ER - The Complete Third Season

Rating: NR

Distributor: Warner Home Video

Release Date: April 26, 2005
Review posted: May 3, 2005

Reviewed by Greg Malmborg

SYNOPSIS

From creator Michael Crichton and Warner Brothers, comes the release of season three of this critically acclaimed, long standing and highly realistic show centering around a group of doctors and nurses working in an emergency room in a Chicago hospital.  ER has now been on television for over 11 years and has garnered an enormous amount of nominations and awards, as well as a huge fan base and a revolving door of great actors and actresses.  It is one of the most successful drama series of all time.

The third Emmy Award-winning season, encompassing 22 episodes, mixes compelling storylines about the working lives of the ER staff and their personal lives and struggles, as well as the riveting emergencies that require all their focus and knowledge in order to save their patients’ lives.  They are faced with life and death decisions every day where the wrong choices can haunt them for a lifetime. 

The third season begins with Dr. John Carter (Noah Wyle) starting his new position joining the team as a full-fledged doctor, and he has a really tough start (This DVD set is being released in conjunction with Noah Wylie’s departure from the show in this 2005 season).  Carter struggles to accept the responsibility and pressure that come with the job, especially when he’s got tough and demanding Dr. Peter Benton (Eriq LaSalle) on his case.  Benton, meanwhile, is stressing an HIV test due to his past relationship with Physician Assistant Jeanie Boulet who is trying to hide her HIV diagnosis from the rest of the staff, which is affecting her personal life and her future as a health professional.  Benton also discovers a newfound passion in pediatrics in season three. 

Dr. Doug Ross (George Clooney) is struggling mightily with his personal life, bringing his troubles into work (even literally as evidenced in an episode where he brings in a woman to the ER he was with the previous night) and trying to find himself and impress his colleagues.  Nurse Carol Hathaway (Julianna Margulies) is worried about passing the MCATs, hurting financially and trying to find a nice guy.  She even gets caught in a hostage standoff in season three.  Ross and her are growing closer and are developing an intense flirtation that seems to be leading to something more.  Dr. Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards) takes some huge risks throughout the season, at odds with the crutch wielding Dr. Kerry Weaver (Laura Innes) who are both leaders of the staff, to save lives and struggles to share his feelings for Dr. Susan Lewis (Sherry Stringfield) who he continues an on-again off-again relationship.  

CRITIQUE

ER has had many successful and riveting seasons throughout its 11-year span, this third season is one of the best.  Considering the amount of awards and accolades this show has garnered, this is really saying something.  This is when ER had the most talented and interesting cast and this is one of three seasons (3, 4 and 5) where they were really clicking.  After the majority of this great cast went away, ER went into a slide where it relied more upon medical jargon and emergency room situations instead of character development and personal stories.  This is a season to cherish for fans of the show.

I must admit that it was during this season (and the next two) where I never missed an episode and ER was one of my favorite TV shows, so it was great to revisit it.  The enjoyment, the reason for the success of the show, is in the great cast and the terrific writing.  The direction on the episodes isn’t as strong as the cast and writing behind it, one episode will seem perfectly directed (the intersecting storylines flow terrifically and the emergencies are tense and exciting) and then others seem sloppily put together. 

The writing is simply outstanding.  There are so many riveting storylines that delicately mix these characters’ personal lives and romances together with the engaging and intense emergencies at work that it’s an amazing accomplishment that the series is so cohesive.  Each episode moves the characters’ personal life stories forward, as well as the budding romances, so watching these episodes in order without interruption is a remarkable, consistent experience.  The dialogue is rife with medical jargon (which keeps the show grounded in an intense reality) but the character development is what makes these scenes interesting and riveting even though minutes might go by without understanding what anyone is talking about.  Now that is writing.

As stated earlier, the biggest reason for the success of the show (during this season) is this amazing cast.  Noah Wylie brings a boyish, naive likeability to the show, which makes his transition into a working ER doctor a lighthearted and engaging experience.  Throughout the season, his father-son like relationship with Eric LaSalle’s wonderfully cranky, all business Dr. Benton is constantly involving and intermittently funny.  Dr. Benton is an interesting character, which LaSalle inhabits with a furious intensity.

Anthony Edwards brings a surprisingly commanding presence to a critical role for the show.  His Dr. Greene is really the centerpiece of the show during this season and he handles the load brilliantly.  Edwards is a truly gifted actor who shined in this show, it’s surprising to me that he never had a very successful film career in supporting roles.  George Clooney brings his lighthearted charm to Dr. Ross, consistently bringing laughs where it’s most critically needed.  And it’s his personal life problems that are the most interesting and stirring (in the subsequent seasons he had the most moving episodes).  This is where Clooney established his talents as an actor and became the star he is today.

Julianne Margulies is just right as Nurse Hathaway; she brings a toughness and inner warmth to the character that makes her personal struggles and emerging romances so charming.  Her budding flirtation with Ross is one of the show’s strongest assets.  Stringfield and Innes are also excellent in their respective roles, bringing intelligence and vulnerability respectively to their well-developed characters.  The rest of the regular cast is also first rate, I didn’t see a weak link in the bunch.  This is just a flawless cast giving wonderful performances each and every episode.  There are also a multitude of amazing (and now famous) guest stars including William H. Macy (in a recurring role with some of the season’s best scenes), Omar Epps (whose departure is shocking in how it plays out), Kirsten Dunst (a recurring role through a few episodes where she performs some of her best work), Glenn Headly, and Jamie Gertz just to name a few.

Almost each episode has something worthwhile to talk about in this terrific season but the one that really stood out for me was Fear of Flying (on disc 2).  Not surprisingly, there’s a documentary on this episode in the DVD set as it’s identified as one of the best the show’s had (and an Emmy winning episode).  In the episode, Lewis and Greene fly out on helicopter to help save a family who was involved in a terrible head on collision.  Each member of the family is hurt, even their 10 week old baby girl who is operated on by Benton.  Benton botches the surgery in an attempt to prove himself (when he should of asked for help) and his decisions haunt him for the remainder of this season.  This is an emotional and engaging episode that epitomizes the prominence of this remarkable series.

THE VIDEO

The newer episodes of ER are just terrific to look at; the video quality is outstanding for network TV.  These earlier seasons had a very network TV (in the 90s) look to them.  That’s why this transfer was so surprising.  The video transfer for this season is brilliantly clean, lucid and vivid in color.  I was thoroughly impressed by this widescreen-enhanced DVD transfer, Warner Brothers put extra care in this set. 

THE AUDIO

The audio on the DVD set is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 (I was a bit surprised it wasn’t put into 5.0) and it is outstandingly clear, the dialogue is crisp and the balances are perfect.  The surround sound is active in all the right spots and never cuts into the dialogue or the score.  The fact that they didn’t apply it to 5.0 surprisingly didn’t make much of a difference.

THE EXTRAS

The extras on this third season set are plentiful, interesting and informative with some light-hearted extras to balance off the drama.

Audio commentaries on two episodes from directors, writers, and actors – The first commentary is from director Tom Moore and editor Kevin Casey on episode 8 entitled Union Station.  The two discuss what it was like to shoot the episode and some interesting back-story.  The episode was set up to be Sherry Stringfield’s last even though she comes back later in the series, Clooney was filming Batman and Robin during the shooting of the episode, and other stories and praise on the cast and crew.  This is an informative yet somewhat dry and uninteresting.  The second commentary is from director Felix Enrique Alcala, writer Neal Baker, Noah Wylie and Veronica Cartwright on episode 14 entitled Whose Appy Now?  This is a much more interesting and fun commentary where they discuss the pressure this episode had as it was in sweeps and Wylie and Cartwright give some valuable and funny insight on what it was like being a part of this cast and what went on behind the scenes in filming this episode.    

ER Specialists: Fear of Flying (17 min) – This is a great featurette where cast and crew discuss in detail the making of the episode and include fun and interesting behind the scenes information on this Emmy winning and terrific episode.  After you watch this, you just wish they had this treatment for every episode.  The extra includes footage from the episode and interviews and frank discussions with director Christopher Chulack, producer Neal Baer, Noah Wylie, Sherry Stringfield, and Glenne Headly.  It would have been great to have a mix of cast and crew discuss each episode of the season, as this is such a wonderful extra.

The Nurses Station (16 min ) – This is a funny featurette that has most of the cast who played all of the nurses throughout the season reflecting on their experiences and on how they were the constant spark of comedy and lighthearted fun as written and behind the scenes.  This is a lively bunch having a great time reflecting on a fun time in their professional lives.  Again, this just made me think of how great it would have been to get the whole cast together to reflect on this season and what a fun extra that would be.  But this is a fun and interesting featurette.

Outpatient Outtakes: Deleted Scenes (18 min) – This about 20 deleted scenes from the season that you can play all or see individually.  The scenes don’t add up to much but there are a few gems. 

Cutups: Gag Reel (11 min) – There are a bunch of funny scenes with the cast getting tongue tied trying to work with the mass of medical jargon in the dialogue.  They make it seem easy on the show but this shows you how hard it is to learn this kind of technical dialogue.  The show is mostly dead serious so it’s fun to see the cast in this light.

An ER video game trailer (2 min) rounds out the bonus features.

FINAL THOUGHTS

ER season three was one of the most exhilarating, well developed, and impressive seasons in the history of this award winning, successful drama series.  The writing and acting were just outstanding and the storylines were riveting and heartbreaking.  This DVD package is well put together with interesting and fun extras along with an outstanding transfer on each episode.

VERDICT: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

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