ER : Season One

Well I've come to the end of the grist season of E.R. and it's time for a quick look back.

Over the past 24 episodes we've seen Mark's marriage struggle, John has grown in confidence and looks set to make an excellent doctor, Doug come close to settling down with a woman (who wasn't Carol), Peter deal with his ailing mother and Susan tearing her hair out trying to look out for her irresponsible older sister.

As the season draws to a close Mark as statred to get his marriage back on track but is facing a mal practice suit, Carol's marriage to Tag (what kind of name is that?) is called of on the day when he realises she'll never love him like he loves her and guess who is overjoyed at the news. Yes that would be one Doug Ross.
Elsewhere it seems Susan is left holding the baby as her sister goes awol after giving birth and Peter is just about holding it together as he comes to terms with the loss of his elderly mother and how helpless he was in the end to do anything about it.

We also had an episode directed by one mister Quentin Tarantino, 'Motherhood'. Now for the most part it follows the E.R. template (which is already fairly impressive when you consider the one take steady cam shots that can be going for up to five minutes) but there are one or two flashes of the style we now all know. One comes as Carol and Susan lounge in the sun on the roof of the hospital and then stride down the corridor in unison. The other as we get a patient's eye from the trauma table, as Dr Greene peers down into the camera.

Amongst notable faces turning up we've had Amy Ryan (The Wire's sweet Beadie Russel), Bradley Whitford (The West Wing's Josh), Ving Rhames & Micheal Ironside. As well as Gloria Reuben starting to move toward becoming part of the main cast in the second half the series and Ming Na as young stressed out med student Deb Chen.

So twenty four episodes down and many to go but so far it's everybit as compulsive as I remember it when watching the first time round.