(S08E07) These eliminations just aren't getting any easier, which is frustrating because there are people there that I wouldn't mind seeing booted off of the ranch. They just keep staying there. You could read that as a spoiler if you want, saying that I just revealed at least that Tracey wasn't eliminated, but not so.

Maybe I've come to respect her competitive spirit. Maybe she showed some real growth as a person this week, or maybe I just enjoy the heavy dose of crazy that she brings to the house. Maybe I don't want Tracey going anywhere. Have we ever had a crazy winner of The Biggest Loser?

Regardless of who went home, though, this was a huge week for emotional breakthroughs, as well as emotional turmoil for me watching at home. Every time Abby goes into the story of what happened to her family, it just breaks my heart and I want to wrap my arms around my own family to keep them safe.

(S14E19) Now, let the speculation begin!

Did you really think that ER would end its fourteenth season with everything all honky-dory at County General? You haven't watched it recently, have you? Fact is, the season-ender for the last few years has been some sort of cliffhanger. Last season the fate of Neela was unknown. The year before it was Abby and Luka. A few years before that the fates of Pratt and Jing-Mei were undecided.

Now we have two (or three, or four) characters to consider as potential victims. But, who will be the lucky -- or in this case, unlucky -- one who will end up as a patient in their very own Emergency Room when season 15 of ER begins? Let's take a look at the candidates. Oh, by the way, spoilers ahead if you didn't watch the last three minutes of the episode.

(S14E18) What? An episode where Abby's good luck finally rears its ugly head? Nah, couldn't be! Why would the producers of ER want to give Dr. Lockhart any good luck after the roller coaster that has been her life this past season? Oh, I know why...her life is going to fall apart again on next week's season finale. So, I guess it's like giving her something sweet before she needs to swallow yet another bitter life pill.

Well, we can enjoy it for a little bit, can't we?

(S14E16) Before I begin this week's review of ER, I want to speak for a moment about the ambulance bay at County General. The place should be considered an Extreme Danger Zone and permanently closed. Over the last fourteen seasons it has been the location of car accidents, tank accidents, explosions, falling helicopters, and now a gas fire. The gas fire was courtesy of a patient who came in from an ambulance drenched in gasoline and was started by a careless smoker. By the way, smoking should be banned from the ambulance bay as well.

If you review some of the ER records you'll find that a good portion of the patients were actually injured in the ambulance bay itself. That doesn't bode well for the hospital. So, I say close it down, make it a nice little park area, and have the patients brought in through an underground parking garage. At least no helicopters will crush them should they fall off the roof of the hospital.

With that out of the way, let's get going with this week's review.

(S14E14) Welcome back!

We haven't seen each other for awhile -- January 17th, to be exact -- so I thought I'd bring you up to speed about what's happening on ER. Apparently, all of the main characters that started on the show are gone and have been replaced by a younger, more horny group of doctors and nurses who tend to whine a lot. Oh, there's also blood, burns, life, death, sadness, joy, naked doctors, doctors having shock treatments, alcoholic doctors who have had extra-marital affairs, blah, blah, blah.

I kid, of course (except for the horny part). If you've read any of my reviews over the last two years you'd know that I'm pretty pleased with the way the show has re-energized itself with new characters and a focus back into the happenings of the emergency room. True, there are some things that still annoy me, like the never-ending curse over Abby Lockhart, but they can be managed because there are other good things about the show.

So, I guess the only question right now is if I enjoyed this week's episode. Well, read on to find out.

(S14E12) "Were you ever drunk at work?"-- Sam to Abby

Good evening, and thank you for flying TV Squad. We know you have many choices in which television reviews you read, and we appreciate your clickage. Our regularly scheduled attendant Rich Keller is unavailable this evening, so I will be serving up complimentary opinions and maybe even a little snark. Truthiness is $5. We appreciate correct change. So, sit right back and let's get started.

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(S14E10) "If we keep this thing cranking, we could hit 300. That's quite a milestone." -- Dr. Archie Morris

So, 300 episodes.

No clip show, no big fanfare, no super-humongo guest star (even though Peter Fonda is fairly big). Other than the promos mentioning that it was ER's 300th episode there really wasn't much differing it from episode 159, episode 52, or episode 1.

There were still patients that made us cry a little, doctors that made us laugh, and continuing dramas that, hopefully, came to an end so we didn't end up reaching into the screen and strangling the person causing all of the drama in the first place because she had a chip on her shoulder the size of Mt. Rushmore! Ahem. Like I said...business as usual at County General.

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(S14E09) Kevin Moretti...we hardly knew ye!

After only a handful of episodes, Kevin Moretti has left as ER chief at County General. But, boy, what an active handful of episodes it was! Not only did he turn the ER upside-down to make if more efficient, but he ended up bedding Abby as well. His reason for leaving was the way his son was acting: the boy was having some incredible mood swings that were causing concern for Moretti.

I hope this doesn't mean we've seen the last of Kevin on ER. Frankly, the issues with his son were beginning to intrigue me as well as other viewers and I'd like to see some type of closure. However, with ER being the king of hanging story threads I wouldn't be surprised if we never saw Stanley Tucci on the show again.

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(S14E08) "David Beckham is a wanker!" -- Archie Morris

The producers of ER certainly didn't go halvsies with the quick decline of Abby Lockhart. Getting drunk, sleeping with her new boss, leaving the baby sitter at her house until three a.m., taking Joe to the airport at the same time in the morning to see Luka in Croatia. Heck, I'm surprised that she didn't rob a liquor store with a sawed-off or, God forbid, run for political office.

Luckily, the calming influence of one Luka Kovac has returned to Chicago to get the demons that control Abby back into submission.

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(S14E07) "All this wasted energy is seriously inflating my carbon footprint!"-- Archie Morris

Welcome to Green Week on NBC. If you watched the whole NBC lineup tonight, you have noticed that they all have to work in some kind of environmental theme. My name is Jen, and I'll be our cruise director this evening, because Rich Keller is off saving polar bears in the Antarctic.

The ER is experiencing a heat wave and brownouts, which brings everyone to the ER with heatstroke and stupid injuries as they try to fix their air conditioning at home.

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(S14E06) Hey you! Yeah, I'm pointing at you, the producers of ER. What the hell do you have against Abby Lockhart? I mean, ever since she was introduced way back in season six you have just piled mound upon mound of crap on her. I thought you had enough of taunting her when she gave birth to baby Joe and married Luka. But, you just decided to shovel one more mound of poopie on her because Maura Tierney, who plays Abby on the show, wants to leave? What, you didn't get enough sadistic pleasure torturing Mark Greene all those years?

Sheesh!

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(S14E05) Let's start this week's review of ER with a few introductions and welcomes.

First, we welcome Harold Zelinsky to the recurring character list of ER. Harold is Neela's new surgical intern and he is a bit of a mystery. He says he's twenty-five but the ER staff at County General isn't convinced. Only a pissed-off Abby can find out how old he really is, which is nineteen. This child prodigy began college when he was only twelve after getting a perfect score on his SATs. If that isn't a ringing endorsement of home-schooling I don't know what is.

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(S14E04) Man, what a crappy day for Abby. First, she gets a hairstyle reminiscent of 1976 (Pratt's comments about her being ready for her yearbook photo, and the boys comments about Farah Fawcett were the best), Then her son falls at the park and she ends up working on his condition while screaming in terror inside. On her way home, shortly after Baby Joe is discharged she nearly gets into an accident. Finally, to top it all off she craves a tumbler of wine to soothe her nerves.

Here's what I say about all of this: it's all Luka's fault.

(S14E03) Hey, the previews actually didn't lie this time! One in a row!

The main story this week was the shooting of two police officers . . . volunteer police officers, to be precise. They were certainly the point of tension around the ER. Funny thing is, I thought the fate of those two volunteer officers would be the opposite of their outcome. That's because the college student seemed to be in worse shape than the recovering meth addict (and, not to bring up a debate, but why would you sign up a recovering anything addict for any type of law enforcement, volunteer or professional). Turns out the college student survived and the recovering addict didn't.

(S14E02) Bernie, this is God. Hurry up, wilya! -- Dr. Moretti, addressing a drunk in the ER who thinks he is about to die.

Before we begin I'd like to speak to the promotions department over at NBC. Are you listening? Good. Come a bit closer to the computer screen so you can carefully hear what I am about to say . . .

No. More. Coming. Attractions.

Seriously, the previews that you create to showcase the next week's airing of ER are just out-and-out lies. The case that you focused on for this week, the one where the young, Hispanic gentleman is discovered to have a nice bullet hole in his lower back, wasn't even the main story in on the show. Heck, the man-boy and the teacher he was sleeping with had more attention paid to it! No more, please. Either retire all of those flashy production tools you have or put them to better use.

Whew! I feel better now. Let's go ahead with this week's review.