Actor Hugh Laurie apparently wasn’t happy about a writer’s critique of his long-running medical drama, “House.”

Still, his response to the criticism seemed like it came straight from the cantankerous Dr. Gregory House himself.

On Saturday, U.K.-based writer Janet Murray, who usually seems to gain social media attention for her anti-trans writings and not her television reviews, made a post on X in which she mentioned she had just started the first season of the medical procedural.

She then mocked some of the tropes of the show, which ran on the Fox Network between 2004 and 2012, including the fact that House always seems to fail twice at figuring out a patient’s problem before he has what she called a “last minute leftfield idea” and gets the diagnosis right.

Murray then asked, “Eight seasons of this?”

Late to the party, but I've started watching Season 1 of House. Same narrative every episode:Patient has mysterious illness.Hugh Laurie (House) gets diagnosis wrong.Patient nearly dies.Hugh Laurie gets diagnosis wrong again.Gets threatened with being fired. Patient nearly…

Some people appreciated Murray’s take and brought up other plot elements commonly used in the series, while others pointed out that the predictable aspect of procedural dramas like “House” is a feature, not a bug.

But no one ― especially Murray ― expected Laurie to chime in with a brutally mocking but hilarious response that also sounded like it could have been written by Dr. House himself.

“Thanks for your critique, Janet. We actually tried a couple of episodes where House (Hugh Laurie) (please put the brackets in the right place) gets it right the first time, but they were only 6 minutes long. NBC weren’t happy,” he wrote. “Then we tried some where House never gets it right and the patient dies. The audience wasn’t happy.

“One could apply your trenchant analysis to other art forms: JS Bach wrote 30 Goldberg variations on the same chord structure; Frida Kahlo painted 50 portraits of herself; Henry Moore, what??” he continued. “The point is, or was, variations on a theme; if all you see is hospital, medical blah blah, then it wasn’t meant for you.”

He finished off his response by telling Murray, “Nonetheless, I look forward to your first novel!”

Thanks for your critique, Janet.  We actually tried a couple of episodes where House (Hugh Laurie) (please put the brackets in the right place) gets it right first time, but they were only 6 minutes long.  NBC weren’t happy.  Then we tried some where House never gets it right and…

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