ER the helicopter has fallen
Published December 11, 2003
As Heather notes, ER has fallen on some bad times. Aside from a drop in ratings, it's now resorting to dropping anvils - or in this case helicopters - upon characters. The one in question, Romano, a surgeon with a nasty attitude that I always found refreshing, lost his arm to a helicopter. I wonder if the writers lost one at the same time, because the quality of the writing has descended by about half. At any rate, they pound home the idea that Romano now fear helicopters, and runs from an encounter near one - only to have one drop on his head. Pretty ironic, eh? Bet you didn't see that one coming.
Aside from treating a long time regular so shabbily by barely noting his death, except as a kind of obvious joke, they haven't been doing much with this drama set in an urban ER. That's right folks, ER is set in Chicago. Though with one, two, and now three episodes set in Africa, I'm beginning to wonder. Not that there's anything wrong with a drama set in Africa, that would be kind of refreshing. It's just seeing some Chicago doctors visit Africa and bathe in the light of their self-illumination is not very good drama. I guess the point is to show us coddled viewers that war-torn parts of Africa have horrible health care.
It's a big switch to go from showing people fleeing from soldiers intent on murdering them en masse to trying to get the audience to care about a kleptomaniac kid stealing accidentally lopped off fingers. I think perhaps we can use as a guide to the episodic quality the number of body parts being lopped off in an episode, with bonus negative points if the body part ironically figures in the storyline. I have to do something to entertain myself during this show. The writers are no longer on call.
- ER the helicopter has fallen
- Published: December 11, 2003
- Type:
- Section: Video
- Filed Under: Video: Drama, Video: Television
- Writer: Jerry Ritcey
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J, now he gets killed by one as far as I can tell - haven't watched ER in about three years.
BTW, thanks Jerry and welcome!
Hi jadester - the helicopter fall happened two week ago during the latest sweeps week.
that smoked serious pole. romano WAS one of the best characters. chopping his arm was unforgivable, torturing him afterwards was worse. blurring the line between reality and fiction for a spell, he was the last one who would have walked into a helicopter. it would have been one of the most memorable moments in tv history if goose had walked into the blade.
i apologise, my mistake. That'll teach me to post a reply when i'm half awake eh?
It *does* seem a copout to have him killed by a helicopter. Is it supposed to be some (not exactly funny) joke or what?
I'm newer to ER than many of you, apparently, having started watching it in the last 5 years. I still think it's consistently good, aside from the Africa episodes which bore me to tears (and another one airs tonight.) Maybe killing Romano off was hasty, but if he wanted to leave the show, what better way to off an evil character like that? Nah, I do agree, it was kind of low and far too easy. I'd have rather seen an episode where he was forced to confront his evil ways than just killing him off.
The show is, however, better than I see most long-time fans giving it credit for. Maybe it's the time-honored tradition of "familiarity breeds contempt" taking control here. I honestly can't see how it's anywhere near as bad as anyone says, or even worthy of being listed as the bad TV some say it is.
But come on - they added Linda Cardellini to the cast. She's worth losing Romano for . . . I miss Freaks & Geeks as much for its intelligent humor as for her beauty.
I stopped watching ER sometime this season, because I just couldn't get myself to care for these characters anymore. When Romano's arm flew from one side of my tv screen to the other, I couldn't help but laugh. It looked incredibly funny. Afterwards the show just got worse. So what the heck - let a helicopter kill the whole cast...
I gave out about the time the last of the original characters dribbled away but before they started coming back, and after the hundredth dying child and 79th transplant and the 92nd catastrophic accident and ....
BTW, remember when Romano had long curly red hair, was gay, and was in "Fame"?
Yes, the actor, Paul McCrane, is also quite the talented songwriter and musician. He sang a number of the songs from Fame, and wrote "Is It Okay if I Call You Mine." The real McCrane is apparently not gay (married dad), and reportedly is a really nice, artsy kinda guy -- nothing like Rocket Romano. I, for one, will miss him on ER.
Just picked up ER The Complete First Season last night. Have never watched any episode of ER yet. I figure it will go something like the books that Crichton has written: some of the excellent, some OK, and some of them godawful (Congo, for example)
Anybody seen Timeline yet?
The early ER had some excellent episodes. Currently they seem to have lost their way. Not sure how many of the original writers are left....
i used to be an avid watcher...but i bailed right around the time the edwards character died.
just couldn't take the incessant tragedy that was being dumped on the characters.
Ditto, Mark. It got too much like a soap opera, esp. when they made Dr. Corday into such a witch.
Was it just me, or did helicopter falling on Romano feel like an homage to the Wizard of Oz? I half expected miniature orderlies to file out of the hospital singing "Ding dong the witch is dead."
or to the "Twilight Zone" filming disaster.
They lost me when Alan the lawyer was killed off and Jeffrey left to become Mr. Mom. Just shows you how important the characters really are to a show.
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sorry but, uh, you do realise this actually happened ages ago? early this year, way before summer, sometimes when i went round to a mate's they were watching ER on cable and i saw some of the episodes after he's lost his arm. They actually aren't that bad, but then it was the first time i ever saw any episodes of ER properly