All Episodes Talk: What's Up Doc?

[txhorns79]

9 minutes ago, Bastet said:

OMG, I love all that stuff with the evaluation, especially the scene in Hicks's office (and yes - love her [I generally love CCH Pounder in anything I see her in]).

Carter's face when he hears Benton's evaluation of him is priceless. 

[Bastet]

Just now, txhorns79 said:

Carter's face when he hears Benton's evaluation of him is priceless. 

Yes!  I also love his face after he accepts the internship and realizes, oh shit, the evaluation.  And his mad dash to retrieve it and freak-out at the inbox when he finds it's already been picked up.  But his face as she reads what Benton wrote about him is everything!

Ooh, I found a compilation of all the evaluation scenes from that episode:

 

[Claire85]

I love Haleh egging him on. “Do they have negative numbers?” And Carter’s big “mwah!”

[Cloud9Shopper]

34 minutes ago, Bastet said:

Yeah, that wedding was never going to happen, which is a very good thing, but it was a jerk move to wait so long to call it off.  So I love this, when Carol joins the reception that everyone just went on with:

"I'm sure all this will hit me tomorrow."
"Wait until you get the bar bill."
"No, that's going to Tag."

OMG, I love all that stuff with the evaluation, especially the scene in Hicks's office (and yes - love her [I generally love CCH Pounder in anything I see her in]).

Oh I loved that line about the bar bill too! Don’t know how I forgot about that when writing the post. 

I love CCH Pounder too! I’m always happy when she comes on when I’m watching SVU in syndication (along with many other ER stars who have guested there; I’ve seen John Cullum and Scott Grimes in recent syndicated eps too). 

[Heathen]

On 4/29/2022 at 5:19 PM, Bastet said:

Yeah, that wedding was never going to happen, which is a very good thing, but it was a jerk move to wait so long to call it off.  So I love this, when Carol joins the reception that everyone just went on with:

"I'm sure all this will hit me tomorrow."
"Wait until you get the bar bill."
"No, that's going to Tag."

OMG, I love all that stuff with the evaluation, especially the scene in Hicks's office (and yes - love her [I generally love CCH Pounder in anything I see her in]).

"And, Carter, l don't want it back at a forty.  Be honest, fair."
"Right. Thirty-eight okay?"
"Yes, something like that."

"What happened to all the stuff in Dr. Hicks's box?! The course evaluation that I turned in this morning is GONE!!!!!" 

Never fails to make me laugh. Carter's tone (hehe) doesn't even come across in print as well as in audio, and I still giggled. 

[Lady Whistleup]

My all-time favorite Doug and Carol interaction has to be Carol saying Tag was "decent" and Doug says "and boring." And Carol immediately starts giggling and says "He was so boring." I thought that moment really explained why the two of them were meant for each other. Carol is dour and serious, and she needed someone with Doug's humor.

I also have seen a lot of George Clooney interviews and it's cool how much of George they wrote into Doug. Doug's humor and love of pranks is very much like Clooney's humor and love of pranks.

[Heathen]

13 minutes ago, Lady Whistleup said:

My all-time favorite Doug and Carol interaction has to be Carol saying Tag was "decent" and Doug says "and boring." And Carol immediately starts giggling and says "He was so boring." I thought that moment really explained why the two of them were meant for each other. Carol is dour and serious, and she needed someone with Doug's humor.

I also have seen a lot of George Clooney interviews and it's cool how much of George they wrote into Doug. Doug's humor and love of pranks is very much like Clooney's humor and love of pranks.

Carol said, "God, he was dull." I have no idea why that line sticks in my head. 

[Cloud9Shopper]

Watched All in the Family tonight as my first episode (didn’t watch it last week when the podcast covered it because my head wasn’t in a great place), and it still grips me every single time. It’s definitely not an episode you can watch as background noise or filler.   

I did notice on this watch that Hulu seems to tone down the noise Romano’s tray throwing makes when Lucy dies. I seem to remember it coming through a lot louder when I watched on cable or DVDs. Maybe I’m wrong. 

It’s also hard for me to believe that Liza Weil played Samantha Sobriki not long before she started Gilmore Girls as Paris (which I’m on S4 of on Netflix). It’s only watching Paris and seeing her in this part that I appreciate how great she was as Paul’s wife.

I watched Sand and Water as my second episode, and while there were some poignant sad moments I do appreciate the dynamic between Mark and Elizabeth both when they fight to open the episode and when he proposed with the ring in the ice maker. They are both so comedic in that fight, especially Mark. 

I have to say upon watching I don’t understand why Abby was called to the ER to help with the preemie. She’s a nurse. I know they tried the Love’s Labor Lost-ish point that no other doctor was available, but they said the one doc had five minutes left on her break. They couldn’t get her? And there were doctors in with the baby in the trauma room. Maybe doctors have legally mandated breaks and have to take every second of them, I don’t know. It just seemed so pointless to ask a nurse to run to the rescue. Coburn was justified in reaming Abby for abandoning her patient and giving Mark those dirty looks.

I do like the moment between Kerry and Chen in that episode, and it’s interesting to watch it now knowing their relationship completely breaks down in S8. Kerry had a lot of compassion and understanding for Chen. Sand and Water is just an underrated episode IMO. 

[Rootbeer]

11 hours ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

I have to say upon watching I don’t understand why Abby was called to the ER to help with the preemie. She’s a nurse. I know they tried the Love’s Labor Lost-ish point that no other doctor was available, but they said the one doc had five minutes left on her break. They couldn’t get her? And there were doctors in with the baby in the trauma room. Maybe doctors have legally mandated breaks and have to take every second of them, I don’t know. It just seemed so pointless to ask a nurse to run to the rescue. Coburn was justified in reaming Abby for abandoning her patient and giving Mark those dirty looks.

I

In real life, the patient ready to give birth to the preemie would've been moved up to Labor and Delivery and had a nurse assigned to her from that staff.  Might've been Abby, might not.  The ER would not be able to force an L&D nurse to come down there to work; nurses are assigned to specific areas where they are to work; they don't get dragged to other areas in the middle of a shift for stuff like this.  Abby's insistence that the mother and baby remain in the noisy, busy ER rather than be moved to the labor floor or postpartum unit was idiotic, too. There are undoubtedly areas set aside for just that type of situation, where the parents could've had a peaceful, quiet, pleasant environment to spend time with their child and had staff attending them with specific training in the area of helping parents through the loss of an infant.  This was the start of Abby's downhill slide into being the expert at all times about everything and everyone while repeatedly demonstrating that she was completely wrong about most things.

The hospital where I work actually has a couple of small rooms for parents attached to the NICU with rocking chairs, comfortable seating, a private bathroom, even a small coffee maker and a mini-fridge with snacks where parents can spend significant amounts of time with their child in a circumstance like this or even just have some peace and privacy while their child is being cared for in NICU.

And, no, doctors do not have scheduled breaks and are expected to work as they are needed.  If the ER is busy and they need help, then nobody gets a break until things quiet down.  Cutting a break short because something happens that needs attention is a common occurrence.

Edited May 4, 2022 by Rootbeer

[LizDC]

 

[Cloud9Shopper]

I noticed a downshift in the series almost as soon as Mark was gone. Now that I did one whole watch, I feel like the vibe was different in S9 and I could already tell it wasn’t the same show. That said I found S9-11 bearable and S12 was when it all really fell off a cliff. I wish they had gone out with some dignity and had Carter’s exit be the series finale.

Mark was just the cornerstone of the show. I realize lots of shows have cast changes and things, but the hole was felt in a big way. No one could ever really replace him. Not even Carter. 

[ch1]

I always believed this show should have ended either when AE chose to leave or when NW left.  

I do think that Carter was never given a real chance to take the reigns from Mark.  The show became all about Abby and even NW played second to her.  Instead of Carter’s focus being on truly becoming the person who “set the tone” his main focus was on Abby.  When that shitshow was mercifully put out of its misery NW was half out the door.

 

[Heathen]

12 minutes ago, ch1 said:

I always believed this show should have ended either when AE chose to leave or when NW left.  

I do think that Carter was never given a real chance to take the reigns from Mark.  The show became all about Abby and even NW played second to her.  Instead of Carter’s focus being on truly becoming the person who “set the tone” his main focus was on Abby.  When that shitshow was mercifully put out of its misery NW was half out the door.

 

After Anthony Edwards left, it also became more and more about the characters' lives outside the ER (especially Abby's) rather than the medicine and patients. It started to be more like a soap opera than ER. 

Most of the out-of-the-hospital episodes were deeply boring. I think the exceptions are Anthony Edwards's final episodes, the one in California with AE and George Clooney, and "There Are No Angels Here."  (That might be because I have a crush on Eamonn Walker.) 

[Cloud9Shopper]

Unpopular opinion probably, but as far as out of the ER episodes go I did end up liking Middle of Nowhere (where Benton goes to Mississippi) when I rewatched it on Hulu. I liked Benton having to face a different culture and limited resources without too much preaching, and it was just one episode. Had it gone like the Africa plot, with multiple episodes out of the hospital and the focus on him in the south, I would have lost interest. But it worked for me here, especially since the episode starts and ends in Chicago.

I never could figure out how Abby has gained so much popularity. She seems adored in the Tumblr demographic and among most super fans even today. Is the hot mess trope really that cute and adorable? Or is it because that despite her shiftiness she had a hot guy (Luka) knock her up and marry her anyway because “he loved her as she was” and some people are secretly shallow? I honestly can’t believe so many people fawn over such a miserable self-destructive person. Besides, MT looks so rough these days that if ER were still on I’d think Abby was back on the booze. 

Edited May 9, 2022 by Cloud9Shopper

[Kel Varnsen]

1 hour ago, Heathen said:

After Anthony Edwards left, it also became more and more about the characters' lives outside the ER (especially Abby's) rather than the medicine and patients. It started to be more like a soap opera than ER. 

I never actually looked it up but I would bet that a lot of the shift in the type of story that ER told probably aligned with Grey's Anatomy becoming a big hit. Because ER absolutely became less about how hard it is working in an ER and the crazy stuff that happens and more about younger people (or at least younger looking people) working in the hospital and having sex with each other. 

37 minutes ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

Unpopular opinion probably, but as far as out of the ER episodes go I did end up liking Middle of Nowhere (where Benton goes to Mississippi) when I rewatched it on Hulu. I liked Benton having to face a different culture and limited resources without too much preaching, and it was just one episode. Had it gone like the Africa plot, with multiple episodes out of the hospital and the focus on him in the south, I would have lost interest. But it worked for me here, especially since the episode starts and ends in Chicago.

I like that one too, at least more than Doug and Mark in the desert looking for Doug's dad. And I liked how in those episodes people went to different places. Once ER discovered Africa it seemed that anytime anyone left the hospital for a story that is where they went.

[Hiyo]

Quote

I never could figure out how Abby has gained so much popularity. She seems adored in the Tumblr demographic and among most super fans even today.

Please don't speak for all of us, I'm not in the "Tumblr demographic" and I liked Abbey.

Quote

Is the hot mess trope really that cute and adorable? Or is it because that despite her shiftiness she had a hot guy (Luka) knock her up and marry her anyway because “he loved her as she was” and some people are secretly shallow?

Speaking for myself, I found her to be an interesting character who was well acted.

Quote

Besides, MT looks so rough these days that if ER were still on I’d think Abby was back on the booze. 

What do her looks today have to do with her role on a show that ended over a decade ago?

Personally I think she looks fine.

Quote

After Anthony Edwards left

The show was declining long before he left. Still watchable, but season 5 was maybe the last great season of this show for me.

The show wasn't just competing with Grey's Anatomy. It was competing with itself long before GA appeared, trying to top itself with bigger and bigger events (a trap GA also fell into). A stabbing in the ER. Then a pandemic, helicopters, tanks...hell people were getting blow up outside the ER too.

[Heathen]

1 hour ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

Unpopular opinion probably, but as far as out of the ER episodes go I did end up liking Middle of Nowhere (where Benton goes to Mississippi) when I rewatched it on Hulu. I liked Benton having to face a different culture and limited resources without too much preaching, and it was just one episode. Had it gone like the Africa plot, with multiple episodes out of the hospital and the focus on him in the south, I would have lost interest. But it worked for me here, especially since the episode starts and ends in Chicago.

I never could figure out how Abby has gained so much popularity. She seems adored in the Tumblr demographic and among most super fans even today. Is the hot mess trope really that cute and adorable? Or is it because that despite her shiftiness she had a hot guy (Luka) knock her up and marry her anyway because “he loved her as she was” and some people are secretly shallow? I honestly can’t believe so many people fawn over such a miserable self-destructive person. Besides, MT looks so rough these days that if ER were still on I’d think Abby was back on the booze. 

I dislike "Middle of Nowhere," although I like the idea of it. I think it's the overdone southern accents and stereotypes of southern people that bother me. We're not all racist redneck hicks with hardcore Tara accents. The only people I know who sound like that do it on purpose. 

It's always fun to watch Benton out of his comfort zone, though. Remember the Halloween episode where he does a handstand to amuse the pediatric patients? 

[Cloud9Shopper]

Not confirmed in the news but a few social media posts say that John Aylward (Anspaugh) passed away. Screenshot attached. With multiple people posting about it on Facebook if you search his name I assume it’s true. 

Anspaugh was just one of the many side characters that made the first leg of ER so good. The hospital ran pretty professionally in the days where you had Anspaugh, Hicks, Morgenstern and others in charge. 

I think for being a guest star he had a lot of good moments to stand out, whether operating on Carter with Benton in All in the Family or letting Carter know that everyone cared about him in Mayday. And of course his story with his son and Jeanie. 

Edited May 17, 2022 by Cloud9Shopper

[WendyCR72]

Damn, I liked John Aylward. And never forget, it was the confrontation in that parking garage between Anspaugh and Carter where Carter decided to pursue emergency medicine instead of being a surgeon.

Dr. Anspaugh was a wonderful side character. May Mr. Aylward rest in peace.

[Dr.OO7]

On 5/4/2022 at 10:11 AM, Rootbeer said:

Abby's insistence that the mother and baby remain in the noisy, busy ER rather than be moved to the labor floor or postpartum unit was idiotic, too. There are undoubtedly areas set aside for just that type of situation, where the parents could've had a peaceful, quiet, pleasant environment to spend time with their child and had staff attending them with specific training in the area of helping parents through the loss of an infant.  This was the start of Abby's downhill slide into being the expert at all times about everything and everyone while repeatedly demonstrating that she was completely wrong about most things.

I remember being taken aback at her defying Dave, who, for all his incompetence, had more authority than her, about emptying the trauma room, especially considering that there was a trauma coming in and the way she was ordering everyone else in the ER around as well.

I was just coming to post about Aylward's death:

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/ers-john-aylward-dead-75-182441028.html

For the most part, I liked Dr. Anspaugh.

[txhorns79]

On 5/17/2022 at 6:26 PM, WendyCR72 said:

 

Dr. Anspaugh was a wonderful side character. May Mr. Aylward rest in peace.

Yes, one of the best things about ER was how they used the recurring guest stars as institutional memory for the show. 

[Notabug]

31 minutes ago, txhorns79 said:

Yes, one of the best things about ER was how they used the recurring guest stars as institutional memory for the show. 

So many great Anspaugh scenes; he really helped anchor the show to the setting.

Just saw one of the episodes with Jeannie and Scottie and Anspaugh.  He did a great job portraying a man with a gruff exterior whose heart was breaking as he lost his son.

There's the epic scene near the end of Carter's surgical internship when Anspaugh calls Carter to rounds and Carter won't leave an ER patient who has non-surgical needs.  Carter's outburst at Anspaugh was a sign of things to come.

Probably the most memorable Anspaugh moment for me was the confrontation with Carter in the parking garage when Carter quit the residency.  Anspaugh was truly bewildered, he just did not understand what made Carter tick or how anyone wouldn't want to be a surgeon.  There are a lot of surgeons who can relate

His respect for Carter was clear, though, as he and Benton worked to save Carter.  I recall Anspaugh said that the main reason he had worked so hard to save the kidney was because he didn't want to have to tell Carter he'd removed it.

His role was diminished in later years in favor of Romano's cartoonish antics, but Anspaugh was such a major force in the early and best days of the show.

Edited May 19, 2022 by Notabug

[Cloud9Shopper]

I also remembered today an S3 storyline where Anspaugh had already ruled out a patient of Carter’s for surgery and Carter got a second opinion from Hicks. Then Anspaugh reviews the chart again and realizes it was him who screwed up and he tells Carter he’s doing the surgery because “(he’s) the only one who knows what the hell they’re doing around here today.” 

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, Notabug said:

Just saw one of the episodes with Jeannie and Scottie and Anspaugh. 

I'd completely forgotten about the storyline with Jeanie and his son.  Ugh, that makes his pretextual firing of her for being HIV positive even worse. 

I've seen the actor in many things, and every time he popped up on my screen, I thought "Anspaugh!" -- he did such a good job in this role, I permanently associated him with the character.

[Danny Franks]

On 4/16/2022 at 12:15 PM, Cloud9Shopper said:

That’s part why I liked Susan’s character so much. She had a lot of crazy shit going on, but she still managed to treat her colleagues with respect and be professional and work hard on duty. Like you can have a a difficult life but not take it out on everyone else, and Susan showed that. Unlike Abby who was rude and snide/snarky to her coworkers constantly, worked drunk while everyone ignored it (and was never held fully accountable or treated the way Carter was), and practically had tantrums whenever there was even a hint that she didn’t get her way. 

I've said before that when I rewatch the show now, there's something that's lost when Susan leaves. In the first couple of seasons she's such a strong character, and you root for her so much that I feel like she should have been the focal point of the show, rather than Mark.

Sherry Stringfield is so charismatic and fun in those seasons, and bounces off all the other characters really well - friendship/latent romantic feelings with Mark (glad that never went anywhere); a really nice mentoring dynamic with Carter (that had moments of tension that I liked); mischievous buds with Doug; fractious, butting heads with Kerry; low level irritation but respect for Benton.

I can't help but wonder how the show might have turned out if Mark was the one who left, following Jen to Milwaukee, and Susan stayed.

[Hiyo]

I can't help but wonder how the show might have turned out if Susan hadn't left and neither did Mark.

[WendyCR72]

So I just spent a night in the hospital (I had a kidney stone! My first and, I pray to God, my last!), and the doctor I had was named...Dr. Carter! (Not John, however.) Also a young guy. Nice, too.

[Cloud9Shopper]

I need to avoid the dreck that was the New Amsterdam finale so…before that mess I watched Such Sweet Sorrow.

When I first saw the Doug and Carol reunion way back when I was a teenager I really didn’t appreciate it since I wasn’t old enough to have watched during S1-S5. I actually quite liked Carol and Luka together at the time because I thought he was so sweet, and gorgeous of course. (Forgive me. I was 14 and have more context and life experience and such now for Luka’s motives.) These days, I can see why Carol pined for Doug, and I forget she does admit to Luka that she could’ve gone to Seattle initially and she doesn’t blame Doug for leaving before she knew she was pregnant. And I definitely smile and sing along to Taking You Home when Carol Ieaves the hospital and goes to the airport because it’s such a good moment in the series. (Though now that I am an adult I can’t believe she just ran outta there in the middle of her shift and quit without notice.) 

The rest of the episode was well done too. I felt so bad for Carter when he just breaks after he gives the patient a medicine she’s allergic to. Kerry’s whole tirade in the beginning is super quotable and I love the look Lydia gives Frank when he said “She uses a whistle?” 

Although now that I’ve seen the whole series, I snorted a little when Carol tells Luka “you’ll find the one; she’s out there.” I’m like oh he’ll find the one all right… 🤣

I had on Feb 5 ‘95 from S1 too, and I liked when they were doing the crash cart heist and Carol tells Lydia how she and Doug slept together on the first date and how good the making out was. And Lydia just goes “Wow I gotta start dating again.” I love her. 

 

[Bastet]

The only thing I like about the Carol and Doug reunion is that they're both such shitty romantic partners them finally getting together for good means the rest of Chicago is spared dating either one.  I never cared about their relationship at the time the way the show wanted me to, and I'm even less interested all these years later. 

3 hours ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

(Though now that I am an adult I can’t believe she just ran outta there in the middle of her shift and quit without notice.) 

The show had a really bad habit of presenting women as unprofessional in this particular way.  I can't remember if Susan gave proper notice when she decided to follow her sister and niece to Phoenix (I tend to think not, since Mark chased her down at the train station, but maybe it was known and he just waited until the last minute), but Chen quit all the damn time, including when she just walked out the last time (on Christmas Eve, I think -- I felt sorry for her wandering the ER trying to get someone to cover her shift as she needed to be with her dad, but this was her third quit, so I also rolled my eyes), and Jeanie just quit coming into work when that kid came along.

[Cloud9Shopper]

4 hours ago, Bastet said:

The show had a really bad habit of presenting women as unprofessional in this particular way.  I can't remember if Susan gave proper notice when she decided to follow her sister and niece to Phoenix (I tend to think not, since Mark chased her down at the train station, but maybe it was known and he just waited until the last minute), but Chen quit all the damn time, including when she just walked out the last time (on Christmas Eve, I think -- I felt sorry for her wandering the ER trying to get someone to cover her shift as she needed to be with her dad, but this was her third quit, so I also rolled my eyes), and Jeanie just quit coming into work when that kid came along.

Susan told Mark the episode before she left (I think) that she had been talking to Morgenstern about transferring her residency so it seemed like she at least resigned professionally. You’re right about Chen and Jeanie though. Chen quit without notice twice.

Later in the series, Elizabeth seemed to leave very abruptly, though, but I blame the writers for that. She deserved a better exit as such a long-running and popular character. Kerry was fired by Luka in budget cuts I think. Neela seemed to leave fairly normally, though I was surprised that she got a farewell episode devoted to her. Was she really that popular at the time or was it more because it was so close to the end of the series? I remember by the time she left I was like “just go!” Then lastly Abby spent her last day refusing to tell anyone she was leaving (after making Pratt and Anspaugh bend over backwards to give her an attending job when she only worked one day), mouthing off to Banfield and storming a meeting only to fake hug everyone at the end and pretend they were her BFFs. She probably torched a lot of bridges on the way out of there. 

Edited May 25, 2022 by Cloud9Shopper

[Hiyo]

Quote

She probably torched a lot of bridges on the way out of there. 

She seemed fine and looks like she left on good terms with most of the people there.

[Heathen]

On 5/25/2022 at 7:23 AM, Cloud9Shopper said:

Susan told Mark the episode before she left (I think) that she had been talking to Morgenstern about transferring her residency so it seemed like she at least resigned professionally. You’re right about Chen and Jeanie though. Chen quit without notice twice.

Later in the series, Elizabeth seemed to leave very abruptly, though, but I blame the writers for that. She deserved a better exit as such a long-running and popular character. Kerry was fired by Luka in budget cuts I think. Neela seemed to leave fairly normally, though I was surprised that she got a farewell episode devoted to her. Was she really that popular at the time or was it more because it was so close to the end of the series? I remember by the time she left I was like “just go!” Then lastly Abby spent her last day refusing to tell anyone she was leaving (after making Pratt and Anspaugh bend over backwards to give her an attending job when she only worked one day), mouthing off to Banfield and storming a meeting only to fake hug everyone at the end and pretend they were her BFFs. She probably torched a lot of bridges on the way out of there. 

It's a wonder how St. Abby managed to get an attending position anywhere. Her personal and professional histories were not outstanding, to say the least. You're right about her burning bridges -- I imagine her departure looking like the hospital was on fire. 

As far as Neela goes, by the time she left, she was the righteous doctor/sex symbol of the hospital so she got her own good riddance farewell episode. I don't think she was that popular except the writers kind of forced her on us. I never thought she fit in very well. 

Edited May 26, 2022 by Heathen
Grammar police on the job

[Notabug]

Ray Liotta, who played alcoholic Charlie Metcalf in the ER episode, Time of Death, has died.  He won an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for the episode which aired in 2005.

If I am not mistaken, that was the last acting Emmy won by someone appearing on  ER.

[Cloud9Shopper]

Thoughts on the season rankings in this article? I know it’s not the best written but I do think putting S14 at the worst is well deserved. I would have put S13 right after it. I told someone the other day it felt like one giant bad episode that I barely remember. 

S6 is my favorite season. I probably would have put that at the top since there were so many big TV moments in that one.

https://www.cbr.com/er-every-season-ranked/

[Hiyo]

I have no issue with season 4 being the top season. Then again I consider seasons 1 through 4 to be one long stream of great TV overall.

So I guess if I had to rank it, seasons 1 to 4 would all be tied for first place with me.

[Bastet]

I don't know the show well enough to identify a best season, but seeing that four is when Corday joined the show, along with Del Amico, yeah, I can get behind that choice.  That was also when Carol and the woman whose name I'm forgetting opened the clinic (with Gamma's money), and I really enjoyed that storyline until that bullshit with Doug at the end.

[Danny Franks]

37 minutes ago, Bastet said:

I don't know the show well enough to identify a best season, but seeing that four is when Corday joined the show, along with Del Amico, yeah, I can get behind that choice.  That was also when Carol and the woman whose name I'm forgetting opened the clinic (with Gamma's money), and I really enjoyed that storyline until that bullshit with Doug at the end.

That's my favourite season. Elizabeth was a lot of fun when she first arrived, and dragged some real personality out of Benton. Anna was a big favourite of mine, and I still think it's such a shame that Maria Bello didn't want to continue on the show. 

It's also a season where Carter manages to balance between being a good guy and being a self-righteous ass pretty well. Carol opens the clinic and seems to have real drive and purpose. Mark returns to form after his traumatic attack, even Doug isn't too navel-gazing and self-hating.

Seasons two and three are close behind, and season six was actually pretty great too.

[Dr.OO7]

Season 4 is my favorite too, because it's when Doug and Carol reconciled and I just loved seeing them happy together.

[renatae]

On 5/4/2022 at 9:11 AM, Rootbeer said:

In real life, the patient ready to give birth to the preemie would've been moved up to Labor and Delivery and had a nurse assigned to her from that staff.  Might've been Abby, might not.  The ER would not be able to force an L&D nurse to come down there to work; nurses are assigned to specific areas where they are to work; they don't get dragged to other areas in the middle of a shift for stuff like this.  Abby's insistence that the mother and baby remain in the noisy, busy ER rather than be moved to the labor floor or postpartum unit was idiotic, too. There are undoubtedly areas set aside for just that type of situation, where the parents could've had a peaceful, quiet, pleasant environment to spend time with their child and had staff attending them with specific training in the area of helping parents through the loss of an infant.  This was the start of Abby's downhill slide into being the expert at all times about everything and everyone while repeatedly demonstrating that she was completely wrong about most things.

The hospital where I work actually has a couple of small rooms for parents attached to the NICU with rocking chairs, comfortable seating, a private bathroom, even a small coffee maker and a mini-fridge with snacks where parents can spend significant amounts of time with their child in a circumstance like this or even just have some peace and privacy while their child is being cared for in NICU.

And, no, doctors do not have scheduled breaks and are expected to work as they are needed.  If the ER is busy and they need help, then nobody gets a break until things quiet down.  Cutting a break short because something happens that needs attention is a common occurrence.

Yeah, this sort of thing always bothers me about these medical shows, and highest on my list is surgery done in the ER, especially by ER doctors.

I'm watching the Carter/Kem episode wherein he goes to Paris when he hears her mother is ill. God, she irritates me. Six months after she loses the baby, she's out having a great time without Carter. It seems every time she's with him she's mooning around like a sick cow who can't get over the death of the baby, but she was having a great time with her ex when Carter showed up on her doorstep. I'm not negating the idea that a parent in such a situation might have a problem continuing in the same milieu, but Kem just irritates me. The scene in which she shows up for the dedication of the new Carter Center (or whatever it's called) only to turn around and leave immediately afterword makes me stabby. Hate her almost as much as early seasons of Morris.

Edited June 3, 2022 by renatae

[Heathen]

55 minutes ago, renatae said:

Yeah, this sort of thing always bothers me about these medical shows, and highest on my list is surgery done in the ER, especially by ER doctors.

I'm watching the Carter/Kem episode wherein he goes to Paris when he hears her mother is ill. God, she irritates me. Six months after she loses the baby, she's out having a great time without Carter. It seems every time she's with him she's mooning around like a sick cow who can't get over the death of the baby, but she was having a great time with her ex when Carter showed up on her doorstep. I'm not negating the idea that a parent in such a situation might have a problem continuing in the same milieu, but Kem just irritates me. The scene in which she shows up for the dedication of the new Carter Center (or whatever it's called) only to turn around and leave immediately afterword makes me stabby. Hate her almost as much as early seasons of Morris.

I can't stand Kem, either. I think the whole Kem storyline happened just because Noah Wyle wanted to leave, and the writers needed a way to have that happen. Carter should have gotten together with Debbie, the ICRC worker he met before Kem. They had chemistry, their relationship made sense, and she even looked like his previous girlfriend type (blonde, a little boho). Carter + Kem still doesn't make sense to me. 

[Cloud9Shopper]

I was just watching an S10 episode (Impulse Control) last night where Kem and Carter are hanging around Chicago and she just seems so uninterested and blah about the whole thing. They never seemed to have any real chemistry. I don’t deny that what happened to the baby was heartbreaking, but if she really couldn’t be around him after that she owed him an explanation. 

I also laughed at the HR consultant who was in the hospital and essentially told Kerry something like “you have a bunch of lunatics working here” and all I thought was dude…check back in a few more years LOL.

Before that I had the episode on where Carter almost proposed to Abby. I wonder why they had her find the engagement ring only to never bring it up again in another episode. You’d think they’d at least follow up on that. (Or did they and I just forgot?) I don’t think Carter had really thought through what it would be like to be married to someone as messed up and complacent with not fixing it as Abby, and the speech Maggie gave him showed he hadn’t.

It was also the one where Luka went up to psych to cry “woe is me I lost the woman I love and I’m addicted to sex and I almost killed a med student.” Shut up Luka. No one forced you to give Harkins a ride and drive recklessly, or have sex with a patient’s mother. You can cope with a breakup better than that, especially with Crabby. 

[ch1]

What bothered me about the Kem and Carter story is the fact that they lost the baby in season 10.  We see them again 5 years later and Kem is just miserable (plus we had to watch Carter go through dialysis and a kidney transplant without her) so for 5 years Carter was basically in a dead end marriage banging his head against the wall.  One of them should have called it by then.  

[Heathen]

1 hour ago, ch1 said:

What bothered me about the Kem and Carter story is the fact that they lost the baby in season 10.  We see them again 5 years later and Kem is just miserable (plus we had to watch Carter go through dialysis and a kidney transplant without her) so for 5 years Carter was basically in a dead end marriage banging his head against the wall.  One of them should have called it by then.  

I think Kem had but Carter hadn't. But I never thought Kem was all that into him anyway. If not for the baby, I doubt they'd have lasted six months. 

[Cloud9Shopper]

In the series finale, Kem showed up at the Carter Center opening (as @ch1 kind of mentioned, saying she came around five years later) and I think Carter was hoping she would call him to go back to the airport with her or go to breakfast or something (don’t remember) and she never does, so he stayed back at the hospital.

But you are right. I remembered now that Carter is telling Benton he’s married but she didn’t come be with him for his transplant. I hope one of them eventually filed divorce papers and got on with their lives. I wonder if they would’ve stayed together had the baby lived. 

[CrazyInAlabama]

I think that the story was Kem told Carter she wasn't staying in Chicago, and was going back to her mother in Paris, and it was implied if he didn't go with her it was over.    I think it would have been over anyway,   However, my guess is that once Carter decided to stay at County and run the Clinic, that he chose that over reconciling with Kem.    

I never understood why he kept trying to make their relationship work, and actually married in Season 12, off camera though.    

Edited June 3, 2022 by CrazyInAlabama

[Bastet]

28 minutes ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

I never understood why he kept trying to make their relationship work, and actually married in Season 12, off camera though.    

I never understood that, either.  They were meant to be a nice little fling, but then two medical professionals working on HIV prevention somehow couldn't figure out safe sex, so the pregnancy meant they tried to make a relationship work between two people who live on different continents, when otherwise they'd have never even seen each other again.  Still trying to force it long after the thing tying them together was gone was ridiculous.  I guess it's all tied up in his grief over the stillbirth?  Because they certainly didn't have any chemistry that made it believable he was so thoroughly in love with her that he wanted to make a marriage work.

[ShortyMac]

6 hours ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

I was just watching an S10 episode (Impulse Control) last night where Kem and Carter are hanging around Chicago and she just seems so uninterested and blah about the whole thing. They never seemed to have any real chemistry. I don’t deny that what happened to the baby was heartbreaking, but if she really couldn’t be around him after that she owed him an explanation. 

I also laughed at the HR consultant who was in the hospital and essentially told Kerry something like “you have a bunch of lunatics working here” and all I thought was dude…check back in a few more years LOL.

Ha, I just finished watching this one.

So sad about the family that the guy in the Hummer killed, how his life was saved from the impact that corrected his arrhythmia that caused him to black out, and the accident itself. The mom and daughter losing the dad and brother. So horrible.

The rich life would have never worked for Kem. All of those things, the townhouse, expensive dinners, hotels, staff...she would rather continue her work in Africa.

[WendyCR72]

I think it is also just why I loved Carter smiling around the old crew in the finale and seeing him happy walking with Susan and Rachel to County. Because Carter WAS happy. He smiled again.

I really hope he did stay at County. Kem just wasn't worth it.

[renatae]

On 4/4/2022 at 6:03 PM, GiandujaPie said:

Just finished season 13 finale and wow, can’t believe what happened to Ray. It’s not Neela’s fault in the sense that she didn’t hit him with the truck or even force him to get so drunk that he wasn’t paying attention, but her constantly leading him on definitely contributed to his behavior. I’m glad Ray finally recognized that and knew she was never going to be with him, let alone visit him. I’m glad she is finally getting called out for her self-absorbed behavior. I have not seen seasons 14 so I don’t know if she will actually go visit him and prove me wrong but my suspicion is that Ray is never seen from or heard from again. 

Actually, right about the time he got hit, she realized she really did care for him, and started to go in search of him. Unless my memory is totally wanked again, lol.

[Cloud9Shopper]

1 hour ago, WendyCR72 said:

I think it is also just why I loved Carter smiling around the old crew in the finale and seeing him happy walking with Susan and Rachel to County. Because Carter WAS happy. He smiled again.

I really hope he did stay at County. Kem just wasn't worth it.

I read some ER fanfic around the time I was working on my first story last year, and I saw a fic where Carter got with Susan (who was of course divorced from Chuck, another odd marriage on that show) and they ended up adopting a baby. I like to think that happened, and if not with Susan, that he eventually met some nice woman outside of County and was able to settle down and have a family. 

I still kind of ship him and Anna though as a friends to lovers thing. Wish she had stayed around.