"Come, Watson, come. The game is afoot." Predominantly focused on the original works and associated adaptations, we aim to be a community for Sherlockians to share knowledge and encourage discussions of the greatest detective.
Of course Dr House isn't exactly Sherlock Holmes and House's grumpy super cynical un-couth demeanor doesn't match Holme's bedside manner in the actual books, but I've always thought that Dr House's thought process matched the original Holmes perfectly while also adding quite a bit of dramatization.
What I really admire about House is his thought process, the writers really nailed something that a lot of Sherlock adaptations don't get right. House, just like Holmes in the books really takes his time when solving a case, collecting data, matching it against previous similar cases, having a back and forth with his far less intelligent colleagues for the sake of the socratic method and obsesses over the case ignoring everything else and most of all making the whole process seem so magically fun the same way it was made to feel like in the books.
Even besides all this, he has a ton in common with Holmes from the original books
-An encyclopedic knowledge of "sensational literature" i.e very obscure medial facts and cases.
-Very good musician (hugh Laurie can play the piano and the guitar very well)
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Profound knowledge of Chemistry
The show itself is far from perfect but I do love the Sherlock-ian aspects of it so much. I don't mind if it's inaccurate, I'll always have Hugh Laurie as my favourite Sherlock Holmes for these reasons.
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Dr. House = Holmes (Homes) Dr. Wilson = Dr Watson
Im aware of the inspirations, I was making an argument for why I thought the portrayal itself was a 10/10 imo
House = Holmes
addiction struggles
Etc
Agreed! The point you make about vast knowledge of history in his field is spot on. They both embrace the idea that there’s nothing new under the sun.
For those unaware that House is actually an intentional adaptation of Sherlock Homes (clearly OP knows) here are a few tidbits:
House and Home are synonymous (Home~=Holmes)
House’s address is 221-B Baker Street (plenty of episodes show his appartement address and a couple show his driver’s license which say Baker Street)
His best friend, sounding board, and occasional roommate is a doctor named James Wilson (~= John Watson)
He only takes rare or exceptional cases
He has a drug problem
He plays a musical instrument to think
He employs unconventional means in his cases
He disregards the patient (client) as a mere abstraction, focusing only on the problem
There are many other examples but the show’s creators have said it’s an adaptation.
He is Sherlock, Sherlock. He even lived at 221B baker street.
I personally think that's selling House short. Yeah, Holmes was the overt initial inspiration but by the end House was his own character wlth his own legacy.
Ah that wasn't my intention, House is way funnier and that especially adds to his character as well.
Hugh Laurie makes a good Mycroft too
This distinction may not make sense but I think I would divide up the various shows/movies we have into "adaptations" and "inspired by".
Shows like House (and Elementary) are clearly directly inspired by Sherlock Holmes (Elementary much more explicitly so) but they're not trying to be strict adaptations of the original stories/canon. So it doesn't make sense to worry about accuracy - neither James Wilson or Joan Watson is John Watson although they clearly do have John Watson like qualities.
The Granada/Jeremy Brett version, or the Soviet version (among many others) are much more a strict adaptation and there I think it makes more sense to consider accuracy. (Not that total accuracy is desirable).
But otherwise, yeah I agree. House is very Sherlockian although like the Elementary version he's much more defined by a weakness (physical disability in House's case) than the canonical version. But that's OK - he's a different character (albeit very much inspired by Holmes). I very much enjoyed watching House (although it's not a show I have much desire to rewatch).
I know the comparison has been made and I saw some of the effort to make the connection in the few shows I saw, but I love Sherlock Holmes and absolutely hated House, probably for a lot of the same reasons that I'm not a fan of "Sherlock."
Most people's dislike of House, I'm guessing is regarding his personality and philosophy. His problem solving skills imo are very very similar to that of Holme's with the exception of his disregard when it comes to meeting people and doing his own dirty work (although this is because of his disability)
On the other hand I've never seen Sherlock Holmes fans have anything nice to say about BBC Sherlock, but I watched it as a kid and still love it , despite how ridiculous and illogical a lot of the deduction scenes are.