E.R. fans, the whole lot on all 4

[blamethecat]

www.radiotimes.com/news/on-demand/2019-09-18/er-streaming-all4/

Just finished season 11... I had no memory of carter Leaving before the show finished!!
Can't believe I've still got another 4 seasons to go through -- no idea really what happens in any of them!

It seems that most people like me were more invested in the earlier series. I really don't think I watched more than a handful of episodes in seasons 10-15. I suspect they also changed the timing of the episodes (later?) and the day of the week they were on which probably impacted on my viewing of them. I'm sure when it was at its peak popularity (probably a couple of seasons in) it was on after Friends on a Friday evening.

And Susan left... Again! With no fanfare.....

I'm glad Susan left the second time - I went off her when she became in charge...

I’m on season 2 now “to hell and high water’ one of my favourite episodes. Also mostly centered around doug and as a massive George clooney fan I couldn’t think of anything better 😂

I think Susan's return was a mistake and that crossover episode with the cop show was bizarre.

Susan has always been one of my favourite characters, I think she's naturally funny and some of her scenes have been very, very funny - I especially like the episode when they have to go to a sexual misconduct lesson and the teacher turns up late, thought it was very well done. All the tension between Carter and Kovac built up and then was released in the sword fight, still can't believe they fought over Abby though, she was such a moany, whiny, negative, annoying joy sucker

I don't get all the dislike for Abbey, I always liked her myself

Season 12 has too many newbies in it. Think that's maybe why I lost interest in it last time.

I'm enjoying season 11 more than I thought I would. There are nuances there that I'm picking up in my 40s, which probably didn't register with me 20ish years ago. There are so many new med students and interns and you can really sense the world-weariness of Carter, Susan etc who have been around for a while, have more important things going on in their lives and and aren't standing for any crap. Knowing that we're about to lose a massive chunk of this old guard (Corday has just left, Carter, Lewis and Weaver to go soon, I think) makes it clear that the torch is being passed and there is a new generation in town with a new tone to the show (you set the tone!). It also makes me want to go right back to the beginning and see these characters as students and interns again in order to chart the character development properly.

I really liked Abby when she first arrived but over time she became whiny and petulant while the entire show started revolving around her. The storyline with her mother was great and Sally Field was astonishing (Maura Tierney's ability to hold her own against such a powerhouse in those scenes, despite being a relatively inexperienced actress was also impressive and her ability has shown itself in the roles she has taken on since) but the brother storyline was a step too far and Abby's behaviour towards Carter around the time of his grandmother's death was unforgivable, yet the show still seemed to present her in a constant halo of light.

Mind you, Neela is also getting on my nerves now. The whole giving up all her training and throwing away her chance to be a doctor unless she got to stay at County General was just ridiculous. One of the things the show was so good at in the early seasons was the realism of people coming and going and the sense that it really was just a place of work. I watch the episode with her job-hunt last night and was shouting at the telly. Neela's first episode saw her rock up to the ER in a sharp, stylish suit so she has that ability yet tried to get hired in a posh boutique while wearing a scruffy vest with messy hair and seemed surprised when her sense of style was criticised. She was previously so prim and proper and academic so I find it amazing that she's be so clueless and unable to talk the talk when it came to transferring her skills to other jobs.

Think I've been watching it too much.... I've had two dreams with Dr Kovac in 😳

@BertieDrapper your not alone, I’ve had several dreams about some of the doctors in ER.... doug Ross, Luka Kovac, Ray Barnett & tony gates... they did have some good looking docs 😂😂

Great news thank you. I got into it a couple of years ago and stopped and I don't own it so I will start up again!

@Ontheboardwalk

Not just you. I remember watching Time of Death first time around and feeling pretty unmoved by it despite all the accolades. Rewatched it last night and it still left me cold (no pun intended), yet it still shows up on every list of the greatest episodes.

@TakeYourCanvasBags* I agree with you around the Carter/Abby story around his Gamma. She was absolutely shocking

I didn't enjoy Time of Death but can understand why it was regarded as one of the best episodes. I liked seeing Pratt stop being so judgy and facing up to some of the unresolved issues he had around his father.

Carter and Abby were a lost cause from the outset, weren't they?

It's weird watching episodes back to back, it makes everything seem much quicker.
Like carter getting with Wendell straight after Kim went back to Africa and how quickly Luca moved on from Sam to Abbey.

Totally didn't remember what happened to Gallant so was surprised by that!

I agree @BertieDrapper.

Not sure I ever knew what happened to Gallant, or even that he and Neela got married! I did have significant gaps in the story arcs between series 10 -15 until I binge-watched them in the lead up to Christmas. Although I recall that I made a real effort to watch the last season when it was originally aired, clearly not really having a clue about some of the backstories - Neela's chequered love life for one.

@NewModelArmyMayhem18 I've completely forgotten what happened between seasons 11-15 so it's like watching a new show- but I just don't care about the new characters as much as the original ones.
Bring back Carter and Mark!!

I was convinced that Gallant wasn't actually dead... that they ID'd the wrong person or something....

I wonder whether we'd have felt differently if we'd only started watching midway through the series? I was an avid viewer from the first season. I think it just lost its mojo rather towards the end. I found Archie Morris deeply annoying (and did second time around too). If I had been Neela I'm not sure which man I would have chosen in the end.

Lucy wasn't in it for very long really and yet she really left her mark. Victor Clemente and Dave Malucci much less so.

@NewModelArmyMayhem18 if I was Neela I would have defo chose ray. He was in love with her for so long. I was 6 when ER first aired, my mum and aunt watched it religiously al though I never knew what was happening. I remember actually watching it properly from the last episode of season 6 when doug and Carol reunited, I remember I was 12 and I was waiting to go to a friends for a sleepover and my Mum was watching it and I got proper into it, so when they released the dvd I went back and watched seasons 1-6 because I was obsessed and I have to say I loved the first 8 more. 9 was pretty bleak, but I really got back into it when Luka was kidnapped in the Congo, I remember me and some friends at school spent a whole lesson talking about that 😂 by then I was like 15. ER is one of those I can watch over and over and not get bored.

@Hadenoughofitall441 I totally agree, although I was considerably older than 6 when it first started (coughs uncomfortably!). I can recall sitting in my office at work with two colleagues/friends and discussing that much-awaited reunion scene (I remember thinking that we'd been robbed though because Doug was only in it for a couple of minutes!). There was such a frenzied build-up to that one episode, I'm still not sure it lived up to the hype/expectation.

There is so much packed into every episode and series that it is very easy to forget lots of storylines and vital scenes for story arcs.

I found Banfield's backstory just heart-wrenching. When she first shows up and Heleh intimates that she knows her from somewhere (which Catherine denies), only for it to subsequently be revealed down the line that the nurse was there when B''s dying son was rushed into the ER some time beforehand.

When it was first on I think it was my guilty Friday evening viewing. - if I was not out and about. Sure it was on after Friends. What a combo!

I think it was wednesdays nights- a repeat of friends then er then Roseanne.

You're probably right @Verily1. They rarely have the best TV on a Friday evening, do they? Clearly I've misremembered.

I do remember that the timeslot (and possibly day of the week when it was shown) kept changing as the series progressed. I think that's why I didn't watch all the later seasons because it was on after my bedtime!

I was unwell yesterday so spent a day on the sofa hurtling through season 11. The episode where Abby gets abducted from the hospital and held at gunpoint to save the dying gang member was very good. Maura Tierney is a cracking actress and ER in general is a brilliantly scripted show so it's a mystery to me why she was given such crap storylines to work with most of the time. That episode stayed with me for a long time after it was first shown, although I thought it happened much later on and had misremembered her saying she had a baby at home when she was pleading for her life. That line "are you afraid of big black men? No, I'm afraid of big black guns" has stayed with me since it first aired.

Also watched the episode where Weaver's mother turned up (had me choking back tears) and the Cynthia Nixon episode - I don;t remember that following so soon after Ray Liotta. I much preferred the CN episode to RL but it's interesting that with so much storyline emphasis on patient satisfaction this season, there have been two episodes showing the er from the patient point of view.

I'm still far from the end but already want to start again from the beginning, which would be stupid. This er rewatch has taken over my life for the past few months. Once it's over I might actually clean my house or, you know, give my family some attention... A few years ago I did a condensed rewatch of both Buffy and the X-Files, finding websites picking out the key episodes to chart plot and character development. I wonder if something similar exists for er.

It was definitely on wednesdays, at least at the beginning. I was 14 when it started and used to watch with my mum - we both got into her bed (dad worked nightshifts) with some snacks and watched from there. The following morning, there would be a complete dissection of the episode at school.

Season 14

Anyone else feel really sorry for the baby actor playing baby Joe?

Every episode he is crying his eyes out!