S02.E14: Vertigo

[thewhiteowl]

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Mario attempts to save two men trapped on a crane 300 feet above a construction site

[Netfoot]

Should that be Vertigo? 

[kwnyc]

I know I keep making ER references, but it's so clearly the template they are using with these characters (and situations). Angus is meant to be the Anthony Edwards character (Dr. Greene: passionate about his patients and capable of staying calm and working through problems creatively and successfully. Also not the best with the ladeez.)

Right now Rob Lowe is the George Clooney/Doug Ross. Cowboy, anti-establishment, super cool swashbuckler. Campbell is Peter Benton, and Roarsh is a combo of Kerry Weaver and Susan (with Mama as Nurse Hathaway.) Mario: he's a wannabe. The character himself is so unlikable: narcissist, destructively competitive, sexist, not actually a very good diagnostician. If they're going for some kind of redemption arc, they better hurry. Or, maybe he's just meant to bea minor sort of villain.

And the pepper spray thing: remember that episode of ER when the kid accidentally/on purpose released a bunch of chlorine gas into his science class? (Though I think he ended up killing the teacher and maiming another student.)

[Fireball]

I enjoyed the episode, but I found it a bit predictable.

• Mario not liking heights
• Mario falling off the crane
• The older women being abuse
• The abuser being the daughter not the husband

So the crane scenes like I said I knew as soon as we saw where they were going that 1) Mario was lying about being ok and 2) that he was going to fall off. Also wouldn’t an amputation saw be something one would just bring along on these types of calls? If you’re sending doctors out into the field I would think there’s a good chance that someone is trapped and you might have to amputate.

One thing this episode made me realize is that Ethan tends to have stories that separate him from the hospital and a lot of the cast: shark attack (Ethan + Mike), the fire at the haunted theater (Ethan + Dr. Nolan), Russian submarine (Ethan + Dr. Campbell), injured police officer in the field (Ethan + Noa), getting the burn medic out of the helicopter (Ethan + Heather or Noa), the crane (Ethan + Mario).

Back on topic.

The school “accident” I guess I’m supposed to feel something for the girls who did that prank but I didn’t. So the teacher takes away your phones that is not a reason to hurt someone. I was sure they were going for the whole I only did it to get my mom’s attention route. So I guess that was a bit unpredictable.

Speaking of cell phones; I was right there with Angus and his confusion with all the emojis! I’m not that old and I wouldn’t have had a clue what the girl was trying to say; however, it’s never a good idea to let someone else pretend to be you. Poor Angus is going to have to go on a hike and I’m sure it’ll be obvious to the Dr. Potential girlfriend that Angus doesn’t like to hike.  

So Dr. Guthrie is pretty much recovered from the surgery? I guess we’ll be seeing him practicing medicine soon, but if that much time has passed shouldn’t Malaya’s suspension be over?

Ariel I wonder why she’s there? She really looks all grown up. How much time has passed since her father died?

Edited January 26, 2017 by Fireball

[Dowel Jones]

I would think that, based on Dr. Guthrie's hair regrowth, that at least several months have passed since the operation.  Unless, of course, just like landscapers, they replaced the plug after they were done.

I don't remember the episode where Ariel's father died.  Was there some controversy?  With the last view of Leanne and Ariel walking through the hall, and the somewhat ominous music, I wonder if something bad is foretold.

[Fireball]

11 hours ago, Dowel Jones said:

I don't remember the episode where Ariel's father died.  Was there some controversy?  With the last view of Leanne and Ariel walking through the hall, and the somewhat ominous music, I wonder if something bad is foretold.

It was in the Pilot episode, so a long time ago. Basically Ariel and her father come into the ER both seriously injured. Leanne took the father’s case and realized that the father was already brain dead; the father is an organ donor. Leanna informs the daughter of her fathers death which doesn't go well. At the end of the episode Leanna introduces Ariel to the girl that had received her father’s heart; the scene ends with Ariel listening to her fathers heart beat in the girls chest.

ETA: I don't remember there being any controversy. I have no idea why Ariel would come to see Leanna of all people. Maybe something has happened to the girl who received the father's heart.

Edited January 27, 2017 by Fireball

[Dowel Jones]

Thanks.

[Raachel2008]

On 26/01/2017 at 2:21 PM, kwnyc said:

I know I keep making ER references, but it's so clearly the template they are using with these characters (and situations). Angus is meant to be the Anthony Edwards character (Dr. Greene: passionate about his patients and capable of staying calm and working through problems creatively and successfully. Also not the best with the ladeez.)

Right now Rob Lowe is the George Clooney/Doug Ross. Cowboy, anti-establishment, super cool swashbuckler. Campbell is Peter Benton, and Roarsh is a combo of Kerry Weaver and Susan (with Mama as Nurse Hathaway.

I think Angus is a mix of Carter and Mark, that is for sure. I can see some of Benton in Campbell and Mama and Leanne both being a mix of several characters, but Ethan is no Doug in the strict sense- but then I don't think they are trying for Code Black to be ER. First, Code Black don't do these characters' personal lives the way ER did. Sure, all them have their problems, but who they are doesn't shape the doctors they are the way ER did with its characters, if it makes any sense. In the episode with the inmates, Leanne said something along the lines "it doesn't matter if he is a killer, you treat him live everybody else, you do your best, this is the discipline, this is the job". I think that sums Code Black: the show is about that job and that discipline, while ER had dozens of more layers - some of them very poor handled as some of us can tell. Second, ER was a much darker show. Things when south and they stayed there. People waited for treatment and died, kids were hurt and nobody sugarcoated how hard their lives would be, folks didn't have money for medicine, people survived but didn't get the happy ending. More often than not, Code Black's final five minutes reminds me of shows like Touched by an Angel, where the whole episode is just a path to those final minutes where the viewer is hit on the face with an up lifting message/lesson and everything turns out okay. 

About the episode itself, I'm sure those firefighters have seen more than enough to know that guy's arm was gone, how come Ethan and Mario or anyone else didn't have a saw up there already? It is the kind of lazy writing that drives me nuts.  I think this whole plot was predictible, from  Mario - who by now should know better - being surprised that they would have to amputate the guy's arm to Mario falling and Ethan saving him. I don't mind Ethan at all, I think he adds something to the show, he is competent and Rob Lowe is suprisingly good in the role, but Ethan trying to get Mario up when there was not one but three (stronger than him and taller than him) firefighters right there was ridiculous.

Mario is a brat.

How Guthrie  can practice again? He is a walking malpractice lawsuit. First thing that goes wrong with one of this patients and the hospital's lawywer will have a hard time in court proving his decisions/actions were not affected in any shape or form by a) his Parkinson, b) the meds he used in the past and is using now, c) the "experimental" procedure he did. No word on Malaya, and I wonder if and when she comes back we'll see Guthrie apologizing to her - actually I think he owes an apology to  anyone who worked with him in the past months. 

[juliet73]

Why is Rob Lowe ALWAYS out in the field?  Where are the EMTs and fire/rescue squads? 

[kwnyc]

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Why is Rob Lowe ALWAYS out in the field?

I bet it's in his contract! :-)

[mojito]

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I know I keep making ER references, but it's so clearly the template they are using with these characters (and situations). 

Yep, and ER clearly used the template from St. Elsewhere, which was the granddaddy of ensemble casts and hospital realism. That show preceded ER by more than a decade. My point: there aren't that many original stories. I'm sure you can find many of these plots and characters in daytime soaps as well.

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It was in the Pilot episode, so a long tim

It never ceases to amaze me how much so many shows seem to think that we have committed their plots to memory. These shows aren't so special that I can remember them after the winter break, let alone after a season. 

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Where are the EMTs and fire/rescue squads? 

I thought they were the ones who helped them get up and down the crane. But I suppose that was a rhetorical question....

Aw, Dixon and Leighton are sooo cute together.

Edited February 3, 2017 by mojito

[Fireball]

51 minutes ago, mojito said:

It never ceases to amaze me how much so many shows seem to think that we have committed their plots to memory. These shows aren't so special that I can remember them after the winter break, let alone after a season. .

The only reason I remember the story was because I thought the whole "the girl gets to meet who got her fathers heart was sappy". However, if there hadn't been an intro prompt I'm not sure I would have had a clue who Ariel was. I did have to look up what episode the whole thing happened in.

[starri]

I honestly barely remember the first season, in large part because it seems like a completely different show this year.

Malaya's assault and Angus' uppers problem, that's really all I got.