ER season 11 thread (2 Viewers)

[Patrick Sun]

Neelah's going to be driving a greyhound bus until she figures it out. Her scene with her parents felt like something out of "Bend It Like Beckham".

Luka finally gets Sam to acknowledge their bond. So you know something bad will happen to their relationship, some way, somehow.

Paul McCrane directed this episode.

I wish Abby would have her patients call her "Dr. Abby" because whenever she is called "Dr. Lockhart" I have to think "Who's that?" It was amusing how the nurses turned on her at the beginning of the episode.

The gay beat-down patients story so little in terms of emotional juice to it, maybe it was the actors involved, or it could have been the script or direction.

The scene with Carter losing it and trying to open up to Luka didn't work for me either.

Overall, nothing but an average episode at best.

 

[John_Lee]

Good to see crazy Irene back on TV.

 

[Chris]

I'm glad someone else said it. This was presented in such a "blah" manner that it was just .. well, it didn't work.

 

[Paul Sandhu]

It did and heres a little tidbit for you. Neelum's father, Ajay Rasgotra, played by Anupam Kher also played Parminder Nagra's father in Bend It Like Beckham.

 

[Patrick Sun]

10/14/04 "Try Carter"

Poor Neela. What a horrible subplot.

Well, Pratt came back too soon. Carter is overcompensating to try and get over his son's death. Abby's instincts win out over Ray's indignation. Luka is trying to walk that thin line between father-figure and sig-oth. Corday is probably going to get the boot for doing the transplant surgery not sanctioned by UNUS and fed guidelines (due to HIV+ organ). Frank was pretty funny in spots. Chuck breastfeeding Cosmo was disturbing as hell! Glad to see Susan back for an appearance.

 

[WillG]

Carter's anguish is starting to become grating. I'm sure it must be very hard to have a stillborn child, but it seems that it is preying on him a little bit too much. Not to sound insensitive, but He and Kimba could always try again for a child.

 

[Stacy Huff]

So Patrick, is that it? The teaser for next week . . .



warned that one character won't be back. Will it be Corday? If so, it seems like they showed their hand. Of course, they also showed the guy with OCD.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Well, I'm pretty sure

Corday is getting the boot because Alex Kingston got her walking papers and was being dropped from the show.

But you have to love NBC's marketing department once again.

 

[Jason_V]

Yeah, from everything I've heard and this week's TV Guide, the spoiler's above are true. At least, this will be the first part of the arc.

Cast turnover is good; look at what it did for Law and Order or NYPD Blue. Shane West is being groomed to take over in the female demo's for Noah Wyle, it seems to me.

I don't know why, but on the roof with Carter, I was thinking and feeling John was going to offer his house to Ray. It just felt like the right thing for John to do. It didn't happen, at least we don't see it happening. But the more screen time Shane West gets, the more I get to like him. There's a rebel-ish quality to him...something we haven't seen on this show in eons...that could become a violent mix when he works with Pratt.

 

[todbnla]

Alex Kingston has left the building apparently because NBC felt she was too old? How much longer can this show last?
Isn't Noah Wyle leaving after this season too. This was the hot thursday night drama but I am afraid no more. :frowning:

 

[Patrick Sun]

Corday's character arc had run its course, though I was pretty amazed that the writers wrote her "exit" interview with Carter the way they did. Most characters don't get that much exposition when they get bumped off the show. At least she went out doing some good, even if it wasn't on the "up and up" legally.

I'd read spoilers last week about how Neela would get back into the ER, and the spoilers were right: the OCD resident would lose it and leave Country General and with Susan getting the Chief of ER position, Neela was just what the doctor ordered on short notice, though I can't believe really Neela didn't jump at the chance to get out of convenience store hell until the guy was complaining about japaleno's being too hot.

The crazy mom was a little over the top for me (grating voice, etc), but a very sad revelation, which I had already entertained in the first 30 minutes before it was revealed that she was looney and made her 2 daughters jump out of the building because she feared her husband's wrath.

Always nice to see Madchen Amick, still fine after all these years. Loved the attitude she gave back to Carter.

Carter's still on a short leash. Abby tries to get Carter to open up some more, and he's still in resistance mode.

Deb's still a bit wary of Pratt given their recent road rage episode that got the big guy killed.

Can't stand Weaver, ugh, that character just makes me want to hurl my TV bricks at the screen.

Sam and Luka appear to be getting to the co-habitation phase.

Jerry's welcome to Susan as new Chief of ER was great (list of demands, and resignation letter should his demands not be met).

 

[Kristian]

I knew this episode was headed in the wrong direction when Luka mentioned "The Wiggles".

As Patrick said, the actress who played the mother was annoying. Why can't they get competent actors to play the patients anymore? Her over-the-top performance kept the twist from being truly surprising, since it was obvious that she was crazy. If she had played the role with more restraint, the twist would've been truly shocking.

I wasn't really sad to see Corday go. They couldn't come up with anything interesting for her to do last season, so they turned her into a two-timing slut (and come to think of it, they didn't really give any closure to that ridiculous storyline). I can't imagine what the writers would've done to her had she stayed on.

 

[John_Lee]

This may be a 'duh' question, but were the remarks of the new surgical consult guy intended to belie a lying Weaver? Can't see how it'll go anywhere with Corday going back to England, but I got the sense that Weaver actually worked to get Corday's tenure removed, instead of to save her.

 

[Peter Kim]

Got the same feeling, John. It appeared that the new guy seemed truly respectful and in admiration of Corday's work. Weaver looked really shifty during her final meeting with Corday.

 

[James_Kiang]

While my wife and I had pretty much figured out what was going on with the mother, the flashback to the scene as it really happened still caused us both to let out a "gasp". We have a 4 year-old and just thinking about a situation like that one was just wrenching to me. I think the scene really got me because it showed them jumping.

 

[Don Black]

A pretty lackluster goodbye to a character that has been around since before Eric LaSalle left...

 

[MattGentry]

Lackluster?

I thought it was written rather well. Quite, and with a sense of dignity that her character had slowly lost over the years.

"Tell them...it was lovely." Then the turn and slow walk up the stairs.

(What were you expecting? A tree to fall on her?)

 

[Don Black]

Yes, lackluster.

They do a 30-sec shot of her in her car with her kid and that's suppose to convey to the viewer how her priorities have suddenly been re-arranged? Wow! What a story arc!

Granted, the producers gave up on her character about the time that Anthony Edwards left the show. But still... In her series finale, give her a little more substance.

One good line does not make a good episode.

 

[NolanJ]

Could anybody tell me the song they had at the intro and close of tonight's show?

 

[Patrick Sun]

11/4/04 "The Intern's Guide to the Galaxy"

My head is still swimming as the eternal question of quantity over quality in hospital care is examined as Pratt pits 3 interns (Abby, Neela, and Ray) against one another in terms of patient cases/dispo's handled in a shift, and each intern has students to manage throughout their shift.

Ray uses bribery (pastries) and fast-talking to get people to go the extra mile for him, but cutting corners gets him in hot water when he isn't paying attention to a distraught wife being asked by him if her brain-dead husband's body can be harvested for organs. So she goes nuts when the UNOS transplant surgeon shows up to harvest the organs, and Carter chews Ray out in front of his students. Heh heh.

Abby can't seem to get a single slam-dunk case in the ER today, and is faced with complicated cases that require more followup than usual. Abby goes the extra mile with a patient who discovers that she had sex with a HIV+ co-worker, and Abby pretends to get stuck by a needle to score the HIV cocktail of drugs for the patient. Abby even has Ray get someone in the pharmacy to doctor the patient's name on the label for the cocktail of drugs. Abby's student keeps hitting on her, but she keeps shooting him down.

Neela's first day back in the ER is stressful, and her thoroughness cause her to fall behind in the race to discharge patients. Neela drags her feet on informing a patient who she finally diagnoses as having leukemia. The patient goes AWOL, but is found later in the chapel, and Neela goes and does something she's not good at, offering comfort and hope to the patient.

The surgeon who replaced Corday likes to hold chemistry class while soon-to-be-brain-dead trauma is being handled by Ray and Abby, and the surgeon challenges Abby to stop deferring to Ray in crisis time. Later the surgeon wants the trio of interns to explain to him why radicals are bad when patients are brought back to life, but come back with tissue that isn't quite the same tissue before the trauma occured. Abby doesn't seem comfortable with the discussion of the chemistry involved and walks away to handle more patients.

Carter finally makes a move on Wendell (Madchen Amick's social worker character). Yay for Carter.

Anyhow, a pretty fast moving episode with light shed of various doctor care styles in an ER.