The Show
Greg House is the Sherlock Holmes of modern medicine in more ways than one. Diagnosing mystery ailments continues to be a fascinating topic, a blend of CSI and Marcus Welby. Strangers come in with God-knows-what and House and his team have to figure it out before the patient dies, if they can. But he is also, like Holmes, a deeply flawed individual, egotistical and, in Greg's case, addicted to Vicodin.
The writing is seldom quite as good as the fans seem to think it is, as an air of hospital-show corniness wafts through the supporting players and the dialogue is often fraught with borderline clichés, but star Hugh Laurie has little to complain about. He has been given one of the most complex and fascinating love-him/hate-him characters on TV, an angry, politically incorrect genius on a series routinely preceded by viewer discretion warnings.
One year clean at the start of Season Seven, he continues to wrestle with his drug demons, as "Huddy" (House and his boss, Cuddy) take their relationship in a new direction, a thread which weaves through all of the episodes. Veteran doctors bid farewell and fresh meat arrives for the grinder. The highpoint occurs in the episode entitled "Bombshells," with its stylized movie and sitcom homages and even a de rigueur musical number, this time featuring some of the terpsichorean stars of one of my favorite shows, So You Think You Can Dance.
The Picture
This is quite a fine 16:9 image, crisp with a broad range of natural-looking colors. Some softness is notable though, in the occasional lack of visible pores and such in close-ups. There is also noise on difficult bits (i.e. fine, out-of-focus patterns). The spines of medical books are sharp in the background, and blacks are usually deep and inky. During the multiple dream sequences in "Bombshells," we can readily appreciate the shift in technical quality. No doubting the highness of the definition here.
The Sound
"Medical drama" isn't typically a recipe for demo-worthy audio, but House's past Emmy for Sound Mixing warrants exploration. There is often little or no surround activity in the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, but then there might be an interesting little effect when a person standing out in the hall is also talking on House's cellphone and the two voices come together. It depends largely upon the content of the specific episode.
The placement and the quality of the musical score are outstanding, while dialogue is mostly legible across the entire season. Minute for minute, "Bombshells" might have the most ambitious audio, right down to above-average incidentals and the clever use of the "live" audience.
The Extras
All five discs in the set support BD-Live connectivity with the Universal news ticker. There's also the pocketBLU application, for enhanced playback control and portable bonus content.
Audio commentaries can be found on three episodes ("Bombshells, "The Dig" and the season-ending "Moving On") by the likes of director Greg Yaitanes, star Lisa Edelstein, writers Sara Hess and David Hoselton and executive producer David Shore. There's also a trio of character-centric featurettes, as well as a look behind the scenes of the buzziest episode, you guessed it, "Bombshells."
U-Control Bonus View brings an optional pop-up window with clear explanations of esoteric medical conditions (Angiodysplasia!) as they are mentioned, with disclaimers.
And I don't usually comment on packaging, but here the five discs are piled onto three pegs without any staggering, making them somewhat difficult to handle.
Final Thoughts
People are always on House's case to express his anger as a tool to his recovery, but in the end we find out that this was really bad advice. He may be bitter but his Season Seven set is pretty sweet, looking and sounding better than many TV shows on Blu-ray, with extras that heartily embrace available technologies.
Product Details
Where to Buy:
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