Lie to Me was in the same genre of “genius asshole” but I remember him being as overtly terrible as House. But yeah that was definitely a 2000s genre.

Then the woman this is said to just accepts it as fact and seems embarassed

You wouldn’t respond with a combination of shock, confusion, and embarrassment if someone told you your breasts perk up when you lie?

Yeah, I rewatched most of House recently, seesh. The misogyny on that show is one of the worst things about it. His weird relationship with Cameron. His weird relationship with Thirteen (though, from what I remember, the least problematic of his relationships with women). His ex. And Cuddy most of all. I’m glad her actress, Lisa Kudrow, left the show after they wouldn’t give her a raise because the Cuddy-House dynamic got real fucked after season 4 or so. But yeah, I think ever major woman on the show is in love with him in some way. I guess Thirteen wasn’t, and I don’t think Amber was. And there are two new women ostensibly on his team in the last season but as I remember it they had almost no interaction.

I get it’s the point, but House is such a piece of shit. He’s always manipulating and abusing his friends and colleagues, always betraying their trust, but they have endless second chances to give him. Even when they leave things on bad terms the characters will always come back with some sort of weird respect for this absolute monster of a person.

Then there’s the protagonist-centered morality. House is always right. Even when he’s wrong, he was right to be wrong. “He’s an asshole, but he saves lives.” Such lazy writing.

The only good thing House ever did was fight with the billionaire who bought the hospital.

If it makes you feel any better, Hugh Laurie always saw the character as far more comic than serious.