ER Put Out of Its Misery

We’re watching the final episode of ER. We stopped watching the show several years ago and I think we stuck with it a year or two too long. I truly don’t think much of this series finale. The dialog is thudding and obvious, the whole thing has the heavy handed touch I remember oh so well. My eyes have rolled frequently and much of this episode is cringeworthy. I think that once Juliana Margulies left, that was pretty much it. Had I stopped watching then I would remember the show more fondly than I do.

What I really don’t like about this show over the long run is the way it romanticizes irresponsibility. The theme of the show has always been “Rules are for wusses; Best practices and procedures are less important than intuition; Situations can always be fixed by a forceful maverick who cares harder than anyone else.” The program really lost me when Carter decided that he needed to go to Africa to really help people, rather than direct the hundreds of millions of dollars of the family fortune. That’s the ER theme in a nutshell – sure, the boring work could help thousands of people, but its not as heroic as helping dozens by running around with blood on your shirt while yelling. Go heroic because that’s what really matters.

They are running promos for this Southland show created by John Wells. It looks so heavy handed that I can’t lift my arms. Pass.