ER, "And in the End...": The booze you take is equal to the bones you break

Spoilers for the "ER" series finale coming up just as soon as I rent a Hummer...

"God, it's amazing how little has changed around here." -Rachel Greene

What she said.

"And in the End..." was written by John Wells, who ran the show in its formative years after Michael Crichton provided the initial pilot script, and directed by Rod Holcomb, who directed that pilot, and it worked as hard as it could bring as many elements from that pilot full circle as they could, while showing that the circle of life (and death) at County General goes on. It wasn't an all-time great finale, but it did what it set out to do, had some nice moments both with the current cast and all the returning veterans, and it felt like there could be an episode on in a month's time if NBC were to order more, and the beat would go on and on.

Now, despite my two recent trips down "ER" memory lane, it's been a while since I actually watched the pilot, so I may be missing a few things, and/or misremembering when earlier events took place, but here are some of the callbacks (to both pilot and other episodes) I caught:

• Lydia (who hasn't appeared on the show in years), wakes Archie up as he tries to nap in an exam room, just as she did for Mark Greene in the opening scene of the pilot. (I suspect, but can't remember for sure, that the dialogue they share about night shifts is pretty close to whatever Mark and Lydia talked about 15 years ago.)

• Susan makes reference to Grandma Carter, that formidable old bird.

• Julia, the new med student (or was she an intern? she seemed to have more responsibility than Carter did back in the day), got to deliver a cancer diagnosis to a patient, just like Susan did to Miguel Ferrer back in the pilot, though Julia's patient (who had survived 20 years with HIV/AIDS), took the news far better.

• Carter delivers a baby (which he did many times whenever he was having an emotional crisis; can't remember if that happened in the pilot), and the fact that the mother winds up dying could be read as a tip of the cap to "Love's Labor Lost," the series' high point.

• Julia had to ride up with the mom to surgery because her arm was still controlling the bleed, as Benton often did in the early traumas.

• The story with Ernest Borgnine saying goodbye to his love of 72 years was a callback to a story from either the pilot or the first regular episode where Mark and Doug helped an elderly man come to grips with his own wife's impending demise.

• Brenner gives Julia a pep talk that's similar in spirit, if not in content, to what Mark tells Carter when Carter goes out to the ambulance bay to puke late in the pilot.

• We see that Carter has worked on his jump shot, as Mark told him to do in their very last conversation together.

• Kerry Weaver chats with Kem about Africa, a callback to a long-forgotten bit of Kerry backstory.

• We see not only a grown-up Rachel (back to her in a minute) applying for a spot at County's affiliated med school, but a teenage Reese Benton, doing just fine in life without the Cochlear implant Peter decided against giving him. (As a longtime Benton fan, I found Peter signing the explanation to a joke about Carter to be maybe the most heartwarming moment in the whole episode.)

There were probably others, but the point is, Wells was bound and determined to pay homage to the series' long history, and for the most part he did it well.

I'm not sure, though, how I feel about the use of Rachel in this circumstance. When I first stumbled across the spoiler about her role in the finale last week, I was really irked. The Rachel we last saw on a regular basis was a trainwreck who hated her dad and sure as hell wouldn't have wanted to follow his career path, let alone work in the same hospital where he was so miserable. And even the last time she appeared, near the end of season 10, she was still written in fairly reckless mode, taking advantage of Elizabeth to get a scrip for the morning-after pill.

But I surprisingly didn't hate her scenes in the finale. For one thing, it felt like the best way to somehow incorporate Mark into the last episode, though the flashback episode earlier this year with him and Banfield did a fine job of reminding everyone what a good doctor Mark was. And her presence elicited a number of great reactions from the staff as they recognized her, most memorably Frank. (In about a half-second, Troy Evans took me back to Frank learning of Mark's death in "The Letter.") I just wish there'd been some kind of comment, even a throwaway from Elizabeth, about how far Rachel had come since we'd last seen her, or even Carter or someone else talking about the burden of following in her dad's footsteps at a place where he was so revered. There just seemed to be pieces missing that would have made the gimmick work better.

I also am ambivalent about Julia. I see what Wells was trying to do with her: by focusing on a character we haven't met before, it's theoretically easier to drive home the Life Goes On theme than it is with one of the regulars, or even with a relatively new character like Tracy or Ryan. The problem is that they Nikki & Paolo'ed her, acting like she'd been there a while, and this was just the first time we were seeing her. Obviously, there are lots of hospital staff we never catch a glimpse of, but it just felt awkward. Still, Alexis Bledel was better than I was expecting; she was often the weak link on "Gilmore Girls," but I thought she handled most of the emotional beats well, particularly Julia finding out that the mom had died.

(That trauma, by the way, was a reminder that, even in its creaky old age, "ER" could still bust out the memorable, horrific action sequences when needed. I may not get to sleep right away tonight thinking about all that blood and placenta and more gushing around Julia's feet.)

If they couldn't contrive an excuse to get any of the vets beyond Carter to handle a trauma, I thought "And in the End..." did a solid job of balancing old with new. And if it's not a classic finale, it was still better than I think many of us had a right to expect in some of the series' rough later years. I just would've liked a little more Archie and a little less Sam-and-Tony, but Morris got his happy ending last week, which meant they had to get theirs tonight.

What I may have liked most of all was just watching different characters, some major, some minor, take their final leave of the show without fanfare. For all the issues I had with "ER" as it entered middle age, I've been watching it for what feels like half my life (and isn't that far off), and I'm going to miss it now that I don't have the falling helicopter to kick around anymore.

What did everybody else think?

ER: Some of the best (and worst) moments

After yesterday's longer "ER" retrospective, in today's column, I look back at some great (and not-so-great) moments in "ER" history (with YouTube links where available). Hat-tip both to you guys and the people at Throwing Things for all your suggestions.

Don't know if I'll be watching the finale live, but I'll definitely have a review post up tomorrow morning at the latest. Please save any comments on the episode until that goes up, but feel free to continue looking back now.

'ER': A retrospective - andreikirilenkotattoo on TV

In today's column, I look back on the creative and popular impact of "ER" before tomorrow night's series finale:

On one level, there had never been a show quite like "ER" on television. On another, there likely never will be again.

It changed the visual language of TV drama, raising the bar of what was possible to show to viewers -- and what they expected to see. And it goes into tomorrow night's two-hour farewell episode as the last relic of an era when scripted network television was a true mass medium.

You can read my full "ER" appreciation here. I'll have another "ER"-related piece up tomorrow morning, a list of memorable moments, inspired in part by your suggestions, in part by the terrific Throwing Things coverage of the end of the series, in part by my own memories of having watched most (but not all; I bailed on some of the Sam/Neela/Abby years before coming back for the last two or three seasons) of the run.

ER, "I Feel Good": Camp classic

Very brief spoilers for the penultimate episode of "ER" ever coming up just as soon as I make a friendship bracelet...

I almost wasn't going to blog this episode, as I'm busy today, and as it was a very low-key episode leading up to next week's two-hour series finale. But I couldn't let mention of it pass for a few reasons:

1)It featured Linda Cardellini dancing, and if you've ever seen the "Freaks and Geeks" series finale, you know she's an awesome dancer. (The great shame of the Cardellini/Jason Segel breakup is that it deprived the world of the possibility of them doing some kind of filmed dance number together.)

2)It gave us a nice coda to the years-long Redemption of Archie Morris story arc. Basically, Archie's been a good guy for a while, but even with his good intentions he was still a bit of a social bumbler, and here we see him put it all together with that great quasi-proposal to Claudia. Great, great work from Scott Grimes(*), who's been the best reason to watch the show in these final years.

(*) I knew John Stamos was a drummer who sometimes plays with the Beach Boys, but who knew Grimes could sing? Apparently, he has a band.

3)It cleared the decks of a lot of running subplots so the finale doesn't have to spend time wrapping up everyone's personal life. We still have the inevitable Sam/Gates reunion, I suppose, but Archie gets his happy ending, Neela's been seen off, Banfield gets to adopt the baby, etc. I don't know exactly what the finale's going to entail (and let me remind you once again about the No Spoilers rule -- which extends to previews, interviews, articles, spoiler blogs, whatever), but I'd like to think it winds up being more about the hospital and the series' themes than it is about these characters who, while likable, aren't that important in the grand scheme of things "ER."

So, the obvious question before we go: what would you like to see in the "ER" finale?

ER: What's your favorite episode, and why?

So, I'm trying to do some early brainstorming on all the things I'm going to write next week about the finale of "ER." And one of the naturals is to do, as I usually do at the end of iconic series, a Best Episodes list. I have a bunch of obvious ones in mind -- the pilot, "Blizzard," "Love's Labor Lost," "Hell and High Water," "Exodus" (pictured above) -- but, as always, I'm open to suggestions, especially if you can articulate why you feel yours was one of the show's strongest hours.

In particular, I'm curious to see if anyone can make a strong case for an episode from after, say, Anthony Edwards left.

ER, "Old Times": Hail, hail, the gang's all here -- even George Clooney

Spoilers for tonight's cameo-tastic, reunion-errific, multiple-Oscar-winning "ER" coming up just as soon as I run through my blogging checklist...

"Tell him Doug Ross said hi." -Doug Ross

Heh.

The rumors had leaked enough by now that tonight would be the grand return of George Clooney to "ER" for this swan song season. But surprise or no surprise, it was damn good to see Doug again working with Carol, and to see Benton giving Carter a hard time. I've mostly come to grips with the characters and pace and tone of latter-era "ER," but the new people have never come close to gaining my loyalty and affection the way that wonderful original cast did.

I know all the chatter tomorrow's going to be about Clooney and Julianna Margulies, and understandably so. He's a big flippin' movie star, and Doug and Carol are arguably the most popular characters in "ER" history. And I liked them too and will get to them in a minute. But as Peter Benton was always my favorite character, and the Benton/Carter duo my favorite relationship, the aspect of "Old Times" that really fueled my nostalgic fires was that reunion. It was just so cool to see Peter, older and wiser and more careful -- the guy from the pilot would have bristled at being asked to run through a checklist, but I totally see him doing it here, especially with his old protege's life at risk -- and yet still ready and eager to hassle Carter because he can. Eriq La Salle doesn't act that much anymore, but he slipped back into character -- and he and Noah Wyle slipped back into their old rhythms -- like it had only been five minutes since he left.

Because Clooney's so famous now, the Doug and Carol portion of the episode could have easily slipped out of the reality of the show, especially with Clooney working alongside Susan Sarandon. (Ernest Borgnine, our third Oscar winner of the night, had to content himself with working with John Stamos and Shiri Appleby.) But Clooney's a very good actor as well as a charismatic star, and the storyline was done in such a low-key fashion that it never felt like the return of the conquering hero. Slip him into a pair of scrubs, put his hair back into the old caesar cut, and he's Doug. Easy.

What I really appreciated about the organ donation storyline was how little the various characters knew anything of the larger picture. Nobody knew that the kidney was going to Carter -- not even Sam, who dropped it off at Northwestern -- and during the brief scene where Doug tried to find common ground with Sam and Neela, it worked that most of the people he knew were long gone from County. I think it would have rang false if they sat around and swapped Kerry Weaver stories, or if Carol came in and bonded with Sam (who has assumed the role Carol used to play on the show, like it or not). The only way the coincidence of Doug and Carol saving Carter's life works is if it's a total coincidence, and if nobody finds out about it, and it felt less cheesey and more natural for Doug to come across to Neela and Sam as some guy who worked at County so long ago that they barely know any of the same doctors.

Not an all-time episode, by any means, but it did the job it was meant to do. It gave us one final glimpse of the royal couple of "ER," still doing their jobs well. (Doug walking the Sarandon character into realizing that her grandson would want his organs to be donated was a nice bit of writing by John Wells, who got hands-on again to also direct this one.) It put Carter and Benton together again (and caught us up that Benton's son is a teenager and he's still with the mercifully-absent Cleo). And at the same time, it paid service to the current characters by having Doug and Carol also aid in saving the mom's life.

Good times.

What did everybody else think?

Medical catch-up: House & ER

Getting caught up on stuff on the DVR on a lazy Sunday, so quick spoilers for this week's "House" and "ER" coming up just as soon as I hire a hooker to watch me sleep...

Maybe it's because I put it way down at the bottom of my priority list this week, and went into it with no expectations whatsoever, but "House" wasn't too bad, I thought. Yes, it's still The Thirteen Show, but at least this was a case that had nothing to do with her hang-ups about death, and I almost kinda sorta believed that she and Foreman might actually appreciate being in each other's company for once. Plus, House's methadone cure gave us an interesting window on the character, and didn't feel just like a rehash of the Ketamine arc from the start of season three.

Carter's arc on "ER" continues, and by making it explicit that his kidney problems tie all the way back to Lucy's stabbing, it feels less like piling on the guy, Mark Greene style, then a callback to a classic "ER" storyline. So long as he gets the transplant, I'm okay with it, and it was nice to see that he was about 50/50 with his old-fashioned hunches versus up-to-date ER procedures.

Meanwhile, David Lyons and Linda Cardellini both nailed two iffy storylines. Brenner is a sketchy character at best, but Lyons has done really well with both of the episodes dealing with Brenner's childhood abuse. Sam's an even bigger mess, and I really shouldn't care about anything going on with her personal life. Yet watching her listen to her senile old monster of a mom (who doesn't recognize her at all) declare that she wishes she had a daughter like Sam, I was reminded of what a great actress she was on "Freaks and Geeks" and how happy I was when she first landed the "ER" gig.

What did everyone else think?

ER, "The Beginning of the End": Welcome back, Carter

Spoilers for last night's "ER" coming up just as soon as I drink some mushrooms...

"It's like Bizarro ER." -Carter

No, John, it's exactly like "ER," in that they had to go and give you a serious illness (requiring dialysis) so you can continue your transformation into the new Mark Greene, sufferer of a thousand tragedies. Sigh...

I was actually rather enjoying Noah Wyle's return until then. His last few years on the show came during the period when I had kicked the "ER" habit (I had to go to Wikipedia to figure out that Joshua Carter was his and Kem's stillborn son), and unlike some of the other returnees in this victory lap season, Carter was around long enough to have relationships with several of the main characters and not just the nurses or Jerry and Frank. The scene where he and Sam briefly commiserated about Luka and Abby finding happiness without them was very nicely-done, I thought. But if they just brought him back so we could watch him die slowly, well... that's the sort of thing that drove me from the show back in the later Carter years.

The rest of the episode was fine, in that almost shockingly understated style "ER" has adopted over the last few seasons. (Kind of hard to believe we used to call this show the medical equivalent of an action movie, isn't it?) I'm always glad to hear my old high school classmate Pete Yorn's music in a mainstream show (his "Crystal Village" was the song on the CD Ray burned for Neela), and both Brenner and Banfield are both much more appealing after the inevitable softening of their characters. If the show was going to be around longer than this year, it might give me hope that the producers would finally figure out that it's not optimal to introduce a new character as a complete jerk and hope the audience grows to like them later.

Of course, after that final scene, it looks like you can't teach an old "ER" new tricks.

What did everybody else think?

ER & Grey's Anatomy: It's a teaching hospital, stupid

Spoilers for last night's "Grey's Anatomy" and "ER" coming up just as soon as I work up a sweat...

Interesting that both shows did stories about the surgical residents not being interested in teaching their interns, only to have the stories resolve in divergent ways. On "ER," Neela gets chewed out -- and rightfully so -- for not wanting to work with young Andrew anymore. On "Grey's," the secret cutting society is treated as entirely the fault of the interns, even though it started up because Yang, Karev and the rest couldn't be bothered passing on any lessons to the young pups. If we hadn't watched several seasons of the show with the main characters as interns, and saw how much Bailey let them do and how much they learned, I might just accept that this is an intern's lot in life. But it's not, at least not in the universe the show created in previous years, and to not have the Chief lay at least some of the blame for this on Meredith and Cristina for treating the interns like indentured scut servants and little more was galling...

...albeit not as galling as a character (in this case, Alex) once again being forced to justify Izzie's continued employment in the wake of the Denny/LVAD fiasco. How many times do I need to say this: if Shonda and the other writers would stop trying to defend the Denny thing and just ignore its existence, we might be able to let it go. But in having yet another character claim it was kinda sorta okay, and in bringing Denny back from the dead somehow to rock Izzie's world, it makes it really hard to ignore the single worst storyline in the show's history.

And speaking of this supernatural sex marathon, Shonda shot down the most obvious speculation by telling Ausiello that, as Ahnuld once said, it's not a tumor. A tumor would have been a soap-y explanation, but at least it would have worked within the framework of this show. Actual sex with a solidified ghost? Blurg.

If you can somehow ignore all the Izzie/Denny stuff -- I know, it's hard, but at least most of it didn't involve the other characters and was therefore fast-forwardable -- and accept the disposition of the appendectomy disaster, then there were some good things here, like Sloan's heart growing three sizes as he helped the sleepwalker's daughter, or Bailey and Callie talking about their lousy years and their love of surgery, or Joshua Malina making a non-Sorkin appearance to give his wife some, uh, poo. And even the appy subplot worked up until the writers and the Chief let the residents off the hook for it, as it was as creepy and scary as intended. But where the early episodes of this season featured really strong material marred by the occasional bit of silliness, the stupid parts are starting to overwhelm the rest.

Getting back to "ER," I was surprised by how well Brenner's confession of abuse worked. They'd been telegraphing all episode that he had been molested as a kid, and Brenner in general is a character I have little use for, but David Lyons put his all into what could have been standard sweeps/awards show bait, and intercutting it with seeing the music teacher show his true colors had the desired effect. Plus, it helped that Brenner was confessing to Archie, as Scott Grimes tends to make every scene he's in better lately. (The best thing in last week's episode was Archie's stunned reaction to learning that Banfield had chosen to work in the same ER where her son died.)

Also, I have a phobia about stuff touching my eyes (it's the reason I never got contacts), and so watching Andrew and the others work on the guy's eye was one of the more squirm-inducing "ER" traumas I can remember.

What did everybody else think?

ER, "Heal Thyself": Greene day

I basically said all I had to say about tonight's "ER" in yesterday's column. Feel free to weigh in on the return of Mark Greene -- and of some other familiar faces -- in the comments.

andreikirilenkotattoo on TV: Edwards returns to 'ER,' 'Top Chef' moves to NY

In today's column, I talk about tomorrow night's Mark Greene resurrection on "ER" and how it does no favors for Angela Bassett, and briefly preview the season premiere of "Top Chef."

Friday catch-up: Life on Mars, ER, Private Practice and Terminator

It's Friday, which means it's time for another ever-popular grab-bag post, with spoilers on, in order, "Life on Mars," "ER," "Private Practice" and "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles," all coming right up...

Hell of a night for homages to "The Wire." First, Dwight on "The Office" talks about juking the stats, and then "Life on Mars" features three different "Wire" alums -- Chad Coleman (Cutty), Chris Bauer (Frank Sobotka) and Clarke Peters (Cool Lester Smooth) -- in guest roles. Now, Peters was already in the show's premiere episode, and you see a lot of "Wire" actors turn up on shows shot in New York because they're East Coast-based, but I'm thinking the producers are fans to put three in one episode.

Unfortunately, the guest cast (which also featured Edi Gathegi, aka Big Love from "House," as a younger version of Peters' character, plus Whoopi Goldberg) was more interesting than the episode itself. My interest in the remake is fading even more rapidly than my interest in the original. They've already softened Gene Hunt far too much (and, yes, I say that about an episode where he was prepared to execute a murder suspect without trial or any real evidence), the cases don't interest me, and I don't think I'm going to really care about the clues about where/when Sam really is until we get to an actual finale. (Based on the ratings, that should be sometime this season.) The "Ice Ice Baby" gag was amusing in the same way that sort of joke usually works in any time travel story (see also Marty McFly inventing both the skateboard and rock music), but overall, the show's pretty flat.

(Also, I was waiting for the inevitable moment where Gathegi's character raised an eyebrow at Sam telling a story about a black NYPD detective he met when he was 17 years old, which would have been the 1950s. Was the NYPD progressive enough to have black detectives back then?)

I actually watched a screener of next week's "ER" with the resurrection of Mark Greene earlier yesterday, so it felt a little like watching "Memento" to then see this episode, which sets up stuff the characters will be talking about next week, like Gates and Sam moving in together, or Gates' homeless veteran patient.

Even had I watched them in the proper order, I suspect I would have found this one to be a pretty blah episode, even by later-period standards. I'm not sure exactly what they're doing with the new interns; isn't Shiri Appleby dating (or maybe even married to) the young surgeon, and, if so, why is she drooling all over Gates? (I mean, Stamos is handsome, but he's also got 15 years on her.) Also, casting Carl Weather as the father of a boxer is one of those ideas that probably sounded great on paper but inadvertently turned that entire story into a big meta joke. (The only way it would have been weirder was if they had mixed in some "Arrested Development" cheapskate jokes about Weathers.)

Matt at Throwing Things recently argued that "Private Practice" has been this year's most improved show so far. I can see that, in that it's gone from teeth-grindingly awful to mediocrity, which is probably a bigger leap than the good-to-wonderful one "Chuck" has taken, but the show is still, at best, something I have on while doing three other things. Glad as I am to see Addison behaving like Addison again, and to see more of a focus on the cases and the ethical problems contained therein, I still don't feel attached to any of the other characters. And even when a case involves life or death, as it did this week with the terminally ill teen who desperately wanted a baby, the setting somehow makes the stakes feel much lower. I can't explain exactly why, but put that exact same storyline into a hospital show and it would have felt a lot more powerful, I think.

Finally, it's a shame nobody's watching "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" -- and that even fewer will be watching once the show moves to Fridays -- because they're really on a roll of late. Other than the subplot with Derek and his time-traveling girlfriend, where I constantly feel like they're leaving all the exposition on the cutting room floor (how does she know Derek's fence, for instance?), every storyline was clicking this week. Stupid as it is for John to not tell his mom about Cromartie visiting the house, or about Cameron going walkabout a few episodes back, his desire to have something resembling a normal life -- with a normal girlfriend who did a much better job dealing with Cromartie than any other person to date -- is understandable and a good idea for the show to explore. (When John was whining to Sarah about her not protecting him from killing Sarkisian, she really should have told him that he needs to get ready to kill a whole lot of people and things.) And Ellison's ongoing crisis of faith in the wake of learning that SkyNet is real has been very well-done. I'm still not sure exactly how much, if anything, he suspects about Shirley Manson, and I'm taking a wait-and-see approach on this apparent SkyNet civil war plotline they've been setting up, but this season has been really engaging so far.

What did everybody else think?

ER & Grey's Anatomy: GI Joe, Anatomy Jane and Bionic Ray

Reviewing the two Thursday medical shows together seems to be working, so spoilers for "Grey's Anatomy" and then "ER" coming up just as soon as I find some unkosher animals to stab...

You know "Grey's Anatomy" is getting it right right these days where they feature an episode where Izzie is freaking out about the health of animals and it doesn't bother me.

Of course, Kevin McKidd getting all stabby with the pigs fit better in a medical context than Izzie playing amateur veterinarian with that deer last season. But beyond that, I think the show's achieving a very nice balance of comedy and pathos, of having characters do and say wacky things without undermining them.

I'm glad to have McKidd back, and to see his conflict with McDreamy and McSteamy get resolved in a shockingly adult manner, not only for this show, but for any medical show. On "ER" (which I'll get to in a minute), it usually takes the hot-headed newbie at least a half a season, if not several seasons, before he starts seeing eye to eye with the longtime regulars; here they came to an understanding by the end of the hour.

And I'm surprised by how much I'm enjoying Callie and Erica's girl-on-girl angst. Though it was obviously conceived in order to give those two actresses something to do, it turned out to be something good to do. Everytime I think that story's in danger of taking a stupid turn, we get a moment like Erica's speech about getting glasses (very fine work by Brooke Smith), or McSteamy turning out to be useful for something other than sex, or Erica not flipping out at learning that Callie had been sleeping with McSteamy to calm herself.

And, of course, any episode that gives Chandra Wilson and James Pickens a lot of meaty material, both together and apart, is okay in my book.

As for "ER," not one of the better ones this season in my book. Since I watched very little of the Shane West era, the return of Ray didn't mean a whole lot for me. (Also, I could have done without the constant full-body camera pans down to show his various artificial legs. We get it: modern special effects are really awesome!)

I'm also getting impatient waiting for Dr. Banfield to reveal her deep dark secret and then have her predestined mellowing out. Since she's only going to be on the show for one season (and a slightly abbreviated one, at that), they can't play out her character arc at the same pace they did with, say, Pratt or Dr. Aussie. (Who I totally don't buy as a good guy, all of a sudden. They should have let him stay a bastard, Romano-style.)

Sam becoming the latest "ER" nurse (or hospital show nurse in general) to get frustrated at being treated like a second-class citizen when she knows more than half the doctors was also not very inspired.

Ah, well. I assume a lot of my Banfield problems will be resolved in the much-hyped Dr. Greene flashback episode we're getting in a couple of weeks. But if they decide to kill Mark again in that episode, I am going to lodge a formal complaint.

What did everybody else think?

Mid-Friday catch-up: Grey's Anatomy, ER and Life on Mars

Quick spoilers for last night's episodes of, in order, "Grey's Anatomy," "ER" and "Life on Mars" coming up just as soon as I make sure my floor is clean...

"Grey's Anatomy" continues its recent streak of solid, back-to-basics episodes. The things that either annoy me or that I don't care about (say, the Mer/Der tension) are things I never liked in the first place, while there's been much more focus on the part of the show that I do enjoy, like the cutthroat nature of the surgical program (the cafeteria scene was a highlight) or relationship stories that don't make me want to slit my throat (like Callie turning to McSteamy for sub-equatorial advice, a decision that will no doubt backfire amusingly in an episode or two). Plus, they continue to do a stellar job of guest casting. How perfect was Carl Lumbly as the estranged dad?

Speaking of perfect guest casting of African-American actors of a certain age, it was a pleasure to see Glynn Turman show up on "ER," though he didn't have as much to do as I would have liked. (For those of you who were as knocked out as I was by Turman's Emmy-winning appearances on "In Treatment," keep an eye out for "Scrubs" when it returns: Bill Lawrence and Zach Braff were just as blown away by Turman's work there and crafted a whole episode around him.)

The rest of the episode was a mixed bag. It's always a pleasure to watch Angela Bassett beat people up (if the "X-Men" movies had been made even a few years earlier, she would have been a perfect, studio-acceptable choice to play Storm), and the necessary softening of Dr. Banfield is beginning. On the other hand, even if every commercial for hadn't screamed that the little sister was eeeeeevil!, the episode way telegraphed it, which ruined what should have been a wonderfully creepy moment when her true sociopathic colors came out at the end.

Also, two annoying things from a longtime "ER" fan standpoint. First, I'm sure the show has occasionally recycled guest stars (though never with the frequency of an "NYPD Blue" or "Law & Order"), but it bugged me to see Molly Price as the mom, since I had only recent channel-surfed past the "ER"/"Third Watch" crossover where Susan Lewis goes to New York so Yoakas and Bosco can help her find her sister. Second, late in the hour there was a plug for NBC's website where Linda Cardellini asked, while discussing a poll about best "ER" characters of all time, "Dr. Ross or Dr. Gates? It's a tough question." Um, no. Stamos has been just fine the last few years, but no. Not even in the same ballpark.

Finally, the ratings for "Life on Mars" continue to slide right along with my interest in it. I continue to enjoy some of the '70s touches -- the unexpected song choices, the "Starsky & Hutch"-esque score, Michael Imperioli's amazing mustache -- but the heart of the show is starting to feel as thin as I began to find the British show by its second season. It's just too close to an actual '70s cop show -- and a middle-of-the-road one, at that -- for me to stick around much longer, cool music and moostashes or no. This show needs some weird in a hurry.

What did everybody else think?

Post-weekend catch-up: Life, ER, Entourage, Crusoe and Easy Money

Time for another ever-unpopular grab-bag post, in which I attempt to briefly address the latest episodes of, in order, "Life," "ER," "Entourage," "Crusoe" and "Easy Money," just as soon as I tear the nameplate off my locker...

Not one of the better "Life"s of the season, I thought. The image of the guy crushed inside the car wasn't as disturbingly pretty as the show usually goes for, and Bethany's lookalike mom (who's also playing a nasty mom on "90210," I believe) was the obvious killer at least 20 minutes before they revealed the truth. Not a very engaging major case, and my interest in the conspiracy isn't very strong at the moment. Other than some isolated moments like Ted's students being impressed by his real resume (which I assumed would have come up back when the class was full of laptop-wielders) or Charlie's ex messing with his head at the storage locker, it was forgettable, and a real comedown after the great Stanford Prison Experiment ep the week before.

I wasn't wild about Maura Tierney's "ER" farewell, either. I've always loved Tierney, though my like for Abby has waxed and waned over the years. The period when she was just a black hole of misery -- I want to say around the time she got beat up by her neighbor and started drinking again, but all the mishaps of that era all blend together, which is part of the problem -- was what led me to kick the "ER" habit for a while. But I recognize that she's a terrific actress, that she has one of the longest tenures in the history of the show (I'm guessing, though I haven't done the math, that only Noah Wyle and Laura Innes put in more time at County) and that, once the writers let Abby smile now and again, she could be a very appealing character.

I just prefer the less-is-more approach to "ER" character exits. I was always fond of the way that Jeannie just walked out of the ER one day, or how what was supposed to be our last glimpse of Peter Benton (until some executive decided to make Eriq La Salle earn every cent of his contract) was him jogging away from Carter after cracking a joke at his protege's expense. For that matter, I really liked the first of the two Mark Greene exits -- Mark's last day in the hospital, which was also Pratt's first day -- and if that had been Anthony Edwards' final appearance (before the flashback he's doing later this season), followed by the episode where the ER got the letter about his death, people might think more fondly on that story arc.

So doing a whole hour of Abby unfiltered, and of every single character getting an individual goodbye scene with her, seemed a bit much. I liked several of them individually -- particularly the bit with Haleh and the nameplates(*) -- but I think the writers needed to pick just one or two and scrap the rest.

(*) If you freeze-framed the nameplates, you'd see not only the name of every former regular character, but most of the show's long-time former producers, like Lydia Woodward and Jack Orman. The entire thing works better as a meta moment than an actual in-character bit -- it's hard to imagine the nurses caring enough to put Dave Malucci's name up there, for instance.

I really don't have anything to say about "Entourage," but I know a lot of you are like me and can't stop watching. Other than being amused that Alan Dale now must play every high-powered CEO on television, there wasn't anything worth laughing at, and Ari's job offer mainly seems like yet another excuse for the writers to put Vince into "Smoke Jumpers" -- which, for some reason, is the only project of interest to him in all of Hollywood.

I also don't have much to say about "Crusoe" other than what was in my initial review, but since I did have a surprising amount of fun watching it -- and since nobody had much to say on the initial post, I thought I'd bring it up here. I can see this one taking a steep dive off a cliff (much like both Crusoe and Friday did at various points in the pilot) starting with episode two, but this one played like a higher-end Robert Halmi production.

Finally, I'm not even sure there's much point about writing about "Easy Money." Even by the historical standards of how both the CW and the WB previously did on Sunday nights, this outsourced lineup is a ratings catastrophe. All the shows are well under a million total viewers, and "Easy Money" got a zero share of the 18-49 demo. Zero. Both "Easy Money" and "Valentine, Inc." have already shut down production in a move that's billed as "temporary." Uh-huh.

But I bring it up because three episodes in, "Easy Money" is one of the few newbies still holding my interest. Laurie Metcalfe is doing really strong work as the conniving Bobette (as soon as the blonde showed up, you just knew Bobette was going to lop off that braid, didn't you?), and this world continues to interest me enough that I'll be disappointed but not surprised when the episodes run out.

What did everybody else think?

ER & Grey's Anatomy: Evacuation situations

Spoilers for last night's "ER" and "Grey's Anatomy" coming up just as soon as I take off these three-inch heels...

On "ER," how many times is this now that the County ER has been evacuated? Off the top of my head, I can think of two -- the benzene spill from "Exodus" (one of my favorite episodes) and the smallpox outbreak that bridged seasons 8 & 9 -- and I'm sure there was at least one more during those seasons where I only watched on occasion and didn't care. Once again, we have to ask the question of which is the most cursed place in TV history: the Sunnydale Hellmouth from "Buffy," the 15th Precinct on "NYPD Blue," or County General?

Look, they've been on the air for 15 years. I get that they've told every possible story there is to tell at least twice before, if not five or six times. But if you're going to do an evacuation story involving WMDs, then you need to do it up right. There wasn't nearly enough MacGyver medicine or sense of the havoc being wreaked; it was mainly just an excuse to put Gates in a room with three of the four new interns so we could learn that Shiri Appleby is a pessimist, Emily Rose is a vapid clothes horse and the other guy likes to rely on his BlackBerry and lies to his wife.

I also wasn't crazy about the introduction of the new chief. I love Angela Bassett and am frustrated she hasn't had as huge a career as she should have, but she also has a tendency in some roles to deliver her dialogue in a very mannered way that works on the big screen but doesn't seem natural at all on TV. (It was the same way in her brief stint on "Alias.") Say what you will about latter-day "ER," but the performances all feel real, and I hope Bassett dials it down a little between now and the end of the show's run.

Still, the "ER" evacuation was more interesting than the one on "Grey's Anatomy." I understand how a burst pipe and runaway water could pose a huge danger to doctors and patients, but the episode really failed to sell the threat until the OR ceiling caved in. They would play these beats going into the commercial break where we were obviously supposed to be concerned about the leaks, but mostly I raised my eyebrows and said "You call that an act-out?"

This one didn't have any of the maddening moments from the season premiere, but it also didn't have any of those Shonda Genius moments, and so the entire hour just felt flat. The guest stars (including Daniel J. Travanti from "Hill Street Blues" as the pain patient) got their big emotional monologues, but they didn't feel as earned as similar bits in other episodes. I actually felt more engaged by the incest story on "Private Practice" the night before.

What did everybody else think?

Patches, billboards and memorials

Time for the first grab-bag post of the season. Quick-hit spoilers for, in order, "ER," "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" and "Sons of Anarchy" coming up just as soon as I patch over a rival fantasy football team so I can bolster my running back corps...

Giving up on "ER" as anything but casual viewing has made me far more forgiving of things that would have driven me nuts about it when I actually cared. So they killed off Pratt, and it should be ridiculous and over-the-top given the number of ER personnel they've bumped off in extreme ways (Lucy gets stabbed, Mark Greene takes forever to die of cancer, Rocket Romano somehow angers the helicopter gods twice), but instead of rolling my eyes, I was actually a little moved by it. It helped that they distanced his death from the explosion, that there was a period where he seemed fine and was even giving orders about how he should be treated; it made his death feel less part of a lame, sensationalistic cliffhanger and more of a character piece. Like Lucy mouthing her own diagnosis right before she crashed, Pratt's awareness of just how bad this was made it hit a lot harder than it otherwise might have. And, of course, it helps that Mekhi Phifer is such an expressive actor.

Given that they devoted an entire act of the episode to memorializing him (a treatment not all the dearly departed -- like Rocket -- received), it would have been nice for Abby or one of the old-school nurses to remark on what a massive tool Pratt was when he first arrived at County. Most of the other characters in the run of the show have either started off fully-formed or got written out before they had a chance to evolve; other than Carter, Pratt arguably grew the most of anyone in the entire run of the series, and there's something to be said for that, even at this extremely late date. He annoyed the hell out of me when he was introduced -- as I'm sure he was supposed to -- and now I'm going to miss him for the limited time the show has left.

Not a good double-header for "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" this week, I thought. The two season-opening episodes, while typically uneven, at least had some very funny individual moments -- Dee and Charlie trying to reconcile cannibalism with racism, the three guys all trying to seduce the loan officer, any scene featuring the cry of "Wild card!" -- where these two were fairly flat throughout. Other than the return of Green Man, and maybe the scene where Charlie and Dennis thought they were listening to Mac tell The Waitress about some cross-dressing sex fantasy, I doubt I'll even remember what happened a day or two from now.

Finally, "Sons of Anarchy" goes for more of an action episode, with a couple of bike-on-bike chases and the shootout at the Nevada biker bar. I'm slowly warming to the ancillary characters -- Tig's refusal to bond with Juice was a highlight -- but still not feeling Jax, unfortunately.

Also, I'm a little shocked by how different Jay Karnes looks and acts here than he does as Dutch on "The Shield." I know he's an actor, and that some of it's simply the haircut (and letting the gray show through, which is actually an improvement), but I'm so used to him as the dweeby serial killer-phile that it's strange to see him as this more confident ATF guy.

What did everybody else think? Anybody still watching "Sons of Anarchy" at this point? Or "ER," for that matter?

ER: Jeannie's back

Spoilers for "ER" coming up just as soon as I do some laundry...

Some people, you don't really realize how much you missed them until they turn up again. Jeanie Boulet was never one of my favorite "ER" characters. There were individual Jeanie moments that still stand out -- "Would you please quit calling me Employee X? I am HIV-positive." or her telling Scott Anspaugh to stop fighting -- and I admired the way the writers used her to examine the changing status of HIV patients, but Jeanie the person never came to life for me as much as a Carter or Benton or Doug or Carol. But damn if I didn't smile broadly at the first glimpse of her, and damn if the room didn't get dusty when Jeannie realized that Carlos' condition had shifted to full-blown AIDS.

I had barely even remembered Jeanie's status on her exit -- for some reason, I thought she had actually gone away when Weaver laid her off for budgetary reasons, but her warm mention of Kerry made me skim the episode guide to refresh -- but my memory of all the struggles she went through after getting diagnosed, not to mention Gloria Reuben's expressive face, gave Jeanie's pain almost as much weight as if she had been hanging around the ER all this time.

I like that they left the story of Carlos unresolved -- as Jeanie pointed out, no matter the results of the biopsy, he'll have a hard road ahead -- and I especially liked the catch-up scene with Haleh. My wife thought it was weird to hear all this casual talk of Carter and Doug and Carol, but that seemed like the exact thing that Jeanie would want to discuss. (Plus, her knowledge that Carter had gone to Africa was quick shorthand to let us know that she had stayed in touch off and on with her old friends -- just not recently enough to know Kerry was gone.) The showrunner, David Zabel, has said that if the show gets renewed for one final season, he wants to revisit some other old characters, and this episode not only laid some groundwork (assuming Clooney feels like slumming again for his buddy John Wells) but also showed that the current writing team can handle characters who pre-dated them. Considering that only one current writer (Joe Sachs) was even with the show when Reuben left, and he didn't write the episode (Janine Barrois did), they did an excellent job of capturing that alternately warm and strident voice of hers.

One question on the rest of the episode: am I going nuts, or are they really going to pair off Gates and Sam? I know he's with the sexy chaplain and all, but he was staring at her for practically the entire episode, and there was a flirtatiousness to all their conversations that I'm used to seeing when they put Stamos with his next love interest.

(On a completely unrelated note, right before I watched this episode, I was watching a screener of CBS' "Comanche Moon" miniseries, and it was weird to see Linda Cardellini go from 19th century woman of the prairie to 21st century nurse in under five minutes.)

What did everybody else think?

Three hospitals, many tragedies

Since I actually watched -- and enjoyed -- all three Thursday medical dramas on the same night in the first time since forever, it's time for a stethoscope-themed blog post. Spoilers for, in order, "ER," "Grey's Anatomy" and "Scrubs" coming up just as soon as I swab a camel...

After having some fun with all those disaster episodes of "ER" yesterday, not to mention the chaotic-sounding 300 patients premise, the 300th episode turned out to be a fairly low-key affair. I'm actually happy with that; while people tend to remember the episodes with the pyrotechnics and the weeping, one of the things I've always admired about "ER," in good times and bad, is how it can be so buttoned-down when it wants to be. I think of episodes like Doug and Mark's road trip to bury Doug's dad, or the ER staff preparing for the paramedic's death in "The Healers," or even Abby's black-out sex with Moretti a few weeks ago, and think about how a lot of other series (including a certain other Thursday medical drama to be discussed later) would try to underline all the emotions for the audience with sweeping music, teary-eyed close-ups and whatnot. I'm not saying "ER" isn't often guilty of going over-the-top, but when they tighten up, it often turns out to be more affecting.

There were tears in both the resolution of the Down's syndrome story and Luka/Abby, but they felt real and earned. (And the Luka scene was made far more uncomfortable -- and fascinating -- by our knowledge of what Abby was refusing to tell him even as he tried to take all the blame on himself.) The moment when Abby called out Neela about Ray, meanwhile, stung precisely because there weren't a lot of fireworks in the scene; the casual coldness is what made it seem so painful. I'm not wild about the chaplain character, but the tribute to the patients the ER lost in the last year was also a nice, understated tribute to the series as a whole which has killed off a lot of doctors and patients.

And I want to say a word about Scott Grimes, who I couldn't stand when Morris was introduced (at the time, I was surprised they dumped Coop and kept Morris) and now find delightful. His reaction to the arrival of the food poisoning patients was among the funniest non-"30 Rock" things I saw last night. The key difference, I think, between when Morris first appeared and now is that he's at least semi-competent. If the guy's an obnoxious clown and also a terrible doctor, then I spend all my time thinking about how the writers are contriving to keep their comic relief character on the show. By making Morris a vaguely good doctor, and by occasionally providing serious glimpses into his personality (like the conversation with Lowell about being abandoned by his own father), I feel freer to laugh at him when he's acting the buffoon.

I remain baffled about ABC's scheduling decision with this "Grey's Anatomy" two-parter. Thanksgiving night generally has a lower audience than a regular Thursday, so why air part one on turkey night, then air a rerun, then put this one on a week after that? ABC has a weird history of doing this (I remember them interrupting an intense "NYPD Blue" two-parter with a Barbara Walters special in between), and it never makes sense to me.

While parts of "Crash Into You" part two were just as strong as in part one -- Bailey's marriage falling apart while George played messenger, anything with Lexie and Seth Green, Karev telling off Ava, Meredith telling Dr. Hahn to shut up (a rare instance where Meredith was justified in telling anyone to shut up, whereas there are so many instances when others are justified in telling her to) -- more of the parts of "Grey's" that I dislike creeped into this one.

Remember that "Scrubs" scene where Dr. Cox rattles off a list of all the things he cares about more than his final week with J.D. as a resident? That's basically how I feel about the state of Meredith and McDreamy at this point. Now it's just getting stupid, the attempts to keep them apart, and Dempsey has zero chemistry with the computer geek nurse. Zero. I'm glad that Shonda continues her "Okay, so maybe Izzie and George are a mistake" theme, but if it's now as obvious to the characters and their creator as it is to us poor, frustrated viewers, why can't they just break up already? Why must we now spend as much time with them angsting about their incompatibility as we did with them angsting about whether George should break up his marriage for his One, True, Perfect Love?

Finally, "Scrubs" gets back in the groove with its best episode of the season, and better than almost anything I can remember from last year. The pathos was just right on Elliot's ALS plot (and helped by the occasional absurd touch like the patient's home care nurse "flying"), J.D. was credible in the scenes where he was required to act human, and the one-upsmanship and Janitor dating stories were both very funny at the same time they were providing some insight into the characters. The only real disappointment is that TheToddTime.com is much less elaborate than The Todd promised; no Tranny-Todd feature anywhere. But if they can be this entertaining and well-rounded going forward, I'm going to be a lot sadder when the episodes run out.

What did everybody else think?

andreikirilenkotattoo on TV: Disaster days at 'ER'

Today's column celebrates the 300th episode of "ER" (yes, it's still on, and it's actually not bad these days) with a partial list of the various disasters to befall County General and its staff over the years.