Ohmygod - ER’s back and Pratt’s died
ER is just about my favourite American TV series EVER. I have loved it since before I knew anything about TV, first spotted it in the listings in the mid-1990s and thought it was something dreadful about Her Majesty. When I tuned in I found it was the snappiest, most intriguing, heart-breaking, at times repulsive and always thrilling TV drama. Which just happens to be set in a Chicago hospital emergency room. And just happened to star George Clooney, Anthony Edwards and Noah Wyle. Plus all the lovely ladies.
Watching ER on Channel 4 on Thursdays used to be a ritual: the beginning of the weekend with only Friday left to struggle through at the office. The hour-long drama left you either high on the goodness of doctors and people in general, or sobbing your heart out as yet another decent, caring but flawed individual crashed and died, sometimes very slowly. Mark Greene’s letter to his colleagues, read out by his one-time protege Carter, was one of the saddest scenes in television history. Greene’s bungled attempt to stop his love, Susan, from leaving on a train, was another terrible highlight. More recently there was Sam’s kidnapping by her crazed ex and Luka’s ordeal at the hands of a grief-crazed Forest Whitaker. Kidnappings were big on ER.
But even I lost the faith with ER, blighted as it was by C4’s abysmal attitude to scheduling must-see TV. When E4 launched in 2001, new series of ER (and Friends) were used to draw viewers to the new channel. Episodes were then repeated, on another day at another time, on C4. That was confusing. The programme was bumped around from 9pm to 10pm and even later. The problem - ER being a US import and sometimes a challenging, fast-paced watch - was always relatively low ratings.
Eventually ER started running on More4, again apparently repeated on C4. But by this time - last year or the year before - I had lost the plot and the will to watch. It didn’t help that the momentum of the drama itself sagged around the start of series 14. I never got to know Hope or Moretti and can’t say I care. Shame C4 didn’t crack what web guru Clay Shirky says is the difference between “6m passionate fans” and “7m bored ones”.
But with the hype of the last ever series, which started last night on More4 at 9pm, I’ve been drawn back in. And what an episode. After an ambulance explosion, presumably at the end of the last series, Pratt went and died! This is what ER has always done best - create a character who is initially a total pain the butt (even Clooney’s Dr Ross was a cad of the first order), but who we come to love as he or she proves their mettle and rises to the top, only to watch them scythed down by the grim reaper. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. This is going to be a corker of a finale.
