ER
tonight was the series finale of ER.
a one-hour retrospective special, followed by a two-hour final episode.
and i’m not ashamed to say that i cried for most of those three hours.
at first, i thought it was because of the sentimentality – seeing beloved characters and actors again, revisiting memorable episodes... saying goodbye to a show that i’ve watched every thursday night for almost 15 years. then i thought maybe it was because so many of the storylines on tonight’s broadcast were intensely poignant – two elderly gay men preparing for one’s imminent demise; ernest borgnine crawling into a hospital bed alongside his just-deceased wife, whom he’d loved for 72 years, and tenderly stroking her hair; the melancholy melody of the show’s theme as the now-20something daughter of onetime regular dr. mark greene (anthony edwards) wandered the halls, stepping into her late father’s scrubs and preparing to begin her own career in medicine. so much material to make me sob, really. add it to some PMS and sob i did.
when ER debuted in september 1994, my life was virtually unrecognizable from the one i have now. i was newly out of university. i hadn’t yet met most of the friends i have today. hadn’t yet moved out of my parents’ house. hadn’t yet started my career. i was just a kid.
but over that decade and a half, while watching the men and women of county general, i grew up. emotionally, physically, psychologically and chronologically. oldER. bravER. smartER. calmER.
i changed, and the world changed. and that passage of time was driven home tonight as the series reflected on its time on air.
the actors then vs. those same actors today.
storylines then vs. storylines now.
they got older. 15 years older. and so did i.
that’s when i realized that, despite my fondness for ER and my sadness that it’s now over (because it was truly one of the best television dramas ever created), my feelings and my (copious) tears during its goodbye had more to do with the passing of time than of a TV show ending its run. i was swept up in a tsunami of melancholy.
15 years is a long time for a series.
and in a life.
and these past 15 years have been some of the most important in mine.
it may sound silly, i know, but it feels a bit like a door has gently closed. something as superfluous as a television show that’s been a regular part of my life (however tangentially) for 15 formative years is not going to be there anymore.
and i’ll miss it.
9 comments:
Gosh I think if I'd add it up, I have literally spent 15 years in ER. ;¬)
I used to be a fan. Somehow through the years I stopped watching, so I did not watch the finale.
I understand the missing part. (((Val)))
Emily is with you on ER. She has never missed an episode and has been setting up her schedule and videotape for weeks to capture these final episodes. She often begins conversations lately with, "Guess who is back on ER this week?"
I have been an ER fan, but I can sympathize with your fan-dom by recalling my feelings about M*A*S*H. 1972-1983. Never missed it during that meaningful period of war and strife.
...wait--I have NOT been a regular watcher of ER. Sheesh.
My favourite parts of last night's episode was the penultimate scene showing everyone lined up and waiting for the ambulances to pull in. It reminded me of the first episode.
VERY fave part was the slow pan back from County General while the theme played (getting chills just typing this) and we got to see the exterior of the hospital after all these years.
It, after reading Lou's comment, reminded me of MASH's finale, with the slow helicopter pan over the 4077th. Wonder if that was an homage...
could be.
but i was actually distracted by digital construction of that last shot... which mapped the WB studio lot's exterior set piece (the ambulance bay) with footage of the L and the faux-hospital inserted behind it.
and my only other complaint about the episode was the needless addition of alexis bledel.
Aw come on! You're that much of a stickler for detail?? :)
I agree - Alexis Bledel was a waste. I kept wondering when she would do something interesting enough to warrant her being hired on.
and being hired on for the last episode. why?
Errr.... (as opposed to ERrrr), you have a typo: "when ER debuted in september 2004" (needs a decade knocked off!)
I used to love ER, but got burnt out when Romano got killed by a falling helicopter. I mean, how many explosions and outlandish accidents can happend in/around/to one building?
But I sure loved the heydey with Dr. Greene, Nurse Hathaway, Jeanie Boulet, etc. I was still around when they added Maura Tierney who did her best to make up for the loss of the others, but I just wasn't as glued anymore. So I faded. Maybe I'll catch this last ep on DVD sometimes out of curiosity...
good grief. can't believe i missed that -- thanks, linda!
and yes, the one thing the retrospective did was remind me how AMAAAAAAZING the show *used* to be and, even though it was still decent in its final days, how far it had fallen from its heyday.
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