Why add a New Character to House? Brother Mycroft

Intoduction

As all House fans know, Dr. Gregory House was based on Sherlock Holmes... but Holmes, in turn, was based on a Doctor that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle knew while studying medicine, Dr. Joseph Bell, whose specialty was diagnosis.

 Individual episodes of the series contain references to the Sherlock Holmes tales. The main patient in the Pilot is named Rebecca Adler after Irene Adler a character in the first Holmes short story. In the Season II finale, a crazed gunman credited as “Moriarty” the name of Holmes’s nemesis shoots House.  In Season IV episode "It's a Wonderful Lie” House receives a "second edition Conan Doyle" as a Christmas gift. In"The Itch" (Season V) House is seen picking up his keys and Vicodin from the top of a copy of Conan Doyle's The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.

 In "Joy to the World,” another Season V episode, House, in an attempt to fool his team, uses a book by Joseph Bell, Conan Doyle's inspiration for Sherlock Holmes. The volume had been given to him the previous Christmas by Wilson, who included the message "Greg, made me think of you." Before acknowledging that he gave the book to House, Wilson tells two of the team members that its source was a patient, Irene Adler.

As we discover in “Birthmarks”, John House (House’s Dad) was not his genetic father. House began to have suspicions in this regard at age 12 as his father was training off in Okinawa when he was conceived, because he had different toes, and because of a birthmark inconsistent with his father’s complexion. He confirms his suspicions through a kiss with ulterior motives: clipping a piece of ear from the man who raised him and conducting an unmatched DNA test with it at his father’s funeral. House deduced that a friend of his family with the same birthmark was his real father.

  With the revelations from “Birthmarks” regarding House’s biological dad, the inclusion of his older brother and a new and interesting character would most definitely make for a welcome addition to the cast but would also give closure to some hanging story lines. House is brilliant at creating these story lines but much less so in seeing them developed properly. 

We can make sense of the addition of House’s brother as he could discover he has a stepbrother in Season 8. Mycroft is basically the ONLY major Holmesian character which hasn’t been mentioned or included on House.

Why Add A New Character When There Is So Much Unfinished Business to Tend To ?

Mycroft- Holmes- Watson =Mycroft-House-Wilson

- Fans yearned to know more about House’s family life and his early years. His relationship with his parents was not properly explored and this would afford an opportunity to do so. To truly try to make an effort to explain part of the reason House is House.this could open doors, afford needed closure regarding House’s past and some of those unfinished story lines and  provide new interest for the show.

- Introducing the character of Mycroft in Season 8 could be a good idea. If well written, we might learn more about John House, and the “family friend” (who would be House’s and Mycroft’s biological dad), House, the House/Wilson friendship and more. This could be a key to helping House heal.

  

- We might learn more about Blythe (House’s mom) who was played by the fabulous Diane Baker. We wanted to learn more about their relationship and House’s early life but as has happened too often…the House writers seem to have never found a good arc they couldn’t destroy or leave hanging. 


- House’s drug issue could be confronted head on. There are all sorts of possibilities when we add Mycroft who surely has had to deal with some demons of his own. It’s time now to begin to  gain closure with this issue. 

- It would be "Compelling TV" to see House/Wilson helping each other through these serious relationship issues and being there for each other. The sense of “balance” in this relationship has suffered, as it has with much of the characters on this show. We need a return to the DRAMA and the strong sense of relationship between these two men, which was so remarkable. 

-Mycroft could be a  key person on House’s journey to find himself.

There is room for additional characters (especially female) and an opportunity this Season to help to recapture some of the poignancy and drama which was the basis for this show,-help achieve closure on some very long hanging points and to make an effort to get back to the types of stories and relationships we watched the show for.

. Who would you like to see play House's older/smarter? brother in Season 8? 

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