Yay!  Dr. Lewis is back!  And Noah Wyle is such a honey.  And poor, poor Reese, his mama died.

So this is obviously where we're gonna talk about ER.

Are we ever going to see any repercussions of what Mark did with the patient in the elevator last season finale?

You know, the topic intro saidBut I'm perfectly happy believing that you are. That show pisses me off in like three dozen ways.

I actually think this is the countdown season for me... I've started wondering when exactly I should stop watching. I hung in there a long, long, long time. But I can't remember why I'm staying anymore. If there was ever an example of a great show that suffocated by staying exactly the same, this was it. Although, since the ratings ain't broke, they're never gonna fix it.

Carter's still Carter, which is good. And Luka's still handsome enough to take your breath away. And the return of Sherry Stringfield, the world's worst successful actress, might even prove amusing. I liked watching last week's episode and going, "I can act better than this woman. Watch her waiting for the other people's lines to be over..."

And your face wouldn't get all puffy in five years.

Hey now... let's lay off Sherri. I have quite a thing for her, or at least I would if she did something NICE with her hair.

On the flip side, I hatehatehaaaaate Corday. She used to be cool. Now she's an über bitch. If that's what motherhood does to you, I'm surprised the human race lasted beyond 3 generations.

And Kerry? Gah! Make your mind up, hon. Are you nice or are you a bitch? Are we meant to forget her experimentin'? Cuz I'm thinking she wants to.

Pffft... Carter. What a ponce.

I also wouldn't have a haircut that's just begging to be coated in caramel hard-dip.

Mmm...Carter.  Noah Wyle is such a cutie.

Word on Corday.  She's really starting to bug me.  Also, this is the second time that she's fallen asleep during surgery.

No doubt she'll pass out and kill another two or three patients.

That's the one thing that really makes me itch about the last two or three seasons... Is this the worst hospital on the face of the Earth, or what? Every single doctor kills at least one patient a week. If it was a choice between County General and Stevie Wonder performing surgery on me with a straw, I'd choose the straw.

Backoff Brood...I've claimed Noah in the Rant thread....He's all mine!

I just want to stare at him, and occasionally make out with him.

I don't watch ER all that much anymore, but I caught last nights episode.  Can I just say I was totally freaked out after watching the kids with mena-whatever they had.  I kept having visions of the one boy with his feet all black, then when the girls nose started to turn black I was like, ACK!  She's going to die too!

Then the self-circumsizing guy was pretty funny.  I feel bad for him though, just trying to please his girlfriend and bam, she dumps him.  The whole situation made me laugh though.

Mengiococcus?  Or however it's spelled?  yeah, that was freaky.

The girl was played by the same girl who plays Madelaine on "Gilmore Girls" and her med student was played by the guy who plays Henry on "GG."

I am so hoping that they don't hook up Carter with Sherry Stringcheese...I like Abby! I still have to watch last nights, since I taped it, so I'll comment more when I've watched.

Truth in advertising... they should just rename this "The Death and Rape Hour" and be done with it.

Those bits with Luka turning all protective and Carter re-bonding with his mother at the end were unexpectedly affecting. But still, I feel like I've been beaten in the head... every week for months now.

It makes "Buffy" look like a dance through the tulips, all tra la la. The frickin' Salingers were happier and more blessed by fortune than this lot. What is the point of all this? Why am I still watching?

'Cause you're hoping that Mark comes out of that contraption in three weeks and the technician says, "Yep, it's back. You're dying. Sorry about that."

What, is it the popular thing to dislike Mark? I'm so out of touch. I don't dislike him... he's a decent fellow and, plus, Goose! I mean, c'mon.

But he's so very dead. He was dead the minute he stuttered on that word.

I don't care if it's the popular thing or not (although I suspect it is). I used to love Mark. I still like Anthony Edwards. But he and his family suck the energy right out of the show. I think the last time I really liked him was when his dad was dying. There's no denying that he's capable of excellent work, but the character has taken a huge downturn. Personally, I blame the writers. I just get a sense that everyone involved with the show is tired of Mark. Therefore, I'm eager to see him go.

Almost forgot- I was so peppy when Jerry showed up on the screen! Bring back Jerry!

So, it looks like Mark is going to die. He needs to talk to Elizabeth. Like, right now. I don't care if he doesn't want his wife and daughter looking at him differently. She's his wife. She has a right to know. Even if she is being a wee bit of a whiz-bitch.

So, could Luka be hotter? I don't really think so.

Also, what's up with Jing-Mei? She gave a guy she wasn't really dating a handjob in a children's movie? Um, okay.

I sense some weird shit happening between now and the season finale. The preview looked very interesting.

My, no, I don't think Luka could be hotter. But it's hard to top winking at a woman from inside your tiny sports car. Mmm.

Yup, as predicted, Mark looks doomed. It's a toomah. That verdict the doctor gave him at the beginning — "You should have been dead a year ago. In that year you've gotten married and seen your daughter be born. That sounds like a year well spent" — was so poignant and true, and yet, having someone else say it to you, so harsh. It was like... well, I suppose that's what a "death sentence" is.

Man, what a thought. You already had your time, it's in the past, and the doors are closing on you.

Man, ask a stupid question. Unless they feature him slowly stripping off an Armani tux whilst singing Croatian love songs next week, I think this week was the capper. I don't know, I thought that the duel was the sexiest thing I had ever seen on ER, but quietly confessing that his late wife was his first lover, then quoting Hamlet and lapsing into his native tongue was pretty, um, words fail me. "Hot" doesn't seem adequate.

So, interesting episode. It was a nice break from the Mark and Lizzie pathos and gave some insight into four of the most interesting characters, while also bringing Gallant to the forefront. I do wonder what Kerry said to him, though. Based on conversations she's had with Carter over his past screw-ups, I'm willing to bet "I'm very disappointed in you" played a big part of it.

I liked the fact that Susan and Abby seem to be becoming friends. I've never understood why there's always been so much competition and general snippiness among the women on this show. The men are allowed to be friends (Mark and Doug, Carter and Benton), why have the nurses always seemed to be the only women who get along with each other?  In any case, Abby needs a friend, and Susan has always seemed like a good one.

Stop. That. Jenelope. I mean it.

Actually, I think he be a bit hotter... if he let his hair grow longer again. Why do beautiful men always be cutting their hair too short?

Regardless, it was a lovely bit of acting when he kept repeating "It's okay, really. It's okay" to the others.

And, man, those "ER" writers have a really sad case of Aaron Sorkin/John Hughes envy. It's a special event episode, in which the characters sit in a room and reveal their inner selves with totally random questions and answers! No, it's "The Breakfast Club," and John Carter is Emilio Estevez! He's got secret pain, people! Secret! Pain!

Although "ER" has become such a cliche within its own cliche that it was a nice relief to see a change of setting and subject matter.

But back to the inanity. What fencers would ever fence without gear? The protective gear was there; they carried it out of the closet. They just never wore it. I saw and participated in a lot of fencing in college, among teenagers, and I never once saw anyone stupid enough to horse around without gear.

Also, I've accepted that County General is the ninth circle of hospitals, staffed solely by Angels of Death, and with a 100 percent failure rate; enter these halls and ye are doomed. But a doctor with a brain tumor and rapidly advancing brain cancer who continues to treat patients? Holy hell.

Luka's going to be quoting Hamlet?  Huminah.  Do you all know that Goran Visnjic returns every summer to Dubrovnik for the Shakespeare Festival there, where he plays Hamlet in an amazing-looking ruined castle overlooking the sea?  At least, he has done for the past few years and it's become my ambition to go see that.  Obviously it's in Croatian, but hey, I know the story.

Whaddya say, guys? This summer, Dubrovnik BuffyCon? We really ought to branch out — our locales have become so pedestrian.

And the Buffy connection would be ...? ;-)  Ah, who cares.  Goran Visnjic in tights, waving a sword.  I'm so there.

The Buffy connection would be the swordfighting, naturally. And also Visnjic has Angel hair.

Well, the Buffy connection would be that "Buffy" fans would be there, of course. I don't know, though. I think Dubrovnik would violate my new "driveable 'Cons only" rule. Then again, how expensive could Dubrovnik be? They have to be trying to boost their tourist trade, right? And it's relatively close to Poland so I could try to claim that I was visiting the old country.

My sister and her girlfriend left me gobsmacked over the weekend. The question, "You think he's sexy?" was actually spoken outloud. I mean, I know he's not their type, but I'm not gay and I can see that Portia De Rossi is beautiful and occasionally hot, and Tammy Lynn Micheals is incredible. How could they not recognize the beauty that is Goran? I just don't get it.

Suzanne (sister's g-f) posed an interesting question, though. She asked me whether I would rather be married to Kovac or Carter. At the time I thought I knew my answer, but I keep changing my mind.

Kovac, no contest. Once upon a time I suppose it would have been Carter, but these days? Soulful, mature, and sensitive beats reedy and moody any day. Although, what with Carter's money, I suppose you could marry him and hire the poor Croatian to be your pool boy.

See, I was going by the overall picture. Sure, lately Carter has been whiny, smug and snippy; but most of the time he's sincere, thoughtful and just all-around pleasant. For me,  the clincher was the problematic issues. I would have to take a guy with mommy-problems and addiction over a guy who could beat a man to death with his bare hands.

Now, however, it's the whole passion thing. Carter doesn't stir it. Kovac does. I think it's very important to lust after one's spouse.

Kovac didn't mean to beat a guy to death... he definitely subscribes to the "beat up people who hurt women" philosophy, but that makes a lot of sense considering the values and the dangers of the world he grew up in. He's still a thoughtful, intellectual man who's devoted his life to saving others.

Also, there's a certain point where I have to let the characters off the hook for the silly "ER" plot contrivances. I mean, Carter, Kovac, and the rest of them kill three or four patients a week, in between drinking, suicide attempts, and boning everything that moves.

I don't know, at least married life wouldn't be dull.  I do, however, think that I couldn't quite handle the perfect, dead, late Mrs Kovac.  It'd be too 'Rebecca' for me.  And Carter has that nice grandmother ... no, still no, though.

Oh, that's a good point. The gorgeous man with the secret anguish is all very romantic in theory, but in reality it might be a drag. You'd have to learn to make borscht just the way she did...

Of course, you could just skip the middleman and marry Carter's grandmother.

Heh!  And have an affair with Luka on the side.  Perfect.

But isn't that naturally the case if you marry into the Carter family? Marry a Carter man, marry Gamma. You never even need to see your husband again if you don't want to.

I think when it came to a question of Carter or Kovac, I would want to marry Goran Visjnic. Any chance that he's getting tired of the wife he's already got?

Well, there's always hope.

And fake photos showing her in a compromising position with Fabio delivered to his trailer.  Oops, did I say that out loud?

Interesting re-run last night. "You're not the pretty. You're not that special." Yeah, um, I'd forgotten about that. Yeesh. I hate it when people insult their lovers when they fight. So, suddenly Carter's looking a lot more attractive.

On the other hand, while watching "Ice Age" this afternoon, I was suddenly very intrigued when I finally recognized one of the saber tooth tigers' voices.

Funny, but harsh as that is, I think she deserved it. I'd think the same if the genders were reversed, so fair's fair. She just travels around inside a large hot-air balloon with her own image on it... can't see past the silk to the outside world.

He's a tiger? Not gonna make me see that movie, but it's still interesting. How do they explain a tiger with an accent?

Um, wouldn't it be weirder if the tiger had an American accent?

Well, considering that none of the other tigers had accents, I thought it was a little odd. Sorry, make that: none of the other tigers had anything but various American accents.

You know, I don't care if I'm the biggest, most self-absorbed person in the world (and knew it), I still could never forgive anyone for saying that. I'm of the mind that when you love someone, you think they're the most beautiful, most precious person in the world. When you deliberately hurt someone, the line has been crossed. I think it just hammered home the point that while she was a convenience and nice company for a while, he never loved her. If he did, he wouldn't have been able to say those things without immediately taking it back. I think that the point of what he was saying would have been made abundantly clear without those two little sentences.

Speaking as someone with extremly fragile self-esteem, that kind of thing is uncalled for.

But you'd never say that to someone with fragile self-esteem... someone with fragile self-esteem would never warrant those words. They'd need encouragement instead.

But Abby's behavior was spoiled and self-consumed, and she needed to hear something that'd pop her bubble. She still treats men as useful tools to serve whatever need she's having in a particular second, picking them up and putting them down whenever the whim strikes her, which I suppose is all right in its own way – but she seems to expect them to be  grateful and breathily adoring at the same time.

It sounds odd with me saying all this, but I like Abby fine. I just think her ego is terribly inflated.

I agree that they didn't love each other — they were just dating.

I don't necessarily see Abby as having a big ego. If she truly had a big ego, she wouldn't feel the need to be so defensive all the time. I have never seen anyone who was truly confident and that arrogant with as big a chip on her shoulder as Abby has.

I think she's insecure, evasive and needy. Unfortunately, she's hung up on a man who's moody, secretive and brusque. The more I think about it, the more I think that relationship was doomed from the start. I like Abby. I like Luka. I think they could both benefit from some pretty extensive therapy.

Damnit.  I watched exactly 2 episodes of ER this season and I had to chose last nights episode as one of them.  I think the last episode I watched was at the very beginning of the season so I had no idea Greene was dying, and didn't pick up on it until at least half way through the episode.  

Talk about a tear jerker with the family watching him die.  How horrible is the daughter going to feel when she gets older and in her last memories with her dad she was a total brat?

Okay, I was crying a lot. Anthony Edwards gave a great performance last night. And Elizabeth actually seemed to love her husband and baby for once. I thought Rachel was actually pretty realistic. When you've got years of brathood ingrained into your life, it can be hard to give it up.

I liked that it was such an honest look at this guy's last days. And I liked that the network allowed the "shit," although I think that my reaction would have been a little stronger (and not allowable). I had absolutely no problem picturing Mark as a teenager. All I had to do was picture Stoner Guy #2 from "Fast Times" and there's Mark Greene as a teenager.

I also liked getting to see Dr. Anspaugh again.

Yeah, I agree with you guys. There were many real tears at the end there. Life As a House tackled that same subject matter — an ill man trying to fix his troubled teen — much better. But this was still very well done, and very well acted.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that my aunt died of cancer a few years ago. But the episode just felt like what life is like, and what the leaving of life is like. I started to cry when he was talking about writing the letters, but what was really effective were his last moments, lying on the bed listening to the CD player, having all these visions of  his life and his past and his departure.

You know, you joke about how that hospital can't possibly top itself as the Worst, Most Dangerous Hospital in the World, but then each episode they top it. Why is Elizabeth flying back to that hellhole? She'd be safer practicing medicine in a ditch with a rusty razor blade.

Good for Mekhi Phiffer's character for asking the real question: "How often does this happen around here?" And shame on Ming Na for not giving the real response: "Every three or four weeks."

Really reconsidering continuing to watch this. All the above aside, that arm thing was disgusting and pathetic. This is the show that all of America watches? This cheap completely unreal stunting? Once upon a time, back when dinosaurs roamed, this was my favorite show. And the whole point of it was supposed to be its realism.

Also, is the hospital conveniently stocked with highlighting kits?

Probably as many highlighting kits as soccer balls, nail polish, toothbrushes, shaving cream, and changes of clothing. I assumed that they were getting "relief" packages from the outside.

I actually thought the arm thing was interesting (gross- but interesting). In that much chaos and frustration, it's entirely possible that that could happen. The thing about helicopters is that when the rotors are moving, they're practically invisible. Usually, the person manning the helicopter will make sure that the area is completely secure. In this case, that person was faced with three fighting doctors and two freaked out patients, so the thing that they always warn you could happen, did happen. If it means good stuff for Paul McCrane to work with, I'm all for it.

Dude. JUst seen the first episode of ER. I just about lost my dinner with the Arm. Ick. Good drama though, I love it when Kovac takes charge. And the relationship between Romano and Weaver, was played well. I mean the mutal, respect, antagonism and care that they seem occosionaly to show to each other.

It was weird seeing an UK hospital portrayed on tv that isn't 'Holby'. Holby is a fictiona hospital, basis of two still-running programmes - Casualty (emergency side) and Holby City (more of the surgery, kids unit, maternity type thing). ER is much more polished

They must have been getting relief packages - I mean - they had pizza delivered!

Dr Roman's arm: BWAH!

And may I officially complain on behalf of the whole UK about our portrayal. Who knew you could hear the chimes of Big Ben from London Bridge? And of course no woman here would ever wear trousers, or omit to wear widow's weeds with crepe veiling.

Hee. Did ya spot Crispin Boham-Carter at the end? Mr Bingley was in ER! That reallly cracked me up. Because of course, everyone in the UK speaks with Recieved Pronunciation. I don't think I heard one other type of accent.

I'm not even going to mention the meal they claimed that patient had eaten. Were they trying for every sterotype? I think they've been taking lessons off Friends portrayal of the UK.