(S14E19) Now, let the speculation begin!

Did you really think that ER would end its fourteenth season with everything all honky-dory at County General? You haven't watched it recently, have you? Fact is, the season-ender for the last few years has been some sort of cliffhanger. Last season the fate of Neela was unknown. The year before it was Abby and Luka. A few years before that the fates of Pratt and Jing-Mei were undecided.

Now we have two (or three, or four) characters to consider as potential victims. But, who will be the lucky -- or in this case, unlucky -- one who will end up as a patient in their very own Emergency Room when season 15 of ER begins? Let's take a look at the candidates. Oh, by the way, spoilers ahead if you didn't watch the last three minutes of the episode.

Continue reading ER: The Chicago Way (season finale)

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(S14E18) What? An episode where Abby's good luck finally rears its ugly head? Nah, couldn't be! Why would the producers of ER want to give Dr. Lockhart any good luck after the roller coaster that has been her life this past season? Oh, I know why...her life is going to fall apart again on next week's season finale. So, I guess it's like giving her something sweet before she needs to swallow yet another bitter life pill.

Well, we can enjoy it for a little bit, can't we?

Continue reading ER: Tandem Repeats

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Holy frik! We've only just started to embrace the return of our shows after a shortened strike season. Now, they are almost over. In the next few weeks all of our network favorites will say good-bye for the summer to be replaced with reality shows, reality game shows, reality soap operas, and Regis on primetime (again).

Needless to say, I'm a bit depressed. As I am sure you are as well. But, we will do our duty and press on. Thusly, we here at the sprawling lakefront offices of TV Squad (you choose the lakefront) have compiled list of when your favorite, and not so favorite, shows will be saying good-bye for their summer vacation. As usual, taking the fickleness of the networks, these times and days can change at a moment's notices. We will try to update you of those changes as quickly as our little fingers can type it out.

So, with a leaden heart, here are your season and series finales.

Continue reading It's finale time again! No, really.

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(S14E17) "I already know. Get over yourselves." -- Archie Morris, passing by a kissing Samantha and Tony.

Ye gads, that was bloody! I mean, we've seen plenty of blood in the ER over the last 14 seasons, but that was one of the more bloodier sessions I've seen in a long time. It was just flowing everywhere. Too bad that its flow was hampered somewhere down the line by a clot because, if everything was okay, then we wouldn't of had a serious spotlight on one Archie Morris.

So, I guess things turned out well. For us, not for the patient. That was actually pretty bad. And, not for the patient's husband who...well, you'll need to find out what happened to him after the jump. So, Spoiler Alert ahead, mateys.

Continue reading ER: Under Pressure

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Continue reading ER snags Angela Bassett

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(S14E16) Before I begin this week's review of ER, I want to speak for a moment about the ambulance bay at County General. The place should be considered an Extreme Danger Zone and permanently closed. Over the last fourteen seasons it has been the location of car accidents, tank accidents, explosions, falling helicopters, and now a gas fire. The gas fire was courtesy of a patient who came in from an ambulance drenched in gasoline and was started by a careless smoker. By the way, smoking should be banned from the ambulance bay as well.

If you review some of the ER records you'll find that a good portion of the patients were actually injured in the ambulance bay itself. That doesn't bode well for the hospital. So, I say close it down, make it a nice little park area, and have the patients brought in through an underground parking garage. At least no helicopters will crush them should they fall off the roof of the hospital.

With that out of the way, let's get going with this week's review.

Continue reading ER: The Truth Will Out

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(S14E15) So, Neela.

We all know her. She's cute. She's smart. She has that lovely English accent. She draws every single man and woman into her universe with her mutant ability to make people fall in love with her (Professor X, I hope you're aware of this). We just haven't seen much of her this season. Well, except for the season premiere, but even then she was unconscious for most of the episode. Perhaps the producers decided to give Ms. Rasgotra a break this season after the whole Dubenko/Gates/Ray love triangle took up a good portion of last season. That was corrected this episode as we finally had an episode that put some focus on the good doctor after a 24-hour shift.

Why focus on her after such a long session? To show her screwing up, of course.

Continue reading ER: ...As The Day She Was Born - VIDEO

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ER has a way of either killing off beloved characters or sending them off in some other unnecessary, shitty way (remember Jeanie just leaving without saying goodbye to anyone because they were too busy?), but now a top star on the show actually wants them to kill off her character.

Maura Tierney tells AOL's TV Tattler that she wants the show to kill Abby. Tierney isn't coming back full time next season (she'll be on a handful of episodes) and she would like to see Abby killed off instead of walking into the sunset with Luka. But breathe easy, Abby fans. Tierney says that the producers have no plans to kill Abby off. I'm not sure why Tierney would want to have her character killed off. I mean, she's not going to be on the show anymore so why tick off fans?

But let's speculate, shall we? I'll leave it up to you, ER fans: if they do kill off Abby, how should she go? Helicopter chopping her head off? Drinking herself to death? Buffalo stampede? Caught in a black hole?

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(S14E14) Welcome back!

We haven't seen each other for awhile -- January 17th, to be exact -- so I thought I'd bring you up to speed about what's happening on ER. Apparently, all of the main characters that started on the show are gone and have been replaced by a younger, more horny group of doctors and nurses who tend to whine a lot. Oh, there's also blood, burns, life, death, sadness, joy, naked doctors, doctors having shock treatments, alcoholic doctors who have had extra-marital affairs, blah, blah, blah.

I kid, of course (except for the horny part). If you've read any of my reviews over the last two years you'd know that I'm pretty pleased with the way the show has re-energized itself with new characters and a focus back into the happenings of the emergency room. True, there are some things that still annoy me, like the never-ending curse over Abby Lockhart, but they can be managed because there are other good things about the show.

So, I guess the only question right now is if I enjoyed this week's episode. Well, read on to find out.

Continue reading ER: Owner of a Broken Heart

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When NBC revealed their new schedule a little early yesterday, it was announced that ER will indeed be back for a 15th season. Now it has been announced that this indeed will be the last season of the long running medical drama.

This current season was supposed to be the last season of the show, but it had sort of a rejuvenation this year, which made NBC completely rework their Thursday at 10 time slot. While they tried a couple of different strategies in that time period, it turned out that the old show ER was actually the most successful.

Continue reading Yes, next season really is the last season of ER

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Hear that sound -- a nearly inaudible rumbling coming over the horizon? Everyday it is getting louder and louder. Soon, the stampede that is the return of scripted series back from the depths of the WGA strike will overrun our televisions and computer screens, bringing overwhelming joy to our lives.

Okay, that statement may be a little flowery, but the sentiment is still there. After a very long dry period a good many of our favorite comedies and dramas are returning to the television landscape. We've had a taste of it these last few weeks with the return of shows like The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Dirt, The Riches and Smallville. That was just a preview of what is to come. Over the next few weeks we will see the return of The Office, Scrubs, Ugly Betty, all of the CSIs, Battlestar Galactica, and Lost, among others.

Gallery: 2007-08 Season: After-strike series returns

Continue reading TV Squad presents the rest of the 2007-08 season

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OK, we can put all of those "George Clooney is going to make a cameo appearance on ER next season!" rumors. You know, the rumors I helped fuel last week.

Clooney himself tells Extra that he is not going to make an appearance on the show. He says that not only would they not ask him to appear on the show, there would be no reason to do it.

Continue reading Update: George Clooney is NOT returning to ER

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It's not something that is definitely going to happen, but ER producers are trying to get as many former cast members to make appearances on the show next season, which looks like a go now and will probably be the NBC show's final season.

So...how exactly do you make a dead (really dead, not soap opera/body never found dead) character like Mark Greene come back to life? Executive producer David Zabel says that they've kicked around the idea of airing a so-called "lost episode" from 1996 featuring Edwards and Noah Wyle, who has agreed to come back to the show for several episodes next season. I guess the other choices are flashbacks, Greene's twin brother, or appearing as a ghost.

Continue reading Anthony Edwards might return to ER (?!)

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Continue reading Warner Brothers set to join Hulu

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Continue reading NBC post-strike: some series return soon, Chuck, Life, Heroes return in the fall

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(S14E13) Before I begin, a big shout out to Jen Creer for filling in on last week's ER episode, which featured the swan song of Abby Lockhart, or not, or, you know...whatever. Don't get me wrong, I like Abby. I just can't take the incessant whining about how bad she is all of the time. I thought we got past it all when Baby Joe was born. But, I guess the producers decided that P.I.T.A (Pain In the Ass) Abby was better for ratings than happy Abby. Ah, always reading the pulse of the viewer!

This week's episode was exciting because we saw the return of Doug Ross and Carol Hathaway. Well, in the guise of Tony Gates and Sam Taggart, that is. I'm sure older fans of the series have seen this relationship coming for a few weeks now and I'm surprised the producers and writers of ER didn't do it sooner. It's pretty logical when you think about it. They're both good looking (although John Stamos has looked a bit haggard these last few episodes), they are both above average in skills in the positions they hold, and they have that I-hate-you-but-I-really-love-you vibe going on. Plus, they're just so darn cute together.

Gallery: ER

Continue reading ER: Atonement

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(S14E12) "Were you ever drunk at work?"-- Sam to Abby

Good evening, and thank you for flying TV Squad. We know you have many choices in which television reviews you read, and we appreciate your clickage. Our regularly scheduled attendant Rich Keller is unavailable this evening, so I will be serving up complimentary opinions and maybe even a little snark. Truthiness is $5. We appreciate correct change. So, sit right back and let's get started.

Gallery: ER

Continue reading ER: Believe the Unseen

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(S14E11) Welcome back Gloria Reuben as Jeanie Boulet.

For those of you who don't remember Jeanie, which would be those of you who jumped on the ER bandwagon from season 7 or later, Jeanie was a Physician's Assistant at County General waaaayyyy back at the beginning of the series run. Originally, she was the physical therapist for Dr. Peter Benton's mother. Eventually, she ended up sleeping with the good doctor while she was married. Then, it turned out that her husband had HIV and, lo and behold, she contracted the virus as well.

Gallery: ER

Continue reading ER: Status Quo

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Continue reading NBC's winter schedule

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(S14E10) "If we keep this thing cranking, we could hit 300. That's quite a milestone." -- Dr. Archie Morris

So, 300 episodes.

No clip show, no big fanfare, no super-humongo guest star (even though Peter Fonda is fairly big). Other than the promos mentioning that it was ER's 300th episode there really wasn't much differing it from episode 159, episode 52, or episode 1.

There were still patients that made us cry a little, doctors that made us laugh, and continuing dramas that, hopefully, came to an end so we didn't end up reaching into the screen and strangling the person causing all of the drama in the first place because she had a chip on her shoulder the size of Mt. Rushmore! Ahem. Like I said...business as usual at County General.

Gallery: ER

Continue reading ER: 300 Patients

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