Untreatable: Unpopular Opinions

[RedbirdNelly]

I agree the Peter/Reese storyline is awful. The only justification I can think of is they wanted a storyline for him to leave the show and that was the best they could come up with--instead of having him die like just about everyone else towards the end. I am glad they didn't kill him! I still love the Peter/Carter good bye scene and Peter's return to help Carter at the end of the last season. So I guess what I'm saying is if I had to choose between (a) terrible out of character ending for Peter and (b) Peter exiting by dying, I'll put up with (a).

But they really could have had him decide to leave for lots of reasons without messing with his character. Lots of people decide they want jobs with stable hours.

[Growsonwalls]

1 hour ago, RedbirdNelly said:

I agree the Peter/Reese storyline is awful. The only justification I can think of is they wanted a storyline for him to leave the show and that was the best they could come up with--instead of having him die like just about everyone else towards the end. I am glad they didn't kill him! I still love the Peter/Carter good bye scene and Peter's return to help Carter at the end of the last season. So I guess what I'm saying is if I had to choose between (a) terrible out of character ending for Peter and (b) Peter exiting by dying, I'll put up with (a).

But they really could have had him decide to leave for lots of reasons without messing with his character. Lots of people decide they want jobs with stable hours.

If you put it that way then I'm not that mad. I still think it was a horrible exit for a beloved character. I did like how in the series finale Peter seemed to jumpstart his romance with Alex again.

The Doug/Carol/twins custody issue was also handled horribly. Doug and Carol had a loving relationship. Their pregnancy was PLANNED. Then all of a sudden we're to believe that Carol needs to fax Doug her pregnancy news and that she won't accept child support from him? Whatever.  The ER producers were lucky that Clooney was a good sport and agreed to come back not once but twice for viewers to go away with good feelings about Doug. 

Another custody issue that was handled pretty badly was Jeanie quitting without even telling Kerry because she had that foster child Carlo. Kerry had gone above and beyond for Jeanie for so many years that Jeanie quitting without notification just didn't seem like something Jeanie would do.

[Bastet]

16 minutes ago, Growsonwalls said:

Another custody issue that was handled pretty badly was Jeanie quitting without even telling Kerry because she had that foster child Carlo. Kerry had gone above and beyond for Jeanie for so many years that Jeanie quitting without notification just didn't seem like something Jeanie would do.

I don't know, Jeanie shit on Kerry's professional support and personal friendship several times, so while I generally like Jeanie, I don't think that inconsiderate move was also an inconsistent one.

[Hiyo]

Quote

instead of having him die like just about everyone else towards the end

At that point I think the only person who was killed off was Lucy, no?

Quote

Another custody issue that was handled pretty badly was Jeanie quitting without even telling Kerry because she had that foster child Carlo.

But she did. At least they had a goodbye scene together.

 

[RedbirdNelly]

7 hours ago, Hiyo said:

At that point I think the only person who was killed off was Lucy, no?

But she did. At least they had a goodbye scene together.

 

no. By the end of the show (I'm not just referring to the moment Peter left but the show itself as people started to leave), Mark had died, Romano got killed by a helicopter, M. Pfeifer's character died. . . not sure that is everyone.

[Hiyo]

Ah, I was referring to the time Peter left. It was still only Lucy at that point, though Mark died soon after Peter left, no?

The show had 25 or 26 leads, and only 5 were killed off (Lucy, Mark, Romano, Gallant, and Pratt). So not as high a ratio as people think it is.

Edited January 9, 2020 by Hiyo

[RedbirdNelly]

4 minutes ago, Hiyo said:

Ah, I was referring to the time Peter left. It was still only Lucy, though Mark died soon after Peter left, no?

The show had 25 or 26 leads, and only 4 were killed off (Lucy, Mark, Romano, and Gallant). So not as high a ratio as people think it is.

I understand your point--but that leaves 5 killed off because I had forgotten about Gallant. so that makes Pratt, Lucy, Mark, Romano and Gallant. I almost count Ray since they took his legs off.

[SoMuchTV]

8 hours ago, Hiyo said:

Ah, I was referring to the time Peter left. It was still only Lucy at that point, though Mark died soon after Peter left, no?

The show had 25 or 26 leads, and only 5 were killed off (Lucy, Mark, Romano, Gallant, and Pratt). So not as high a ratio as people think it is.

LOL.  I get your point, but if one out of five people in my workplace was meeting an untimely end, I think I'd be looking for other opportunities.

[WendyCR72]

18 minutes ago, SoMuchTV said:

LOL.  I get your point, but if one out of five people in my workplace was meeting an untimely end, I think I'd be looking for other opportunities.

Technically, though, Gallant didn't die at the workplace, but while overseas in the service...

[ch1]

34 minutes ago, SoMuchTV said:

LOL.  I get your point, but if one out of five people in my workplace was meeting an untimely end, I think I'd be looking for other opportunities.

Lucy and Romano would make me want to leave.  Especially Romano.  In the real world I would wonder what curse is on the place.  It’s one thing to die from cancer.  It’s another to be stabbed repeatedly and have a helicopter rip your arm off and then finish the job later on. (What they did with Romano was beyond absurd)

[Hiyo]

Quote

LOL.  I get your point, but if one out of five people in my workplace was meeting an untimely end, I think I'd be looking for other opportunities.

Well, yeah, that's the real world lol

But I was just pointing out, the death rate show on this show seems to be inflated by fans. I mean heck, when I counted all the main cast, I was even shocked as I expected there to be more people who had died.

[Dr.OO7]

There's too many people to quote on this, but when it comes to characters leaving dead or alive, I've noticed shows tend to have a trend. Basically if one or two people have left alive, the next person to go is likely to be killed off for maximum impact.

L&O: UK: James and George leave alive, Matt is killed off (I'm still bawling about that)

NCIS: NOLA: Brody and Percy leave alive, LaSalle is killed off.

And this show--Susan and Doug leave alive, Lucy gets killed off.

On 1/8/2020 at 6:40 PM, Growsonwalls said:

The Doug/Carol/twins custody issue was also handled horribly. Doug and Carol had a loving relationship. Their pregnancy was PLANNED. Then all of a sudden we're to believe that Carol needs to fax Doug her pregnancy news and that she won't accept child support from him? Whatever.  The ER producers were lucky that Clooney was a good sport and agreed to come back not once but twice for viewers to go away with good feelings about Doug. 

I've never forgiven the writers for how poorly that was done. That and the Amanda Lee story were the lowest points of the dreadful 5th season. Doug had legitimately gotten his act together and it made no sense for him to blow everything up with a stunt like that. 

Then there's Carol's loopy explanation for keeping him away--"I told him not to come back. I was very strong. But I thought he would come!"

So you wanted him to come, told him "No" and now feel that because he respected your wishes, he didn't want to come? Huh?

I loved Carol, but her behavior that season drove me crazy. There's a great fanfic where Doug finally tells her off about it, pointing out that she could have come with him/let him come back/accepted his financial help, etc.

Edited January 11, 2020 by Camille

[LakeLover]

On 1/9/2020 at 5:08 PM, SoMuchTV said:

LOL.  I get your point, but if one out of five people in my workplace was meeting an untimely end, I think I'd be looking for other opportunities.

I think it was after she had left the show, but I recall Julianna Margulies being quoted as commenting on the ridiculousness of the direction of the show when the patients are the doctors and nurses due to accident/crashes/fire/etc. She said something like, "The ER is supposed to be the place where we HELP people who are injured; we are not supposed to be the patients."

[Danny Franks]

On ‎1‎/‎9‎/‎2020 at 2:04 PM, RedbirdNelly said:

I understand your point--but that leaves 5 killed off because I had forgotten about Gallant. so that makes Pratt, Lucy, Mark, Romano and Gallant. I almost count Ray since they took his legs off.

Dennis Gant as well. He wasn't a main character, but still, an intern being hit by the L and dying in the E.R. would be a story that stuck around for staff.

There was a lean towards more melodramatic storylines, as the simple medical and personal dramas got stale (in the eyes of the writers, at least). In the first season, there's a masterclass in television writing as Mark dealt with that pre-eclampsia pregnancy in Love's Labor Lost. It's not big or flashy, just a seemingly standard medical procedure that gets out of hand and ends in tragedy. By season seven, the same Mark has to deal with a crazy dad who goes on a shooting rampage because Mark was involved in him losing custody of his son, and it ends with Mark letting the crazy dad die of a heart attack, when they're trapped together in an elevator.

[Hiyo]

For me, it's the stuff that happened at the hospital more than the number of people dying that raised an eyebrow or 3. Shootings, stabbing, helicopter crashes, explosions, quarantines...you'd think the hospital was located in a war zone or something.

[blondiec0332]

On 1/12/2020 at 9:05 AM, Danny Franks said:

In the first season, there's a masterclass in television writing as Mark dealt with that pre-eclampsia pregnancy in Love's Labor Lost. It's not big or flashy, just a seemingly standard medical procedure that gets out of hand and ends in tragedy

When I did a rewatch on DVD a while back I had to skip that episode. It's just too  heartbreaking.  Even though you have watched it before and you know what is going to happen you want to yell at the TV what they need to do/not do.

On 1/12/2020 at 9:05 AM, Danny Franks said:

By season seven, the same Mark has to deal with a crazy dad who goes on a shooting rampage because Mark was involved in him losing custody of his son, and it ends with Mark letting the crazy dad die of a heart attack, when they're trapped together in an elevator.

I actually liked that.  Mark went through a lot throughout the series.  Some things I might have rolled my eyes at or gave a side eye to but him letting the guy die I found believable.

[outsmartabullet]

On 3/31/2019 at 2:56 AM, Cloud9Shopper said:

To me, it was a little unbelievable that no one expressed irritation at her constantly being in daycare with Tess when she was supposed to be working, constantly crying in the lounge or in the med room about her difficulties and her head being everywhere but work. And then she ran off in the middl

Malucci did and said that 'the Chief wouldn't stand for this'

[Birdie]

I enjoyed Malucci’s time on the show once they started giving him, at least, flashes of depth and competence. I did NOT like the send off they gave him with the slur. 
 

People mention the time he wrote the message from that guy’s wife on the glove box and went back to read it to him after he’d died. That’s a great moment. 
 

He also had the episode with the hockey player with cancer around his heart that was inoperable. And I remember an episode where a little girl and her dad are brought in from a car accident, and Malucci discovers she’s being sexually abused by him. He reads to her from a storybook while Cleo (I think) does a rape kit and takes documentation photos to keep the girl’s mind off what’s happening and to keep her calm. 

[Tallulah7606]

I’ve recently started rewatching from the beginning, and I find my opinions about characters have changed considerably as I’ve got older. I cannot stand Cleo for a start-I had no strong feelings about her originally, she was just boring. But this time around I see her as selfish, whiny and arrogant with a terrible attitude. I also cannot bear Abby, or how they turned it into ‘the Abby show’ after Carol left. They just kind of threw her at us without any buildup, when in reality there were so many background nurses already there, whose stories would have been far more interesting. Chuny, for example. She had the right amount of sass and heart to become a much bigger character. Unpopular opinion though it may be, but I always hated Abby and Luka together. They went from zero to serious in about 2 episodes and they had absolutely no chemistry whatsoever. Possibly my most hated character ever to appear on ER though is Kem, doesn’t help that I can’t stand Thandie Newton. I can’t even go into all the reasons why I hated the character because there’s so many 😂

Edited July 12, 2020 by Tallulah7606

[readster]

11 minutes ago, Tallulah7606 said:

 Possibly my most hated character ever to appear on ER though is Kem, doesn’t help that I can’t stand Thandie Newton. I can’t even go into all the reasons why I hated the character because there’s so many

I agree and when they killed off their baby, I felt it really just destroyed the characters. I was waiting for news that Kem hung herself the way things went and with Newton being the "hot stuff" for a whopping 3 years. I think even producers look back down and go: "Wow, we really screwed that up with the casting and writing." 

Edited July 12, 2020 by readster
spelling errors.

[RedbirdNelly]

I'm not a fan of the Kem character though I have nothing against Thandie Newton. Just felt like Carter deserved a more dynamic partner. 

[doodlebug]

On ‎7‎/‎12‎/‎2020 at 7:56 AM, Tallulah7606 said:

I’ve recently started rewatching from the beginning, and I find my opinions about characters have changed considerably as I’ve got older. I cannot stand Cleo for a start-I had no strong feelings about her originally, she was just boring. But this time around I see her as selfish, whiny and arrogant with a terrible attitude. I also cannot bear Abby, or how they turned it into ‘the Abby show’ after Carol left. They just kind of threw her at us without any buildup, when in reality there were so many background nurses already there, whose stories would have been far more interesting. Chuny, for example. She had the right amount of sass and heart to become a much bigger character. Unpopular opinion though it may be, but I always hated Abby and Luka together. They went from zero to serious in about 2 episodes and they had absolutely no chemistry whatsoever. Possibly my most hated character ever to appear on ER though is Kem, doesn’t help that I can’t stand Thandie Newton. I can’t even go into all the reasons why I hated the character because there’s so many 😂

Abby ate the show to the detriment of virtually every other character, IMO.  She was crude and nasty and selfish and it was impossible to root for her.  As for her 'romance' with Luka, when the first date ends in manslaughter, there really shouldn't be a second date.  It was kinda icky to me that she seemed almost turned on because he beat a guy to death.

Kem was not the happy ending Carter deserved.  That he was still mooning after her like a lost puppy years after their son died was pathetic, IMO.  The relationship made no sense.  Let's face it, after Abby, virtually any woman would be an improvement; but his character was tarnished forever as he hung around moping after a woman who just didn't seem to like him all that much.

[Hiyo]

Unpopular opinion (for this site, it seems): I liked Abby, I liked Luka, and I liked them together.

[Tallulah7606]

13 hours ago, Hiyo said:

Unpopular opinion (for this site, it seems): I liked Abby, I liked Luka, and I liked them together.

😂 well this is the right place to air your upopular opinion. My other unpopular opinion was that I loved Romano. Sure he was bigoted, rude, sexist, inappropriate and had a penchant for crude innuendo, but there were also these glimmers of a really nice guy buried deep within, plus he was funny! I’m a bit old school though and what today is often perceived as verbal sexual harassment, I just see as harmless sexualised banter. Also, I liked Carol Hathaway, but she seems to be hugely disliked, and I never really liked Carter. The way he bounced between women and seemed to think he had some rightful claim on them if he had so much as a minor crush used to irritate the hell out of me. 

[readster]

On 7/13/2020 at 3:25 PM, doodlebug said:

 

Kem was not the happy ending Carter deserved.  That he was still mooning after her like a lost puppy years after their son died was pathetic, IMO.  The relationship made no sense.  Let's face it, after Abby, virtually any woman would be an improvement; but his character was tarnished forever as he hung around moping after a woman who just didn't seem to like him all that much.

Plus, Kem showed to be deeply rooted in mourning both her father and her son. Honestly, by the time we last saw her in the last episode. I was waiting for her to step in front of a bus in Chicago. Seriously, she was a mess and I know even Noah Wiley said later: "I don't see why Carter would still be with her. If anything, the relationship would have come to an end and he just would have ran the rest of the family business and moved on with his life."

[RedbirdNelly]

I liked Romano in a love/hate way. I wish they had not chopped off his arm and driven his character into no where. He had a soft side so seeing that come out more would have been more fun, while he always kept his sharp wit. 

I like Carol fine. She has her faults but it makes the character more interesting. I also like it when shows have characters who are not best buds despite not having a deep reason for it (i.e. neither is evil). That was Carol and Jeannie. It would be normal for a nurse to feel some territorial feelings to the PA who is shaking stuff up. Doesn't make it right but it happens. Basically I like shows with characters that are not just black and white. 

Carter I always liked despite him having some low points. He just seemed to underneath at all have some goodness.

[ShortyMac]

1 hour ago, RedbirdNelly said:

I liked Romano in a love/hate way. I wish they had not chopped off his arm and driven his character into no where. He had a soft side so seeing that come out more would have been more fun, while he always kept his sharp wit. 

I like Carol fine. She has her faults but it makes the character more interesting. I also like it when shows have characters who are not best buds despite not having a deep reason for it (i.e. neither is evil). That was Carol and Jeannie. It would be normal for a nurse to feel some territorial feelings to the PA who is shaking stuff up. Doesn't make it right but it happens. Basically I like shows with characters that are not just black and white. 

Carter I always liked despite him having some low points. He just seemed to underneath at all have some goodness.

I also liked Carter sticking to his guns about being a doctor, instead of caving to his grandparents' wishes of the 'easy' life of heading the family foundation. His life had purpose.

[SadieT]

On 7/14/2020 at 4:08 AM, Hiyo said:

Unpopular opinion (for this site, it seems): I liked Abby, I liked Luka, and I liked them together.

lol same. I started watching around Abby's first season so I always felt a connection to the character. Also she always had a lot going on so she was interesting to me. 

Luka had his moments, I wasn't as attached to the character himself but I thought he and Abby were a good fit. They both had pretty heavy lives and needed a partner who understood that. 

[Tallulah7606]

I’ve just rewatched the episode where Kem first visits Chicago. Christ on a bike she was irritating!! I actually don’t think I can watch any more episodes with her in again 😂 it’s making my fingers twitch 

[Cupcake04]

On 7/24/2020 at 9:28 PM, Tallulah7606 said:

I’ve just rewatched the episode where Kem first visits Chicago. Christ on a bike she was irritating!! I actually don’t think I can watch any more episodes with her in again 😂 it’s making my fingers twitch 

Yes...thank you!!!  I wasnt watching when she was on in original run, but like others watched on POP during NY Pause.  I couldnt stand her from day 1.  It made absolutely no sense to me that Carter was STILL pining for her in the last episode.  Why?  And he was still was referring to her as his wife at the end.  I did not see her her as the love of his life...that did not come across to me at all.  Miscarriage aside, she treated him like shit!  I was really bummed how it ended with no HEA for Carter.  So I pretend in my mind that in future seasons he and Rachel fell in love and they lived happily ever after 🙂

[readster]

1 hour ago, Cupcake04 said:

Yes...thank you!!!  I wasnt watching when she was on in original run, but like others watched on POP during NY Pause.  I couldnt stand her from day 1.  It made absolutely no sense to me that Carter was STILL pining for her in the last episode.  Why?  And he was still was referring to her as his wife at the end.  I did not see her her as the love of his life...that did not come across to me at all.  Miscarriage aside, she treated him like shit!  I was really bummed how it ended with no HEA for Carter.  So I pretend in my mind that in future seasons he and Rachel fell in love and they lived happily ever after 🙂

Plus at that time, the actress was busy with other projects, I mean for some dumb reasons the producers loved her for some stupid popular reason (something that still happens with shows today). However, I know later on both the actors and some of the writers were: "We should have just not brought her back after Carter's sign off." 

[SadieT]

On 3/3/2019 at 4:59 PM, Camille said:

The show never seemed to handle that very well. Aside from the concern for Mark after his attack, no one was ever worried about Carol/Carter/Abby/Sam after similarly traumatic experiences.

Going through the thread as I rewatch so apologies for resurrecting an old conversation but I just re-watched season 13 and I was shocked at how little attention was paid to Sam's horrific ordeal at the hands of Steve in Bloodline. She gets kidnapped, raped, and is driven to kill her abusive ex as her son sleeps 30 feet away...and then the following episode jumps a week ahead and she's back in the hospital like nothing happened. She gets a hug from Weaver when she first discloses the rape and I think Luka asks her how she's doing at one point, but then it's not brought up again until like a season or two later when she shares her experience with a rape victim in an attempt to comfort the patient and gets chastised by Wexler for getting too personal. The idea that someone would be able to bounce back from something so traumatic in a week's time and then proceed to carry on like nothing happened is baffling. I know there was ton of personal trauma spread around that ER but I feel like Sam's experience was one of the most egregious cases of lack of follow through. What was the point of putting her through that? More attention was paid to how it affected her annoying kid. 

[Hiyo]

“I mean for some dumb reasons the producers loved her for some stupid popular reason (something that still happens with shows today)”

Because she is a good actress?

I’ll take Kem and Carter over Mark and Corday, to be honest.

[readster]

2 hours ago, SadieT said:

Going through the thread as I rewatch so apologies for resurrecting an old conversation but I just re-watched season 13 and I was shocked at how little attention was paid to Sam's horrific ordeal at the hands of Steve in Bloodline. She gets kidnapped, raped, and is driven to kill her abusive ex as her son sleeps 30 feet away...and then the following episode jumps a week ahead and she's back in the hospital like nothing happened. She gets a hug from Weaver when she first discloses the rape and I think Luka asks her how she's doing at one point, but then it's not brought up again until like a season or two later when she shares her experience with a rape victim in an attempt to comfort the patient and gets chastised by Wexler for getting too personal. The idea that someone would be able to bounce back from something so traumatic in a week's time and then proceed to carry on like nothing happened is baffling. I know there was ton of personal trauma spread around that ER but I feel like Sam's experience was one of the most egregious cases of lack of follow through. What was the point of putting her through that? More attention was paid to how it affected her annoying kid. 

Dramas are notorious for that kind of stuff. I mean when Abby was kidnapped by the gang member. I mean we were told a month had passed and she was just coming back to work. Yet, no follow up or how everyone was: "Shit, we were really stupid and selfish people to think that Abby was just throwing a hissy fit." Never mind the fact that if some doctor or nurse ever did that, their ass be fired or put on suspension. 

[doodlebug]

13 minutes ago, readster said:

Dramas are notorious for that kind of stuff. I mean when Abby was kidnapped by the gang member. I mean we were told a month had passed and she was just coming back to work. Yet, no follow up or how everyone was: "Shit, we were really stupid and selfish people to think that Abby was just throwing a hissy fit." Never mind the fact that if some doctor or nurse ever did that, their ass be fired or put on suspension. 

At least we heard she'd gotten a month's LOA to process the experience.  For that matter, we saw Carter return to work way too soon and nobody seemed to question it.  He was barely able to walk with crutches, was in obvious pain and was returning to the workplace where he was savagely attacked and nearly killed.  Not to mention witnessing the suffering of his colleague, Lucy, who didn't survive.

In real life. every single person present in the ER that night would've been required to see a counselor to be cleared to return to work.   In Carter's case, an experienced counselor would've seen the signs of PTSD which everyone else seemed to ignore and never would've approved his return.  It would not have been optional, he would not have a choice.  In addition, there is no way his doctors should've cleared him to return to work full time in the ER at that point anyway.  At best, he would've been allowed to do work from home part time or maybe do urgent care for a couple hours a day.

[readster]

12 minutes ago, doodlebug said:

 

In real life. every single person present in the ER that night would've been required to see a counselor to be cleared to return to work.   In Carter's case, an experienced counselor would've seen the signs of PTSD which everyone else seemed to ignore and never would've approved his return.  It would not have been optional, he would not have a choice.  In addition, there is no way his doctors should've cleared him to return to work full time in the ER at that point anyway.  At best, he would've been allowed to do work from home part time or maybe do urgent care for a couple hours a day.

Sadly, medical dramas and even police dramas just like to skirt over that and just get going back to business like usual. They handled Carter's cousin ODing much more realistically than any of the cast being tramuatized with things. It actually started with Mark being beaten into an inch of his life. I still want to know why NO ONE used the bathrooms for a long period of time in a busy city hospital, or how Jerry didn't even notice anyone else was in the bathroom with him. Plus the fact they had patients and people just walking into break rooms and so forth without even questioning why they were there. I know locks became more common with hospitals after 9/11 but really, it was just plain glaring. 

[SadieT]

7 hours ago, readster said:

Dramas are notorious for that kind of stuff. I mean when Abby was kidnapped by the gang member. I mean we were told a month had passed and she was just coming back to work. Yet, no follow up or how everyone was: "Shit, we were really stupid and selfish people to think that Abby was just throwing a hissy fit." Never mind the fact that if some doctor or nurse ever did that, their ass be fired or put on suspension. 

Yeah, for sure tv shows tend to drop the ball after the initial big dramatic event, but I actually feel like there was at least minimal follow up with Abby's kidnapping (ridiculous that more than 1 character on this show has been kidnapped). She's shown to have taken some time off, have had trouble sleeping, be jumpy and irritable, a handful of characters comment on what she went through and her being gone, she's shown reacting to a man shouting in the hospital and struggling a bit to get back to work. It's only for one episode so it's not like we saw her continued process of dealing with her trauma, but Sam got even less than one episode of follow up. It wasn't even made clear that she took any time off because the week time skip shows her standing around the admit desk acting completely normal, no one welcomes her back or asks her how she's doing (other than Luka who we know wasn't working) so it almost seems like she might have been at work earlier in the week. We don't see her struggling to get back to "normal", she just is all of a sudden. I know the show was infamous for it's catastrophic storylines with little follow through after the fact, but I feel like Sam's situation was particularly glaring. Maybe because I've always had an issue with shows having female characters get raped for drama or as a ratings stunt and then forgetting about it. 

Plus I feel like the show missed multiple opportunities to explore the realities of PTSD. There's at least half a dozen characters who experienced horrifyingly traumatic things, either in the ER itself or a way from it, and somehow we never got an in depth look at how post-traumatic stress effects people, which would have been fitting for a medical drama. 

Edited July 29, 2020 by SadieT

[RedbirdNelly]

I remember thinking that the jump from the episode where Sam shoots her ex to the next one was weird. Almost like something go dropped that they'd originally meant to include. I'm not saying that is the case but it felt disjointed.

 

On the PTSD issue, I will say that this is hard for shows to do well. My husband and I like to joke about it esp in movies: "My life partner just got brutally murdered!!!" 5 minutes later--no more grief.

That being said, watching people deal with trauma is not fun tv and I think that is part of the reason it gets skipped over. Realistic yes, but fun TV no. I remember when Lori died on The Walking Dead. It took Rick a while to move one and fans got really tired of depressed/out of it Rick. Just an example. So, I give shows a bit of a pass (while acknowledging Sam's skip over was esp over done). 

[Claire85]

Aside from the mental issues, no way should Carter have been able to come back to work on crutches. I think within his first few minutes we saw him put on gloves, touch a patient, then have to grab his crutches (I think Lydia bumped into him?). Not sanitary. 

[Tallulah7606]

Anybody else find themselves liking the characters clearly brought in as antagonists and disliking the ones we’re supposed to be rooting for? 
I loved Romano, Crenshaw, Moretti, Dubenko, Morris and Weaver, but the likes of Pratt, Abby and Luka irritated me. Pratt’s arrogance always infuriated me, I wanted to like him because I like Mekhi Phifer but I just couldn’t. 

[Claire85]

I had a soft spot for Romano. He was gruff and often rude but had a good heart underneath, such as signing to Reese “take care of your father” or how he took care of Lucy before she died. I was sorry when they made him so homophobic in later seasons. 

[Bastet]

27 minutes ago, Tallulah7606 said:

Anybody else find themselves liking the characters clearly brought in as antagonists and disliking the ones we’re supposed to be rooting for? 
I loved Romano, Crenshaw, Moretti, Dubenko, Morris and Weaver, but the likes of Pratt, Abby and Luka irritated me. Pratt’s arrogance always infuriated me, I wanted to like him because I like Mekhi Phifer but I just couldn’t. 

I liked Kerry (not everything she did, certainly, but in general) and while I wound up coming around on Pratt, he aggravated me for quite a long time.

And I was Team Jen in the Green vs. Green divorce.  They propped Mark up by having her cheat, and she of course should not have done that, but up until then he bore a majority of the responsibility for their marital problems.

I also did not give a shit about Doug and Carol as a couple; I generally liked them both as characters, but thought they both sucked as romantic partners, so my only interest in them getting/staying together was to think, "Good, they've spared anyone else having to be romantically involved with either one of them".

[ShortyMac]

4 hours ago, Tallulah7606 said:

Anybody else find themselves liking the characters clearly brought in as antagonists and disliking the ones we’re supposed to be rooting for? 
I loved Romano, Crenshaw, Moretti, Dubenko, Morris and Weaver, but the likes of Pratt, Abby and Luka irritated me. Pratt’s arrogance always infuriated me, I wanted to like him because I like Mekhi Phifer but I just couldn’t. 

I loved all of those characters, with Moretti probably being my least favorite. I love Stanley Tucci, though.

I'm glad they toned down Dubenko's eccentricities in the last couple of seasons, letting him shine as a great surgeon and teacher. I wish he would have been a main character.

I love Maura Tierney, so, Abby is one of my favorites. Yes, she had tons of personal drama and angst, but, she was funny, and had great bedside manner with the patients.

[Tallulah7606]

23 hours ago, ShortyMac said:

I love Maura Tierney, so, Abby is one of my favorites. Yes, she had tons of personal drama and angst, but, she was funny, and had great bedside manner with the patients.

I agree about Maura Tierney, as an actress I love her-but I hated the way Abby was written. She had random bad attitudes for seemingly no reason, she put her own problems before everyone else’s (even her child!) and I just didn’t like her and Luka together, they had absolutely no chemistry whatsoever. None of this is Mauras fault, it’s just how they wrote the Character. It was the same with Pratt, they wrote him as an arrogant man from the ‘ghetto’ with a permanent chip on his shoulder. He had absolutely zero personality beyond that 

[Hiyo]

Quote

I love Maura Tierney, so, Abby is one of my favorites. Yes, she had tons of personal drama and angst, but, she was funny, and had great bedside manner with the patients.

Me too. I definitely preferred here with Luka over Carter.

[MichaelaRae]

My unpopular opinions since I've lately been rewatching:

I had no issue with Romano getting first maimed, then murdered, by helicopter, neither when it happened nor on rewatch. I remember thinking, "Yup, that's about right," when the heli landed on him.

While I agree with the it-became-all-about-Abby's-family-drama-and-sad-mopey-Eeyore-times making it hard to like Abby for a while, I haven't noticed the same backlash on Sam. It took me a long time to warm up to her, between her I'm-so-fierce-and-independent snarky pixie dream girl upon entry to being dragged into her various personal dramas. ER never seemed to realize that we wanted the doctors in the damn ER. Leave them THERE.

I shouldn't like Doug and Carol together on rewatch, but dammit, my naive and dysfunctional early 20s heart still ships them. I hate myself for it.

 

[Tallulah7606]

On 9/2/2020 at 11:44 PM, MichaelaRae said:

I shouldn't like Doug and Carol together on rewatch, but dammit, my naive and dysfunctional early 20s heart still ships them. I hate myself for it.

Aahhh, I loved Carol and Doug together, I remember watching the Seattle episode first time round and I cried happy tears! I was also in my early 20s, and at that age we still believe love is this wonderful fairy tale that overcomes all adversity 😂 which is precisely what they gave us with those two, In reality, if the father of my unborn children had Moved thousands of miles away to Seattle, the ONLY reason I’d go up to visit him would be to throw him into the sound 

Edited September 12, 2020 by Tallulah7606

[CrazyInAlabama]

Sam was OK, too much personal junk, but OK.   However, I couldn't stand the son.   He sets an apartment house on fire, and nothing happens to him?    

I didn't like the Abby brother drama.   I guess they were fitting the actor's appearances around other work he had, or something similar, but his story was so disjointed.    I also didn't like the way Abby acted with Carter.   

I couldn't stand the entire Kem story line either.    It was obvious she didn't want Carter, and had at least one boyfriend in Paris, and who knows how many others.   The entire story line of her mother being hospitalized, and sick for endless amounts of time was bizarre.   The one time John Carter went to Paris, the mother told him he was being fooled, and he refused to believe it.     The ending where he kept working in the ER over going to join her made me happy.   

I couldn't stand Mark Green's daughter (the older one).   She leaves drug out that could have killed her half sister, and nothing happens to her, and Mark Green wants Elizabeth to let her into the nursery to see the kid her carelessness almost killed?    I can't believe she got into medical school either.     It was the worst part of the reunion and final episode.     I find it hard to believe that Rachel, Mark's daughter got the grades, and other work to get into medical school, or even graduate college.    I loathed her mother Jen (?)  the lawyer that left Mark for the other attorney.     

Edited September 15, 2020 by CrazyInAlabama

[Danny Franks]

On 8/6/2020 at 8:13 PM, Tallulah7606 said:

Anybody else find themselves liking the characters clearly brought in as antagonists and disliking the ones we’re supposed to be rooting for? 
I loved Romano, Crenshaw, Moretti, Dubenko, Morris and Weaver, but the likes of Pratt, Abby and Luka irritated me. Pratt’s arrogance always infuriated me, I wanted to like him because I like Mekhi Phifer but I just couldn’t. 

We were supposed to like Pratt? He should have been fired on his first day for ignoring a superior doctor's instructions and endangering patients, and he showed absolutely no remorse or contrition. I guess that kind of brash, careless arrogance is appealing to some, but I hated his character. I stopped watching the show when Carter left (and only sporadically watched episodes from the final season he was in) - it wasn't the same show any more - and don't recall Pratt ever getting any better.

[RedbirdNelly]

Pratt does mature and get better. Enough that I cried when he died.