Not a bad final episode for ER, as far as those things go. We liked the callouts to the pilot episode, and the way the old cast and new were mostly cordoned off from each other. We were frankly worried that this would wind up being like Star Trek: Enterprise (Jesus, why does that show keep coming up?), which rather famously introduced characters from TNG in its final episode, and in the process either laid bare the prequel show's shortcomings or, if you were a fan, just plain disrespected it entirely.
None of that here. The old characters got most of the ceremonial stuff -- saying goodbye, being sad -- and the new characters went about their day/night, just like they would have in real life. So thumbs up to showrunner John Wells, for not writing an episode where County General closed and forced everyone to squeeze out a teary farewell. Pretty classy. (Oh, also: anyone else bummed that Alexis Bledel only got one episode? Someone get her back on TV, STAT!)
We do have one question, though, and it relates to something that wasn't classy, but was in fact -- if we are right about it -- fairly awesome. Wasn't it weird having a "fractured penis" gag in this episode, just weeks after Grey's Anatomy did the exact same thing?
Full video to compare and contrast after the jump.
Read More...