Friday, May 18, 2007

Mini-Rant

OK - I'm not a huge television fan. I watch Survivor, CSI, ER during the network season and Rescue Me and Ghost Hunters over the summer. They are the only shows I make a point of watching. That's it.

It's been season finale week. CSI was good. A cliffhanger. A good cliffhanger. No problem. Summer's going to drag until September, but that's okay.

And now for the rant. (warning, plot spoilers - so if you watch ER and haven't seen the finale, stop here).

I can honestly say I have never been more disappointed in an ER season finale. Never. Ever.

There's a website called Jump the Shark and it references an episode of Happy Days where a water-skiing Fonzi (in his leather jacket, no less)jumps over a shark. That term has come to mean when a television series has gone bad.

Now, I didn't know it was possible for a show to jump that same damn shark more than once, but ER's managed to find a way. First, there was Greene dying of a brain tumor. Then there was the helicoper falling on Romano. Then, a crazy guy stormed the ER with a tank. The ER's been blown up, shot up, a schizoprenic guy killed a med student, Hathaway and her twins (and their dramatic emergency delivery), Doug Ross leaves, only to be reborn in the body of John Stamos, Kerry's gay, Kerry's straight, Gallant gets blown to bits in Iraq, Sam is raped by her ex and then kills him, and what is it that everyone in the free world has a thing for Neela??? Ugh, the list goes on.

And last night, it jumped the shark yet again.

What the hell? Romano loses an arm. Ray loses both of his legs. Neela gets trampled at a peace rally. I know Goran Visjnic is only slated for a few episodes next season, so his going to Croatia wasn't a surprise. What will be the surprise is if his plane doesn't crash into the ER upon takeoff.

What's next? I know - a doctor (maybe Abby, since they've pretty much played out her storyline) loses everything but her head and they just wheel it around the ER so she can keep saving crazies.

I've been a fan of ER since the beginning. I have not missed an episode. Even when I thought "This has to be the last season because it's going steadily downhill" I watched every Thursday.

Judging by the finale last night - I'm almost hoping NBC pulls the plug next season because this show is jumping the shark, circling the cove, and coming back for more. Over and over.

What happened to this show? Could it be because it's been on for so long that the writers have run out of original material? Original plots? That's got to be it. Now they're going for camp. It's a shame, because this was one of the best dramas ever. And now, it's becoming a joke. Everyone's sleeping with everyone. Men and women are going nutso for Neela. I can't stand John Stamos. I miss Romano- he was the one interesting character and they dropped a freakin' helicopter on him.

Sigh... I guess there's nothing to do but sit back and hope for a swift, painless death. It's a shame - but I think ER's run ended about 5 years ago. I only hope that the writers and producers find some way to give it a graceful demise. It's getting over the top silly now.

OK - rant over.

3 comments:

Sarah said...

I am a total flipper. If it gets dull I flip or if I just can't bear to watch it because it is just too predictable. I was watching that last night and I was like WTF!?!

Kim said...

I know - I kept waiting for Neela to suddenly sit up and gasp for air and realize it was only a dream.

If he comes out of the shower in the season premiere with two legs, I'm going to throw the remote through the screen! :)

Sarah said...

Wasn't she seeing the dr who went to iraq? I thought he died and then she was heart broken. It has all start together and I kind of lost interest once Mark died. That would seriously be to much if they do that it was all a dream thing. How about if they did a total flashback to when Mark was still there and he was in the bathroom washing his face because he thought his tumor was back and then flip he just imagined it all. Kind of like what they did in the Devil's advocate with keanu and al pacino. That might cause you to throw your tv out the window.