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Camille and I grade every episode twice. Realism is how close it
comes to a real emergency department. TV is how good it is as an hour
of television. They are not the same grade and they shouldn't be. Some of the
best episodes would get you written up in real life.
These are eight of my favorites, in the order they aired. No plots given
away beyond what's on the box, and no medical advice. If something on this
list worries you about your own health, call your doctor.
| 1. 24 Hours (the pilot, two hours, Monday, September 19, 1994) |
Realism: B+
TV: A |
The board, the noise, the nurses rolling their eyes at a brand-new medical student: they got the feel right on the very first try, which is why I set the VCR the next week and never stopped. |
| 2. Love's Labor Lost (season 1, March 1995) |
Realism: A
TV: A |
A case that looks routine, a doctor out of his depth, and a department that isn't set up for what happens next. The most honest hour of television about my job ever made, and I've only been able to watch it once. |
| 3. Hell and High Water (season 2, November 1995) |
Realism: D
TV: A |
A pediatrician climbing into a flooded storm drain to save a boy is what fire rescue is for, and every paramedic I know threw something at the TV. I cried anyway. So did Camille, and she'll deny it. |
| 4. The Healers (season 2, February 1996) |
Realism: A-
TV: A- |
The paramedics get their own episode after a building fire, and it treats them with the respect they almost never get; the burn care is handled seriously, and Carol waiting to hear about Shep is every one of us who has ever dated a medic. |
| 5. The Long Way Around (season 3, February 1997) |
Realism: C
TV: A |
Carol is caught in a convenience store robbery that turns into a hostage standoff, with Ewan McGregor as one of the robbers, and she does what she can for the badly hurt store owner with whatever's on the shelves. Hardly any of it is in the hospital, but it's the best Carol hour there is. |
| 6. Ambush (the live one, season 4 premiere, Thursday, September 25, 1997) |
Realism: A
TV: B+ |
Done live, once for the East and again for the West, as if a public television crew were filming a documentary; with no second takes, it looked more like a real shift than anything they've done before or since. |
| 7. Exodus (season 4, February 1998) |
Realism: B+
TV: A- |
A chemical plant disaster, toxic fumes in the department, and an evacuation with patients still coming in; we run a hazardous materials drill twice a year, and this looked like ours, only with better lighting and more yelling. |
| 8. The Storm, Part II (season 5, Thursday, February 18, 1999) |
Realism: C
TV: B+ |
Doug Ross's last regular episode is mostly goodbyes, which is not how anybody really leaves an ER (you just stop being on the schedule and somebody takes your name off your locker), but it was a good goodbye and I sniffed once, as previously reported. |
Honorable mention: every episode where Haleh gets more than two
lines. Write her a story, NBC.
Season three: you'll notice only one episode from it. That was the
winter I was working extra shifts on my way to charge nurse, and I watched
half of it in pieces at two in the morning. It deserves a second look and
it's going to get one.
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