House M.D. is another of those television shows about doctors and hospitals that I would never intentionally watch. I watched 3 episodes, however, when I was held captive on a flight from the Philippines to Phoenix, on the leg from Guam to Honolulu.

Dr. House is an ass, and freely admits to it. He hires and fires doctors on his team for all the wrong reasons and gets away with it. Why? Because he's a brilliant doctor who's a kind of medical detective, searching for the cause of an affliction, not just treating the symptoms.

This is an excellent show and I don't know how I managed to miss it since 2004, even intentionally. Perhaps it was those 12 hour work days that went from 5 pm to 5 am. I probably missed more than my fair share of excellent programming.

House M.D. stars Hugh Laurie and an ever-changing cast of supporting characters. The 3 episodes I saw also had Kal Penn (Van Wilder, Harold & Kumar), which was an amusing addition. Here's a popular scene: