Hugh Laurie is English.

I thought I'd get this right out there at the beginning. The reason for this is that I can't think of a single American actor who could carry off the level of sarcasm, snarkyness and misanthropic disinterest that Laurie does as House.

The early episodes all feel fairly...stilted. It's clear that this is a new series; the actors don't mesh quite as well as they should. However, by the time that you hit episode five, they're clearly comfortable working with each other, and the show really takes off.

The premise of the show is simple: There's a cold opening which introduces this week's case, cut to the opening credits, then there's a debate of "I have no patients! Wait, this one is interesting...", House maintains that they're not all that sick, then they get worse, House picks on the team, they come up with ideas, they all turn out to be wrong, House has an epiphany at some point due to something he sees, hears or says, and then figures out what's wrong with the patient. Then there's some witty banter at the end, show over.

Despite this recurring framework, the show is absolutely fantastic. The medicine isn't perfect (and regularly gets picked to pieces on the web, but what doesn't?), but the writing is top-notch. Character interactions are fantastic and frequently hilarious, and the whole does-Cameron-like-House, does-House-like-Cameron thing adds a little tension, though thankfully the writers never take it past that.

A rock-solid and very entertaining piece of television.