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Goodbye ER
Apr. 2nd, 2009 07:59 pmWatching the last episode of ER. I've watched the show, off and on, since it's debut. It is still the best medical drama, in my mind, ever. Sure, House is great. Brilliant even. But no other medical drama has the power to reduce me to tears, even happy tears, the way that ER can. Think Grey's Anatomy is a medical drama? Pshaw! Grey's is a soap opera that happens to take place in a hospital.
The last show hit the right tone right from the opening credits. Look! There's Noah Wylie, there's Sherry Stringfield, there's Laura Innes and Eriq Lasalle. How nice it was to see their faces again and to hear Mark Green's name come up again, as his daughter Rachel visited the hospital as a prospective med student. Man, it was nice seeing Dr. John Carter even if only for a little while. Oh hai, Alexis Bledel! You too Marilu Henner.
ER gave John Stamos the chance to finally grow out of his teen idol reputation and actually act. And damn, he ages fine!
But the show did what it does best. Heart wrenching human drama. The mother of the twins and their dramatic birth, her later death. The HIV patient dying of cancer, who refused to prolong his life with chemotherapy. The old man (hello, Ernest Borgnine!) sitting by his wife's side as she lays dying, their daughter coming in and not remembering all the bad times with her mother.
The show just delivered, tight, heart heavy drama without going into histrionics or sensationalism. And amazingly, it did it all the time it was on the air, what was it? 14 years? Amazing. Even MASH lost some of it's heart after a while, getting more bitter and angry toward the end. Not ER. It still allowed the quiet dignity of death, witnessed in the Borgnine character sitting with his dying wife, holding her hand, and crying as the machine was turned off. I hate seeing old people cry! It always get to me.
It ended with a lovely wide shot of the ER bay as ambulances brought in trauma from an explosion. You see the rain slicked street, the building with the sign County General, and the L train passing through overhead. It mirrored the first show and many in between.
So, I raise my glass to ER and bid it adieu. And thanks.
The last show hit the right tone right from the opening credits. Look! There's Noah Wylie, there's Sherry Stringfield, there's Laura Innes and Eriq Lasalle. How nice it was to see their faces again and to hear Mark Green's name come up again, as his daughter Rachel visited the hospital as a prospective med student. Man, it was nice seeing Dr. John Carter even if only for a little while. Oh hai, Alexis Bledel! You too Marilu Henner.
ER gave John Stamos the chance to finally grow out of his teen idol reputation and actually act. And damn, he ages fine!
But the show did what it does best. Heart wrenching human drama. The mother of the twins and their dramatic birth, her later death. The HIV patient dying of cancer, who refused to prolong his life with chemotherapy. The old man (hello, Ernest Borgnine!) sitting by his wife's side as she lays dying, their daughter coming in and not remembering all the bad times with her mother.
The show just delivered, tight, heart heavy drama without going into histrionics or sensationalism. And amazingly, it did it all the time it was on the air, what was it? 14 years? Amazing. Even MASH lost some of it's heart after a while, getting more bitter and angry toward the end. Not ER. It still allowed the quiet dignity of death, witnessed in the Borgnine character sitting with his dying wife, holding her hand, and crying as the machine was turned off. I hate seeing old people cry! It always get to me.
It ended with a lovely wide shot of the ER bay as ambulances brought in trauma from an explosion. You see the rain slicked street, the building with the sign County General, and the L train passing through overhead. It mirrored the first show and many in between.
So, I raise my glass to ER and bid it adieu. And thanks.
