Why House Always Comparisons To Sherlock Holmes
House has certain qualities in common with many outstanding fictional detectives, but Sherlock Holmes is the one he most shares. Like Holmes, House has a remarkable capacity to employ exacting reasoning to reach the core of the crime, or, in his case, disease. Usually, this approach seems entirely inscrutable to everyone around him until all the components fit together. After a devoted friend who is equally loving of and annoyed by his genius, he is also a gifted polymath with an aptitude for music and possessed of a capacity to emotionally distance himself from his cases.
House is streaming on Peacock, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video. Most fascinatingly, House and Holmes share defects as well. Both characters are notably antisocial; Holmes depends on Dr. Watson and Mrs. Hudson for company in much the same manner House deals with Wilson and Cuddy. The two characters both suffer from drug addiction; House battles to control his Vicodin intake while Holmes recreally uses morphine and cocaine. Though the obvious parallels have always existed, Sherlock Holmes's past underwent a very particular transformation to make the House connection more than just surface level.
Why It Took Six Years For House To Turn Into a Real Sherlock Holmes Adaptation
Though for all their surface similarities, House has been seen by many as a modern rendition of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famed detective Sherlock Holmes since its 2004 premiere; but, it wasn't for several seasons into the run that the show became an official adaptation. House is set in a hospital, yet its mystery components always took front stage in terms of Medical Drama. This frequently meant that it had far more in common with Detective and crime series than predecessors like ER, therefore parallels to figures like Sherlock Holmes were inevitable.
Driven personally, Dr. Greg House embodies all the traits of a brilliant investigator. The show claims that his virtually unparalleled expertise and ability to identify trends others cannot find makes him the only one able to probe some of the most remote medical mysteries afflicting the patients of Princeton–Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. With House himself cast as the principal investigator, House's usual mystery-of- the-week structure makes it far more similar to investigative shows like NCIS. Still, there are reasons Sherlock Holmes is especially mentioned as an inspiration and why it took six years for the analogies to be fully substantiated.
Actually, House Is Quite Different From Sherlock Stories Written by Arthur Conan Doyle
Looking underneath the surface, it is evident that House differs from Sherlock stories by just as much as it does unites them. Holmes can be quite kind to his customers, showing real moments of empathy mixed with the cold-blooded reasoning of his brain. This is quite different from House, who handles patients aggressively and shows especially disdain of any chore he feels beneath him. Although the original stories had certain aspects of this vanity, Cumberbatch's version in Sherlock is far more realistic.
House predated Sherlock by six years, hence it is hard to say how much one affected the other. Actually, it seems far more logical to propose that House's portrayal of a prickly, smart, frequently hostile investigator had as much impact on Moffat and Gatiss's characterizing as the original Holmes stories did. But Sherlock and House have considerably more in common than House has with Conan Doyle's much-loved classic stories since their heroes are so similar and their deftly irreverent narrative techniques match.
House Remarkably Like Sherlock by Benedict Cumberbatch
House's skills and demeanor show his relationship with Sherlock Holmes, but it was only until Stephen Moffat and Mark Gatiss brought the character back to life in 2010 for the hit BBC series Sherlock that House's parallels were hard to overlook. Unlike earlier Sherlock Holmes iterations, in which the clearest link to House was the genius of the protagonists, Sherlock made the investigator just as irascible, disagreeable, and frustratingly clever as Hugh Laurie's legendary character. Therefore, it is not unjust to claim that House started to be a real Holmes surrogate only with Sherlock's entrance.
House's responses to attempts to control him make it abundantly evident that he has far more in common with the 2010 Sherlock Holmes than with the 19th-century original. Benedict Cumberbatch's interpretation of the character stressed his nastiness, vanity, and narcissism, all attributes Hugh Laurie's House shares unlike more conventional depictions of Holmes. Sherlock also highlighted Holmes's disdain of authority, as his connection with Scotland Yard was far more erratic than that shown in the books. House's reaction to attempts to control him makes it abundantly evident that he shares far more in common with the 2010 Sherlock Holmes than with the 19th-century original.
House is among the most outstanding shows on TV, but like every other, it had highs and lows with some seasons greater than others.
Though rewatching the series exposes some unsettling facts about the show, House is among the most popular medical procedurals of all time. Though House is among the most outstanding shows on TV, it has highs and lows with some seasons greater than others, as any other show.
The show's approach to its social commentary was sometimes harsh, and its portrayal of women may be seen as less-than-progress. Still, House is a popular and interesting show worth viewing for its original protagonist, fascinating mystery components, and deft dialogue.
