This was probably the first TV series I ever watched in my life, starting around elementary school. At that time, although I couldn’t understand what they were saying and couldn’t fully grasp the subtitles, watching a group of medical staff in the emergency room with their thrilling and sometimes touching stories made me think that being a doctor was super cool. I was determined to become a doctor when I grew up!
(That was the age when you wanted to be whatever you saw in movies.)
The narrative style of “ER” is composed of many stories in the hospital or the personal lives of medical staff, forming a complete storyline that connects all the characters. Back then, the romantic elements in TV dramas weren’t as rampant, and it was still a time when people wanted to turn on the TV to watch (off-topic
There is still romance in this series, but it feels very realistic, unlike some exaggerated love triangles where everyone loves each other, making it not feel tiresome to watch.
What I really like about “ER” is that sometimes they depict health education topics we’ve all heard about but never experienced firsthand. They bring to life what you’ve seen in textbooks, showing how these situations unfold in a hospital setting. Sometimes it’s interesting, but other times it’s heart-wrenching.
Speaking of something interesting, in one episode, an elderly dementia patient appeared in the emergency room, continuously making a rhythmic noise. I forgot what the sound was, and the doctors were too busy to pay attention to the elderly patient, so they placed him in a consultation room to continue his rhythm.
Actually, the focus of this episode wasn’t the elderly patient. The main plot was about some urgent and chaotic medical events that kept the doctors on edge throughout the episode. Finally, after resolving all the emergency cases, they returned to the consultation room hoping for some peace to do their paperwork.
Because the doctors were mentally exhausted, their brains were too weak, and the episode ended with the doctors being completely distracted by the elderly patient, making the same noise with him while writing reports, and then the episode concluded XDD
Now, for a thrilling one, there was an episode with a super emergency patient who needed immediate surgery. That day, everyone was a bit on edge. During the quick briefing before the surgery, it was mentioned that the patient was HIV positive, so they needed to be careful. After the briefing, the team went in for surgery.
During the surgery, one of the edgy team members clumsily bumped into the surgeon’s hand, which was already in the patient’s blood. The surgeon was shocked (°Д°) and immediately rushed to the sink to remove the gloves and rinse his hands. After shaking off the water, a small corner of his finger started oozing blood from a cut made by the scalpel.
As a young viewer, I was both shocked and accomplished. Shocked by the “bloodborne transmission!” and accomplished because “I know! This was covered in health education!” This scene was quite shocking and became one of the representative impressions of this series for me.
Although I only watched about three seasons (out of a total of 15 seasons) (I didn’t know TV series had seasons back then, later estimated when rewatching in college), this series was really memorable. Most of the series I watched later didn’t leave such a lasting impression where I could remember some details (series with no memorable details like FRIENDS, Sex and the City, Knight Rider only remembered “buddy,” MacGyver, etc.). I think if it were rebroadcast now, it would still have pretty good ratings!
I just checked, and the composer of the theme song, James Newton Howard, later became a top Hollywood composer, known for works like Pretty Woman, The Fugitive, Waterworld, Space Jam, The Sixth Sense, The Dark Knight (with Hans Zimmer), Blood Diamond, I Am Legend, The Hunger Games, etc.
It seems that the composer of the theme song is probably one of the most successful in terms of career development from “ER.”