ER was on the air for a staggering 15 seasons, so you’d be forgiven – if like me -you were unaware of most of the characters that surfaced in the just released twelfth season DVD set.
The reason this Michael Chrichton-created emergency room drama was able to outlast all other imitators (Chicago Hope, I’m looking at you) is not necessarily the characters – although there are some great ones – it’s the strong story lines and writing. That’s why someone like George Clooney or Julianna Margulies can walk away from the show and it can still chug along for another decade, churning out one stellar season after another.
Season 12 is proof of that.
John Leguizamo is brought into the series by episode five as the new attending physician who may or may not be psychotic. The addition of Leguizamo, playing Dr. Victor Clemente, adds a fascinating new story line to the plot that threatened to veer off too much into just another hospital-set show about doctors falling in and out of love with other doctors (ahem, Grey’s Anatomy).
The season almost gets bogged down a bit in the last few episodes when one of the doctors is sent off to Darfur to do relief work as penance for lying to the cops, but the writers more than make up for it with the final episode that ends with gunfire, hostages and one of the best cliff hangers in the show’s history.
Rating: 8 out of 10
ER: The Complete Twelfth Season /6 DVDs/2010/Warner Home Video/1012 mins.