House M.D. (TV Series) A Pox on Our House (2010) User Reviews

Felt Rushed... I just wasn't wet yet...

[Johnny_Bear · 8/10 · 15 November 2010]

First off let me clarify. I am addicted and fully in love with this series. Now that being said I felt this episode suffered a slight misstep.

The content and plot of this episode seems to stumble as it tries to desperately pushes to much plot into its time limit. I won't reveal the plot points that are included but they felt rushed. The Dialogue between House and the team loses its cadence and the Diagnoses seems rushed. Also the drama that House's actions present seems hollow and not nearly as dramatic as should of been. This episode would of been incredible had it been a two part cliff hanger.

Aaron "Johnny Bear" Haag

Mixed feelings about this episode

[robbert1988 · 7/10 · 16 November 2010]

This is my very first review, so let's try not to spoil anything too big.

The series begins on a Dutch slave ship in very, very bad weather. The first thing that I notice, I'm Dutch, is that the Captain and doctor don't speak Dutch, but Belgic! I hate that kind of mistakes, because it shows the casters (or whoever decided to hire them) didn't think further then "hey, on paper the words are the same". Their accent is very different from Dutch and as I was expecting Dutch, I didn't understand in first place what they were saying (thanks for the subs though!)

I love this series and have been watching it from episode one, so I know how many of the episodes are full of action packed scenes (as far as action packed goes in a hospital). This one though, was too overdone. I can't really put my finger on it, but it just doesn't feel right.

Also, that they found out what happened on the ship by a Dutch "web cam hooker" is quite insulting to me. I know outsiders think that The Netherlands is whores, weed and wooden shoes, but come on, a web cam girl to get it translated?

A long story short: This episode leaves me with mixed feelings. On one side I like the idea of a girl finding a bottle with some ancient old decease, on the other, it's very unlikely that a jar that breaks that easily will stay down there for 200 years without breaking. And how come they didn't think of those other pox before? Isn't that something you test?

Let's hope next week's episode is worth and 8 or higher again!

Unrealistic slave ship

[wernerpereira · 6/10 · 3 August 2022]

Love House. But lazy writing here. One commentator mentioned that the language spoken on the Dutch slave ship is Belgic, but it sounds more like Afrikaans, which did not even exist at the time. How difficult can it be to find a Dutch person to verify the script? When writers try to find an acceptable villianous culture, they often turn to Germans or Afrikaners, maybe they were in a hurry.

Solid writing, bad medicine

[baloutine · 7/10 · 23 July 2019]

There are literally no cases of deaths resulting from Rickettsialpox, even in immunocompromised patients. It's a mild disease with symptoms generally less severe than the flu. It also spreads through mites, who (last I checked) can't survive 200 years underwater in a sealed airtight container. This episode was doing so well until the last 5 minutes

Major Fundamental Plot Error

[gothamnetworks · 6/10 · 28 September 2019]

This is one House episode that is scientifically absolutely incorrect and it really only takes some common sense, fine if you want to believe the bacterium could survive in the jar for the few hundred years and then the girl gets infected through the broken glass lacerating her skin. However the disease they prove she contracted would absolutely without any shadow of a doubt be impossible to cause the postules on her skin... The pox. There would have had to have been none and that is their mistake. For the normal vectors of this disease are infected mice and a particular mite that both bites the mice and humans thus transmits the disease. You can only get skin postules with this particular disease if you are bitten by the mites but the way the girl is exposed is the same as if I put the disease in a syringe and gave you a shot of it. You might have some postules at the site of the cut, but you would not have them all over your body. People who get this disease through the normal vector had them all over their body were bitten by the mites all over the body the reason people who have this disease do not have the postules on their feet or their hands is because the mites cannot bite through the thick skin of your feet or your hands. You see that's the reason why they know it's not smallpox smallpox is not infected this way does not work this way and you would have postules on your feet and hands. Getting the disease the way they show she gets the disease she would still have a fever she would still have all the other symptoms just absolutely no postules all over her body's those postules only correspond to bites from the mites. An absolute flaw in the plot.