TVSquad

(S13E21) Oh, Rich, I hope Disney World was worth missing the wedding of the week, as you called it last week. Hello, folks, I am pitching in for Rich this week. I noted one of the comments from a story (this post has spoilers, do don't click the link unless you like spoilers!) Isabelle Carreau did a few weeks ago about the show: Another Jen said that the show really ended for her when Mark Greene died. I was in a hotel a couple of weeks ago and caught a TNT rerun of the episode where Greene died and cried through it all over again. I swear, I have cried more over that TV character dying than some over the deaths of some of the people I've actually met who have died. (Kidding. That was a joke.)

The show didn't end for me when Greene died-- but I haven't been as enamored with it since Luka and Abby were being stalked by Curtis Ames (the fabulous Forest Whitaker).

At the NBC party for the TCA press tour earlier this month, there was a small contingent of ER cast members floating around, but two of them happened to be my favorites: Linda Cardellini and Parminder Nagra (what, you think I was going to say Shane West?). Both actresses seem to be more prominently involved in the veteran show's storylines this year: Cardellini's Samantha Taggart has already had to deal with killing her fugitive ex-husband and now is trying to figure out how to control a son whose behavior is going south, and Nagra's Neela Rasgotra has been in a torrid affair with John Stamos' character, Tony Gates.

I caught up with both of them and asked them about how they think the year's been going so far and what's in store for each of their characters during the remainder of the season.

When people who have met John Stamos say that he's a nice, charming, down-to-earth guy, they're not kidding. He's so damned charming that twice during my phone conversation with him last week, I told him that since he already had my number, he should call me to talk about TV off-the record. (Hey, the guy said to me both times that he enjoyed the conversation. And we talked about New Jersey -- he did a movie in Freehold once. So I caved.)

It's that likability that has carried his career for the last twenty-five years, from General Hospital to Full House to ER. It's also what he hopes will draw people to Wedding Wars, an A&E original movie that will air Monday at 9 PM. In the comedy, he plays Shel, a gay party planner who sparks a national pro-gay-marriage movement when he goes on strike while planning the wedding of his brother Ben (Eric Dana).,The strike happens after he finds out Ben wrote an anti-gay marriage speech for his boss, the governor of Maine.

I spoke to Stamos about the movie for The New York Post, but while I had him on the phone, I couldn't resist asking him about ER, his Uncle Jesse mullet, and his friendship with Howard Stern. The interview is after the jump.

(S13E08) Greetings, all you ER-heads! Just a quick note of clarification. Last week's review was mislabeled as episode six. It was actually number seven of the 13th season of ER. We are now back on track with the numbering.

Now that business is out of the way, let's bound ahead with this week's review. I would label this as a standard episode. Nothing earth-shattering occurred, no huge character developments. Just another episode to move the season along. Not to say it wasn't good, because it was. I guess you could say it was a placeholder episode, taking a breath before something bigger occurs.

Let's highlight a few important points, shall we? First, the plot with the homeless boy who comes in with rabies. Maybe I'm wrong, but it felt very mythical. Almost Lord of the Rings-like. There was the 'Blue Lady' with the secret name who was the heroine, and the 'Blood-Face Lady' who was the villain. Heck, with all of his curly hair the boy named Teller looked like a young Frodo Baggins. I wonder if we'll see those kids again in a future episode.

Good lord, the producers of ER love to kill off their doctors so they won't come back again in highly paid guest-star roles! First, it was Lucy Knight (Kellie Martin) who died after being stabbed by a patient (David Krumholtz of Numb3rs). Next it was Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards) who died of a brain tumor. Then Robert Romano (Paul McCrane) got his ticket punched after a helicopter fell on him (this is after a helicopter blade cut off his arm in an earlier episode).

Now, they have knocked off Doctor Michael Gallant (Sharif Atkins). In Thursday's episode, Gallant (who appeared as a regular from 2001-2004) died after his convoy truck struck a roadside bomb. Gallant, who left the confines of County General to go to Iraq as an Army doctor, had a recurring role this season as he returned home, married Dr. Neela Rasgotra (Parminder Nagra of Bend it Like Beckham) then decided to return to Iraq once again.

And now, as the season comes to an end next Thursday, there may be more death and destruction for the emergency room staff, as two prisoners start shooting up the hospital and the people, taking hostages in the meantime.

Gosh, I miss the good old days when Doctor Ross (George Clooney) would flirt with Nurse Hathaway (Julianna Margulies) or Doctor Carter (Noah Wyle) would bow under Doctor Benton's (Eriq La Salle) stare. Maybe we can have an episode where Dr. Greene returns from the dead and slaps some sense into all of them.

(Joel mentioned this as a spoiler back in the TV Squad APB #3.)

What's happening on ER these days? It must be something big because the NBC hospital drama made a huge comeback last week, beating out a repeat of Without a Trace with 15.4 million viewers. Yes, it was a repeat. But, even the repeats on CBS have been kicking NBC's butt lately.

I gave up on ER years ago, even before George Clooney left, because I couldn't handle having a major emotional breakdown each week. I tuned in for a couple of key episodes over the years: i.e. when Lucy and Carter got stabbed in the kidneys, when Doug left, when Carol left, and when Dr. Green died.

So tell me, is it any good?