Dr. Gregory House, a drug-addicted, unconventional, misanthropic medical genius, leads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton–Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in New Jersey.
This tv show contains 132 potentially triggering events.
House's dad is physically and emotionally abusive; according to House, he would force him into ice baths, make him sleep in the yard and spent one summer refusing any sort of verbal communication as punishment.
Chase's mother was an alcoholic who locked him in his father's study whenever she was unable to take care of him.
His father didn't stop the abuse from Chase's mother — and abandoned them when he was 15, forcing him to take care of his mother and little sister till his mother's death.
S3 E21. Hector, a dog who previously belonged to Wilson and his second wife, Bonnie. House ends up adopting the dog, but then getting annoyed after he destroys his things. He leaves pills out in attempt to poison him (he eats them but isn't bothered). And then seemly accidentally slams a door on his front leg, crippling him. (He doesn't show any remorse so it's unsure if it truly was an accident). Hector ends up with a limp but is otherwise okay.
Season Three "Informed Consent"
First few minutes or so, rat lovers should look away. Do not watch the start of the episode, skip to 2 minutes 30 seconds. Plot wise all you miss is the man collapsing at work:
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Dr Ezra Powell is seen to remove a rat from a cage with other rats. The rat puts up a struggle, Dr Powell says he admires the rats attempt and then injects him with a needle euthanising the rat. Its is seen lying dead. He then proceeds to do a dissection. Dr Powell becomes incapacited and a second rat takes the opportunity to eat a bit of the man.
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Same episode, Season Three "Informed Consent"
15 minutes and 40 seconds in a sequence of scenes start that are jumbled around. Each member of the team is doing different tests. In a few of the sequences Dr Cameron is searching Dr Ezra Powell's lab and is looking for anything that could help diagnose Dr Powell. She finds a biohazard bin with 6 (possibly more) dead rats and blood, they have clearly been dissected. The camera shows this on-screen, Dr Cameron then collects one of them to help Dr Powell's case. Picking one of them up and placing them in a zip lock bag. It then cuts to different members of the team doing other tests but a few seconds later Cameron is shown again in Dr Powells' lab swabbing the rat that had been euthanized at the beginning of the episode when Dr Powell collapsed. This lasts until 16 minutes and 38 seconds in
HUGE WARNING about halfway through, live maggots are placed on a patient's body for medical reasons, skip from about 22:37 to 23:17 to avoid seeing this, It's gross. If you're on a site where you can't see timestamps then skip about two minutes ahead once House mentions Dominic Larrey
House mentions being raped in prison at one point in the final season. It is unclear whether he is serious or just making a distasteful joke, but either way it could be distressing.
Episode 12, Season 3. While it's not explicitly shown, it is mentioned. A girl come in for an STD check. When House goes to touch her, she freaks out. we find out the reason for that and her Chlamydia is that she was assaulted.
SPOILER:
she's also pregnant
In one episode, its at the beginning of the episode where a boy and his father is on a quad bike, and when the boy takes control he crashes and burns, the rest of the episode shows the burn marks on his skin
Season 6 Episode 22 had a very graphic scene of a woman having her leg amputated without anesthesia. In Season 2 Episode 3, a character has his hand amputated. In Season 3 Episode 10, House decides to amputate a girl's arm and leg. The girl is shown in the OR, and a scalpel is brought up to her arm, but the surgery is cancelled before it starts.
idk why anyone hasnt said it yet but im 8 episodes in and so far i dont think theres been a single episode where someone doesnt have the most violent seizure or convulses in some way, shape, or form
edit: ive finshed the series and besides all the patients house has 2 seizures in total throughout the series idk abt other main characters
I don't want to say it's excessive, in fact not at all. But many episodes have medical depictions of human anatomy, such as surgical procedures (i.e. removal of tapeworms, tumor extraction, etc). So if medical procedures aren't your thing, try to steer clear of those particular scenes. They don't last long but do skip them.
A baby doesn’t die at first, but is found submerged in a bathtub and unresponsive. He survives, but his mother later attempts to smother him but he survives again. However, he later dies from the injuries.
For seasons: 1,2,3,4,5,6 (but barring s1e1 and s6e22 as they do not have proper opening credits) the theme song intro has a lake during Jennifer Morrison's credits. In season 7 and 8 there is no longer Jennifer Morrison, or a lake in the opening credits. In episode s6e7 about 23 minutes in House and WIlson are standing next to a lake and the lake is visible during a few scenes in s6e7 as the place they are staying at is ontop of the lake.
It’s mentioned that one character stopped shaving her legs about two months ago because her tremors were making it impossible to do it without cutting herself, but other than that there are no razors in this episode.
I made a Google Doc with warnings and timestamps for each individual episode here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hSlT_ov4WlwB3M316-DDtDrUuxPQ2-UbckIZfUKWya4
One of the psychiatric hospital's patients became mental ill after the death of his family. It's heavily implied (in conversation only) that they were killed on 9/11.
SPOILER:
Self harm scars and wounds are discovered on a patient. A few episodes prior, House is shown breaking his own hand because he has to stay clean from his medication.
House is extremely autistic-coded (in one episode he is even stated to be autistic though that is taken back quickly) and he is very much like the stereotypical unemphatetic autist who doesn't care about anyone else.
However in the episode Lines in the Sand (the one where House is heavily implied to be autistic) House is very sympathetic towards an autistic patient, and explains to Cameron how she's being ableist towards the child. The episode portrays the kid's autism well if you ask me and the autistic traits Wilson notices in House are also accurate.
Alters were more a plot device than actual defined characters. Much doesn't make sense when you think back on it. Includes the dangerous alter trope. There are some things that are accurate, like how different alters can have different health conditions, or they present differently depending on the alter.
woman is so upset by the sounds in her house and head that she essentially has a panic attack and continuously hits her head against a wall, can very much be interpreted as sensory overload leading to a meltdown
not quite but a patient is suicidal and says "I don't want to live" and turns down treatment for cancer - episode is ambiguous about what happens after
body dysmorphia is never discussed but there are two patients with eating disorders so it stands to reason that they probably experience body dysmorphia
The episodes “Control” and “half wit” involve eating disorders. In “The Softer Side” House makes himself vomit for non ED reasons, when Wilson confronts him on this he sarcastically says “you caught me, I’m bulimic, but don’t I look good in these pants?” There’s a male anorexic in Broken who House intentionally triggers.
Major spoilers follow-
In the episode “Simple Explanation" (05x20) a reoccurring main character, Lawrence Kutner, is found dead in his apartment after killing himself. Gunshot wound to the head, to be specific.
Not full scenes but there a few clips with characters underwater in a pool:
s1e19 short clip at the beginning before title
s3e1 short clip at beginning before title again
s7e16 house jumps in a pool
there could be others but those are the only ones i remember
at least once maybe twice a season house has some sort of mental crisis and most of the time when it's getting worse and people around him who care force him to talk to them it usually ends with house lashing out and yelling at them as when this happened with cuddy for example he grabs her and pushes her against a wall as well
House is physically disabled and makes self deprecating jokes regarding this, including describing himself as crippled. Some other characters also make jokes regarding his disability but not generally in antognistic ways.
The titular character often uses antisemitic remarks when belittling Taub, a Jewish doctor. House often incorporates various forms of bigotry when belittling the people around him, and the antisemitic remarks are only made when speaking directly to/about Taub.
Several female characters are joked about as "secretly being a man". In S2E13, "Skin Deep", an intersex woman finds out she is intersex with complete androgen insensitivity syndrome and is frequently referred to as "actually a man" and "both male and female". In S5E16, "The Softer Side", a young intersex boy is referred to as "both a boy and a girl" "a h*she" and a freak by the team despite identifying as male. Despite this, once told his actual biological state, Thirteen still tells him to go with what feels right on identity. In S6E17, "Knight Fall", House brings a trans woman sex worker to a date to attempt to unnerve Wilson's date, though she is not directly misgendered she is still treated as abnormal.
VERY MUCH SPOILERS: One of the main characters is explicitly bisexual and has a terminal illness that will eventually kill them. Another main character is subtextually queer and is given a short time to live by the end of the show.
Several fat patients are made fun of throughout the series, as well as jokes made about various characters getting fat. S1E16, "Heavy", and S3E06, "Que Será Será", both deal heavily in this.
There's an episode in which House doesn't believe in asexuality and bets Wilson it's a medical issue for one partner and the other is lying because she wants to stay with her husband. He is proven right.
besides the asexual episode (I'll agree the aphobia is pretty bad but the characters are shown being proud of who they are at least) the show is definitely lgbtq friendly with even a main character representing and that one time house and wilson pretended to be a gay couple and almost got married, also things like race, religion etc are topics in the show and majority of houses team are never just "all american" beside house himself who the actor hugh laurie himself very clearly is british if you take one look at anything he's done in the past
The titular character often uses bigoted speech when belittling those around him. Additionally, various patients or patients' families can be seen to occasionally engage in it.
One of the doctors is talked into giving a nine year old cancer patient a (dry, no tongue, brief) kiss because she wants to "kiss a boy" before she dies. Nothing really comes of it, but it's indicated to be part of her "living her life" better than everyone around her since she's got about a year left.
A patient in her mid teens is revealed to have lost her virginity prior to the events of the episode. It indirectly leads to the condition that brings her to the hospital.
In the episode Love Hurts the patient is a sub in a BDSM relationship and his dom is with him the whole episode. It is also revealed that Chase is into BDSM and House makes jokes about it towards him.
It is a medical show with a wide cast of chronic illnesses. House himself has chronic pain and a limp. Some patients have diseases like cancer, ALS, lupus, and other chronic mental and physical conditions.
The patient is mentioned to be homeless. Foreman makes some very demeaning comments about the patient, implying that she is being manipulative and faking symptoms because she doesn’t want to be discharged.
The episode "Fetal Position" has often been described as an anti-abortion piece. In the episode a pregnant woman and her unborn child are in critical condition and need a lifesaving operation. House is at first incredulous over the concept of saving the fetus, convinced that an abortion will be the only solution. However, after getting a look at the fetus while it is being operated on, he changes his mind and notably starts referring to the child as a baby in front of its mother (up to now he only used the term "fetus") and becomes optimistic about its chances of surviving to full term.
The show as a whole: YMMV but probably, it's arguably better described as bittersweet. For individual episodes/plotlines/characters, definitely and often.
in s03e18 "Airborne", the episode takes place in a commercial airplane, and turbulence occurs when House is about to attempt a lumbar puncture. the plane does not crash though.
in s04e02 "The Right Stuff", before the opening credits the patient, who is a military pilot, apparently crashes during a flight, but it is quickly revealed to have been only a simulated flight.