TVSquad

(S13E15 / S13E16) Since I was away last Thursday and ER wasn't covered I decided to review both this and the previous week's shows. And, as there's much to cover let's get started right away.

If you were to sum up last week's episode I would have to say it was all about living life and taking chances. There were two main stories: one about a comedian whose chance at stardom is shot down by cancer, and another about Greg Pratt's survival as a doctor while appearing before the medical board. The comedian's plight really got to me, more than the usual patient that comes into the Emergency Room. Here was a guy who struggled to get to Chicago, home to some of the best comedy clubs in the nation, only to get side-tracked by a life-ending illness. I thought about myself when I watched that. Here I am, husband, father of four, TV Squad poster extraordinaire, currently embarking on an Improv career that will one day, hopefully, get me out of my little cubicle world. Like that patient my world could be turned upside-down just like that (insert snapping finger noise here).

What surprised me the most about this story line was the reactions of the doctors that treated him. Abby, who has been known to stay the course when making a diagnosis, was trying everything to get her patient to the comedy club. Archie Morris, who you would think would be propping the guy up on a stretcher to get him to the gig, was extremely conservative to the point that he was actually at odds with Abby's decision. I was a bit shocked at Morris' reaction . . . our little red-headed boy is growing up right before our eyes.

The other plot in last week's show involved the consequences of Dr. Pratt's illegal pharmaceutical distribution. These scenes disappointed me in a number of ways. One was simply the fact that Greg got off too easy. He gets to keep his medical license (under probation) and serve only 100 hours of community service. He should have gotten his license revoked and then worked his butt off to get it back. That would've been more believable. Combine that with the standard 'poor people got it rough' speech that the series tends to hand us, and the appearance of the Minister and his flock at the board meeting and it felt like a standard piece of TV drama.

Onto this week. This was one of your standard ER episodes where it seems nothing went on but character development continued. I want to point out three significant parts of the episode. The first is that Ray has finally shaved off that cheesy mustache that he had for a few weeks. Obviously his role in that porno movie is now over. The second is that we saw Andy Dick in a semi-serious role. He portrayed a patient who had temporal lobe seizures, which brought on episodes of premonitions or hunches rather than a swollen tongue. He did provide a pretty significant plot advancement for Abby as he said that the next year would be good for her (from the producer's mouth to God's ear) and that she should invite her estranged father to her wedding. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Abby finally got off of her high horse and decided to accept Luka's hand in marriage. The third part is that Jane (Sara Gilbert) and Crenshaw have this weird sexual punishment relationship going on. For a moment there I thought that Crenshaw had a thing for Neela.

This week's underlying message was about truth (Scrubs featured a plot like that as well this week. Coincidence?). In one case it was Gates' problems telling and letting the truth be known about a patient with total liver failure. This story played out like something you'd see on a procedural crime drama (I was going to reference Law & Order but I did that once already). It turns out that the mother decided to commit suicide by drinking cleaning solutions in order for her sons to collect the life insurance. Tony found this out after asking Luka to make her cause of death unknown in the medical records. I had a feeling that something fishy was going on with the patient's family when one of the sons, the one who allegedly despised her mother, came out all chipper after her death.

In another case it was Neela's indecision as to whether or not a truth should be told. It turns out that Manish, who has been part of the organ transplant program over at County General, decided to donate a kidney to a patient after she promised to pay him $50,000. This brought up the issue of organ harvesting and payment to get your transplant moved up the list. Neela was at a crossroads if she should tell Dubenko about it all, but she eventually did. It turned out to be pointless, though, as the transplant surgery went on as planned . . . without Neela. By the way, this was the second episode in a row where we saw Neela walking the cold streets of Chicago deep in thought. Is this going to be a regular episode ender? How long until she realizes that it's cold and she should really think everything out over a latte at the local Coffee Bucks.

I finish this week's review with a bit of corporate synergy. One of the patients this week was a cheerleader who suffered a ruptured spleen. Her surgery is a success and Dubenko quips when asked about it 'Save the cheerleader, save the world'. This, of course, was the catchphrase for the NBC superhit Heroes. Unfortunately, that little phrase was for earlier in the season. Maybe the ER writers should be watching more TV.