 |
| Available at Amazon.com |
There have been many television series that I’ve enjoyed in my lifetime and had to deal with people leaving the show, the series coming to an end, and some heart wrenching moments as my favorite characters died or at least came close to it. Season eight of ER had one of the saddest episodes in television history as a beloved character came down to his last days and escaped from the hectic life of the Chicago based emergency room. Dr. Mark Greene left us all and it brought tears to my eyes like not many other shows have done before. And that’s even watching it earlier this year and it first aired almost six years ago. Could the series bounce back from losing such a wonderful character as well as actor and be just as good?
The entire crew of the most famous emergency room in all of history continued to grow as a really big dysfunctional family into season seven, even though some knew their time was coming to an end. A lot of the actors saw their personas progress while others watched as they shot off into entirely different directions. And with a cast of close to twenty main characters, ER continued showcase each one with their own plot line and enough time to make them work.
Once again that is a description that holds true to what ER is exactly about. I said it for seasons seven and eight, and now say it for season nine. You can’t really expect things to get much different then that considering that ninety percent of each episode takes place inside the hospital. And almost ninety percent of those scenes take place in the emergency room. You do learn an awful lot about the characters and more then likely you’ll develop a relationship with them that may be a little too close for comfort. None of this series description is really necessary though for anyone who is a fan of the show. And if you’re not a fan of it, then you probably get the gist of the whole thing.
The big wonder going into the ninth season of ER is how would the series survive with two of its biggest and most well known cast members (Anthony Edwards and Eriq LaSalle) now gone? Noah Wyle would be stepping in as the lead star since he had the longest tenure on the show, but it just wasn’t a very optimistic outlook. Things could not have been more wrong as ER not only continued on, but it brought about one of the best seasons the series has ever had. We’ve got a couple mid-life crises going on. A new doctor is wondering if he made the right career change while dealing with Parkinson’s disease. Someone is dealing with some manic episodes. The usual love triangles, rectangles, and octagons are going on as usual which makes for some great side stories outside and inside the emergency room. And as if that wasn’t enough, there are guest stars galore including a few return appearances from Sally Field as Abby’s mother.
It is almost as if they didn’t even notice that two of their big stars were now gone from the show. ER does not miss a single beat as the drama, tension, and yes the action keeps on building momentum as the series plugs on. You don’t see many television series that can survive nine years on the air and not suffer in some capacity or another. Yeah Law & Order is out there, but you could come up with new and different crimes every second of the day. Who would have ever thought that one little (but rather big) emergency room could generate so many different storylines and continue to keep fans interested in the characters and show itself? Not me, but the ninth season of ER is only the halfway point so far as the series is still going strong and shows no signs of slowing down. If there’s any evidence to be drawn from the ninth season, it’s that the series is only speeding up and has yet to come around the curve for the cool down.
Episodes
Disc One:
Chaos Theory
Dead Again
Insurrection
Walk Like A Man
Disc Two:
A Hopeless Wound
One Can Only Hope
Tell Me Where It Hurts
First Snowfall
Disc Three:
Next Of Kin
Hindsight
A Little Help From My Friends
Disc Four:
A Saint In The City
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
No Strings Attached
A Boy Falling Out Of The Sky
Disc Five:
A Thousand Cranes
The Advocate
Finders Keepers
Things Change
Disc Six:
Foreign Affairs
When Night Meets Day
Kisangani
The episodes are seen in an Anamorphic Widescreen format just as they were when they first aired and all looks great. The colors are bright where they need to be and the shadows cast great darkness for the more gloomy situations.
The episodes are heard in Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround Sound and sound fantastic. The use of the surround sound is excellent as every single beep of a machine or gasp for air can be heard from all sides as you watch the action on screen and pay attention to the main conversation. Never too loud and not too soft, everything comes through perfectly.
Outpatient Outtakes – Seventeen of the twenty-two episodes have these outtakes which are actually the deleted scenes from the episodes. Nothing much is in any of them and they make no real difference being left out.
Cutups – As it is every season, a lot of laughing and messing up lines. Some goofing on goes as well which will probably have you laughing quite a bit. The one problem I continue to find is that whoever puts these DVD sets together obviously doesn’t watch or pay attention because the same mistake happened last time. This time the DVD packaging says the gag reel is on disc three but in reality its on disc six.
ER is one of those television series that you’ll never be able to get rid of even if you try to. Once you’ve watched a couple of episodes and you’re hooked into the storylines, it’s impossible to let go because your friends (the doctors of the ER) would be living their lives and you’d know nothing of them. You’d go crazy is what you’d do. The ninth season had a lot to prove and it certainly did with some great episodes, brand new storylines, and continuations of storylines that were going on before Dr. Greene’s death. It could have just lay down and died slowly over the course of another year or two, but the writers decided to press on and see if they still had it in them and boy, do they ever. You’re going to love seeing Noah Wyle step up to the front as the lead here because it is as if he was made for the part. Not to mention that Sally Field is brilliant as always and Maura Tierney has always been one of my favorites so seeing them interact so much is awesome. The special features are few but again not too bad. Pick this set up because it’s really worth the cash you’ll shell out for it. That and do you have any idea how cool it will look having like twenty seasons of ER side by side in your DVD collection once they’re all released?
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Warner Home Video presents ER: The Complete Ninth Season. Created by: Michael Crichton. Starring: Noah Wyle, Laura Innes, Maura Tierney, Laura Ceron, Goran Visnjic, Alex Kingston, and more. Running time: 986 minutes on 6 discs. Rating: Not Rated. Released on DVD: June 17, 2008. Available at Amazon.com
About Danny Cox
