Real Kato Blog: Television: E.R.

I can't look away, no matter how hard I try.

When my sister and I were little, I'd say we were pretty imaginative. We had a pile of stuffed animals, and they all had names: Tobby, Freddy, Tucker, Bobby... I don't know where all these names came from, but everyone had a name and a distinct personality. We thought up all sorts of crazy adventures and stories involving the animals. It was our most reliably fun activity. Whenever we were bored, we'd say to each other, "You wanna play Animals?" And we would.

But as we got older, we started to run dry on ideas. With increasing frequency, we had to introduce new characters into the group, to keep things fresh. When we ran out of stuffed animals, poor Bobby had to have a sex change. (We killed off Bobby, and we introduced his twin sister Luna.) And soon after that, we realized Animals had ceased to be fun for us.

The reason I thought of this is because I watched the season premiere of "E.R.".

The show is on the verge of creative bankruptcy. The only thing they can do to keep it alive is to bring in new characters, like a crop of new interns, or a wise old veteran (like Danny Glover). Before you know it, they'll kill off Luka and bring him back as his twin sister Nadia.

It's really a shame about this show, because some of the actors are pretty damn good. They just keep ruining them with tedious storylines... last year it was just excruciating to watch Dr. Carter (Noah Wyle). This year, I can see already that I'm going to get tired of the soap opera with Dr. Kovac (Goran Visnjic) and Samantha Taggart (Linda Cardellini).

But I keep watching. It's kinda like if you've got every Star Wars action figure except for Jar-Jar Binks, and even though you can't stand Jar-Jar, you have to get him, just to complete the set. With E.R., I know the show's gonna end before too much longer... and after having watched for so many years, I just want to finish it.

Permalink 4 Comment

Posted by Ken in: television

Comments

Comment #1 from olafandyjon (Guest)
2005 Sep 24 - 2:53 am : #

Honestly, I stopped watching ER soon after the "Love's Labor Lost" episode back in the first season! That was such an amazing episode, but I think it began the direction of ER needing to have "event stories."

Is there anyone from the original cast left on the show?

Comment #2 from Ken (realkato)
2005 Sep 24 - 9:07 am : #

No, Noah Wyle was the last one.

Right now, I think the show would collapse if not for Maura Tierney and Parminder Nagra.

Comment #3 from Cori (Guest)
2005 Sep 26 - 12:13 pm : #

Actually, Susan is back, and she was in the original cast. (Sheri Springfield, I think is the actress?)

Comment #4 from Ken (realkato)
2005 Sep 26 - 3:45 pm : #

Ohh, right. She was gone for five years, so I stopped thinking about her as an 'original' cast member. But you're absolutely right.

I remember I was sad when she left the show, because I'd been hoping she'd end up with Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards).

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