House

is an exceptionally clever and thorough series that delivered incredible medical drama, but it did leave some things ambiguous despite an eight-season run. House may be a medical drama, but it’s far from ordinary when it comes to establishing a story and cast within this popular genre. Rather than follow the trend of medical dramas that see doctors and nurses constantly falling in and out of love, regular patients come in with life-threatening diseases that doctors manage to miraculously cure, and endless deep dives into the characters and history, House did things differently.

This is likely in part due to the fact that House is actually a loose adaptation of Sherlock Holmes, with the central protagonist meant to play a part similar to the great detective. In this way, the show explores medical problems like puzzles for House to solve, and it spends more time investigating these dramatic situations than it does looking back at the history of the central cast. However, this also leads to a loose end for House as a character that was never addressed in any of the eight seasons the show was on the air.

How Long Was House Working At The Princeton–Plainsboro Teaching Hospital Before Season 1?

House Was Already A Tenured Doctor At PPTH By The Start Of The Show

House is a highly respected and renowned medical pracтιтioner who is leading his own specialist diagnostic team at the start of the series. While he is joined by a pair of new hires to his team, he is shown to have been working there for some time with Chase previous to the show’s beginning. In addition, the show has several scenes that shed light on House having worked at PPTH for years before the show started, and making a clear impression on his colleagues. However, the show never states exactly how long he has been working in the hospital.

Cuddy mentions House owing her four years’ worth of clinic time. House states that he has been through three regime changes at PPTH, and a flashback episode reveals an incident five years before the show begins where House is sH๏τ by an attacker in the hospital. But whether House has been working there for 6 years or 16 is never addressed in clear terms. While this seems like a small issue, it highlights an area of the show that was much less concerned with being precise.

House Was Never Too Consistent About Its Timeline

House Kept Some Things Ambiguous Throughout Its Run

House is often praised for the accuracy it displays regarding actual medical ailments. Of course, there are many moments in the series that exaggerate and make things unrealistic, especially in terms of how many and how often new ᴅᴇᴀᴅly and dormant diseases pop up out of nowhere, but the show established House and his team as the world’s best diagnosticians, which would lead to them getting a disproportionate number of unusual cases. But when it comes to timelines for the cast, and the history between them, the show is less careful.

For instance, while the show reveals that Cuddy is the one who got House his job at PPTH, House’s comments about there being three regime changes in his time there suggest Cuddy couldn’t have been at the top of the ladder when he came aboard. Likewise, House and Chase were likely part of another diagnostics team before Foreman and Cameron came along, but the show never made any mention of them. And finally, House’s relationship with friends like Wilson and Cuddy was constantly in flux, and his addiction improved and crashed over time. House is still a spectacular show, but it left some puzzles unsolved.