NBC
(Season 15, Episode 7)
“Welcome to County General. I’m Doctor Greene.” – Doctor Mark Greene
I have been an avid ER fan for about 12 seasons and even read Michael Crichton’s “Five Patients” to have the full ER experience. I stopped watching the show about 2-3 years ago because I was tired of its repetitive storylines. Even if I haven’t been watching the show as of late, I have kept up with the spoilers as well as comings and goings. As you can see, I haven’t been able to completely severe ties with the show.
As soon as I learned that Dr. Greene was set to return for an episode, I marked the date on my calendar; I’m sure other ER fans who had abandoned the show did the same. Did the episode deliver the goods? Will I be starting to watch ER once again? Let’s find out.
Talk about a powerful and emotional episode. Witnessing Banfield’s distress while Dr. Greene worked on her son and seeing how she was affected by it in 2008 kept me glued to my TV for the entire episode. I actually felt sad and a bit teary during certain scenes because of the emotions carried by the actors and enhanced by the music, or lack of. Of course, Eriq La Salle’s opening mentioning the death of author Michael Crichton, creator of ER, set the mood right from the start, especially since Crichton was one of my favorite authors.
Even if I was really looking forward to this special “Greene” episode, I must admit that I was scared a little bit too. I’ve watched many episodes of various series in which past characters came back and their presence actually ended up hurting the show or providing a whole lot of nothing. When ER is concerned, I think that all the Carter episodes that brought the drama to Africa ended up hurting the show because those episodes had no impact to what was happening at County General. Carter’s presence did not help make the storylines progress or conclude. Those episodes actually felt like a spin off. I was hoping that the Greene episode would not make me feel like I was watching a spin off and that his presence would have meaning for the current characters. Luckily, my fears didn’t come to life.
The flashbacks sequences featuring Greene ended up being helpful for the show as they offered answers about the recently added to the cast Cate Banfield. I’m not sure how fans reacted to her addition to the cast a few weeks back, but I’m certain this week’s episode will help root her properly in the fandom and in the show. When new characters are tied one way or another to another character, it always helps having fans accept the new addition. Having her interact with fan favorite Greene and setting major past events in her life at County General were great ideas. Now that Cate cried and that the relationship with her husband may have a future, I’m sure we’ll see a different Banfield in the ER. She looked like one tough cookie before this and now she may be a bit more human.
Seeing Weaver, Romano and Jerry was also fun, even if they didn’t serve much purpose other than to set around what time the flashbacks took place: when Greene was undergoing chemo.
As you can see, I really enjoyed this week’s episode. However, I’m not sure it was enough to suck me back in, as the episode didn’t offer me enough of the current other characters to make a final decision. Should I give ER another chance this season? Are storylines any good? Try to convince me by commenting below.
Clacked by Isabelle Carreau 
on Nov 14, 2008 @ 13:00 EST5EDT
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Loved thed stuff with Green, but I can say as one of those ER fans that didn’t give up on it, I didn’t really care about the rest of the episode. No matter how hard TPTB try, they will not make me care about Cate.
I also got dragged back in for Dr Greene’s return. Certainly didn’t plan to watch it, but his character was so endearing years ago. Will I come back to the show? probably not… but was this a good trip back? I think so.
I’ve been keeping up with ER fairly consistently—some gaps that I’ve missed I’ve made up through the reruns on TNT. I really enjoyed this episode, found it incredibly touching. The flashback of Dr. Greene was a reminder of how much heart and soul he had, and how no other doctors since have matched that. I would recommend that you give the show a chance again, especially with it being the last season, the quality of writing has improved.
I will never stop watching ER and yes, although the series was fantastic to begin with and I will always miss and cherish the old and loong gone original cast (Ross, Carol, Greene etc) I still think this show is excellent and its storylines and acting is brilliant. One of the best shows of TV. Now that you mentioned I didn’t think the Africa epis were so out of place. Doctors do leave the hospital sometimes and travel to poor countries where they can use their skills to help other and it’s realistic and original to actually show that and be a reminder to people of how many doctors are out there in the wild trying to make life better for others. The world is not just County, that’s why they show us the characters out of it sometimes, like in their apartments etc, and Africa was one of those epis.
I miss many of the gone doctors (not particularly Carter) but the new ones are fine too. I was a Lubby fan (Luka/Abby) and I was sad they left but now I’m willing to watch Neela and others move forward. I won’t just act childish and leave a show because someone you liked left or something. Banfield is a hard cookie yes but she has a heart. May I remind fans that many characters, like Dr Weaver for example, were more than hated to begin with and then loved and missed. Even Romano was mourned! So I’m looking forward to seeing flashbacks, past moments or whatever happens next. I love the show and a true fan watches from beginning… to end.