For my money, House is the second-best show on TV at the moment, behind Veronica Mars . Once again, it's a TV show whose 42-minute plots put the plots of feature films to shame.

The brilliance of House MD, as far as I see it, is because of two reasons:

1. It focuses on brilliant people; the best of the best in the medical world, trying to solve the most difficult cases. If you want regular medicine with some nice 'doctors and nurses' action going on, you'll get great stuff on Grey's Anatomy. If you want to see some awesome medical detectives at work, watch House MD.
   
2. Hugh Laurie as Dr House gives us perhaps the most wild and wonderful character on television (perhaps only matched by John C. McGinley's excellent Dr Cox on Scrubs ). I know from my own experiences with my books that the characters readers love the most are the ones who break all of our societal rules (Mother in Ice Station; the Black Knight in Scarecrow), and Dr Gregory House breaks all those rules and then some! A stunningly well-created character.

My favourite part of House MD's first season involved a subplot between Dr House and Dr Cameron (Jennifer Morrison), one of his junior doctors. Fantastic stuff. See it.

Again, look at the names behind House MD to see its pedigree: Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects, X-Men, Superman Returns) and Paul Attanasio (Quiz Show, Disclosure). These days, TV is the place to be. (Reviewed September 2006)