It had good characters and catty remarks, but it got too formulaic for me. Everything was basically:
* Go to work in the morning * Brainstorm why patient X has disease Y * All the guesses are wrong, including lupus * Do some tests; patient's condition worsens suddenly * Brainstorming, Pt. 2 -- all answers are, again, wrong * House does some normal doctoring work and insults his patients and/or makes fun of Wilson * Patient takes a turn for the worse-r and might die * House notices some quirk in their behavior that leads to a crazy conclusion that just might work! * Crazy conclusion does, in fact, work * House trudges home to some rock song and we see how lonely his shell of a life is
Yeah I think they realized it and became self aware by season 4, thats why they completely turned the show on its head by having the 3 original team members quit/get fired and have a season dedicated to finding replacements and having the original 3 end up doing new stuff at the hospital.
Really theres only so many ways a medical drama plot can go, either theyre cured or they die.