ER Season 3

There is a moment during the third run of Michael Crichton’s hugely successful medical drama that remains, to this day, one of the most shocking pieces of television I have ever seen. In these days of internet spoilers, actively encouraged by studios eager to garner the maximum possible audience for their shows, it is very difficult to remain unaware of what is coming up on your favourite series, but back then in the dark ages of 1997 it was still possible to go into a series not knowing every little detail of what was about to happen. As such, and as paradoxical as it sounds, I look back on that scene with an almost fond nostalgia, despite the horror it still evokes. Those who saw it will know what I am talking about, and for those who haven’t and are only now watching the early years as they are released on DVD (including a friend of mine) I have no intention of ruining it. Suffice to say, it is the high-water mark of a season that, while comfortably higher in standard than the last couple of season we've seen on television, still has the feeling of coasting somewhat.

The story so far: Jeanie’s husband has been diagnosed with HIV and she (played by Gloria Reuben), and her former lover Peter Benton (Eriq la Salle), are anxiously awaiting the results of their own tests. The staff at County General are tense as talk of a hospital in the area closing becomes more than rumour, while Drs Greene and Lewis (Anthony Edwards and Sherry Stringfield) are still engaging in a Will-they-won’t-they dance that hasn’t been going anywhere since, oh, about episode one. This was the last season to star all of the original season's line-up, with Lewis leaving early on, and it's noticeable that a couple of the regulars aren't actually given much to do during the year, suggesting that the writers were looking forward to bringing in some new blood the following year, in the form of Alex Kingston and Maria Bello.

Kerry (Laura Innes) and Carter (Noah Wyle) fare particularly badly in this regard with the former especially having to be content with just striding around the ER on her crutches barking orders, every so often letting her guard down to reveal that there is a much softer heart pumping within her than we were led to believe during the previous year. With Carter, the writers more often than not fall back on using him as comic relief, a foil for Benton which, while fun when he was a med student, doesn’t quite have the same resonance now he has qualified – sure, Benton is still his senior, but there isn’t quite the authoritorial distance between them there once was. This is emphasised twice mid-season, firstly when Carter has an affair with an eminent surgeon who Benton is hoping to study under, and secondly when the gleeful Carter gets to operate on Benton’s appendix. Long-term, he doesn’t really go anywhere – we knew he cared more for his patients than his career at the beginning of the season (see the season two finale in which he missed his own graduation) but that is the only serious facet to his character shown again. That’s fine as it is but the lack of progression, or consequences, is disappointing – the one time he goes over a senior surgeon’s head, he escapes with a probation which doesn’t really affect him. By the year’s end he’s beginning to wonder whether he’s cut out to be a surgeon, which is fair enough – but we all knew he wasn’t really anyway, and a year taken to come to that decision could have been more dramatic, or heartwrenching, instead of the placid journey he takes here. (His friend and fellow just-qualified doctor Gant, played by Omar Epps, fares much better with his shorter screentime). Nurse Hathaway, too, is left a little in limbo, her main problem of a rickety old house not really a replacement for the sparring with Ross that was one of the highlights of the first two years. (A later story, in which she considers becoming a doctor, was nixed by actress Julianna Margulies herself, who believed the character would never do that - the writers revived the idea with Maura Tierney's character years later).

The other regulars do somewhat better. Dr Greene becomes a bit of a lothario following the exit of his One True Love, an amusing reversal of roles with Ross, who at the beginning of the season Greene is berating for his constant womanising, while the story he becomes embroiled in during the final episodes is easily the best of the season. Clooney as Doug Ross, starts strongly, in particular with an episode called Last Call, but then fades a little, a reflection that Clooney was beginning to juggle appearing on the show with filming commitments for his burgeoning Hollywood career. Arguably the character with the best year, however, is Benton, a character who in the past was a little one-dimensional but this season has to broaden his outlook – early on, his desire to specialise in paediatrics is in peril because, as another character tells him, he forgets that his work as a doctor does not end the moment he walks out of the OR (Operating Room) but has to include looking after the patient’s physical and (just as importantly) emotional well-being (something almost completely alien to him) all the way through recovery. This emotional reserve is fully challenged in the face of his pregnant ex-girlfriend, who manages to bring out a side of his personality he never knew he had. Eriq la Salle is never less than watchable and manages to play the confusing times Benton is going through extremely well, never once losing his cool and yet letting the viewer know exactly what’s going on. Performance of the year, however, goes to Gloria Reuben, for her moving, understated playing of Jeanie, a doctor who faces a lot of personal heartache but, despite the heavy burdens she carries, never once falters in her professional life. By the end of the season the viewer is holding out for things to go right for her, and the dignified way she carries herself would surely be inspirational to others who find themselves in a similar situation. (It could be argued that her character is a blatant example of network television Tackling an Issue, but the actress brings so much to the role that this is a quibble I am happy to live with).

While there’s the usual litany of famous faces coming through the doors – it’s a sign of the popularity of the show at the time that both William H Macy and CCH Pounder (playing one of her no-nonsense characters with typical relish) have recurring roles - it’s interesting to spot several faces who would later go on to have glittering careers. As well as the obvious appearance by Ewan McGregor as a robber, both Mena Suvari and Kirsten Dunst appear, the former with a recurring role as a teenage prostitute. Dunst had already made an impression with Interview with a Vampire, but here she shows she can handle a more complex role with no problems at all. Other actors who come through the doors asking for help include Lawrence Tierney, Harry Shearer and Airplane’s Julie Hagerty with the acting, across the board, of an extremely high quality with even the patients who scream and yell doing so in a way that feels utterly authentic.

The good thing about ER is that, even in the lesser episodes, it’s always entertaining. The multiple plot strands ensure that something interesting is going on, and even if there’s one storyline that isn’t so hot, you know you’re only a few quickly-delivered lines of dialogue away from finding another. By this stage, the show has its formula down pat, and the majority of the episodes see no reason to mess with what evidently works so well. So, in a typical hour, we get any of the following: the Struggle for Life, the Unexpected Complication (also easy to spot as they’re usually the patients that arrive at the hospital smiling and jolly), the Funny Patient and, sometimes, the Patient that Teaches a Doctor a Lesson in Life. Throw in the usual hype of a couple of emergencies per episode (the ones that get brought straight in and have loads of tubes stuck into them while nurses dance around responding to instructions such as “Get me five units of O-Neg, stat!” as the camera whirls around making everything a blur) and the cutesy-poo funny moments, and you have your average ER show. This season, a couple of the cutesy-poo bits feel a bit forced – there's a bit too much reliance on Jerry the receptionist (Abraham Benrubi) and his schemes, notably a scene in which he and Jeanie bring a valuable lab-mouse back from the dead, which is too reminiscent of an earlier episode in which a man brings his dog in for treatment, although some are amusing - the kangaroo, in particular, is something to look out for. Occasionally, ER breaks its formulaic shackles and goes hell for leather with a one-character special – season two it was Ross with the boy in the drain – and this year’s, Carol’s ending up in a store robbery, continues that strong run – it’s no surprise it was nominated for three Emmies – Guest Actor, Direction and Editing with a Single Camera, winning the latter. (All in all, this season had a total of twenty-one Emmy nominations, also winning in the Casting and Sound Mixing categories) As always in any show, there are a couple of episodes that meander, but this isn’t nearly as much of a problem as it sometimes is on other series – the quality of writing and production values on ER at this time was such that even an average episode whizzes by without risk of boredom setting in. As well, ER doesn’t shirk from examining tricky ethical issues which are always interesting – should Dr Greene put a mentally-disabled boy on the heart transplant list, should Dr Carter put a patient through life-endangering surgery even if they have asked for it? and so on – although the limits of an hour-long television show tend to boil these down into slightly simpler terms than similar situations have in real life.

All in all, then, it was business as usual for Season Three. This is soap opera of the highest calibre, made with a degree of professionalism and assurance that almost challenges the audience not to be swept away by it all. As said, it does wander at times, but there are enough elements in there to ensure it maintains the quality set by the first two years. That scene mentioned in the opening paragraph, in particular, retains its power even now, eight years later, an extremely clever moment that is neither gratuitous (the storyline that surrounds it, which I have hardly mentioned at all this review, is one of the more interesting of the season) nor over-the-top (contrast it with silly scenes in later years such as helicopters crashing and you soon appreciate the difference). It’s almost enough to recommend this set on its own. As it is, it’s just the highlight of another strong year, from the days when ER was truly indispensable television.


The Disk
All twenty-two episodes of the third season come on four disks. The episodes themselves are presented in the 16:9 ratio they were shot in, besides the titles sequence which is cropped slightly. Menus are easy to navigate, sensibly arranged with a Play All function or an individual episodes submenu. The episodes themselves are missing the "Previously on ER" recaps at the beginning.

The Video transfer is not all it could be. The image has a resolute softness about it throughout all the episodes I saw, as well as a very fine layer of grain that, while unnoticeable unless given close inspection, is still there and still brings the video mark down.

The Audio, on the other hand, is fine, a nice mix which brings across the chaos of the emergency scenes without losing clarity.

Extras
The review copies we got were not complete, and did not come with any of the final set’s extras included. However, there are two commentaries, one on an episode - Whose Appy Now - which seems a rather curious choice, as there are other, more important episodes, which would have benefited from a chat track. There are the usual gag reels included too, as well as a featurette about the nurse’s station.

Overall
Although some characters are left straggling a little, this is a fine season of ER which, while probably not quite as strong as the first two, still remains hugely enjoyable to watch. Although unable to assess the extras, they appear almost exactly the same as the previous releases, which should ensure a solid DVD set.