House vs. Holmes

(For Kelsi)

True to my nature, when there are big events to be covered in the blogging area, I often go a whole different route. Instead of blogging about all of our holiday activities and traditions at this juncture, I'm going to write about something infinitely more important and relevant.  I am taking a page out of Kelsi's notebook and I'm going to write about Sherlock Holmes.  In case you didn't know Kelsi is a prolific and very amazing writer.  If you would like to sample some of her Sherlock Holmes writings go here or here. Now, I am nowhere near as in-depth or as knowledgable in any area I'm interested in, who unlike Kelsi, is, especially in the Sherlock Holmes category... but none the less I AM interested and like to draw my own parallels and conclusions even with my limited knowledge.

Gregory House                                                                                                            Sherlock Holmes

The other day as Kelsi was educating me in all things "Sherlock" (the British TV series), which, by the way is very good, whether you're a Sherlock Holmes fan or not.  You should go look them up on Netflix (so far there are only 4 episodes). They are very well done. Anyway, as Kelsi was educating me, as she often does, and as we were watching the latest episode, a line was spoken by Inspector Lestrade advising someone who didn't know Sherlock Holmes but was in charge of a criminal investigation that was going to require his help,  Lestrade says, "...give him 5 minutes on your crime scene, listen to everything he has to say, and as far as possible, try not to punch him."

This line got me thinking about where else I've heard lines similar to this.  One place I knew for sure was on the TV show House.  Holy Cow! I never realized...the parallels are astounding. For sure, the creators of House modeled the show after the Sherlock Holmes stories/characters...

Here are just some of the similarities I thought of:

House: Genius in the world of curing incurable/unknown diseases (and by enlarge, deductive reasoning)
Holmes: Genius in deductive reasoning

House: Turns most people off with his flippant attitude
Holmes: Turns most people off with his superior attitude

House: Musical (plays the piano, among other instruments) Plays when he is thinking.
Holmes: Musical (plays the violin) Plays when he is thinking.

House: Has an indifference to his patients.
Holmes: Has an indifference to people involved in the cases he is solving

House: Often clashes with his boss, Lisa Cuddy, over regulations. He often makes her look ridiculous. She is constantly on the verge of firing him and/or strangling him, but continues to asks him back and rely on his expertise.
Holmes: Often clashes with Inspector Lestrade over regulations. He often makes him look ridiculous. He is constantly on the verge of never using his skills again and/or strangling him, but continues to ask him back and rely on his expertise.

House: Perpetual Messy Bachelor
Holmes: Perpetual Messy Bachelor

House: Addicted to Vicodin
Holmes: Uses Cocaine recreationally

House: People often want to punch him in the face, but out of desperation, end up needing/relying on his skills.
Holmes: People often want to punch him in the face, but out of desperation, end up needing/relying on his skills.

House: Arrogant
Holmes: Arrogant

House: Has few friends but those he does have are completely loyal to him.
Holmes: Has few friends but those he does have are completely loyal to him.

House: Has a best friend/colleague who seems to hang around out of sheer morbid curiosity and a desire to lead a more exciting life than he might otherwise have.  He also tends to "take care of" House. His name is (James) WILSON
Holmes: Has a best friend/colleague who seems to hang around out of sheer morbid curiosity and a desire to lead a more exciting life than he might otherwise have. He also tends to "take care of" Holmes. His name is (John) WATSON.

House: Walks with a limp.
Holmes: Watson walks with a limp.

House: Named after a place of residence.
Holmes: Named after a place of residence.

End Note: So i just contacted my good friend Wikipedia just to confirm a few facts about "House" (like what was Cuddy's first name) and right there in plain sight was a subsection called "References to Sherlock Holmes." So I guess in the end, you can just go look up the official similarities on Wikipedia, but it was funner coming up with them on my own.

Also now that I've got this out of my system maybe I can get back to writing about regular family things and thrilling you all with our awesomeness!!