So many things to say about this show. For those of you readers out there who have known me for years (Tara) you know that I've loved ER since conception. I haven't missed an episode. I even got all caught up after my mission-no big deal. I stayed strong through the lame Africa episodes and through weakening ratings, and i've loved how the show has had 'life after death' (the title of the first episode of this latest season-did you catch the irony?). I've loved Carol and Doug, Abby and Kovac, Abby and Carter, Abby and Kovac, Lucy and Carter (really Noah did you have to hate that storyline enough to get Lucy killed off?), Benton and Elizabeth, Greene and Elizabeth, etc. etc. etc.
When I worked at NuSkin we had weekly ER discussions Friday mornings. In our little group we liked to say we had code team roles (I know now they're code team roles anyway)-and I always wanted to charge the paddles to 360 and clear-I got pink scrubs like Carol Hathaway and would wear them while I watched the show (yeah, that's pretty gay but what can I say?). I later upgraded to Dr. Greene green scrubs which I will wear to work the night of the show's finale in memoriam. I remember after one of my favorite episodes (the Valentine's one in 2000 when Lucy and Carter got stabbed by that schizophrenic law student) I went into work the next day and Jim was standing in the corner of my cubicle acting all sneaky like that stabber did. Seriously freaked me out. But still funny.
Some of my other episodes I loved include the one in the early seasons when there was a huge blizzard and the ER was empty so they were having ER olympics-then of course there was some huge trauma and everything went to pieces as they went about the business of saving lives. Every episode where Carter had to step up and lead things even though he was only an intern or resident (there were multiple). The episode where Abby found out her husband wasn't paying her tuition so she had to quit medical school. Any episode with Carol and Doug. The first episode when Morgenstern told Greene to set the tone. Dr. Greene's last episode as a doctor when he told Carter to set the tone. Carter's episode when he told Morris to set the tone. I also loved when that one chick (I can't remember her name) came on as the nurse manager (this was just a few years ago-like 2005) and went off on Archie about EBP and all that stuff. It was awesome-I was in nursing school at the time so I got it.
In pre-nurse years I would say that I wanted to be Nurse Hathaway when I grew up in my pink scrubs. Well, I'm a nurse now and I do wear my pink scrubs I bought to watch ER in periodically.
During nursing school lecture classes when my instructors would relate things to real patients, I would counteract with relating things to episodes I saw of ER and what happened there. I even watched hours of dvd footage to find a good scene for a presentation we had to do in our Leadership class-I figured people would find it funny considering the source. When Becky and I got the co-dependency award in our Pinning Ceremony for nursing school Cindy said something like if Becky asks about an episode of ER, Jen's seen it.
ER has brought me to tears more than once-for instance-Dr Greene's death in Hawaii-I've only seen it once and I won't watch it again. And more recently when Dr. Morgenstern returned to the ER with the old guy who had a major impact on ER medicine-his death reminded me a little too much of my primary who died in October-I cried a long time after that one. And of course, right now, as I write this blog. I'm excited for the final episode but it will take awhile to watch-I just don't want it to end. But all in all-it's been a great ride-thanks ER for producing an incredible tv show!!
