“House” by David Shore

(Spoiler Alert!)

Watching the episode of the TV show “House” last night in which the main character’s best friend Wilson, a resident Oncologist finds out he has a large tumor, was perhaps the most outrageous TV show I have ever seen. The intent of the ‘House’ writers is to entertain but this show begged for questions and answers on so many levels that at one point, I could barely watch.

Contrary to 5 different physician opinions, Wilson chooses to go down the most agressive road to attack his spreading cancer. He secretly stashes the chemo, equipment,  and other drug concoctions to treat himself, but House always the wit master, catches onto Wilson’s scheme. After the usual sharp back and forth dialogue they typically engage, House gives up on convincing Wilson otherwise and offers to treat Wilson at his home. We learn Wilson is choosing the road to high stakes of life or death at the fastest treatment pace possible, this based on his having lost so many patients over the years that should have beat the odds that were stacked virtually in their favor.

The scenes of House treating Wilson in his own home were so frightening that I was physically shaking and questioning my watching the show. On one hand the approach to Wilson’s own choice as an oncologist raises serious questions, while on the other hand his breaking ethical standards by stashing the drugs, doing the treatment off hospital grounds and risking House possibly being straddled with his dead body raises so many – well flip questions (but good) – yes as flip as the show.

House’s description of the symptoms Wilson will suffer during his treatment is enough to make one weak with thought. The show includes House pulling out a top grade painkiller to join in with Wilson as if to be two junkies shooting up on his sofa together, which – well they were and did. It really makes one wonder about the possible practices of oncology, the nature of the treatments and choices, and the demons such specialist must deal with as they lose patients over the years. All sorts of thoughts spin in one’s head.

This may have been the most off-the-wall, outrageous TV show I have ever watched, but the possibilities it revealed raised so many questions that it was in some insane way curiously informative – begging for answers. Post treatment and still alive, Wilson returns to his office to find images of himself on his laptop while he was drugged during treatment on House’s sofa. Unbeknownst to him, House dressed him in funny hats, sunglasses while hot, barely-clad ladies wrapped themselves all around Wilson.

Will Wilson live? Where can they possibly take this show next? Is there more to learn about cancer, treatments and how oncologists might look at it from the inside? The real question is: Can my brain handle watching any more?

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