House was a landmark medical procedural drama, and though it was more about the medicine and the characters than the antagonists, the biggest villains of the TV show made an impact. The series stars Hugh Laurie as the titular character, Dr. Greg House. He has many misadventures, diagnosing patients as a misanthropic but brilliant diagnostician. Alongside him are a revolving cast of young doctors he’s teaching, his best friend, James Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard), and Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein). Above all, House is a character study that delves into the mind of a troubled and genius man.

The series is well-known for being loosely based on the stories of Sherlock Holmes. In every medical mystery House must solve, he cracks the case as a detective would a murder investigation. His characteristic dislikable demeanor and refusal to play by the rules make him the doctor that he is, but this frequently gets him in trouble with authorities. Rewatching House 20 years later demonstrates many of the problems with the series and how dated it has become by today’s standards. However, there are still strong moral lessons to be found when watching House with a critical eye.

8

Philip Weber

A long-time rival of House who fails to live up to his genius.

A minor antagonist that House has little trouble dealing with is Philip Weber (Dan Butler). The audience is given insight into House’s past and what he was like when he was coming up in medical school. Weber and House both went to Johns Hopkins. However, Weber turned House in for cheating many years ago, which resulted in his career getting derailed and his loss of a famous internship. Of course, everything turned out fine for House in the end, but he isn’t the kind of man to ever forget a grudge.

While it’s clear that Weber is an underhanded opponent and deserves what House does to him, House is not blameless in their sparring in the show. House gets wind of an experimental drug Weber is touting and does everything in his power to discredit and humiliate him. Weber does nothing to ingratiate himself with the audience, so no one is sorry to see him ruined. However, their relationship is more indicative of House’s outlook and attitude rather than the evil intentions of Weber.

7

Jeffrey Sparkman

The nurse who makes it his business to bother House at every turn, and vice versa.

The recurring character, Jeffrey Sparkman (Patrick Price), didn’t have the biggest impact on House and his ability to make diagnoses, but he was certainly a thorn in his side. House and Sparkman threw barbs back and forth at one another whenever Sparkman was onscreen. Unfortunately, House played the fact that Sparkman was one of the few male nurses for laughs, giving away some of the more dated ideologies of the series. However, Sparkman was able to get in his fair share of digs, surprising House with how cutting he could be.

There’s no question that a House reboot is a bad idea, but there was a little-known mini-series made about Sparkman in 2010. It was called Nurse Jeffrey and chronicled his attempts to take down House. Most of it is lost to time, but it shows what an impact the minor character had on House and the team at large. Though many of the characters in House push back the rude and inappropriate comments House launches towards them, Sparkman is especially clear about how much he dislikes House and wants him out of the hospital.

6

Mendelson

House’s biggest rival and antagonist when he goes to prison.

It was always inevitable that House would end up in prison one way or another, and in the season 7 finale, he finally goes too far. Struggling on and off with his addiction to Vicodin, House crashes his car in Cuddy’s home and is sentenced to prison. Fortunately, he spends just one episode there as his parole is quickly approved, but within the short time he spends in prison, he makes quite an impact on the other people there. He chafes against the cruel and intense leader of the white supremacist faction of the prison, Mendelson (Jude Ciccolella).

At first, House uses Mendelson for protection, but just before he’s set to be released, Mendelson turns on him and demands a huge payout of Vicodin, or he’ll seriously hurt House. Throughout the episode, House balances trying to diagnose a sick man in the prison as he tries to find a way to get the Vicodin and give it to Mendelson. Although Mendelson isn’t the smartest or most prevalent villain, he uses intimidation and his power within the jail community to his advantage. It’s a wake-up call for House to clean up his act and do better.

5

Jack Moriarty

The man at the center of one of House’s most transformative and intricate episodes.

The name Jack Moriarty is a nod to the fact that House was a Sherlock Holmes adaptation and slowly leaned into its mystery roots as the seasons progressed. Elias Koteas portrays the character based on Sherlock Holmes’ nemesis and lives up to his reputation by nearly killing House when he arrives at the hospital with a gun. The occurrences of hospital shootings are frequently discussed in medical dramas. However, House spins this traditional narrative by slowly revealing the reason Moriarty has a vendetta against House.

The episode ends with a final twist by showing that House’s discussions with Moriarty were hallucinations. Chronologically, House is shot, Moriarty is captured, and then the two of them spend the rest of the episode recovering side-by-side in the ICU. This is the first tip-off that everything is not right with the world, as House would never be put next to the man trying to kill him. However, the episode is a critical step for House to realize the depth of his guilt about how he behaves and that he wants to take accountability for his actions.

4

Edward Vogler

The first major villain and one of the series’ most memorable.

Vogler (Chi McBride) represents everything House hates and what he believes is wrong with the medical field, and by the end of Vogler’s arc on the show, it’s hard not to agree with him. At first, Vogler comes off as a typical rich hospital donor who uses his wealth and power to his advantage but has some good intentions in donating to the hospital. This characterization is quickly thrown out the window, as he starts using his resources to personally attack House and make sure the hospital uses the drugs his company manufactures.

If there’s to be a main critique about how Vogler’s character is written, it’s that he’s fairly one-dimensional and lacks nuance in his motivations and actions. While this is true, it’s likely because he was part of House‘s early seasons, when the show was less concerned with its season-long arcs. As the show progressed, less focus was placed on external factors that conflicted with House’s methods and way of practicing medicine, and this was better for the series overall. However, Vogler’s deep vendetta against House and how he abused his power were undeniably evil.

3

The Hallucination Of Amber

Amber appears to House as a manifestation of his guilt and grief.

When Amber Volakis (Anne Dudek) reappears in a hallucination to House after her death, it’s a pretty obvious sign that something’s wrong. In the wake of her death, House feels immensely guilty and responsible, especially because of the impact her passing has on Wilson. When Amber begins appearing to him, she’s mostly harmless, but then slowly begins encouraging him to engage in acts of violence that lead to harm coming to other people. After this, House determines that she’s really a part of his subconscious, and he worries that these violent tendencies have always been inside him.

Though it’s true that Amber is House throughout the hallucination arc, she represents the worst parts of him and eventually disappears completely once he detoxes from Vicodin. She represents his dependency on Vicodin and the shame he feels about being so reliant on it. Additionally, her harsh words toward him demonstrate his internal struggle with low feelings of self-worth, which is reflected in the flippant way he treats others. When Amber is finally gone, House is able to breathe a sigh of relief and focus on getting better.

2

Michael Tritter

One of House’s true rivals who didn’t believe in letting him get away with breaking the law.

Tritter (David Morse) is the best-written and most well-developed villain on House and is one of the few characters who can go up against House and get results. Their standoff begins when they come into conflict due to House’s behavior toward Tritter when he gets a checkup at the walk-in clinic. Of course, House is his usual self, but Tritter turns out to be a police officer and is angry enough at House’s actions that he starts to abuse his power to get revenge. Things start going downhill for House when Tritter arrests him for Vicodin possession.

House’s addiction to pain medication, specifically Vicodin, is a recurring issue throughout the series, but no one had been able to pin anything concrete on House until Tritter came along. Though he goes about it in the wrong way and pushes the boundaries of legal investigation, Tritter isn’t wrong about House’s actions being unethical. House shouldn’t be practicing medicine while under the influence of drugs. This creates a complex and nuanced situation that House exploits to question how far House’s friends and the other doctors will go to protect him.

1

Gregory House

Though many people come up against him, House is the only person who controls his actions.

It becomes increasingly clear throughout House that Greg House’s biggest antagonist and obstacle to happiness is himself. Though it’s well hidden behind a mask of sarcasm and snark, House is deeply insecure and unsure of himself, engaging in acts of self-harm and putting himself physically and emotionally at risk time and again. He drives away the people he loves and succumbs to his darkest impulses at the first sign of adversity. While he pretends this is what he wants, it weighs on him heavily, and the audience can see that.

Due to his intellect and abilities, the viewer is never overly concerned that House won’t find a loophole or outsmart his competition at every turn. Even when he does come to a dead end, his behavior makes this feel like the necessary consequence of his actions rather than the unjust punishment of a punishment of a pure-hearted hero. House is an anti-hero in every sense, and throughout House, it’s difficult for audiences to remain on his side. However, this makes it even more compelling when he grows as a character and puts aside his ego to help people.