House: Pilot on AllMovie

The alternate title for this pilot episode of House is "Everybody Lies", which neatly sums up the philosophy of the brilliant but thoroughly obnoxious Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie), infectious disease and nephrology specialist at Princton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. Convinced that none of his patients will ever tell him the truth, House responds in kind by refusing to talk to them beyond the bare necessities--and he certainly wastes no time being friendly, comforting or supportive. Right now, House's patented indifference is being directed at 29-year-old kindergarten teacher Rebecca Adler (Robin Tunney), who for no discernible reason has begun suffering seizures and speaking gibberish. With no one else able to figure out what's happening to Rebecca, House dismisses it as a brain tumor. It turns out that he's wrong--and also that he'll spend a lot more time than he'd originally intended trying to save Rebecca's life, and to ascertain the real cause for her behavior (which, as often happens in this series,turns out to be a malady that no one could possibly have anticipated). But though House emerges as the hero of the piece, he remains his old gloriously repulsive self.