Hugh Laurie gives it his all in every single episode. Perhaps the opening two episodes are the strongest he’s ever done where he is in a mental hospital, first detoxing and then dealing with his breaks from reality leading to his complete mental breakdown. Laurie covers House’s stint as a mental patient in true virtuoso form. Then he has to pick up practicing medicine again back at the hospital so we start in with new episodes with his new patients. These remain the same strong dramas as before. He has dramas with his doctors too, all different ones with Wilson, Cuddy and Forman being the only constants. If you want to see any other particular doctor, it is simply the luck of the draw on which episode you play to get that character.

Review by Elias Lopez Vargas
Rating:
First a few updates on the product description… it is not 1 disc they are 5 running for over 14 hours (I saw a review complaining about this being 1 disc running 98 minutes).

Now, I believe there is no need to remind that house is probably the best show on TV. I own seasons 1-6 and all of them are great. House is the kind of person you “hate to love”, but cant help it. His sarcasm and genius are just great. But if there are any doubts, just research about the many nominations, and awards Hugh Laurie and the rest of the team has earned for the show.

About the Blu-ray them selves. They look AWESOME.I own Lie to me* season 1 on blu-ray, there was not much difference between it and my House DVDs (upscaled by my PS3). But House season 6 looks just great. It truly allows you to experience HD as the episodes are in 1080P. Besides the great looks, they include some really cool extras… Ever wondered about all those I-have-never-heard-before-diseases that are mentioned throughout the series? Well wonder no more (lol). One of the bonus features of the BD is that episodes have a PIP feature that explains the diseases mentioned, as they are being presented on the show.

To make it short the show gets a 100. The package gets a 98. (I will not hide the fact that getting discs 1-4 out of the box is not what we are used to with other DVD an Blu-ray packages, so kind of complicated).

Must have!