od0_ital;2703471though God knows why a grown man would need the help of a pediatrics specialist (Ross).[/quote said:
That was my thought, too!
Well, as far as I've guessed the plot from the promo, Ross will never meet Carter in tonight's episode. There seem to be two separate plots, each including some old faces.
That said, I think ER is still a very fine show and has never ceased to be one - exvept for a brief period ca. 2 years ago when they tried very hard to become more like the dreadful, but sadly successful Grey's Anatomy. Thank God they got back to serious drama in County General.
As for the "new" characters (most of them are now in their sixth season, so they're not really new), I really don't understand why people can't get into them. They have made the once-annoying Morris into kind of a new Mark Greene, albeit with a nerdy, comic twist, which is just perfect. Sam follows in the tradition of previous nurse characters as a woman who is conflicted, with difficult relationships and family (much like Carol and Abby before her) but who's also very sensitive and caring, the heart of the ER. While it took me a few years to get to like her, now I think she's the best character on the show. Neela is written somewhat erratically, I have to say, but by making her a surgeon, this even makes sense in a way... seeing how the show has characterized the surgeon's profession for 15 years
Gates is a good-enough Clooney/Visnjic replacement, the handsome doctor who's something of a renegade that keeps getting into trouble. It works. And introducing Angela Bassett was inspired, if you ask me. The show was lacking a character who wasn't instantly likeable, like Kerry Weaver, but who slowly revealed surprising depths and dramatic potential.
So for me, it has never stopped working as a show. But I can't blame anyone for giving up. It's been 15 years after all. Think about it: That is Star Trek TNG and VGR taken together. Plus one season ENT. And even some hardcore-ish Trekkies dropped out sometime during that run of shows.
Of course, Star Trek wasn't as much Star Trek anymore when ENT began, as ER still remains faithful to the original concept it started with two months before Star Trek Generations came out. (Can you believe that??
)
