TV: Cañon City (ER Season 12 Premiere)
Am I destined for another year of visual disappointment?
I missed the first airing of the season 12 premiere on E4, by simply forgetting it was on. Lacklustre commitment probably wasn’t the best way to approach the 12th series of the awarding winning medical drama in its highly anticipated post-Carter era. But I wasn’t wrong.
We pick up, sadly, where we left off. Luka & Sam provide the boring but apparently necessary family themed story arch (see Carter's Mother, Abby's Brother, Chen's Father storylines of the past). Alex is missing, Alex is diabetic, blah blah blah. Sam screeches, flaps her hair around and tries to out screen run Tom Cruise. Luka looks on sceptically, retaining his ‘my kids were killed by a bomb’ upper hand.
This headache-inducing topic which took up well over 60% of the episode was made only slightly interesting by a re-casting. They have replaced the kid who plays annoying Alex with another kid who plays an equally annoying Alex in a different way - he doesn’t really talk. Maybe his voice is breaking. IMDB tells me that Old Alex has rejected ER in favour of another tv show/movie (I couldn’t care less, look it up yourself!) which is frankly pretty embarrassing. Still, it was fun to shout the obvious comments at the tv when Sam identified a diabetic coma at the hospital with the words “it’s not him”.
In other news, our favourite characters were utilised in the space filling exercise ‘ER Clichés Past & Present’. The formulaic approach would have provided some humour, if only they hadn’t completely obliterated already well established characters. Abby, based on past experience, wouldn’t do that. But it seems the writers can now only use Abby/Neela/Ray as a new doctor triple act, relinquishing them from individual storylines presumably to free up more Screamy Sam time.
With Weaver nowhere to be seen, Susan is presumably in charge. Wandering around eating an apple, with the same vaguely bemused expression she has worn since her big return, it seems Sherry Stringfield has no more of a clue where to take this character than the writers. So she asks Haleh to critique Ray's performance running a trauma - classic ER themes “this is a teaching hospital”, “use the nurses”. I can imagine, and probably half remember, Mark Greene doing this at least once in an earlier series. However Susan doesn’t possess the sincere tones of her old colleague. In fact, she half sounds like she's taking the piss.
I understand the need to evolve, I’ve accepted the loss of the entire original cast, and eventually Carter, and embraced the newbies. But the decision to retain Morris as a serious and regular character is an act so lazy it makes me sad for what ER has become. I still live in hope that they’re currently planning an ER / 24 crossover which will see him inadvertently strapped to the one nuclear warhead Jack doesn’t manage to stop.
As a footnote, this also wins the award for most boring episode title ever. Maybe there is some hidden meaning that I'm just not getting, but as far as I can tell, it was just the location of the prison. Exciting. It's like they gave it a working title and then never got around to changing it.
Must try harder.
I missed the first airing of the season 12 premiere on E4, by simply forgetting it was on. Lacklustre commitment probably wasn’t the best way to approach the 12th series of the awarding winning medical drama in its highly anticipated post-Carter era. But I wasn’t wrong.
We pick up, sadly, where we left off. Luka & Sam provide the boring but apparently necessary family themed story arch (see Carter's Mother, Abby's Brother, Chen's Father storylines of the past). Alex is missing, Alex is diabetic, blah blah blah. Sam screeches, flaps her hair around and tries to out screen run Tom Cruise. Luka looks on sceptically, retaining his ‘my kids were killed by a bomb’ upper hand.
This headache-inducing topic which took up well over 60% of the episode was made only slightly interesting by a re-casting. They have replaced the kid who plays annoying Alex with another kid who plays an equally annoying Alex in a different way - he doesn’t really talk. Maybe his voice is breaking. IMDB tells me that Old Alex has rejected ER in favour of another tv show/movie (I couldn’t care less, look it up yourself!) which is frankly pretty embarrassing. Still, it was fun to shout the obvious comments at the tv when Sam identified a diabetic coma at the hospital with the words “it’s not him”.
In other news, our favourite characters were utilised in the space filling exercise ‘ER Clichés Past & Present’. The formulaic approach would have provided some humour, if only they hadn’t completely obliterated already well established characters. Abby, based on past experience, wouldn’t do that. But it seems the writers can now only use Abby/Neela/Ray as a new doctor triple act, relinquishing them from individual storylines presumably to free up more Screamy Sam time.
With Weaver nowhere to be seen, Susan is presumably in charge. Wandering around eating an apple, with the same vaguely bemused expression she has worn since her big return, it seems Sherry Stringfield has no more of a clue where to take this character than the writers. So she asks Haleh to critique Ray's performance running a trauma - classic ER themes “this is a teaching hospital”, “use the nurses”. I can imagine, and probably half remember, Mark Greene doing this at least once in an earlier series. However Susan doesn’t possess the sincere tones of her old colleague. In fact, she half sounds like she's taking the piss.
I understand the need to evolve, I’ve accepted the loss of the entire original cast, and eventually Carter, and embraced the newbies. But the decision to retain Morris as a serious and regular character is an act so lazy it makes me sad for what ER has become. I still live in hope that they’re currently planning an ER / 24 crossover which will see him inadvertently strapped to the one nuclear warhead Jack doesn’t manage to stop.
As a footnote, this also wins the award for most boring episode title ever. Maybe there is some hidden meaning that I'm just not getting, but as far as I can tell, it was just the location of the prison. Exciting. It's like they gave it a working title and then never got around to changing it.
Must try harder.
posted by Shhh at 11:35 AM
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