ER: Season 1

I remember as a child getting to stay up late on Thursday nights in the 90s to watch ER with my mom, who is an ER and trauma nurse of some 30 years' experience. She would tell me what had been done right or wrong on the show (they got quite a bit right!). I dreamed of knowing what she knew and being in the world depicted on the show. Now, I am grown and a nurse myself, specializing in pediatric home care. One day I would like to work in the PICU.However, the relationships, atmosphere, dilemmas, triumphs and tribulations of the ER staff are in some senses universal to all healthcare professionals: The desire for perfection while never being able to achieve it, power struggles among those who are supposed to be a team, work vs. family/personal life, being unable to help some patients, ethical dilemmas, finding your place as a new clinician, and the sometimes simply odd experiences of caring for the health and well-being of your fellow human. No other medical drama I've seen comes even close to showing it how it really is than ER, and I've taken a look at Gray's Anatomy, House, and others. All of them require a large suspension of disbelief on my part (first of all: Where the hell is their nursing staff?). With ER, I can simply turn it on and get lost in the story, even if medicine has taken leaps and bounds forward since the first season aired back when I was a kid.The show is all the more satisfying for me now that the medical jargon is familiar to my ears and the experiences personal instead of second-hand. ER continues its excellence even well into the new millennium.

Want to see blood? People with insane medical conditions? Nurses and doctors rushing about in a frenzy trying to help everyone who comes in through the doors? Go to the ER. Oh wait, you can't do that just to observe? Well then watch this show!ER takes place in a busy Chicago hospital, in the Emergency Room of course! Following a particular cast of doctors and nurses, each day brings new types of trauma to the ER. But all these doctors and nurses have complicated personal lives as well and between that and the patients, sometimes the stress can get a little much. But there are always lives to be saved.Characters:Anthony Edwards: Dr. Mark GreeneGeorge Clooney: Dr. Doug RossSherry Stringfield: Dr. Susan LewisNoah Wyle: John CarterJulianna Margulies: Carol HathawayEriq La Salle: Dr. Peter BentonI could try to list all of the cast in this show, but it would take forever. But there are a lot, and they all play varied and important roles. The above named have the most screentime though. Anthony Edwards is one of my favorites. He plays a kindly doctor with an overbearing wife (at least in my opinion) and he's often the voice of reason. Clooney, on the other hand, is the wild child of the ER, frequently playing cowboy and getting himself into intense, but short romantic encounters. Stringfield is Susan Lewis, who is likable but has a bit of a temper even though she is supposed to be sweet. Margulies took some getting used to for me, but eventually I came around and enjoy seeing her on the show. Since she's the Head Nurse she has a pretty important role. And then there's La Salle, who does a great job playing the some-what jerk of a surgical resident.A tv show in a hospital is nothing new. Which it is really why the actors drive this show. Otherwise it would just be procedures, gore, and lots of sick people. But with the cast and their different personalities and different lives, it makes it a little something different. I do find the medical terminology intriguing, although I don't know enough to say whether or not it is accurate. I'm going to assume that it's at least fairly accurate, or there would have been tons of outrage from the medical community when it aired. Regardless, it makes for good viewing, and while not classified as educational, still better than some of the mindless cartoons out there!I do want to warn viewers that there is blood and violence and lots of things that may disturb viewers. It also deals with a lot of different social issues like suicide and abortion. So if you're not prepared to watch things like that, don't watch the show.I really enjoy this show and am looking forward to watching all the seasons I can get my hands on.Review by M. Reynard 2013

My beginning to watch the show ER on DVD is just a tad less rewarding than Sir Walter Raleigh's finding the Lost City of Gold, since in spite of its running as a highly rewarded and well received series for 15 seasons, I watched but one episode, the final one in 2009. Somehow, it never fit into my life on Thursday evenings. And, by the time I watched that one episode, it was long past being a very tired cast, crew, and format.But, seeing it as it premiered in 1984, with a cast that was probably surpassed only by "The West Wing", it was crackling with life and excitement and humanity. Compared to it, the 2012 series "Monday Mornings" was a highly mannered, pretentious shadow of the real thing which was "ER". I could not keep my eyes off the screen, and I ordered Seasons 2 and 3 almost immediately. I can now look forward to several weeks of viewing the entire series at the rate of three to four episodes per night.The main cast is quite good, but it goes to new heights when the show is peppered with some outstanding guest appearances such as ER chiefs played by William H. Macy and Michael ironside, and cardiac surgeon, CCH Pounder, plus brother in law Ving Rhames. At first, I'm surprised at the brusque treatment and "guidance" 3rd year medical student Noah Wyle gets from his 2nd year surgical resident, Eriq La Salle. This is about as close as "ER" ever gets to the prima donna characterization of a doctor on "House". In all other ways, it is the demonstration that "House" is a surreal abstraction of hospital behavior, far removed from reality.One almost senses that the level of activity in the average day in the "ER" is exaggerated. I've been in very few Emergency Rooms in my life, and they tend to be relatively quiet. But then again, this is in downtown Chicago, and a teaching hospital, which probably has the mandate to turn down no one. In one episode, at night, during a heavy snow storm, we see for a small part of one episode, what the ER looks like when it is not busy. That didn't last long.I have not yet seen any following seasons, but like "The West Wing" (same producer, John Wells), this show takes off from the opening scenes of the first episode, and never once drops the ball.

This season of ER is, for me, the best one. I even find the little inconsistencies they never mention again delightful too. Like what happened to "Bob" the Polish doctor (introduced here), did she just go to desk clerk heaven halfway through season 2? And what of Doug Ross's mystery son who is never mentioned again? These aren't spoilers, just minor side issues so don't worry. To describe this season as a whole, I would say it balances high drama and social realism well. And, because its the brainchild of Michael Crichton and Steven Spielberg, expect quirky boderline supernatural too....just a little. As well as the unconventional cases that add spice to this well rounded season. For me, this was the calm season (comparatively speaking), before everyone started fighting custody battles, or getting in a twist about race relations. Watch it, then watch it again...and again, you'll find it takes the bitter taste of 21st Century TV out of your mouth.

Fantastic opening series to a medical drama that lasted 15 years. Some terrific guest stars, which of course will get better as the seasons progress. You get to meet Mark Greene, the loving husband and father who is torn between career progression at County General and following his wife to a new city where HER career is taking off. Next is Doug Ross, the womanising doctor with a heart of gold when it comes to his patients. Carol Hathaway is the main nurse we focus, which I learned was not the original plan, as she was supposed to have been killed off in the pilot episode! This truly is an ensemble cast. There is even a Quentin Tarantino directed episode late in the season. and I dare you to count the Pulp Fiction/QT references featured (Pulp Fiction was released that year, remember)!

I have always loved watching ER on television and now that it is no longer on TV, I am excited at the prospect of completing my library of all the ER seasons. I personally think that the acting was always very good and the story lines left you wanting to see more. I was always sad to see each season end and patience not being one of my virtues, I couldn't wait for the next season to begin.I live in hope that one day they will resurrect ER, the same story line, based on the same hospital etc. I think it was a unique and refreshing program and I for one miss it.Thank goodness for the availability to have the programs on DVD.

Love this program and its characters had to have this reasonable price too.

Brilliant series,introduced the world to George Clooney, quick delivery, in great condition, can't wait to watch.