'Dancing With The Stars' Season 14 Dream Casting
What To Watch On TV This Week
ER: Graduation Day
(S13E02) Before we begin this week I wanted to address something a commenter mentioned about Luka's violent outburst in last week's season premiere. The commenter criticized him for acting in that way because Abby could only provide one child to him due to her emergency hysterectomy. I actually don't think that was the reason.
Think about it. He had already lost two other children to war. His reaction wasn't due to Abby's operation, but rather to the feeling that he was going to lose another young child. Plus, add the fact that the mother of his child was injured, the stress of what he endured during Samantha's kidnapping, and watching his premature son hooked up to all of the lines and tubes, and he had to vent his frustration somewhere. At least he did it on a bathroom mirror.
There, now I feel better. Onward and upward to this week's review. (Warning, there are minor spoilers after the jump if you haven't seen this week's episode).
Abby and Luka's baby boy is okay! Hot damn! I can finally remove my standard question 'Why can't Abby be happy?' from my list. I will admit that I got a mite choked up when I saw Abby holding a healthy baby in her arms. The director of this week's episode tried to make it feel that something horrible had happened to baby Joe, but if they did that I feel that there would have been a mass revolt of the show. Let's face it, we all want to see Abby happy, and we finally got our wish . . . for now, at least.
Abby will be replaced with Sam, who now seems to wear the albatross around her neck. After killing her ex-husband in self-defense last week she gets lucky when charges aren't brought up. But, she seems to be the one in a perpetually unhappy mood. I wouldn't mind this because, frankly, she isn't my favorite character on ER. Now that we're back into the normalcy of day-to-day emergency room operations maybe she'll even out.
This week we are introduced to John Stamos as intern Tony Gates. Wait, you say, wasn't he a paramedic when he appeared on ER last season? Why, yes he was, but he has been magically enrolled in medical school and will now be working beside Neela and Pratt. Now that doctors like Pratt and Morris seem to be settling into the roles of wizened senior physicians, it looks like Gates will become the Benton/Ross maverick for this season. I couldn't really gauge how he'll be from his appearances this week. However, it looks like he'll have a bigger role next episode. So, I'll save judgment until then.
What else? Well, it was really nice to see Sally Field return as Abby's mom, and not in the crazy way she was when first introduced way back in season seven. Fact of the matter is, this was her most supportive role as Abby's mom and her visit was a real turning point in the mother-daughter relationship. Plus, she brought a bit of levity to this episode, which was a change of pace from the darkness of the previous one.
One other thing before I leave you to bask in the happiness that is Abby. There have been past seasons where there have been so many doctors on the emergency room floor that a good portion of them didn't receive the character development they should have. This season there seems to be a slimmed down group full of established characters and only one new person (Tony Gates). Plus, we now get to see Kerry Weaver back in the ER as she is no longer the chief of staff. Being the most senior doctor there (she's been around since season two) Kerry will probably become the voice of reason as the season progresses.
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