This Is the Compelling Episode That Convinced Me To Watch ‘House M.D.’

House M.D. is the sort of show that reels viewers in right from the start. It has a unique premise as a medical drama inspired by Sherlock Holmes in which the patients’ ailments are treated like mysteries to be solved. It also has a compelling main character in Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie), a brilliant curmudgeon who runs the Department of Diagnostic Medicine at Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. House is a perpetually sarcastic character who relies on Vicodin to manage the chronic pain in his leg, and who would rather research the patients on his own than actually speak to them.

That said, it always takes me a while to really get into a TV show for the first time. My favorite part of television is the characters, so I don’t truly get invested in a show until I feel a real connection to the characters. I enjoyed watching House M.D. from the beginning, as it made me laugh and had me curious about each episode’s medical mystery. Ultimately, though, It wasn’t until the ninth episode ever of House M.D., titled “DNR,” that I actually got hooked on the show.

In ‘House M.D.’s “D.N.R.” House Treats a Patient Who’s Been Misdiagnosed with ALS

“DNR” follows House M.D.‘s usual formula, in which House primarily treats one patient with a mysterious condition that is not what it seems. In this case, that patient is John Henry Giles (Harry Lennix), an extremely talented and renowned trumpet player. After Giles loses the ability to breathe during a recording session, he winds up at Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. House is interested in Giles’ case due to his two years of paralysis, but he is being kept off the case because Giles’ doctor, Dr. Hamilton (David Conrad), has chosen Foreman (Omar Epps) to treat him. At the start of the episode, it is believed that Giles has been suffering from ALS for years, and that he now has pneumonia as well. House questions both diagnoses, and he does some digging to get to the root of the problem.

Giles initially signs a D.N.R., which gets House into trouble when he insists on intubating Giles and saving his life after he goes into respiratory failure. Things escalate, as House faces charges for ignoring the DNR, and Giles gets a restraining order against House. As is typical for House, he fights for Giles, determined to keep him alive long enough to actually diagnose his underlying condition. And it’s a good thing that he does, because, as it turns out, Giles does not actually have ALS. After a deep conversation with Giles, House orders an MRI for him, which reveals a blood clot in the brain. After the surgery, Giles regains feeling in his recently-paralyzed arm, as well as in his legs, which have been paralyzed for years. Giles’ condition temporarily worsens, but House finds an AVM in his spine. Once it is removed, Giles’ life is saved, and he can walk again.

Hugh Laurie as Doctor House looking at a person or object offscreen in House

‘24’ Meets ‘House’ in Fox’s New Drama Series ‘Memory of a Killer’

The series has been ordered for Fox’s 2025-2026 season, according to the President of FOX Television Network.

“DNR” Gave Me a Better Understanding of House as a Character

Hugh Laurie as Dr. Greg House lying on the floor of his office wearing headphones in House MD — Image via Fox

My favorite part of “DNR” is the conversation that House has with Giles where he tries to convince the patient to let him save his life. At this point, Giles tells House that he no longer wants to live if he can’t play the trumpet. Giles then makes the connection between himself and House, acknowledging that they both live with disabilities, are single, and have that “one thing” that drives them. Giles understands House, because both of them have this one passion that consumes them, takes over their lives, and keeps them from being normal. “It makes us great, makes us the best; all we miss out on is everything else,” Giles tells House. House dismisses this with a joke, but it’s important to note that House doesn’t deny what the man said. This is House’s way of subtly admitting that Giles is right about him, and it gives the show’s viewers a better glimpse into what makes House tick as a character.

This scene was the first time since watching House M.D. that I really felt like I could understand House as a character. I was initially hesitant about him, because I expected him to fall into the typical trope of a walled-off character who’s only mean because he’s in pain. House is certainly in a lot of physical and emotional pain, but his “House”-ness is not a symptom of that. House is this deeply ambitious character who is just inherently great at diagnosing people, and in spite of his antisocial nature and the ways in which he’s been burned, he continues to do this thing very determinedly and very well.

The conversation with Giles shows that House’s life has certainly been made harder by the pain, but that his main character traits are just who he is. We get to see more of this in the flashbacks of House’s relationship with Stacy (Sela Ward) later on in House M.D.‘s Season 1 episode “Three Stories.” Even while in a happy relationship and before the pain, House was always stubborn and set in his ways. Stacy even tells Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) in the following episode that House wasn’t much different before the infarction.

“DNR” is the episode that got me into House M.D., because it was the first episode of the show that really made me feel attached to House as a character. Whereas previously I could appreciate his dark humor and ability to diagnose seemingly impossible cases, this episode made me curious to learn more about House and left me wanting to commit to watching all eight seasons of the show. “DNR” shows that House is nuanced and multidimensional, and he is motivated by more than just anger or the desire to be out of pain.

Like Giles says, House is driven by this powerful force to get to the bottom of people’s ailments. In this same episode, Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) points out that House just has to solve puzzles because it’s who he is. House is such a well-written main character, and “DNR” is the perfect example of this, because it reveals that House actually cares far more about this job than he lets on.

House M.D. is available to stream on Hulu in the U.S.