ER

I had forgotten that I wanted to see ER on Thursday because Ray Liotta was going to be on and the episode was about his characters last 44 minutes of life (in real time).
I saw the episode. Ray did a fine job as I thought he would. The cast was their usual selves which is first rate...and yet.
I’ve mentioned this before that shows that are story driven, to me anyway, last longer and are better because you don’t get bored with them. Law & Order is a perfect example. We know very little about the private lives of the characters that have been on a show that has been running over fourteen years. On an aside, it is also interesting to note that a motto for the show is, ‘No Guns, or Buns’. But I digress.
ER used to be one of my favorite shows because it followed the story driven philosophy. Then somewhere along the way that changed to character driven and I changed the channel.
The storyline with Ray Liotta reminded me of an episode the show did in the first year it was on. One of the story threads was about this salesman (Alan Rosenberg) from Indiana or Ohio that came into the ER having blackouts and Mark Greene determined that this guys heart was giving out and that he had hours (probably) to live. The guys family (wife and preteen daughter) made it in time from home to be with him, but throughout the show he would ‘code’ (so you knew by shows end the guy WOULD die) and the ER staff would revive him.
It was a powerful episode and one of their finest moments and it was also not about the cast but the idea of the ER itself where you can get away with intense minidramas everyday unlike people who can’t be in intense dramas in their lives everyday.
So, Ray great job, but everyone else...sorry, but I won’t be taping next week.