#tv: er

[cameronhcwes]

ER (1994-2009) 12.09 — I Do

[whatupcherry]

my mutuals totally shouldn’t (should) watch ER cause it’s actually horrible (it’s amazing pls pls pls pls pls watch i need ppl to talk to abt this dumb show)

[drelizabethgreene]

We were so cheated of watching more of Kerry and Sandy getting ready for the baby and seeing Sandy pregnant. The way Kerry supported her in labor and delivery…they really deserved so much better.

[onionjulius]

Alright so, ER rewatch is happening, but I'm swamped with work and so I'll have to wait for episode posts. For now, an initial inventory of my remembrance of the main characters/my opinion of them:

Love: Carol Hathaway, Mark Greene, Susan Lewis, Kerry Weaver, Abby Lockhart, Luka Kovač

Really like: John Carter, Doug Ross, Peter Benton, Elizabeth Corday, Lucy Knight, Jing-Mei Chen, Greg Pratt

Like: Jeanie Boulet*, Cleo Finch, Michael Gallant

Unlikeable but not devoid of complexity: Robert Romano, Dave Malucci

I remember your existence: Neela Rasgotra, Anna Del Amico

I don't remember your existence: Sam Taggert, Ray Barnett, Archie Morris, Tony Gates, Simon Brenner, Cate Banfield

*Jeanie's on the cusp between Like and Really like.

I'll be curious to see if my opinions change much watching this show 15-30 years after it initially aired. No doubt there will be cringe "Oh wow that aged poorly" moments, but hopefully also some that hold up well. It'll also be interesting to watch a pre-Prestige TV critical hit post-Prestige TV (and yeah, nostalgic, I'm getting quite nostalgic in my old age). And I'm wondering how my impressions of the characters will hold up in a close watch; I think I'm much more analytical now, and I'm pretty sure my opinions reflect the characters at their best without necessarily accounting for them at their worst. Although maybe that's not a bad thing as long as it's consistent.

More character recollections, some quite spoilery:

Mark's death slew me. It was so protracted too, he was suffering so much and his family was fraying at the seams and I just remember him trying so hard to handle things the best he could with that understated irony of his and just feeling so terribly for him. There was that thing with the guy in the elevator that he just let die, I don't remember what became of that ...

I love so much that Mark is really just Some Guy trying to do his job well while having normal Some Guy things like a wife and kids and basketball breaks. He's smart, decisive, dedicated, compassionate, a good teacher, and truly a deserving leader.

I know that Jeanie had at least one great story, which of course is the HIV story. I'm actually struggling to recall much before that, so that'll be fun.

I just ... I remember having such complex reactions to Kerry, and all these years later that has registered in my memory as love. I love Kerry, warts and all. You could feel so bad for her while simultaneously hate what she was saying or doing, and I do think she learned things over time. She was an outsider, a party pooper, ambitious and career-driven, a disabled lesbian, oil to Doug Ross' water. She was not easy to love, and so I loved her. Also, she was ER Mom. Love you, Mom!

I also loved Kim/Kerry. They felt so real and human and not simply an "issues" story. I find myself not recalling much of her relationship afterward, so looking forward to seeing if it is a worthy follow-up.

I loved Mark/Susan. They were such easy friends, so natural and believable together, so bright and breezy and (mostly) supportive and wonderful. I think they would have made a fine endgame, it was so easy to want good things for each of them, and what an unforgettable, lovely and bittersweet moment when she left Chicago on that train.

For all that though, I liked Mark with Elizabeth. It's true there wasn't the same will-they-won't they (and I remember feeling like her thing with Peter ended rather abruptly) but their domesticity was very sweet and she was a kick-ass character, strong and funny.

Romano was ... Problematic ... but his bond of some sort with Elizabeth was probably the best thing about his character.

I remember feeling that Peter was shafted, but that said he did last 8 years and I remember some good stories with his mother and sister, work vs parenthood, the custody battle, and of course (of course) his evolving dynamic with Carter.

Seriously though. Benton/Carter.

And on the topic of BroTPs: Mark/Doug!

There's something about the two most ambitious characters being Peter, a black man, and Kerry, a woman, that I kinda love.

Upon reflection, it seems to me that at least some of my affinity for Susan and Abby have to do with their family stories--particularly, having to deal with flawed family members, walking the line between loving and enabling, battling the desire to hope because of the need to protect against disappointment. It's ... interesting? ... because I don't have any deadbeat family members or family members who refuse to take responsibility for their illnesses, but something about how they use sarcasm to deal with life resonates with me, even though Susan in my head was a sunny character while Abby was a little black raincloud.

I loved Abby. Abby was a hot mess, a human disaster, a trashfire. Abby was strong, but also a coward. Abby was full of contradictions, Abby mistook self-abnegation for independence, Abby was only happy when it rained. Abby was hard to love, and so I loved her.

There was something about Abby/Luka that I found compulsively watchable. Something probably having to do with being really messed up and dysfunctional and full of maladaptive habits, but nevertheless wanting love like any other human being. There was a brooding intensity and understatedness to them that I remember just eating up. I was an undercover emo kid, what can I say.

That said, there was a phase in which he was truly insufferable (which I know was them taking a page out of the Doug Ross book ... but he isn't Doug Ross, even though he was brought on as a direct replacement). I'm curious if, on my rewatch, it will feel like an organic arc given how sweet, patient, gentlemanly and sensitive I recall him being at the start. Oh tragic little meow meow.

The final scene between Carol and Luka is so etched in my brain. "Because I'm still in love with him. I've been in love with him since I was 23 years old. He's everything to me. I feel complete when I'm with him and I feel empty when we're apart. He's the father of my children, and he's my soulmate." Yes, Doug was a manbaby and yes I was so hurt on Carol's behalf that he left her for Seattle, but really Doug/Carol were the Truth. You bought their connection so thoroughly and George Clooney's chemistry with Juliana Margulies was critical to that.

I remember thinking that Peter/Cleo's chemistry was nothing in particular to write home about (you know, not bad, but not special) ... but hell if they weren't beautiful together. Michael Michelle was just so stunning.

I really thought that they were heading for a lot of yummy Carter-denying-his-feelings-for-med-student-Lucy angst, which I was so there for. But I can't deny that what ended up happening (you know ...) was unforgettable television.

On that note, Carter was never the same after That. There's such a sad lost innocence about his character, given how earnest and caring and even hapless he was at the start. That's not necessarily a bad direction to go, narratively speaking, but one would hope for some eventual hard-won optimism for him all the same.

And yeah, at some point ER became darker and soapier, but I honestly have good memories of a few of those years, before becoming bored.

Like, another scene seared into my brain is Maggie Wyczenski turning on a dime and going postal right in the middle of the ER, screaming "I'm leaving! I'm leaving! I'm leaving! Iiii'm leaving!" and "You're my daughter you bitch!". God did Sally Field earn that Emmy or did she earn that Emmy. I wouldn't want to have missed out on that story, for all that it was such a downer.

Apparently Sam, Ray, Archie, and Tony came on more or less when Neela did, but she's the only one I remember. How'd that happen? Though I can't say I remember her stories, so there is that.

I remember watching with my sophomore year roommate the night that Romano freaking lost his arm to a helicopter. It was crazy. And I really thought it couldn't get any crazier, but then, as you know ...

The look of the show really changed from beginning to end, which, given that it lasted fifteen years, is probably to be expected. But I remember most the constantly moving camera in so many of the medical emergency scenes, and I hope that doesn't go away.

Mark's daughter and Peter's son were impossibly cute. Impossibly cute. So so cute. So so so so so cute.

Speaking of Chicago in the 90s, goddamn do y'all remember how incredible the Bulls were? I don't know why I'm putting that in this post, but I guess I am.

Carter/Jing Mei were such great friends, they never stopped being competitive with each other but they nevertheless grew up together and I love that the show never hooked them up.

I don't recall quite why but I feel like Doug and his dad were reminiscent of Riker and his dad from Star Trek. I don't know.

Okay yeah that's all for now.

[wouldntyoulichentoknow]

Mark, genuinely touched: you think I’m nice?

Kerry: that’s not what I said.

[squadmuse]

Going to go binge watch ER just for the Luka/Goran content

I’ve watched the show so many times that I can literally hear the gifs he’s in, and Goran’s portrayal of Luka with his storyline is definitely one of the reasons that I do what I do as a job today.

ER was just something else 🤩

[everybodyknows-everybodydies]

just in case you’re not.

[amythenortherner]

Okay so I’ve been thinking about this for a while and the more I rewatch ER the more it formulates in my mind and infuriates me that the writers didn’t do more with it. After Dr. Greene dies and Romano has the accident with his arm we end up with Dr. Corday and Dr. Romano with sort of stale plot lines, and I think there was an obvious solution. One thing that always made me kind of mad in the show is I refuse to believe that Elizabeth wouldn’t get on the first plane back to America the instance she finds out about Robert’s accident. While Robert infuriated her sometimes, I think she was one of the only people that truly cared about him.

To me, the combination of Dr. Greene’s death and Robert’s accident was the perfect opportunity to have Robert and Elizabeth grow close and grieve together, Elizabeth her husband, and Robert his arm. I think this also could have been a great way to redeem Robert’s character. The accident, while I think is a great plot line, becomes kind of stale due to Robert’s inability to operate, hence the terrible way of killing him off with the helicopter crash later on. Elizabeth is one of the only people who sees the good in Robert.

After realizing he needs to amputate his arm, Robert’s confidence plummets as he begins to realize and feel that his career as a surgeon was all that he was. He’d never been self conscious before because he had always been good at what he was but now that was all gone and he was feeling like he had nothing and no one. He even confesses to Elizabeth in 9X05 that most people really don’t like him, but that he’s good at what he does, and that he has nothing if not that. We were so close to the implied confession from Elizabeth of that “no Robert, most people don’t like you, but I do”.

I think taking Robert’s confidence away from him via his ability to operate and perform as a surgeon was a perfect way for him to realize that he needed to start being a better person in order for his life to have purpose again. Elizabeth could have and should have been able to do that. I think throughout the rest of the time the both of them spend in the series, they could have grieved together and grown together. Elizabeth could have helped him find the good in him, and find purpose again in his life. I think this also would have been a happier ending for Elizabeth.

[lulabo]

my first reaction seeing Glenn Howerton on ER during a season I never watched having only a vague notion of his vibe: oh they should NOT let that man practice medicine

[kitkatpancakestack]

The relationship bw Dr. Benton and John Carter>>>

[docjen]

Some people in this fandom need to get out and touch some grass. Wow. If you violently hate people in the fandom for liking characters/couples you don’t, that’s something you need help for. I’d feel sorry for this person if they weren’t so vicious.

[cameronhcwes]

ABBY/LUKA + idioms

[eyes-above--the-waves]

I remember the first few times I watched ER many years ago, I was (and still am) very pro Doug/Carol and was cursing the cute paramedic that swooped in and made Carol doubt their relationship in season 4, but now I'm rewatching and realizing who plays the cute paramedic and I'm like, "yeah girl, I understand your dilemma".

Like, imagine having to decide whether you want to marry prime George Clooney or run off with prime George Eads? What a life.

[drelizabethgreene]

I just finished my first ever 100,000 word fanfic! If you’re looking for some reading material over Christmas that is angsty but hopeful, I hope you’ll consider jumping in! As always, would love your feedback if you have any. :)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/48562348/chapters/122495539

[kazutoes]

chaos theory — trauma center (derang) edition

inspired by ER!!

[wouldntyoulichentoknow]

Hi there!

Touching 46(linking arms with each other)? Romano and Corday… 👉👈 💕

"...can I help you, Robert"