TVSquad

(S14E02) Bernie, this is God. Hurry up, wilya! -- Dr. Moretti, addressing a drunk in the ER who thinks he is about to die.

Before we begin I'd like to speak to the promotions department over at NBC. Are you listening? Good. Come a bit closer to the computer screen so you can carefully hear what I am about to say . . .

No. More. Coming. Attractions.

Seriously, the previews that you create to showcase the next week's airing of ER are just out-and-out lies. The case that you focused on for this week, the one where the young, Hispanic gentleman is discovered to have a nice bullet hole in his lower back, wasn't even the main story in on the show. Heck, the man-boy and the teacher he was sleeping with had more attention paid to it! No more, please. Either retire all of those flashy production tools you have or put them to better use.

Whew! I feel better now. Let's go ahead with this week's review.

If there was one main story, it was the continued restructuring of ER practices by Kevin Moretti. I feel that the staff at County General's over-taxed emergency room are of two minds about Dr. Moretti. On the one side they know that he is an extremely smart man (Pratt even mentions that while complaining about Moretti to Dr. Anspaugh). On the other side of the coin they just don't like the feeling that they are marionettes and he his controlling all of the strings. Hey, didn't another set of ER staff members have the same feelings when Kerri Weaver became the ER chief years ago? Is this any different?

I actually like Moretti. Sure, he's an arrogant ass at times, but he is really trying to improve the image of the ER. Hell, if he hadn't told the staff to perform complete physicals on all people that are treated Abby wouldn't have discovered the bullet hole in one of her patients. The thing is, Moretti respects all of the people that work in the ER, Pratt in particular. He may not like their methods, but he is willing to cut them a bit of slack if they show that they can do the proper job.

That's why he sent Tony up to ICU. Moretti really does see a very adept physician under that rough-and-tumble exterior that Gates exudes. It just needs to be refined a bit. From his first day on the job (in collared shirt and tie, no less) you can see that ICU is going to change Gates. He is a much calmer person while he is up there and he is able to use his strength of one-to-one communication to establish a connection with a patient. By the way, was this the first time that Tony was ever called Doctor Gates?

Moretti also sees potential in Pratt as well, even though Pratt tried to sell the new ER chief up the river. I don't think that Greg has ever shown aspirations of being the ER chief before. Now, just because he doesn't like the way Moretti is changing things he decides he could do a better job? I don't think so. Greg is a very good ER doc, but I don't see him in an administrative role.

Abby is another person that Kevin thinks is a fine doctor, but I think his intentions with her are different than with Pratt and Gates. With Abby, Moretti sees a potential threat to his role, since her husband was the previous ER chief. That may be why he is giving her these 'experiments' to work on. I don't know how I would feel if I were told to work triage in the glass-enclosed cage that is the waiting room. We'll have to see what the other weeks bring to see if the relationship between Abby and Moretti change.

Other items of interest:

• The whole incident with the bullet in the man's back. Did we slip into an episode of Law & Order here? I was ready for the scene to go black and hear the 'Bum-Bum' with the caption 'County General Hospital, Chicago, IL'.
• Dubenko is a devious chief of surgery. Telling Abby that the bullet couldn't be found and then, whoops, there it was after the man and her wife were arrested. By the way, didn't he have cancer at one point in the show? Has he been cured?
• Samantha with brunette hair. Hm, she's had dark hair before -- she played Velma in the Scooby-Doo live-action movies -- but it just doesn't seem to fit her.
• Hope is back, if only for a short period of time. She actually became one of my more favorite characters last season.
• Pratt's lineage goes all the way back to a family of Ethiopian Jews. Mazel Tov!
• Pratt and Morris cleaning out Ray's locker, and Morris thinking of taking the poor guy's sneakers. Even though Archie has grown up immensly he still shows signs of his old self.

Next week, something involving Morris and a phone call that he shouldn't have taken. That's what the previews displayed. Then again, that may be five minutes of the entire episode and the focus may be entirely on the janitor. Who knows. You will when you tune in next week.