'ER': Are we there yet?

Perhaps it's that time, time for "ER" to close its doors, and not just temporarily for a paint job.

Last night's episode was somewhat engaging, but only in the way that the same plot we've seen in other incarnations was being lobbed back at us. We began with foreshadowing on Luka (Goran Visnjic) and Abby's (Maura Tierney) relationship as Luka was suddenly called away to Croatia, by himself. Most of us know that this is Visnjicâ's last season on "ER" and clumsy allusions to terrorism early in the episode created a "wonder how they'll make this happen" feeling of non-tension.

As happens at least once a season, a promising new doctor has been introduced (Stanley Tucci) who, despite his acting chops and threats to force the ER to straighten up and fly right, will not be able to stir the pot enough to freshen the show after so many years.

Finally, we saw yet another heavyhanded shoehorning in of current events that seemed contrived. War is bad? People are getting tortured over in Iraq?  Sigh.

Despite the stale subject matter,  what was most disappointing is that the episode ended on Gates (John Stamos) and Neela (Parminder Nagra) fighting through an explosion of the old “can’t-miss!” variety. Nagra is a beautiful actress who has done well on the show, but she and Stamos generate zero heat. While Stamos is easy on the eyes and seems to do okay on the show (but seriously, isn’t this guy sick of taking roles wherein he raises some kid that’s not really his?), it’s not good that he was overshadowed by Tucci, who was on the series for all of two episodes.

It just seems impossible for “ER” to make itself fresh or relevant again. We’ve had plane crashes, helicopter crashes, bus crashes, mass shootings, you name it. Mothers who die in childbirth, babies who die in childbirth, kids from gang shootings, mysterious and wise dying old people. Now we’ve even had more than one doctor-turned-amputee. What else is there?

Maybe the "ER" producers should follow in the steps of Dick Wolf and do “ER” spinoffs like “ER: Pediatrics” or “ER: Special Patients Unit” to at least mix up the routine a little bit. But in the meantime, it’s given very little indication of why its fans should tune in again next fall. We hear this “Grey’s Anatomy” show is interesting…

-- Claire Zulkey

(Photo courtesy NBC/Universal)