No place like House

Now, I hear you asking 'Who is this amazing new mystery man who's setting the world of Library blogging on fire? Why does he hide behind the ludicrous pseudonym "Gerard"? What's his drink? What's his favourite TV show?'

Wonder no longer. My one must-see on free-to-air is the medical drama House MD. I could go on and on about why this is such a good show, but I'll try to narrow it down. (Don't worry: I'm blogging this on my own time.)

1. Hugh Laurie. In one of the best bits of counter-intuitive casting in TV history, an English comic actor is cast as an American doctor in a drama, and it works beautifully. Laurie is just such a watchable actor: the show has learned to do these moody closeups of his face with chiaroscuro lighting, and Laurie is one of those actors who can suggest an interior life, and the process of thought. Especially against some of his co-stars who are cute, perky and chipper, and about as deep as a snowflake.

2. Sarcasm. House's character as a sarcastic ogre with no time for pleasantries, evasions or even ordinary courtesy allows the show to subvert all kinds of anti-rational pieties. It's surprising how often the show comes out with what are effectively conservative opinions: a recent episode was emphatic in dismissing the existence of Gulf War Syndrome.

3. Sleaze. Another of the pleasant subversions of this show is that, even though we know House has a heart as big as all outdoors under that rumpled t-shirt, he isn't made into a saint. It has been established that he regularly pays for sex and is not averse to pornography, and the show gets considerable comic mileage out of this.

Just as CSI has been franchised from Vegas to New York and Miami, maybe the House idea could be franchised to a library setting. Let's see: a brilliant, abrasive and iconoclastic research librarian, equally dismissive of his clients and his well-meaning but bumbling colleagues. He could be based in..oh, I don't know..say, a Picture collection. But where to find the model for such a character...where?...