ER Season Premiere
29 September 2002, 8:00 PM

I watched the season premiere of ER tonight. (Yes, my sweetie has a TIVO.)

With the exception of Smallville, I just watch my shows these day. I don't get into any fandom stuff anymore, and as a result I don't see any spoilers or hear any rumors. Because of that ER's season premiere had a moment that took me completely by surprise. It got an audible gasp from me and the exclamation "oh my god". And I'm not a squeamish person.

Apparently, it got that reaction out of a lot of people. The moment is an accident that has major life-changing consequences for a major character. That's nothing exceptional by itself, but the scene in which it happens was EXCEPTIONALLY well done. Well written, well acted, well filmed. I was all into the argument between the doctors and the rush of the hospital evacuation chaos and I just did not see it coming until that split second before it happened. It's that kind of thing where all you have is a vauge bad feeling that's too ephemeral to do anything about and by the time you realize it, it's too late.

Usually shows do this sort of thing in the season finale as a cliff hanger, retreating into cliche to see if the character survives it. But not so here. He lives through it, but now we have a whole season of him dealing with the aftermath of it - plenty of fodder for stories and impacts on other character's lives. And it was done in such a way, just a part of everything else going on, just an accident, no foreshadowing, a seemingly random event, right in the middle of everything else, that it seemed all the more real.

I still can't get over the scene. I went to see some other fan's reactions on the newsgroups and they were all similar. One guy said he was yelling "oh my god" so loud that his neighbor pounded on the wall.

It was amazing. Gut wrenchingly amazing.