Watching ER

Show starts out with Neela talking about how the hardest thing about being a doctor isn’t being lonely or the long hours – it’s “something else”. She lying in bed and gets a phone call from Ray at 5 am. She’s actually at the hospital and on call. It’s Ray’s birthday apparently. Her pager keeps going off and she goes to see the girl from last week who has sickle cell anemia. She’s getting sicker and may need her gall bladder taken out. Neela wants her transferred to the PICU. She did a fortune for Neela and she said that she’ll be “back soon” to hear the fortune.

Neela’s overview then says that the hardest thing is making a decision quickly. She apparently has a different idea about how to treat the girl but doesn’t voice out loud. She races downstairs to the ER and sees Dr. Banfield giving herself an injection. She gets snagged by Gates to help treat a patient who is a “dream running” – he acts out what he dreams about instead of sitting still, like most people do.

Sam gives Gates back the Blackhawk tickets and tells him that it’s okay if he goes and takes someone else. He says that he doesn’t want to go with anyone else.

Jerry takes Morris outside and shows him that he’s revived his father’s motorcycle – it looks amazing. Jerry tells him that it belongs to him and Morris starts it up, with Jerry telling him to “keep the shiny side up”. He runs straight into a garbage container!

Neela is beginning surgery on the young sickle cell girl and says that she cancelled her interview.

Down in the ER, Dr. Banfield is having hot flashes while they’re treating the dream runner. Sam says that she has to go and shows up upstairs with Neela’s patient taking over the anesthesiologist’s spot because she’s doing her rotation. Suddenly the patient wakes up, sits up, and screams when she sees her stomach!

The rest of the recap is below!
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That’s actually the title of a really great book but I think in this case, it fits Abby perfectly. Not only did they open up Abby’s alcoholism but they put her in situations that are just unthinkable.

So let me ask you this: Was last night’s episode as painful to watch as it was for me?

Seriously… I didn’t like watching Abby like this. The party was embarrassing (for me to watch even) and I was pretty much horrified when they flashed back to her in the throes of passion with Moretti… How wrong was that? And then she gets home, lights up the babysitter and then takes off in the car with Joe. I’m glad she realized she was in no shape to drive and hailed a taxi.

I don’t think I like the spin they are putting on Abby’s storyline… UNLESS… it is their way to writer her off the show. She was trying to get a ticket to board a plane to Croatia.

Something else that I hope no one missed was the little comment about how Dr. Ross and Dr. Greene ruled the ER… please tell me all of you caught that. Could it be a some glimpse that some of the cast members will be returning? Others think that it was a small play on “Going Green”

Back to Abby though… Maura Tierney is such a great actress. She is highly underrated and I think when the writers do give her a tough storyline like this, she rises to it and excels to such a believable extent that it is no wonder fans all over were freaking out over Abby’s actions last night. Emotions ranged from loving the show to loving the show but hating how the writer’s wrote Abby’s story this week.

Be sure to read tomorrow’s post when I show a video clip that makes me wanna say thank you to TPTB for FINALLY listening to me!

Abby, Maura Tierney, alcoholism, Moretti

Alright. So did you watch or did you miss it? I watched. Honestly, I thought the show lacked its usual luster until Gates flipped his wig and attacked the patient who started the riot and then began parading him around the ER. Crazy right? Not as crazy as reassigning him to the ICU.

I will be honest. I was in and out of watching ER. In fact, I missed nearly all my favs on Thursday night. I gave up the last 15 minutes of ER because I couldn’t hear it to begin with (I had a sleepy baby in my arms and didn’t want to turn it up to wake him). I know… Where’’s my dedication to the show? Oh believe me, I have it but are you like me? Do you miss the seasons past when they did the show live? To me those shows felt like the ER. Very hyped. Very electric with emotion and tension.

I think that this is what this last one may have been missing. That certain amount of edge of your seat that we love about the show.

Plus, I know I am contradicting myself here (a bit) but I don’t really know how I feel about Moretti yet. I know that I blogged about Stanley Tucci once before but (and please don’t think that I am recanting what I originally said, I am not), but I don’t know if this is the role for him. I guess I expected more from him in the season premiere but it didn’t live up to what I expected.

Tell me what you think: Was this season premiere a let down compared to some of ER’s past premiere episides? What do you make of Stanley Tucci now? Am I being picky? Is it too early to tell?

Stanley Tucci, ER, Episode Review, ER Season Premiere, Gates, John Stamos, Moretti

ER this year? I know they weren’t nominated for Best Drama Series, but Forest Whitaker has been nominated for his guest role on the show this last season.

In case you forgot about Forest and his reoccuring guest spot as Curtis Ames, he played a stroke patient who takes Luka to court for malpractice. Losing his case, he begins to stalk not Luka but Abby and baby Joe. In a final seat-gripping, nail-biting, conclusion, Forest kidnaps Luka and holds him at gun point demanding that Luka give him back his life or suffer the pain Ames has had from the loss of functionality in his arm. I think I paced the floor through the whole thing.

If you missed this mini drama in a drama, then you had to be under a rock. This was the most talked about guest appearance on ER in a long, long time. Forest played Ames to frightening perfection. If ER and Forest miss receiving this Emmy, I might just eat my keyboard.

For those of you who missed it, this is well worth watching again:

Forest Whitaker, Curtis Ames, Luka, Abby, Emmy Nominations