Hugh Laurie Issues Waspish Retort To Viral Critique Of ‘House’ Having “Same Narrative Every Episode”

House may have ended more than a decade ago, but Hugh Laurie is still prepared to do battle for the beloved Fox series.

Janet Murray, a British journalist, went viral on X/Twitter over the weekend when she penned a review of House, in which she argued that the medical drama has the “same narrative every episode.”

“Patient has mysterious illness. Hugh Laurie (House) gets diagnosis wrong. Patient nearly dies. Hugh Laurie gets diagnosis wrong again. Gets threatened with being fired. Patient nearly dies again,” she said.

“Hugh Laurie has last minute leftfield idea. Gets diagnosis right. Doesn’t get fired. Eight seasons of this?”

Laurie was not impressed. He responded: “Thanks for your critique, Janet. We actually tried a couple of episodes where House (Hugh Laurie) (please put the brackets in the right place) gets it right first time, but they were only 6 minutes long. NBC weren’t happy. Then we tried some where House never gets it right and the patient dies. The audience wasn’t happy.”

The actor continued: “One could apply your trenchant analysis to other art forms: JS Bach wrote 30 Goldberg variations on the same chord structure; Frida Kahlo painted 50 portraits of herself; Henry Moore, what??

“The point is, or was, variations on a theme; if all you see is hospital, medical blah blah, then it wasn’t meant for you. Nonetheless, I look forward to your first novel!”

Laurie was criticized for being “classless” with his message, to which he replied: “OK.”

Murray saw the funny side. “Woken up to a few new followers this morning. Who may be disappointed to learn that TV reviews are not usually my forte,” she wrote. “Plus I may now be too busy working on my first novel.”