All Episodes Talk: What's Up Doc?

[WendyCR72]

10 minutes ago, txhorns79 said:

Question for the real doctors who read the forum: Do hospitals really stage fake drills in the middle of the night as a way to test the staff?  I can understand doing the drills during normal hours, but it seems counterproductive to stage fake ones, in that it would make the staff think a real emergency wasn’t one.  

Also, Dr. Swift just vanishes right?  I don’t remember him coming back in the second season.    

Yeah, he vanished. But he was among the (uncredited, unnamed) guests at Mark's funeral.

ETA: I forgot about S4, as mentioned below. My bad!

[doodlebug]

9 minutes ago, txhorns79 said:

Question for the real doctors who read the forum: Do hospitals really stage fake drills in the middle of the night as a way to test the staff?  I can understand doing the drills during normal hours, but it seems counterproductive to stage fake ones, in that it would make the staff think a real emergency wasn’t one.  

Also, Dr. Swift just vanishes right?  I don’t remember him coming back in the second season.    

He turns up in Season 4(?) I think, the season where Kerry has the romance with the guy who worked for the corporation that took over hospitals and made them profitable (Synergix?).  Wild Willy turns up in an episode, working for the corporation and tells Mark how much he likes the job.  He also returned for Mark's funeral

As far as fake drills in the middle of the night, no, not for .docs.  There are readiness drills such as fire drills and mock codes and such that take place for the staff in hospitals and, because of the nature of the place, these do take place in the middle of the night on occasion so staff on off-shifts can participate.  I've never worked in any hospital anywhere where residents could be called in the middle of the night and told to come in.  As a matter of fact, there are laws governing the number of hours a resident can work in the week and how many hours they can work total in a given period; so what happened on ER wouldn't happen in real life.  No resident is required to be on call 24/7/365.

[starri]

1 hour ago, txhorns79 said:

Question for the real doctors who read the forum: Do hospitals really stage fake drills in the middle of the night as a way to test the staff?

While I can't think of a time when it's happened to me, it doesn't seem completely out of the realm of possibility.  That said, a lot of things that you drill on already happen in the night without needed to fake it.  You can get just as many Code Blue's at 1AM as 1PM, if not more.  The one thing that is (for now) infrequent are mass casualty drills.  That's maybe the only one I could see being mounted at an off-time, and even then you have logistical problems of getting the fake patients in place.

So, maybe?

1 hour ago, doodlebug said:

As a matter of fact, there are laws governing the number of hours a resident can work in the week and how many hours they can work total in a given period; so what happened on ER wouldn't happen in real life

I'm not sure this is technically legal, but my hospital has been known to suspend duty hour rules when it snows.  I've had a few times when I've been at the hospital past technical hours, and not just when I was on a 24.

[txhorns79]

Quote

While I can't think of a time when it's happened to me, it doesn't seem completely out of the realm of possibility.  That said, a lot of things that you drill on already happen in the night without needed to fake it.  You can get just as many Code Blue's at 1AM as 1PM, if not more.  The one thing that is (for now) infrequent are mass casualty drills.  That's maybe the only one I could see being mounted at an off-time, and even then you have logistical problems of getting the fake patients in place.

So, maybe?

In this particular instance, Dr. Swift had a fake call come in through the emergency system to alert the staff to a mass casualty in the middle of the night.  It was supposed to be so bad that even doctors who were off were paged to come in.  When the doctors got there, Swift announced he was just testing everyone and proceeded to give an hour a a half lecture about emergency management.  I just had trouble believing something like that could happen.   

[doodlebug]

5 minutes ago, starri said:

While I can't think of a time when it's happened to me, it doesn't seem completely out of the realm of possibility.  That said, a lot of things that you drill on already happen in the night without needed to fake it.  You can get just as many Code Blue's at 1AM as 1PM, if not more.  The one thing that is (for now) infrequent are mass casualty drills.  That's maybe the only one I could see being mounted at an off-time, and even then you have logistical problems of getting the fake patients in place.

So, maybe?

I'm not sure this is technically legal, but my hospital has been known to suspend duty hour rules when it snows.  I've had a few times when I've been at the hospital past technical hours, and not just when I was on a 24.

I think virtually every residency ‘cheats’ when it comes to residents’ work hours.  I think it would be tougher to hide that residents were called in off hours for a drill which they could do anytime while a weather emergency makes it easier to claim the residents stayed voluntarily because roads were impassable or the power was out.

[ManekiNeko]

I'm so happy to have found this thread!  I've been slogging through ER on Hulu since about Feb. I'm almost done with season 14.  Like a lot of you, I watched it until Season 6, then it went downhill, life got busy, etc.  I've been reading a lot of the postings, laughing with you all, and nodding my head in agreement, Nice to know there are a lot of people who notice the weird things and get all wadded up about it, too!  It will be bittersweet to finish the show. I wish I had found this site sooner.  *makes a tortured Abby duck lip face*

[WendyCR72]

Welcome, @ManekiNeko! It's a great board with lots of great people. Enjoy! 

[Growsonwalls]

The horrible shooting at Mercy Hospital in Chicago unfortunately reminded me of ER. A county hospital where an ER resident was shot and killed yesterday. What a tragedy.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/20/us/chicago-hospital-shooting-victims/index.html

[Dr.OO7]

I can't imagine the agony of having to treat a co-worker. And the horrifying realization that he/she isn't going to make it.

[MVFrostsMyPie]

Rewatching season 6 for about the millionth time. Jesus, they really soured Carla's character, didn't they? She was such a spiteful bitch about the whole moving to Germany/he's not even your son thing. Wonder if the writers decided to go that route because the actress who played her was... difficult. 

[doodlebug]

14 minutes ago, MVFrostsMyPie said:

Rewatching season 6 for about the millionth time. Jesus, they really soured Carla's character, didn't they? She was such a spiteful bitch about the whole moving to Germany/he's not even your son thing. Wonder if the writers decided to go that route because the actress who played her was... difficult. 

I think that's exactly what happened.  They did decide to write Lisa Nicole Carson out because she was difficult to work with.  She was appearing on Ally McBeal around the same time and was written out there, too.  She later came forward and talked about her bipolar disorder and said that it was the cause of a lot of her problems on those shows.

[Madam Captain]

I read somewhere, back in the day that they had Carla die in that car accident so there was no way her character could come back and yes, I also read that Lisa Nicole Carson was difficult to work with so they killed Carla off.

[Growsonwalls]

On 11/24/2018 at 12:08 AM, MVFrostsMyPie said:

Rewatching season 6 for about the millionth time. Jesus, they really soured Carla's character, didn't they? She was such a spiteful bitch about the whole moving to Germany/he's not even your son thing. Wonder if the writers decided to go that route because the actress who played her was... difficult. 

Ugh that whole Peter/Carla/Reese custody storyline annoyed me. First of all it annoyed me that Peter and Roger could not be grown ups and realize that a special needs child like Reese can always have one more loving adult in his life. Second of all it annoyed me that they had Peter do something so out of character like perjure himself. We saw that Peter was ethical to a fault. No consistency in having him commit perjury.

[WendyCR72]

I get Lisa Nicole Carson had issues. But rather than make Carla into a liar and offing her (a retconned liar as far as Peter not being the bio father to Reese was concerned - long after she was indignant about being questioned about that very issue!), why not just recast?

I know, ER was not a daytime soap, but the sitcoms Bewitched and Roseanne did it. Not to mention, I think Vondie Curtis Hall (in the Roger role) was himself a recast for a previous actor...

[Bastet]

Even if they didn't know Carson was ill or did but couldn't provide a reasonable accommodation in order to keep her on, and didn't want to recast the role (something that had fallen out of favor, and for good reason) there's no excuse for turning Carla into every sexist, racist stereotype on TV before getting rid of her -- if they "needed" to permanently dispatch with the character, rather than just no longer show her, they could have killed her off without first doing the "I lied; he's not your kid" bullshit.  Peter being the biological father would make the Peter/Roger custody dispute a non-issue legally, but would still raise the ethical issue of ripping this child away from his primary home based on biology and let Peter honor the court's "best interests of the child" standard on his own by realizing Reese is best served by continuing his relationship with Roger.  They could have done everything they wound up doing, including writing Peter off via a job that gives him more time with his child, without assassinating Carla's character and perpetuating nasty stereotypes to boot.

[Dr.OO7]

9 hours ago, WendyCR72 said:

(a retconned liar as far as Peter not being the bio father to Reese was concerned - long after she was indignant about being questioned about that very issue!), why not just recast

Exactly. I already thought she was a bitch because of how she acted in Season 3, but the revelation that Benton wasn't Reese's biological father made her behavior look even worse.

[marceline]

Watching "April Showers." The car scenes with Benton and Greene are really well-done.

[MVFrostsMyPie]

That's one of those episodes I often feel the need to fast-forward through. 

Just recently finished watching season 7 again. I'm reminded again that as much as I adore Benton/Carter's relationship and think it was the best of all the friendships & relationships on the show, Benton didn't really actually have many scenes with Carter post-rehab, or at least enough to satisfy me, personally. Maybe if the world had revolved less around Abby and her miserable drama and the romantic triangle of suck, we could have had more Benton/Carter scenes. But at least their scenes in season 15 brought back all the warm fuzzies once again.

[Growsonwalls]

18 hours ago, MVFrostsMyPie said:

That's one of those episodes I often feel the need to fast-forward through. 

Just recently finished watching season 7 again. I'm reminded again that as much as I adore Benton/Carter's relationship and think it was the best of all the friendships & relationships on the show, Benton didn't really actually have many scenes with Carter post-rehab, or at least enough to satisfy me, personally. Maybe if the world had revolved less around Abby and her miserable drama and the romantic triangle of suck, we could have had more Benton/Carter scenes. But at least their scenes in season 15 brought back all the warm fuzzies once again.

It was also out of character of them to not have scenes together because we saw that even when Carter dropped the surgical residency and Benton was pissed at him amd their bond suffered the two of them cared about each other and there'd be occasional scenes between them that showed that. But 7th season almost seemed to forget that Benton had flown with Carter to rehab and even stayed with him to get him set up. That's some deep shit right there (I mean, think about it -- how many people are willing to take a colleague across the country to drug rehab?) and it's out of character for Benton (always a bit of a worrier) to not check up much on Carter in S7. 

The show was better in the earlier seasons in doing check ins with characters who might not necessarily be spending all this time together but always cared about each other (i.e. Doug/Mark, Kerry/Jeannie).

[MVFrostsMyPie]

Yeah, plus Benton was even going to personally go pick him up at the airport gate, had that whole high school brawl fiasco not happened and him having to send a med student instead. They spent so much time setting up the arc of Carter and Abby, they pretty much made it so that Carter only confided in Abby post-rehab, and not Benton. I can understand why he would confide a lot of things in her especially since she had been through the same experiences, but I would think that prior to his relapse, when he then *was* ashamed to admit he'd done so to Benton, he might have had some more conversations with Benton, or Benton would care to check in with him (like after he'd had a good save in the ER post-rehab and that girl came in and killed her sister in front of him and he was obviously traumatized). Or after Benton's nephew got killed, it would have been nice to have some Carter/Benton scenes. I would think Carter would have been very concerned about his mentor losing a family member.

Maybe Ice Queen Cleo played a part in Benton not being as close to Carter in season 7. 

All this reminds of one (of many) nitpicks I had about season 8 - Susan's nonchalance about Carter's addiction. I guess because they had to show us Abby was so much better for him because she "got it", but I really think Susan would have more concern and reaction about what he'd gone through instead of making jokes about it and asking to see his scar. Especially considering that hello, she had a sister who was an addict. Ugh. Also, the way Susan acted when Paul Sobricki made a return visit to the ER. She was so flippant about Abby's concerns about this former patient, which never mind just Carter, but *most* of the staff probably carried some trauma and terrible memories about. Not that Abby handled it well either - she should have just told Carter Sobricki was back, but then you know, we wouldn't have the drama of hearing his voice and the puking in the bathroom.

But don't even get me started on the character sabotage of Susan when she returned. :P 

Edited December 3, 2018 by MVFrostsMyPie
missing words make a big difference

[marceline]

13 hours ago, MVFrostsMyPie said:

But don't even get me started on the character sabotage of Susan when she returned. :P 

I'm just a few eps into Susan's return and, yikes, what a mess. She and Carter have the very opposite of chemistry. They manage to make everyone around them less interesting.

Every time I see Susan I wonder why they bothered to bring her back.

[doodlebug]

1 hour ago, marceline said:

I'm just a few eps into Susan's return and, yikes, what a mess. She and Carter have the very opposite of chemistry. They manage to make everyone around them less interesting.

Every time I see Susan I wonder why they bothered to bring her back.

The writing for Susan when she returned was just appalling.  The writing gave her anti-chemistry with just about everyone, when, in the early days, Susan got along really well with her co-workers and had chemistry with them for days.  It didn't help that she arrived back on the scene just as Abby was eating the show and TPTB apparently decided that, since Abby was a moper and a whiner and the audience wasn't going to naturally be drawn to her; they'd turn her into the biggest Mary Sue ever and have her in the center of every storyline and have everyone in the place declare Abby to be the smartest, prettiest, bestest ever at every opportunity.  In order to make Abby look good, they had to assassinate original recipe Susan and replace her with the less appealing later version.  Had the Susan who returned been even a shadow of her former self, Abby would've been left in the dust.

[Growsonwalls]

I think they brought Susan back because by Season 8 most of the original/early seasons cast was gone or leaving. George Clooney, Anthony Edwards, Eriq La Salle, Julianna Marguiles, Gloria Reuben had all departed and/or were departing. So Susan was a sort of link to the past. But they had no idea what to do with her once they brought her back. The earthy, funny Susan of the first couple of seasons was replaced with someone so blah you could hardly believe Sherry Stringfield didn't step in and say "wait a minute. This isn't cool."

[Heathen]

1 hour ago, doodlebug said:

The writing for Susan when she returned was just appalling.  The writing gave her anti-chemistry with just about everyone, when, in the early days, Susan got along really well with her co-workers and had chemistry with them for days.  It didn't help that she arrived back on the scene just as Abby was eating the show and TPTB apparently decided that, since Abby was a moper and a whiner and the audience wasn't going to naturally be drawn to her; they'd turn her into the biggest Mary Sue ever and have her in the center of every storyline and have everyone in the place declare Abby to be the smartest, prettiest, bestest ever at every opportunity.  In order to make Abby look good, they had to assassinate original recipe Susan and replace her with the less appealing later version.  Had the Susan who returned been even a shadow of her former self, Abby would've been left in the dust.

That started in Susan's very first episode back on the job at County. "Nurse. Nurse!" The old Susan was friends with the nurses and had too much respect for them to just call one by her title. 

 

1 minute ago, Growsonwalls said:

I think they brought Susan back because by Season 8 most of the original/early seasons cast was gone or leaving. George Clooney, Anthony Edwards, Eriq La Salle, Julianna Marguiles, Gloria Reuben had all departed and/or were departing. So Susan was a sort of link to the past. But they had no idea what to do with her once they brought her back. The earthy, funny Susan of the first couple of seasons was replaced with someone so blah you could hardly believe Sherry Stringfield didn't step in and say "wait a minute. This isn't cool."

I always thought Sherry Stringfield was just grateful to have a job again. Didn't she have to sign a non-competition agreement when she left ER the first time? 

[WendyCR72]

2 hours ago, Heathen said:

The writing for Susan when she returned was just appalling.  The writing gave her anti-chemistry with just about everyone, when, in the early days, Susan got along really well with her co-workers and had chemistry with them for days.  It didn't help that she arrived back on the scene just as Abby was eating the show and TPTB apparently decided that, since Abby was a moper and a whiner and the audience wasn't going to naturally be drawn to her; they'd turn her into the biggest Mary Sue ever and have her in the center of every storyline and have everyone in the place declare Abby to be the smartest, prettiest, bestest ever at every opportunity.  In order to make Abby look good, they had to assassinate original recipe Susan and replace her with the less appealing later version.  Had the Susan who returned been even a shadow of her former self, Abby would've been left in the dust.

I've said this very thing over and over again, so I'll just say...THANK YOU. And I agree wholeheartedly.

[doodlebug]

15 hours ago, Heathen said:

That started in Susan's very first episode back on the job at County. "Nurse. Nurse!" The old Susan was friends with the nurses and had too much respect for them to just call one by her title. 

 

I always thought Sherry Stringfield was just grateful to have a job again. Didn't she have to sign a non-competition agreement when she left ER the first time? 

It's pretty common for an actor who leaves a show in the middle of a contract, like Sherry did, to be prevented from working in TV for the length of the original contract.  Sherry has said she left because she found the attention that the success of the show brought her to be overwhelming.  I believe she was also in a relationship with someone living on the East Coast and she wanted to move there.  The original stars of the show signed the usual 5 year contracts at the time the show was picked up, so, since she left in the middle of the third season, Sherry wouldn't have been able to do another TV series for two and a half years or so.  She could do theater or film, however, and I believe that is what she did.

[txhorns79]

Quote

In order to make Abby look good, they had to assassinate original recipe Susan and replace her with the less appealing later version.  Had the Susan who returned been even a shadow of her former self, Abby would've been left in the dust.

It was so interesting to me that Maura Tierney is actually older than Sherry Stringfield, but they dressed and styled Susan almost like she could potentially be Abby's mother.  

[Growsonwalls]

The thing that pissed me off about Susan v. 2.0 was that she was not even a particularly good doctor. I think in the early seasons we could all agree that however flawed Benton, Doug, Susan, Mark, Kerry, etc. were in their personal lives, they were excellent doctors. But when Susan came back there weren't even many 'wow, I'd love if Dr. Lewis was my doctor' moments. 

[WendyCR72]

5 hours ago, txhorns79 said:

It was so interesting to me that Maura Tierney is actually older than Sherry Stringfield, but they dressed and styled Susan almost like she could potentially be Abby's mother.  

Well, to be fair, the haircut Sherry Stringfield was sporting was bad. (Sorry, but it was.) But she looked so much nicer once it started growing out!

[CrazyInAlabama]

I agree about Susan 2.0 being totally different from the Susan Lewis I loved as a character.     I think the moment that made me realize I couldn't stand Susan 2.0 was when the Paul Sobriki (?) the man who killed Lucy, and ruined Carter's life came back to the hospital, and Susan didn't care about Carter running into him, and the feelings of the rest of the staff.    She not only didn't care about the effect on anyone, but dismissed their right to not want to be near the man.         She was nicer to Paul's delusional wife, and to Paul than she was to her colleagues.      I guess it never dawned on her that if anything went wrong with his treatment or physical condition, that he and his lawyer buddies would have sued the hospital, and everyone involved to their last penny.   

[WendyCR72]

4 minutes ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

I agree about Susan 2.0 being totally different from the Susan Lewis I loved as a character.     I think the moment that made me realize I couldn't stand Susan 2.0 was when the Paul Sobriki (?) the man who killed Lucy, and ruined Carter's life came back to the hospital, and Susan didn't care about Carter running into him, and the feelings of the rest of the staff.    She not only didn't care about the effect on anyone, but dismissed their right to not want to be near the man.         She was nicer to Paul's delusional wife, and to Paul than she was to her colleagues.      I guess it never dawned on her that if anything went wrong with his treatment or physical condition, that he and his lawyer buddies would have sued the hospital, and everyone involved to their last penny.   

Well, I think that was played up, so Abby could be Carter's Great Protector and Savior. Because no one could be better than Abby.

[Bastet]

37 minutes ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

I think the moment that made me realize I couldn't stand Susan 2.0 was when the Paul Sobriki (?) the man who killed Lucy, and ruined Carter's life came back to the hospital, and Susan didn't care about Carter running into him, and the feelings of the rest of the staff.    She not only didn't care about the effect on anyone, but dismissed their right to not want to be near the man.         She was nicer to Paul's delusional wife, and to Paul than she was to her colleagues. 

I think she was written very realistically in that episode, and I appreciated it.  Of course she cared that her coworkers had been through something horrible because of what he did in the grips of an undiagnosed/untreated mental illness, but it is not her job to worry about that right now, her duty is to treat the patient before her - who is now treated and no longer a danger - and it was nice to have someone who didn't have the emotional baggage the others (quite naturally) did there to keep her head and give him the help he deserved.

[Dr.OO7]

2 hours ago, Bastet said:

I think she was written very realistically in that episode, and I appreciated it.  Of course she cared that her coworkers had been through something horrible because of what he did in the grips of an undiagnosed/untreated mental illness, but it is not her job to worry about that right now, her duty is to treat the patient before her - who is now treated and no longer a danger - and it was nice to have someone who didn't have the emotional baggage the others (quite naturally) did there to keep her head and give him the help he deserved.

Exactly.

I can understand Abby being upset, but her constantly butting in and acting like she had more authority than Susan ticked me off.

[MVFrostsMyPie]

Does anyone else think that whenever AE/Mark says "I love you", he says it with such a strange affect? Like he's trying to emphasize it and say it deliberately, but it just sounds he's lost a few brain cells. I mean even prior to his brain tumor. 

[CrazyInAlabama]

That was what amazed me about the Abby character.   First she was the struggling medical student, and helped everyone.   Then she totally changed into someone who when Carter's beloved grandmother died she couldn't have cared less because she had to go rescue her brother again.   Then there is the hideous scene where her drunken brother falls in grandma's grave, and Carter starts pulling away, and finally goes to Africa and meets Kem.    Carter writes the letter, and then when Abby finds out about Kem and the baby, she acts like Carter was cheating on her.

Edited December 13, 2018 by CrazyInAlabama

[marceline]

Abby and Carter have to be one of the dreariest couples in all of TV history.

[doodlebug]

1 hour ago, marceline said:

Abby and Carter have to be one of the dreariest couples in all of TV history.

Abby and anybody are the dreariest couple in TV history because she is the dreariest character ever.  I disliked her intensely back then and she hasn't improved with age.  I fast forward through most of her scenes when I happen to catch a rerun and find the show so much more enjoyable that way.

[Dr.OO7]

2 hours ago, marceline said:

Abby and Carter have to be one of the dreariest couples in all of TV history.

Not to disagree, but I think Luka and Abby (the first go-round) edge them out at the finish line. 

[MVFrostsMyPie]

And the second go-around. Although I’m glad they ended up together because I didn’t like her nor Kovac, so at least they could be miserable together. 

[doodlebug]

2 hours ago, Camille said:

Not to disagree, but I think Luka and Abby (the first go-round) edge them out at the finish line. 

Well, any first date that ends with someone getting beaten to death is going to set the tone for a rather miserable relationship, so I understand what you're saying.

[marceline]

20 hours ago, doodlebug said:

Well, any first date that ends with someone getting beaten to death is going to set the tone for a rather miserable relationship, so I understand what you're saying.

Ain't that the truth.

Season 9 is so unpleasant on a lot of levels but the story I really hate is the Don Cheadle character. Watching him shake through a surgery with Corday just shows how wrongheaded the whole storyline was. This man was physically incapable of doing the job and they endangered patients by indulging him.

[doodlebug]

4 hours ago, marceline said:

Ain't that the truth.

Season 9 is so unpleasant on a lot of levels but the story I really hate is the Don Cheadle character. Watching him shake through a surgery with Corday just shows how wrongheaded the whole storyline was. This man was physically incapable of doing the job and they endangered patients by indulging him.

I thought it was particularly awful that it appeared that the writers wanted us to agree with Cheadle's character; that he should be allowed to participate in every aspect of patient care, even if his participation could potentially harm the patient.  No, just no.  The first line of the Hippocratic oath is 'First, do no harm'.  

[starri]

25 minutes ago, doodlebug said:

I thought it was particularly awful that it appeared that the writers wanted us to agree with Cheadle's character

And that we should have apparently been cheering him inserting himself into situations that he had no business being involved in.  I still can't get over him convincing the man with terminal pancreatic cancer to get a Whipple...when no one had suggested he get one.

[marceline]

I'm now at "Freefall" and all I can think about is how much of a dick Kovac is in this ep. Dumping a patient on another department is bad enough but chaining him to a pipe with hard restraints all while arguing with the nurse was just heinous regardless of the whole helicopter madness. 

It made me realize how the show loved sending doctors to Africa, then when the doctors returned they acted like entitled assholes in their desire to "fix" the healthcare system. 

Also, between the copter crash and the human torch in "Out of Africa," I assume the show got a bump in the effects budget in S10.

[CrazyInAlabama]

I agree with the Don Cheadle opinions.    I'm hoping that someone who had his physical issues wouldn't demand to still do everything, when it endangered patients.     

I never liked the Kovac character.   The show couldn't figure out if he was a playboy, doctor, nice guy, or rotten guy, so they just changed him at will.   

[txhorns79]

Quote

The show couldn't figure out if he was a playboy, doctor, nice guy, or rotten guy, so they just changed him at will. 

Yeah, particularly as more of the original characters left, it seemed like they wanted to have him be a replacement not just for Ross, but also for Greene and Carter. 

[MVFrostsMyPie]

Kovac had the personality of a door... sometimes you had an urge to slam it but overall he was just a boring hard wooden barrier amongst other storylines. And yeah, it was clear the writers just didn’t know how to use him effectively and consistently. Heck, even Malucci seemed more interesting most of the time. 

[Heathen]

12 hours ago, MVFrostsMyPie said:

Kovac had the personality of a door... sometimes you had an urge to slam it but overall he was just a boring hard wooden barrier amongst other storylines. And yeah, it was clear the writers just didn’t know how to use him effectively and consistently. Heck, even Malucci seemed more interesting most of the time. 

It didn't help that Goran Visnjic isn't a great actor. Even Clooney as Ross was more believable. 

Malucci could have been a great character, had the writers been interested in exploring his backstory and giving him decent plot lines. He was great in the episode with the molested little girl. 

[debraran]

Kovac had his moments but he wasn't written well. That whole debacle with going on the run with Sam and looking for her son and (then having her dump him) was crazy. Who can do that and still have a job? Then his relationship with Abby seemed like she was the only one left, but it fell flat for me too.  The Law and Order type episode with the angry patient torturing him? ER was changing then and not for the better. I liked Kovac and the priest when he told him what happened to his family. That was one of his better moments.

I thought Moretti had more chemistry with Abby and would have been a stronger character but they wrote him off.  I didn't like the plot of her drunk and cheating but if they introduced them differently.

[Growsonwalls]

On 12/28/2018 at 8:14 AM, MVFrostsMyPie said:

Kovac had the personality of a door... sometimes you had an urge to slam it but overall he was just a boring hard wooden barrier amongst other storylines. And yeah, it was clear the writers just didn’t know how to use him effectively and consistently. Heck, even Malucci seemed more interesting most of the time. 

I know someone whose friend was an ER producer around the S6-8 seasons and the scuttlebutt was that they were disappointed in Visnjic as an actor. That they were committed to the character (I guess because they had to be at that point? the cast was thinning out a lot) but that he wasn't delivering as an actor. I can kind of see it. They gave him a variety of storylines but he never showed much humor or personality other than a generalized emo angst.