dreams, dreams

the appeal of house is entirely because it came out in 2005, when financial medical anxiety was starting to enter the forefront of peoples' minds. imagine this doctor who, above all else, wants to cure you. he resents the economic aspects of the medical system and openly mocks them. he will not sell a drug he does not genuinely believe will help you. here is a doctor who will lie to his fellow doctors, his boss, his boss's boss, and a board that can disbar him just so you can receive the treatment you need. he is a funny, confrontational asshole about it, but he will respect you as a patient in need of care and it will supercede all other priorities in his care. he was a symbolic representation of what many americans wanted from their healthcare: no bullshit, just treatment. part of it is rooted him in seeing people as puzzles to solve and diagnostic medicine as the avenue to make a career out of that, but there are several instances in season 1 of him going the extra mile for a patient that can only be explained as wanting better for them. he is what americans idealize as an actor of the hippocratic oath.

when the characters you like get beat the fuck up