ABSTRACT
It is widely known that the medical series House MD is based upon the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle (1859±1930). Indeed the co-creator of the show, David Shore, admits that his fascination with Holmes was central to the characterization of the eponymous Gregory House (Shore 2006). A diagnostician extraordinaire, Dr House shares more with the great detective than a pun on his name, Ho(l)mes. Both House and Holmes claim to pursue scienti®c truth; they intellectually and psychologically dominate their colleagues, and both suffer from drug addiction. Moreover, House is also like Holmes and CSI as analyzed by Ellen Burton Harrington. House adopts the now customary series format of continuing characters `housed' in complete stories in each episode. Also like CSI, House takes detecting as its paradigm, although it seeks to unravel the material traces of the crime of illness.
