Fox's 8-season medical masterpiece returns as a streaming sensation 14 years later

14 years after the finale of House, the eight-season series is making waves on streaming. This week, House is the Apple TV Store's 9th most popular show in the United States, per FlixPatrol.

The Fox medical drama, created by David Shore (The Good Doctor) and starring Hugh Laurie, premiered on Nov. 16, 2004, and ended after eight seasons on May 21, 2012. The show was a hit in its time and was nominated for a number of major awards, including six Golden Globes and even more Emmys. Now, it seems viewers are tuning in again, downloading the series to relive all of the ethically questionable shenanigans of Dr. House.

Hugh Laurie Recently Defended the Show From Criticism

Hugh Laurie played Dr. Gregory House, an infectious disease specialist who heads a team of diagnosticians at the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in New Jersey. The series also starred Robert Sean Leonard, Omar Epps, Jesse Spencer, Olivia Wilde, Lisa Edelstein, Jennifer Morrison, Peter Jacobson, and Kal Penn.

Most episodes involved the diagnosis of a patient with unusual symptoms and often rare diseases. House regularly breaks protocol and the law in making his diagnoses. Breaking and entering a patient's home, for instance, becomes routine practice for House and his team of diagnosticians. And often, what they find in the patient's home leads to a diagnosis.

But House's dubious methods don't go unquestioned, as the hospital administrator, Dr. Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein), frequently butts heads with him and his team. In the end, though, House's methods usually work, so administration turns a blind eye to his ethically questionable practices.

Each episode generally followed the same formulaic pattern, wherein a patient is ill and House and his team try to find a diagnosis. Recently, though, a user on X complained about the show following the "same narrative every episode." The X user, Janet Murray, wrote, "Eight seasons of this?"

Laurie quickly came to the show's defense a day later, when he responded, "Thanks for your critique, Janet. We actually tried a couple of episodes where House [...] gets it right the first time, but they were only 6 minutes long. NBC weren't happy. Then we tried some where House never gets it right and the patient dies. The audience wasn't happy."

Following that, Murray wrote an article for the outlet UnHerd titled, "What I learnt from my online fight with High Laurie," in which she argued about the power imbalance between her and the actor, explaining that she received "horrific trolling" after Laurie's response.

Laurie quickly apologized, saying, "I'm sorry if people have been having a go at you because of my tweet. Not at all the plan. I was very slightly drunk and already upset about something that had nothing to do with you. If it's any comfort, I got it in the neck too. I'm a thin-skinned twat, apparently." He added, "I was sticking up for the writers who I adored."

House Was More Than a Medical Procedure Show

The show also includes more overarching plot lines that went on for multiple seasons, one of which was House's dependency on Vicodin to manage chronic pain. When House is first introduced, viewers learn that he has a leg injury, which forces him to use a cane. Midway through the first season, House admits that he's addicted to Vicodin but argues that it's not a problem because the pills allow him to do his job.

His colleagues often encourage him to go to rehab, and when he runs out of pills, he often self-medicates with things like morphine, oxycodone, and even methadone. His addiction becomes a key storyline throughout the series.

Critics and fans loved House. The show has an 89% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 95% audience score. Even in its final season, the show still boasted an 89% critic score, maintaining its popularity through all eight seasons.

Now, 14 years later, House remains popular with viewers, as the show returned to the charts in the Apple TV Store.

House is available to stream on Hulu and Prime Video.