E.R.

emergency room cases

    Miscellaneous Comments:    Sunday, 24 January 1999

    ER IS AVERAGE.

    I watched ER when it started. And stayed with it for a few weeks. It was an easy thing to do. The show was getting a lot of hype and everybody was watching it.

    Eventually I got bored.

    Bored with all the running and shouting.

    And I stopped watching.

    I've been back three times since. Once for the much-hyped Tarentino episode. Once for the one with George Clooney, the trapped boy and the heavy rain.

    And tonight.

    For an episode called "They treat horses, don't they?"

    At first I was quite caught up in the novelty of watching the show for the first time in years.

    Eventually I got bored.

    Bored with all the running and shouting.

    Not much has changed.

    Noah Wyle now sports a beard, and he's also in charge of an unsure and naïve young doctor (as opposed to being one). But closer inspection revealed that he's still as unsure and naïve as he used to be.

    So, even that hasn't changed.

    What also hasn't changed is the number of story-lines, i.e. too many! Most of which are paid lip service. Since there are so many, you only get to devote two or three scenes to each one. Which means not much can happen. Even in stories that conclude.

    The episode I saw tonight had two patient stories that went nowhere. A man came in with a knife petruding from his skull. He (and the knife) got a lot of screen time. After that, though, he was never mentioned again. Noah Wyle's character, meanwhile, was faced with the prospect of letting and old woman die. Because those were her wishes, and because nobody he turned to was prepared to foot the bill of keeping her alive. This story (one we've seen a hundred times before, in a hundred hospital dramas) was played out over the course of maybe four scenes.

    And it was boring.

    Everything about it was telegraphed.

    And failed to involve me. Whereas the same basic plot on St. Elsewhere or Chicago Hope would have been dressed up, and served in a way to make it seem new.

    Even the idea of one of the doctors treating a horse, or going to treat a mad-bomber (both of which happened tonight, to the same doctor) was given a by-the-numbers handling, where the laughs and thrills were telegraphed and obvious and… boring.

    So that's ER basically. Running/Shouting and brief seen-it-all-before plots.

    Type of Series: Hospital drama.

    Similar Better Shows: Chicago Hope (especially Season One); St. Elsewhere; Mercy Point; HeartBeat (starring Kate Mulgrew);

    Strengths: Great cast.

    Weaknesses: Repetition. Every episode seems exactly the same. Lots and lots of running and shouting. And no reason to care.

    Impressive Characters: Dr. Benton had a couple of good scenes. One where he saved a patient from an explosion, and another where he explained to his lover that he was dealing with his son's hearing impairment, in a private and personal way.

    Impressive Actors: George Clooney. I've been a big George Clooney fan for years and years. Long before this show arrived on the scene. His best role, of course, on was Bodies Of Evidence.

    This season, I notice they've added Kellie Martin to the mix. Martin will play naïve and innocent young intern Lucy, or Carter Mk. II. I like Martin. I've always liked Martin. More, in fact, than I've liked any of the shows she has starred in. So, once again, while I like the actress tremendously, I won't be bothering to keep up with her series every week.

    Impressive Episodes: None that I've ever seen impressed me.

    Impressive Writers:

    Less-Than-Impressive Characters: The characters are all dreadfully bland.

    Less-Than-Impressive Actors:

    Less-Than-Impressive Episodes:

    Less-Than-Impressive Writers: I suppose blame (for my lack of interest) must go to Michael Crighton and John Wells. These are the guys who set up the formula, and maintain it.

    Continuity: Strong. ER has a lot of soap opera about it. Tonight's episode set up a romantic interest for one of the docs. If I was going to go back next week, that would the only thing I would want to see.

    Episode Guide: The Episode Guide Pages is a great place to go for Episode Guides.

    Reviews:

    Other Info:

Three Things I Really Like About This Series:

    The theme tune. Brilliant.

    George Clooney (who is wasted).

    

Three Things I Really Don't Like About This Series:

    The repetition. That's why I don't bother watching it. At all.

    The characters.

    

 

Three Things I Really Liked About This Episode:

    The theme tune and opening credits.

    A guy with a small bomb strapped to him was wheeled in. The cast ran around for a while, doing all their usual tiresome shouting. Then something went wrong. (Duh!) And the bomb-disposal-guy told them all they had "five seconds to run." So they ran. All of them.

    Except Dr. Benton (Eriq La Salle).

    He stayed.

    Heroically cut the charge off the guy and flung it away, just in time.

    And I went "Wow that was cool."

    Then it was back to the tedium.

    Um, did I mention that brilliant theme tune?

Three Things I Really Didn't Like About This Episode:

    The opening scene featured Anthony Edwards (Dr. Mark) and his daughter having breakfast. He was asking questions, in an effort to find out what was going on with her life. Her utterances were monosyllabic. And he was frustrated. If Rod Serling has popped up in that kitchen, he would have said something like: "Item: One father, one daughter. And a widening breach between them." Fine. Then the phone rang. And it was the child's mother. And the kid started gushing about this and that, positively choking on the words as she rushed to tell her mother what was happening at High School, etc. etc. And I sighed in despair. Sledgehammer subtlety at it's very best. Problem is, with one-hour quality drama's you are tempted to compare them all to shows like Homicide, where the audience is credited with a a certain degree of intelligence. Then when you come face to face with this kind of thing, you suddenly realise why you don't watch shows like this.

    Later on, an old woman was rushed into er, having just been found in a collapsed state by an equally elderly neighbour. This neighbour was given several lines of dialogue, in rapid succession. All to the effect of: "Is she going to die?" Over and over. So much so, that you knew there was a "punch-line" of some sort coming and you merely began to wait for it. And sure enough, it then transpired that the woman was worried because her sister was on a waiting list and a death in the building would create the opening. Yuck! This time, instead of thinking of Homicide, I was thinking of St. Elsewhere and the way they would have handled a scene like that. Brilliantly. So that you would not have seen it coming. So that it would have been horrific and humourous in equal measure. And then I realised why I will never like er. Compared to St. Elsewhere, it is obvious and amateurish. A bit like Ralph Hinkley and his super-suit (from the wonderful Greatest American Hero). Ralph has the suit and the super-powers, but no instruction book, so he can accomplish quite a lot, but he lacks the finesse of Superman. Likewise, the gang putting er together have everything they need to do St. Elsewhere. Everything. Except the instruction book.

    

GRADE: B-

Review by Michael Leddy

Comments are welcome: rikerdonegal@hotmail.com

 

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