ER was the longest-running medical drama to run on primetime television and it ran for an impressive 15 seasons. It received an incredible 124 Emmy nominations, winning 24 times, and launched the careers of several big Hollywood stars including George Clooney and Julianna Margulies. ER was one of the first television shows to really take American television programming up a notch and the storylines, casting, acting, sets, and medical storylines were all fantastic. For 15 years, millions of viewers tuned in for every episode and faithfully followed the story of the doctors and nurses in the emergency room in the fictional County General Hospital in Chicago
It has been a really long wait but finally, three years after the season aired on NBC, Warner Brothers have released the region 1 DVD of the complete thirteenth season of medical drama ER. This is perhaps one of the most explosive and exciting seasons and the one in which everything changes.
The previous season of ER had ended with Nurse Sam Taggart’s ex-husband Steve being brought into the ER following a prison fight. With the help of an EMT trainee, Steve and the other prisoner stage a violent escape drugging Luka, shooting Jerry and kidnapping Sam (Linda Cardellini) and Alex. The season closed with the pregnant Abby (Maura Tierney) collapsing outside the trauma room door as a paralysed Luka (Goran Visnjic) watched, unable to help.
The first episodes of thirteenth season of ER were amongst the most exciting episodes of television that have aired in recent years. In three short episodes, everything changed and we saw new faces arrive at the hospital and one staff member was demoted. The season opened as staff at the hospital fought to save Jerry’s life and to save Abby and the baby while Sam and Alex dramatically escaped from the violent and psychotic Steve. Parminder Nagra’s grieving character Dr. Neela Rasgotra struggled to recover emotionally from the death of Gallant and former-paramedic Tony Gates (played by John Stamos) arrived as an intern at the hospital.
The season barely slowed down from there and included the usual collection of intriguing and at times heartbreaking medical cases. It was the relationships between the characters and the character development that set this season apart though. There was a love triangle as Neela found herself the object of affection of both Dr. Ray Barnett (Shane West) and Tony, and Neela and Ray’s relationship hurtled towards an ultimately tragic and shocking conclusion. Tony became a pivotal character in the season and his personal story, secrets and challenges kept the audience tied to the television screen for episode after episode. One of the longest standing characters on the show, Dr. Kerry Weaver (played by Laura Innes) left mid-season and as sad as I was to see her go, it also gave way for a new guard in the emergency room at County General Hospital.
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