[dobbles]

i have watched e.r. since the beginning. it was my favorite show for most of a decade. the office is now my favorite and is on before e.r. so its still must see for me. additionally, its a show the lady and i can watch together. i am glad its going to be done as i hate shows that go on too long (the simpsons) and this probably dragged on for a couple years too many.

as has been mentioned, the show lost a lot of steam as it lost primary actors. i do think its been amazing that the show has kept going as a pretty successful show while not having any main characters from the first few seasons.

i think the last season or two has been better after several less than stellar seasons. here's what i think went wrong. the show stopped worrying as much about long term character arcs. they made the main characters less interesting and one or two dimensional. instead of focusing on the staff and their lives, they started focusing way too much on short term patient stories.

the thing i always think of is this. during the first season or two, a patient is wondering around and a couple doctors see him and tell him he needs to go wait to be seen. the guy then turns around and has an arrow stuck in the back of his head. they then immediately help him. for the rest of that episode i don't think the patient is seen again. the guy was not an integral part of the storyline. now, if they have someone come in with an arrow in his head, he will be featured for the episode and get like 14 minutes of screen time. sure it may be a great story, but after the episode is over it will have done nothing for the arcs of the actual characters. even the bob newhart thing is a good example. while the episodes he was in were good and he played a very moving character, once he was gone, it was like nothing had happened.

the show is about the people that work there and not so much the patients. i think thats where the show has fallen off.

thanks for reading my rant!