‘ER’ finale: bloated, anticlimactic and touching
Benton, Carter together again.
Thursday night, “ER” ended its 15-year run with a three-hour celebration of past, present and future. At least I guess that’s what John Wells was going for. The one-hour retrospective that led off the evening was a heartfelt look back by cast members of yesterday and today at what made “ER” special. But the two-hour finale itself, while sometimes touching, was also uneven to the point of being maddening.
”Life goes on” at the ER, the episode may have tried to suggest by introducing a lot of people we’d never seen before and would never see again. What, for example, was Alexis Bledel doing as an intern who’d clearly been working there awhile but whom we’d never encountered? Why so much time spent with patients whose conditions were pretty familiar and rarely riveting? The birth gone wrong was clearly intended to refer back to the classic “Love’s Labor Lost” episode in Season 1, but it didn’t have a fraction of the emotional resonance. The appearance of Marilu Henner reminded me of something I’ve never liked about “ER” — silly interludes with guest stars, in this case just wasting our time.
The heart of the episode, for “ER” fans who’ve either stuck with the show or returned to see it out, was the dedication of the Carter Center and the return of old friends to support Noah Wyle’s Dr. John Carter. I loved these moments, especially seeing Mark Green’s daughter, Rachel, played by the same actress who played her when last seen. That was the real full-circle moment in the finale, with Rachel applying to medical school and getting an ER tour courtesy of Carter.
I loved seeing Ellen Crawford back as nurse Lydia, unseen since 2003. My preference would have been for way more of this kind of offhand nostalgia and less time spent with Morris and Gates (sorry; never grew on me) and other relative newcomers. But mainly, two hours was just too much time to fill with too little content that felt important, like a sendoff after 15 years. The final plot turn was typical of something else that drove me crazy about “ER” — the inclination to churn up an over-the-top disaster whenever the stories lagged. But the last scene, at least, will stick in our minds as an iconic “ER” moment.
Instead of just a three-hour sendoff, I turned the evening into a six-hour “ER” orgy, also watching the three previous episodes, starting with the March 12 Clooney-fest. Now, that was a great episode. A pefect episode, in fact. An episode that should have, could have been the series finale. After that, the actual finale was anticlimactic.
I’m happy to let it go out on its own terms. So many series (”Pushing Daisies,” anyone?) are chopped off before their time these days. Wells & Co. were allowed to wrap in a dignified manner. While maybe not thrilled, I was at least content to wave goodbye to a show I’ve been watching for almost a third of my life.
Gail, you’re out of touch but that doesn’t suprise me. The finale’ was well done, not overbearing. It weaved stories together smoothly and the scenes with the great Ernest Borgnine were touching and outsstanding. Gail, I think the problem with you is you’re trying to impress TV insiders and other critics instead of regular people. You have no sense of humor. The back-and-forth between Henner and daughter each trying to get the guy’s attention was funny. It wasn’t a waste of time. This stuff happens in real life. Just read your own paper, especially today’s story about the guy who beat up a store clerk for ratting out his shoplifting daughter. There’s silly and stupid stuff in life, and IT’S OK TO SHOW IT IN AN EVENING SOAP!
well call me out of touch also. I haven’t watched ER in years. it became predictable and boring a long time ago.
I was disappointed. I was looking for a “finale” where there seemed to be the end of chapter and the characters were moving on to the next step in their lives. Friends did a good job of this. ER - not so much.
Most of the other characters had already moved on (Carter, Dr. Corday, Carrie Weaver). Those that were left were having just another day and we were left with an ending like the show will be back next week.
Was expecting more of a story line where EVERYONE would be moving on. (The hospital closes, or something of that nature).
As such, I feel there’s been no closure.
I couldn’t agree more. I can’t tell you how many times during the episode I caught myself looking at my watch and asking, “Isn’t it over yet?” I’m sure the producers and writers tried to portray the episode as just another day in the life of the ER, but what came across was simply boring and slow.
I couldn’t disagree more, I thought the finale was exeptionally well done. I believe it caught the spirit of the first episode, while showing the realities of the relationships between characters that had moved on and the hint of things to come for the characters. I thought the storyline with Dr. Carter and Dr. Green’s daughter was an excellent ending that gave the series a “circle of life” feeling and applaude the fact that the writers did not pander to the cliche’s of trying to wrap everything in a nice little package with a nice little bow by going over the top with a finale that had major disaster, killing off of major characters unexpectedly, or a contrived last-minute wedding, but instead opted to leave what happens in the future to the characters open, as this is what happens in real life.
Hey, “Mensa”, it’s “wove” not “weaved.”
Gail,
I agree with you, mostly about the unecessary characters. I would rather they ended with the Clooney episode too. Why not spend more time with Banfield? She had very little face time. I’m glad they didn’t tie everything up in a bow — I hate that — but the new unecessary characters was a waste of time.
I am a 15 year ER fan. Though some of the episodes were not good, overall it was an excellent drama. I did enjoy the way that the series ended, leaving more up to my imagination instead of the “in your face” stuff that most shows do when they wrap things up. I teared up when Dr. Green’s daughter, Rachel, returned and left Frank speechless. It was great seeing Lydia and Malik, though for short stints. It was also good seeing Dr. Benton’s son, played by the same young man that we were introduced to a long time ago. Thank goodness for DVDs and TIVO for the TNT episodes - I still can get my ER fix. I am certainly going to miss this every Thursday night.
I enjoyed the finale, and I thought the last scene, with all the emergency vehicles converging plus cops and all the staff, was just the right way to go out.
I always thought the Carter-(name? Frenchwoman) story was overdone and was glad that they didn’t overdo it in the last show.
I must admit, I caught myself momentarily waiting for the preview of next week’s show. Ah, well.
(I also loved Janet M’s remark about the first year –’we all looked like ordinary people - that is, all of us but Clooney’)