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Free Malaysia Today
an hour ago
- Entertainment
- Free Malaysia Today
Experts point out how TV's Dr House often got it wrong
British actor Hugh Laurie played Dr Gregory House in the hugely popular TV series 'House'. (Hugh Laurie Official Instagram pic) ZAGREB : He's the maverick medic who loved to confound the medical establishment with his brilliant, unorthodox diagnoses. But Dr Gregory House, the misanthropic genius who was the star of the long-running 'House' television series, got an awful lot wrong himself, Croatian doctors claim. From a neurologist at work on the wrong end of a patient by performing a colonoscopy, or an MRI scan done by a physician who is clearly not a radiologist, Croatian researchers have pulled the American series up on its medical accuracy in a paper published this month. Denis Cerimagic, a professor at Dubrovnik University, and two fellow neurologists – all big fans of the series – listed 77 errors after analysing all 177 episodes of the show, which ran from 2004 to 2012. 'We focused on the diagnoses of main cases, reality of clinical practice presentation and detection of medical errors,' Cerimagic told AFP. He and his peers – Goran Ivkic and Ervina Bilic – broke the mistakes down into five categories including misuses of medical terminology, misinformation and simple weirdness – something which the show's anti-hero, played by British star Hugh Laurie, possessed in abundance. That limp They included the use of mercury thermometers – which had long given way to digital ones – the term heart attack and cardiac arrest being used interchangeably when they are not the same, and that vitamin B12 deficiency can be corrected with just one injection. Nor is there a universal chemotherapy for all types of malignant tumours, as one episode suggested. But arguably the biggest error of all is that Laurie – whose character's genius for deduction comes from the misdiagnosis that left him with a limp and chronic pain – uses his cane on the wrong side. The stick should be carried on his unaffected side, Cerimagic said, though he understood why the actor had done it because 'it's more effective to see the pronounced limp on the screen'. Their research also found medical procedures being done by specialists who had no business being there, like an infectologist performing an autopsy. At times the series also stretched reality beyond breaking point, with the findings of complex laboratory tests done in just a few hours. And doctors rarely turn detective and take it upon themselves to enter patients' homes to look for environmental causes of illnesses. Not to mention Dr House's unethical behaviour – 'Brain tumour, she's gonna die' the paper quoted him as saying – and the character's opiates addiction. The researchers say they may have missed other mistakes. 'We are neurologists while other medical specialists would certainly establish additional errors,' Cerimagic added. Medical errors Whatever their criticisms, the researchers say that modern medical series are far better produced than in the past, thanks to medical advisors. It is not like some 20 years ago when you had doctors looking at X-rays upside down, the neurologist said. 'Now only medical professionals can notice errors,' Cerimagic said. Despite its flaws, they thought the series could even be used to help train medical students. 'The focus could be on recognising medical errors in the context of individual episodes, adopting the teamwork concept and a multidisciplinary approach in diagnosis and treatment,' Cerimagic said. He said he and his colleagues were taken aback by the response to their paper 'House M.D.: Between reality and fiction' – which is not the first academic study to cast doubt on the good doctor and his methods. 'The idea was to make a scientific paper interesting not only to doctors but also to people without specific medical knowledge.'
Malay Mail
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Malay Mail
Dr House gets it wrong: Croatian neurologists highlight 77 errors in popular TV series
ZAGREB, June 1 — He's the maverick medic who loved to confound the medical establishment with his brilliant, unorthodox diagnoses. But Dr Gregory House, the misanthropic genius who was the star of the long-running 'House' television series, got an awful lot wrong himself, Croatian doctors claim. From a neurologist at work on the wrong end of a patient by performing a colonoscopy, or an MRI scan done by a physician who is clearly not a radiologist, Croatian researchers have pulled the American series up on its medical accuracy in a paper published this month. Denis Cerimagic, a professor at Dubrovnik University, and two fellow neurologists—all big fans of the series—listed 77 errors after analysing all 177 episodes of the show, which ran from 2004 to 2012. 'We focused on the diagnoses of main cases, reality of clinical practice presentation and detection of medical errors,' Cerimagic told AFP. He and his peers—Goran Ivkic and Ervina Bilic—broke the mistakes down into five categories including misuses of medical terminology, misinformation and simple weirdness—something which the show's anti-hero, played by British star Hugh Laurie, possessed in abundance. That limp They included the use of mercury thermometers—which had long given way to digital ones—the term heart attack and cardiac arrest being used interchangeably when they are not the same, and that vitamin B12 deficiency can be corrected with just one injection. Nor is there a universal chemotherapy for all types of malignant tumours, as one episode suggested. But arguably the biggest error of all is that Laurie—whose character's genius for deduction comes from the misdiagnosis that left him with a limp and chronic pain—uses his cane on the wrong side. The stick should be carried on his unaffected side, Cerimagic said, though he understood why the actor had done it because 'it's more effective to see the pronounced limp on the screen'. Their research also found medical procedures being done by specialists who had no business being there, like an infectologist performing an autopsy. At times the series also stretched reality beyond breaking point, with the findings of complex laboratory tests done in just a few hours. And doctors rarely turn detective and take it upon themselves to enter patients' homes to look for environmental causes of illnesses. Not to mention Dr House's unethical behaviour—'Brain tumour, she's gonna die' the paper quoted him as saying—and the character's opiates addiction. The researchers say they may have missed other mistakes. 'We are neurologists while other medical specialists would certainly establish additional errors,' Cerimagic added. Medical errors Whatever their criticisms, the researchers say that modern medical series are far better produced than in the past, thanks to medical advisors. It is not like some 20 years ago when you had doctors looking at X-rays upside down, the neurologist said. 'Now only medical professionals can notice errors,' Cerimagic said. Despite its flaws, they thought the series could even be used to help train medical students. 'The focus could be on recognising medical errors in the context of individual episodes, adopting the teamwork concept and a multidisciplinary approach in diagnosis and treatment,' Cerimagic said. He said he and his colleagues were taken aback by the response to their paper 'House M.D.: Between reality and fiction'—which is not the first academic study to cast doubt on the good doctor and his methods. 'The idea was to make a scientific paper interesting not only to doctors but also to people without specific medical knowledge.' — AFP
India Today
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- India Today
Nawazuddin Siddiqui on Indian adaptation of House: Staying away to avoid influence
Ever since the Indian adaptation of the popular American series 'House MD' was announced with Nawazuddin Siddiqui, fans have been eagerly waiting to see him step into the shoes of Hugh Laurie, who plays the iconic character. In an exclusive interview with India Today, the actor opened up about being part of the show, and also revealed how he is yet to watch the asked if he feels pressure to headline such a mega show, Nawazuddin smiled to decline, saying he never does that for any project. Talking further about starring in the Indian adaptation of 'House MD', he said, "It's a very popular show, but I haven't watched it yet. We still have time before we get into it, but I don't even want to watch it. I am trying hard to stay away from it because I don't want to get influenced."Nawazuddin further said, "I have watched some clippings from the show, and everyone has done such amazing work. But main bachna chah raha hoon (I want to stay oblivious to it). When you watch such a good performance, you tend to get influenced and start copying it. I would never want to do it."advertisementThe actor is currently basking in the success of 'Costao,' his Zee5 film based on the real-life story of a customs officer by the same name. Drawing a parallel to the character, Nawazuddin said that, like him, he too is driven by passion. He has been working tirelessly without expectations of rewards or awards."When you start expecting something, if it doesn't happen, you feel low and depressed. When you are driven by passion, nothing else matters. Art is something that cannot be bound by expectations. Of course, you want to reach more and more people, but it's never for validation," he asked if that meant he had never hoped for an award, the actor smiled to say, "Jis tarah ka standard ho gaya hai, mile na mile but ek shaam acchi ho jati hai (The kind of standard it has now, it really doesn't matter. But you do get to enjoy a fun evening)." 'Costao' is currently streaming on Zee5. Indian adaptation of 'House MD' is expected to premiere on JioHotstar. You May Also Like
Express Tribune
30-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Which Holmes did it best?
SLOUGH, ENGLAND: If anyone has mastered the art of writing prose dryer than a digestive biscuit, it is surely Arthur Conan Doyle. Almost ruthlessly purged of any semblance of wit, Doyle's Dr Watson lulls his readers to sleep, almost as if parading as a general anaesthetic, by giving a duller-than-dishwater account of his adventures with one of fiction's biggest detective hotshots, Sherlock Holmes. The dullness of Doyle If you have any doubts as to Watson's passion for spreading boredom far and wide, you are invited to study this riveting opening passage from A Study in Scarlet: "In the year 1878 I took my degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University of London, and proceeded to Netley to go through the course prescribed for surgeons in the Army. Having completed my studies there, I was duly attached to the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers as assistant surgeon. The regiment was stationed in India at the time, and before I could join it, the second Afghan war had broken out." (For those of you who did not dose off after 'year', please dig out a copy of A Study in Scarlet in your own time and look up paragraph number 2 if you are still seeking a sleeping aid.) Fortunately, however, we live in a world where those in the business of regaling us with film and television are immune to Doyle's dogged efforts to anaesthetise through words. No one who loves a good juicy murder will have ever complained of there being a dearth of Sherlock Holmes-oriented content on TV. As a tribute to these brave filmmakers and actors, let us take a closer look at three onscreen adaptations of Doyle's immortal (against all odds) literature. 'Watson' (2025) Watson combines the two things that a certain echelon of TV viewers holds dear: murder and medicine. Set in present-day Pittsburgh in America, Dr John Watson runs a medical practice where he treats patients with strange and unidentifiable issues. One year ago, his dear friend Sherlock Holmes perished at the hands of his archnemesis, Moriarty, who was also supposed to have been finished off in the same fight. However, because every Moriarty in every fictional universe is like that pesky cockroach unperturbed by a nuclear holocaust, our latest Watson must face his past when undeniable evidence surfaces that Moriarty may, sadly, still be alive. Alongside this troubling factoid, Watson must also continue to treat his patients – although because his time with his beloved Holmes was not wasted, he uses his dear departed friend's deductive reasoning to get to the root cause of whatever rare disorders are ailing his patients. As you will have deduced from this little summary, Watson is more of an upgraded version of House MD and has less to do with Holmes than almost any Holmes adaptations to date – a conclusion that has not escaped the unforgiving eye of your average IMDb reviewer. "It is so much a rip-off of House MD that frankly, it gets embarrassing to watch. Even the music is exactly as in House. Oh, and Morris Chestnut is not the right guy to play any kind of smart doctor," writes one commenter. "It's not all bad, though. The writing and acting are not awful, the story moves along as it should... there is some potential, despite the bad decisions they made at conception." "Not all bad" and "not awful" may not be quite the response that producer and series creator Craig Sweeny may have been aiming for, so whether or not Watson hangs around long enough to merit a second season remains to be seen. The odds look slim. 'Enola Holmes' (2020) Set in the late 1800s and turning the spotlight on Sherlock's younger sister, Enola Homes is everything a modern Holmes film for kids (and like-minded adults) should be: fresh, engaging, not preachy, with a loveable female protagonist who grates on nobody's nerves. After enjoying a free-spirited childhood, 16-year-old Enola Holmes is on the brink of being packed away to a boarding school for young ladies where she is to be taught things like manners. Determined to avoid this dreadful fate, and equally determined to hunt down her mother, who appears to have vanished of her own accord in the dead of night, Enola runs away from home and play super sleuth across London. This running away from home business is even easier than it sounds, for Enola is in the care of her aloof older brothers, who have little interest in either their missing mother or the whereabouts of their younger sister. One of these brothers, of course, is Sherlock, played by the dashing Henry Cavill. Lovers of eye candy will have had their hopes dashed when they learn how pathetically little screen time Cavill gets. However, since this is really a coming-of-age story about Enola, Cavill's lack of screen presence is justified. Can Enola outwit her famous detective brother, find her mother, find young love, defeat a terrifying dowager and undo the changes that are about to set back the course of women's rights? You are a fool if you believe any of this is beyond our heroine's remit, and the joy lies in just how she does it. 'Sherlock' (2010-1017) Because the best must always be saved for last, there is no escaping this definitive quirky version of Doyle's works. Sherlock does almost everything a book fan would abhor: it upgrades everything to the present day, defies canon by referring to its eponymous hero by his first name as opposed to his surname, and calls its first episode A Study in Pink rather than sticking to Doyle's appointed title A Study in Scarlet. As if this was not scandalous enough, it even turns a crucial plot point completely on its head when Sherlock et al examine the actual murder scene. Fortunately, none of this matters, because series creators Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat were able to dust off the dry fluff littering Doyle's prose and get to the heart of his life's work. Without their peerless efforts, we would never have known the true ingenuity of London criminals, the richness of Sherlock's mind palace, and the bond between detective and sidekick that comes dangerously close to reducing to tears anyone who does not possess a heart of stone. Despite whatever viewers have to say about the final season (this is a Mentos-in-Coke situation, with opinions cleaving fans neatly in two), there is no denying that Benedict Cumberbatch and his dark curly hair filled a Sherlock-shaped hole in our lives we did not know we had. Not only are we gifted a watertight script, a musical score that doubles as the aural equivalent of Sherlock's copious ego, camera work that scythes right to the point, and a flawless performance by both main and supporting cast, this is a gem that is unlikely to ever be superseded by any future Doyle adaptation. Not even Robert Downey Jr's Holmes in Elementary – much more faithful to Doyle's actual works – has a hope of coming close.
