The ER Finale

Last night ER ended.  That show has been on for 15 years.  15 years!!!!  That’s amazing.  I remember it started the same time as Chicago Hope.  I never liked Chicago Hope, just could not get into it, but ER really worked for me.  I remember there was this relatively unknown actor in it, George Clooney.  He had been on Roseann and a couple of other shows, but he was basically unknown.  What I loved best about this show was that they never dumbed it down.  These medical things went on at a rapid pace and they never stopped to explain them, the action just kept moving.  Also, the way they filmed with the steady cam shots were very innovative for the time.

I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with ER.  In the beginning I absolutely loved it.  It was by far the best show on TV for a long time.  Then they went through a couple of years where the show was crap.  I think that was when Michael Crichton stepped away.  The show just went to absolute rubbish.  The characters sucked.  They tried to get all political and preachy.  It was horrible.  There were about 2 years where I didn’t watch it because of that.  Every new season I would give it a chance and if it was still horrible I stopped watching.  I couldn’t give it up completely because I refused to believe that a show that good went that bad and couldn’t come back.  But then last season Michael Crichton became involved again and the show soared and I was hooked again.

There are very few shows that I absolutely have to watch.  ER was definitely one of them.  I’m usually in bed by 9 but since ER was on till 10 on Thursday nights I stayed up late.  There are even fewer shows that I can watch repeats of.  ER is one of those.  If I stumbled across it on a weekend or something I will absolutely sit and watch the old show.  After just a couple of minutes I can usually recall the entire story  line at that time.  That is good TV.

So now it’s over.  In, what I think, is very typical ER fashion they ended nothing.  They paid homage to the pilot with a big emergency arriving but instead of Dr. Green asking Dr. Carter if he was coming, it was Dr. Carter asking Dr. Green’s daughter if she was coming.  It was a great way to end it and it shows that things come full circle.  But nothing was resolved, no loose ends were tied up, no neat endings here.  That’s not ER style.  We were left waiting for next week, but this time there is no next week.  What will I do next Thursday night???