ER: "Calling Dr. Hathaway" Summary/Review
Scott Hollifield
E.R., Season 3, Episode 19, "Calling Dr. Hathaway"
Teleplay by: Jason Cahill & Samantha Howard Corbin
Story by: Neal Baer
Directed by: Paris Barclay
PLOT ONE: PLAYING DOCTOR
Carol's MCAT results are back, and she's so sure that it's bad news,
she won't open the envelope, provoking Doug to snatching it in a fit
of horseplay. She retrives it as the two walk into work, whereupon
Kerry addresses Carol as "Dr. Einstein". It seems that Kerry, being
on the admissions board of the hospital's med school, has already
been given Carol's scores, which are much better than Carol
expected--eighty-fifth percentile--which has Kerry already jockeying
for Carol's application before she goes "Ivy League". While Kerry
tries to devote energy to teaching Carol procedures, Carol spends a
lot of her day dealing with Andrea Thompson, the worried mother of a
toddler who recently had heart surgery, and is admitted after he
couldn't be roused from sleep. Andrea wants to stay in the ER while
Doug works on young Joel, but her questions distract Doug, and Carol
moves to escort Andrea into the hallway where she patiently explains
the details of what's happening to her son. At Andrea's insistence,
Carol promises to let her re-enter the ER if Joel wakes up or if his
condition slides. The latter happens while Kerry is helping Carol
"appreciate" a pseudocyst on another patient, however; Joel goes into
cardiac arrest and by the time Carol brings Andrea back in, Chuny is
announcing the tot's time of death. Carol feels awful for having let
Andrea down, and offers to let the mother hold the body of her little
boy once last time, setting Andrea up in an empty room with Joel, and
telling her to take all the time she needs to "say goodbye". Kerry
comes in with a drunk who needs attention, and wants to use the spare
bed, but Carol won't let her disturb Andrea. "I admire your
compassion," Kerry tells her, "but if you're going to be a med
student, you've got to stop thinking like a nurse." A little later,
a pensive Carol tells Doug, "I'm really, really good at my job. So
why do I want to change that?" Despite being doctor for a day, Carol
joins the other nurses after work for beer and pool at Crockett's,
and when they wonder if she's given up the idea of med school, she
replies, "Let's just say I really like what I do."
PLOT TWO: FILL IN THE BLANK
Already on Anspaugh's bad side for having outflanked him on a
patient's treatment last week, Carter lands himself further in the
doghouse by showing up late and unprepared for rounds. Physically,
the doghouse is a lab where Carter uses graspers to practice his
laparoscopic maneuvers, which Maggie Doyle also tries her hand at
when she stops in. Maggie offers to assist when a trauma call pulls
in Carter on an emergency patient of Benton's, a GSW whose life
Carter saves by stopping the bleeding with a Foley-balloon trick he
read about in People magazine. Even Peter offers an accolade at this
feat, although it's not enough to convince Anspaugh to let Carter
scrub in when the patient gets sent upstairs; instead, Dale Edson is
given his slot and told to take a history. "Can't win 'em all,
Carter," says Peter sympathetically with a pat on the shoulder, while
Maggie remarks, "Man, you *are* in the doghouse." Later, however,
while Edson and Anspaugh are in surgery with another case, Gunderson,
the GSW, goes into respiratory arrest, an allergic reaction to an
antibiotic prescribed by Edson. Carter discovers that Edson didn't
bother to take a full history of the patient, and apparently didn't
ask for any known allergic reactions to drugs. After pulling Edson
out of surgery, Carter warns him that he'd better have an explanation
for Anspaugh. Instead, Edson covers his tracks by surreptitiously
filling in the history with, "Patient states no known drug
allergies". The ruse works on Anspaugh, who praises the "proper,
thorough history". Instead of spilling the beans, Carter hides
outside, where Maggie finds him. He brings her up to date, and she
urges him to tell Anspaugh the truth, although he's reluctant because
"surgeons don't rat on each other." All four doctors are operating a
little later, on a man who fell off a high ladder onto a car, and
Maggie tries to force the issue into the open by prompting Carter and
Edson about the Gunderson case. Edson doesn't come clean, though,
and Carter fails to speak up, at which Maggie says to him privately,
"You sure told him." Carter confronts Edson alone afterward. Edson
admits he screwed up, but definitely doesn't want to get caught, and
tells Carter, "I'll do anything you want," if he keeps his mouth
shut. Carter replies, "I don't want to have anything to do with
you. But if you try anything like this again, I'll bury you, I
promise." Later, a sympathetic Maggie offers Carter a bottle from
her Heiniken stash. She suggests he talk to someone whose judgement
he trusts, like Benton. "You're great," he tells her. "You're
honest, you're funny, you're beautiful... I don't suppose that
you...?" Maggie answers the unfinished question with, "Not a chance."
PLOT THREE: PERSONAL DAY
Peter Benton is taking *some* time out of his day to help Carla,
the mother of his child, cope with her condition. Because Carla
has gestational diabetes, Peter has to teach her how to test her
blood four times a day. Caressing her face, he tells her he has
to go to work, at which she says, "Just go." When a nurse fails
to deliver her insulin, she calls Peter at work, and he pays her
another house call. He had intended to return to duty, but he
finds himself taking a personal day from work (due to "family
emergency") and doing Carla's grocery shopping for her. While
at the supermarket, he runs into his sister Jackie, who is
pleasantly surprised to see Peter taking some responsibilty for
his situation. When he complains about Carla's mood swings,
Jackie tells him that this is just due to a pregnant woman's
hormones. "When I was pregnant with Steven," she says, "I
had Walt cooking *and* doing the laundry." She suggests that
Peter consider taking even more time off from work, which
gives him pause. That night, he has the hospital send his
charts, so he can do them at home after he leaves Carla, but
she needs another shot, and wants him to stay. At that point,
Carter, who had wanted to talk to Benton about the Edson
incident (see PLOT TWO), knocks on the door with Benton's charts,
but Peter takes them from him and shuts the door before Carter
can say anything to him about what he really came for.
PLOT FOUR: CODE BROWNIE
Mark was supposed to talk to Rachel's brownie troop today, but he
forgot to request a shift change at work for the occasion. The lapse
earns Rachel's ire, which even an offer of a weekend Six Flags trip
can't relieve. After consulting with her concerning the case of the
Smythes (see MISCELLANEOUS THREADS), Mark complains to Nina Pomerantz
about the situation, but after Nina challenges him to find a way out
of it, Mark brings the entire brownie troop in for an impromptu tour
of the ER, which seems to lighten Rachel's spirits. That night, Mark
and Nina wind up taking their respective daughters out bowling.
Making a new friend in Nina's daughter Emma seems to brighten
Rachel's spirits, and there's other benefits as well. Staring at
Nina from across the table at the bowling alley, Mark proposes going
out again soon, which Nina agrees with--"next time, without kids."
The two trade a brief kiss across the table before being interrupted
by the kids.
MISCELLANEOUS THREADS:
Mark treats a woman named Brenda Smythe, who got her posterior
stuck in a bucket while camping with her husband John. He
relieves the woman of her unwanted appendage with a Swiss army
knife, and later helps out Mr. Smythe, who's gotten a button
stuck up his nose by pumping air through the man's mouth.
Suspicious at having seen the Smythes actually, deliberately
arranging the button accident earlier, and having heard John
address his "wife" as "Ms. Wilkerson" (a pet name, he explains
when caught), Mark consults with Nina Pomerantz. The Smythes
(or Smythe and Wilkerson, actually) admit that they're really
clinical researchers doing a study on creative problem solving
in emergency medicine. Mark and Nina's eyebrows raise, though,
when John Smythe effusively praises Mark's creativity and
promises that he may be hearing from the "highest levels of
government", including possibly "HRC", which Mark explains to
Nina must be Hillary (Rodham Clinton).
Jerry puts on his animal-hunting hat again when a genetically
engineered mouse is on the loose in the ER. The mouse is worth
a cool half million to the researcher who owns him, and there's
a reward of $5000 for retrieving "Heidi" alive. Jerry's efforts
to catch Heidi are a constant source of irritation to Jeanie,
particularly after she gets her foot stuck in one of Jerry's
"humane traps". Jeanie gets her revenge later, though, when,
after Wendy buries Heidi in boxes, she's able to save the mouse's
life through mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Instead of splitting
the reward with Jerry, though, she takes the mouse herself
to collect the cash in full, offering Jerry ten percent of it
"for being in the room".
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I think the reason "ER" must fascinate people so much is that it
offers a glimpse into a handful of social dynamics that aren't really
reproduced in any other setting. Only in a hospital do you have this
gestalt of doctors and nurses, two groups with their own
established, proprietary duties and esteemed roles in the sphere of
medicine, yet one clearly in deference to the other. Hospitals are
almost unique in the magnitude and flavor of demand they place upon
their employees, both physically and morally. Only in hospitals do
you have a situation where a person must be barred from the area in
which a loved one is receiving care, for the good of the loved one.
At its best, or even when not at its best, a highlight of "ER" is
when it shows a window into these worlds that are so different from
what most of us do and see in our regular daily routine.
One of the most interesting things to me about the otherwise
disappointing "Tribes", two weeks ago, was the debate that erupted on
Usenet over whether or not Chris Law was in the right to want to see
his brother being taken care of in the ER. Carol is faced with a
similar issue this week, when taking a personal interest on behalf of
a mother who wants to be near her dying young son. This situation,
propelled by strong emotion and real justification on both sides, was
compelling, but unfortunately, as with "Tribes", it was used to fuel
a more questionable broader story, i.e. Carol's feelings about
becoming a doctor. The problem with this story is that I felt we
were given an unconvincing dichotomy of what it means to be a nurse
vs. being a doctor. Carol's dilemna was structured such that being a
nurse was equated with compassionate caregiving, and being a doctor
was equated with a dispassionate emphasis on procedure over patient.
Even if real life couldn't allow us to see through this arrangement
as simplistic and inaccurate, past episodes of "ER" itself have shown
us that it's not the case -- and moreover, Carol should know it
herself. So while I liked the camaraderie of the ending, with the
nurses playing pool together (a pleasant change from the
nurse-related tension of recent storylines), I'm not sure I buy the
basis for Carol's decision for opting not to pursue med school (if
that's truly what she's decided, as the dialogue was a trifle vague).
On the other hand, there's a very strong argument, which recent
epsiodes have muted, about how Carol's satisfaction at being a nurse
is not at all misplaced, and possibly the truest line she spoke this
week was the one about being "very, very good at my job; why should I
want to change that?" The problem is that this legitimate argument
is arriving too late to sufficiently explain away Carol's nascent
desire to be a doctor, where she could potentially make an even much
greater difference in helping and changing the lives of people.
Carter ruffles feathers with his nemesis, Dale Edson, again, in a
story reminiscent of November's "No Brain, No Gain", in which the
surgeons squared off over an ethical breach that, as this week,
focused more on Carter's reaction to the breach than the breach
itself. That episode's exploration of Carter's lack of assertion
was effective, which made this one feel like a rerun, since nothing
new was really learned or gained (and Carter's terse confrontation
with Edson felt weak compared with the physical brawl that
consumed them last fall). The highlight of this story was Carter's
evolving relationship with Maggie Doyle. In fact, Maggie's
spriteliness itself was a highlight, but it was enhanced by the
fact that while Carter finds himself attracted to her, the
writers are, for now, keeping them at arms reach physically. This
jibes with a recent revelation about Maggie having an ex-girlfriend,
although the situation is being laid out ambiguously enough
should they ever decide that Maggie is in fact bisexual and in love
with Carter. Personally, I'm hoping this doesn't happen; I'd
much prefer the sibling-like bond the two seem to be sharing now
to intensify. And while I'm on my pro-Maggie soapbox, the producers
would be doing themselves, and us, a favor, by making Jorja Fox
a regular cast member come next season.
I think Peter Benton's entire situation can be summed up symbolically
by the one image of Peter, glassy-eyed, lurching through a supermarket
with a shopping cart. What am I doing here?, he seems to be asking
us. Am I doing the right thing? Am I being manipulated? Is this
consistent with my past behavior? Shouldn't I, in fact, be at work?
The essential nature of the Peter Problem is that Peter's soul is
so skillfully concealed from the viewer, it's challenging to nail
down exactly what's in and out of character for him to do --
paradoxically, almost, for this character who seems so predictably
set in his ways. Some use examples like this episode to claim
that Peter's characterization is actually something of a blank slate,
but I still optimistically cling to the point of view that his
sometimes aimless-seeming moves are, like Hamlet's, evidence of a
complex, not absent, character design. Peter has always tried to
do The Right Thing; and he's recently arrived at the conclusion
that going out of his way to help care for Carla is another way
to carry out this policy. As has happened before, I think he's
finding, vaguely, that this goal and his dedication to his work
are somewhat in conflict (recall Peter's waffling on caring for
his ailing mother in the first season). As far as Carla goes,
I haven't really been in the proximity of a pregnant woman for
any great period of time (excepting the crucial nine months that
all of us spend in such a position), so I can't speak to how
legitimate is the portrayal of Carla as a demanding, moody
mother-to-be, but I do think that Peter could do worse than
be subjected to a crucial test of his humanity than this,
the bid to be supportive in every sense of the word of the mother
of his child.
When a character is introduced for, initially, the sole purpose
of being a romantic interest for an existing character, my
opinions of them are pretty much in place after their first
appearance, in every example I can think of, from Diane Leeds to
Harper Tracy to Jeanie Boulet. (I'm thankful that at least one
of them was allowed to shed that role and move on.) In the case
of Nina Pomerantz, though, I'm still undecided. Nina has a
flippant, almost playful attitude in place that seems to stand
out (even among the existing cast of wisecracking doctors), but
is that enough to base a relationship on? Well, I'd go out with
her in a hot minute, so I'm reluctant to admit that I actually
expect more out of my "ER" characters than my girlfriends.
In that vein, then, I grant Jamie Gertz probational approval as
Mark's girlfriend, although in all honesty, it wouldn't have
hurt so bad if they'd have let Mark sit out the rest of the
season given his hyper-dating period earlier this year.
Some assorted comments:
--The tale of clinical researchers/nutcases Smythe and
Wilkerson was far too stuck in the quirky-for-quirk's-
sake mode, and, as mostly an excuse to call down Nina
Pomerantz, was a singular waste of Julie Haggerty and
(especially) Harry Shearer. Plus, it reminded me of
Robert Carradine's turn as a phony consultant two
years ago, and I'm getting a little irritated with
being reminded so incessantly of past episodes.
Mostly the same complaints can be leveled at the
thread of Jerry hunting the mouse; after stalking
snakes and kangaroos, it seems a definite step
backwards.
--Doug continues to coast without a storyline to call
his own, and it seems a little distressing when one
considers that his last really intense, lasting
moment in the sun was the death of one-night-stand
Nadine Wilks. I suppose filming the Batman movie
has, by necessity, pushed George Clooney out of the
spotlight, but it does seem a little glaring if
Clooney is supposed to be considered the show's
poster boy. (Oh boy, now I'll get a ton of mail
from Noah Wyle fans.)
--Someone in the dialogue department goofed. Throughout
the episode, Carol addresses Ms. Thompson as "Andrea"
pronounced like "Andre'" with an accent on the
second syllable, but someone let guest actress Cynthia
Martells introduce herself as the
conventionally-pronounced "Andrea", as in "Andrea
Mitchell".
--Speaking of goofs, the clock mistake which has already
been discussed on alt.tv.er was pretty obvious. It
doesn't look good when you have someone announce a time
of death, while in the same shot, a clock reads the
time as several hours different. :-)
--I'm getting spoiled by seeing Khandi Alexander yet again,
as Peter's sister Jackie. Now it's time for another
appearance by Ving Rhames as Walt. Better yet, bring
back the rest of Walt's clan (including teenage son
Steven, mentioned this week), not seen since the first
season.
--For anyone curious, I'm declining to speculate on what
next week's "big revelation" is, although naturally I'm
skeptical of any promotion that promises that the best
drama on television outdoes itself. Talk about
hyper-hyperbole.
--Once again, the "ER" producers show off an unerringly
impecable taste in pop music, by ending this week's show
with Elvis Costello's "Every Day I Write the Book".
I didn't buy last year's mostly-instrumental soundtrack,
but I'd pay good money for a CD of the show's "greatest
hits".
--Line of the Week--
Anspaugh: "Dr. Carter! How nice of you to join us. What
would you do with Mrs. Pritzker?"
Carter: "What's her problem?"
Anspaugh: "As Dr. Edson has just finished saying, she's
fluid-overloaded."
Carter: "Well, I... uh, wouldn't give her anything to
drink."
--Line of the Week II--
Wendy: [to Mrs. Smythe] "Why didn't you just go in the
bushes?"
Mr. Smythe: "That's irrelevant."
---
Scott Hollifield * sco...@cris.com * http://www.cris.com/~scotth/
Jonathan Roberts
Scott Hollifield wrote:
> For anyone curious, I'm declining to speculate on what
> next week's "big revelation" is, although naturally I'm
> skeptical of any promotion that promises that the best
> drama on television outdoes itself. Talk about
> hyper-hyperbole.
Especially as all these coming-next-week promos always seem to depend
for impact on quoting out of context: lines which aren't that big a deal
in the actual scenes are made to sound Very Significant Indeed.
As if we need extra incentive to watch the show!
--
Best,
Jon
jonathan roberts \ in days somehow distracted
guitar:synth:notes \ in nights of troubled sleep
the region of where \ these secrets long suppressed emerge
nart...@ix.netcom.com \ too difficult to keep
Sean Vanderfluit
Scott Hollifield (sco...@cris.com) wrote:
:
: PLOT ONE: PLAYING DOCTOR
: a pensive Carol tells Doug, "I'm really, really good at my job. So
: why do I want to change that?" Despite being doctor for a day, Carol
: joins the other nurses after work for beer and pool at Crockett's,
: and when they wonder if she's given up the idea of med school, she
: replies, "Let's just say I really like what I do."
[snip]
: I'm not sure I buy the
: basis for Carol's decision for opting not to pursue med school (if
: that's truly what she's decided, as the dialogue was a trifle vague).
The other problem I had with it was it was too trite and quick; as
mentioned before, the annual problem for the writers is how to keep the
characters in place (for in the 'real world', they'd be gone and out of
there, on to their futures, or the 'bigger better thing'), so I was
wondering how they were going to keep Carol out of doctor school and
staying on as a nurse. She has good reasons to do so (a student loan on
top of that mortage for that house of hers???), but these seemed to be
glossed over for more 'philosophical' reasons.
Sean
mcme...@***concentric.net
***Scott Hollifield wrote:
***> For anyone curious, I'm declining to speculate on what
***> next week's "big revelation" is, although naturally I'm
***> skeptical of any promotion that promises that the best
***> drama on television outdoes itself. Talk about
***> hyper-hyperbole.
According to the blurb in TV Guide, next week's episode doesn't sound all that
explosive. I quote, "Jeanie is faced with a dilemma when she agrees to ask Fischer
to approve Al for an experimental AIDS-treatment program; Hathaway accuses Ross of
giving preferential treatment to the child of a wealthy businessman; Carter and
Benton assist in a kidney-transplant operation."
Woo. That sure doesn't sound like the tension-filled promos we saw Thursday!
Beth
To respond, remove the "***" from my e-mail address.
Arman Afagh
In article <3362c4e2....@news.cris.com>, sco...@cris.com (Scott
Hollifield) wrote:
>E.R., Season 3, Episode 19, "Calling Dr. Hathaway"
>Teleplay by: Jason Cahill & Samantha Howard Corbin
>Story by: Neal Baer
>Directed by: Paris Barclay
>
>
>PLOT ONE: PLAYING DOCTOR
>Carol's MCAT results are back, and she's so sure that it's bad news,
>she won't open the envelope, provoking Doug to snatching it in a fit
>of horseplay. She retrives it as the two walk into work, whereupon
>Kerry addresses Carol as "Dr. Einstein". It seems that Kerry, being
Is it possible for the producers/writers of ER to have dealt with the
medical school admissions issue less realistically? It's already been
discussed on this newsgroup how the MCAT is only given twice each year
(not in February, when Carol took it) and that it is a day-long exam (not
an afternoon exam as was Carol's).
This post is to set some issues straight for those who do not know what
it's like to go through the grueling medical school admissions process.
In this episode (or was it the prior one -- I think it was the prior
episode) Carol is shown looking up answers to some of the questions she
was unsure abouton the MCAT in Harrison's Principle's of Internal
Medicine. The MCAT does NOT deal with medical/clinical problems, per se,
as are covered in excruciating detail in Harrison's. The MCAT covers
basic sciences (biology, chemistry, physics, and writing), not clinical
sciences, and Carol should have been shown looking up answers in Alberts'
The Cell or Lehninger's Biochemistry, for example.
Second, a high MCAT score does not come close to guaranteeing you
admission to medical school. While this may have been true in the past,
almost all current medical school applicants score extremely well on the
MCAT and must have other accomplishments to set them apart from the other
applicants. Certainly, Carol has some unique accomplishments, but her
MCAT score by itself probably won't get her far. On the other hand, Carol
does know someone important, Kerry, and knowing someone on the admissions
committee is EXTREMELY helpful.
Third, if I recall correctly from 3 years ago when I went through the hell
of medical school admissions, you don't get a single percentile score on
the MCAT. You get a letter grade (not A-F but somewhere from L to T, for
example, T being better [I don't remember what the exact letter grades
are]) for the writing portion and three scores (number scores) and three
percentile scores for each biology, chemistry, and physics. So, you would
not get a single percentile score, as they gave Carol.
While I would have been willing to overlook a few minor inconsistencies,
there are too many to ignore, and I'm afraid that the writers of ER have
given the ER viewing public at large a gross misconception of the process
of getting into medical school.
>on the admissions board of the hospital's med school, has already
Hospitals do not have medical schools. Rather, medical schools have
hospitals. In fact, usually more than one hospital. So, the above
statement is not exactly correct.
>been given Carol's scores, which are much better than Carol
>expected--eighty-fifth percentile--which has Kerry already jockeying
>for Carol's application before she goes "Ivy League". While Kerry
>tries to devote energy to teaching Carol procedures, Carol spends a
>lot of her day dealing with Andrea Thompson, the worried mother of a
>toddler who recently had heart surgery, and is admitted after he
>couldn't be roused from sleep. Andrea wants to stay in the ER while
>Doug works on young Joel, but her questions distract Doug, and Carol
>moves to escort Andrea into the hallway where she patiently explains
>the details of what's happening to her son. At Andrea's insistence,
>Carol promises to let her re-enter the ER if Joel wakes up or if his
>condition slides. The latter happens while Kerry is helping Carol
>"appreciate" a pseudocyst on another patient, however; Joel goes into
>cardiac arrest and by the time Carol brings Andrea back in, Chuny is
>announcing the tot's time of death. Carol feels awful for having let
>Andrea down, and offers to let the mother hold the body of her little
>boy once last time, setting Andrea up in an empty room with Joel, and
>telling her to take all the time she needs to "say goodbye". Kerry
>comes in with a drunk who needs attention, and wants to use the spare
>bed, but Carol won't let her disturb Andrea. "I admire your
>compassion," Kerry tells her, "but if you're going to be a med
>student, you've got to stop thinking like a nurse." A little later,
Again, this gives the impression that to be a physician you can't be
compassionate, that that is the job of the nurses. Nothing could be
farther from the truth.
>I think the reason "ER" must fascinate people so much is that it
>offers a glimpse into a handful of social dynamics that aren't really
>reproduced in any other setting. Only in a hospital do you have this
I would also like to add to this comment about social dynamics in
hospitals. Only in public hospitals do you have some of the most well-off
people in a community helping those who are among the worst off. That,
more than anything, is what fascinates me with public hospitals.
>gestalt of doctors and nurses, two groups with their own
>established, proprietary duties and esteemed roles in the sphere of
>medicine, yet one clearly in deference to the other. Hospitals are
>almost unique in the magnitude and flavor of demand they place upon
>their employees, both physically and morally. Only in hospitals do
>you have a situation where a person must be barred from the area in
>which a loved one is receiving care, for the good of the loved one.
Thanks, Scott, for the great review!
ARman.
--
Arman Afagh
afag...@popmail.med.nyu.edu
http://popmail.med.nyu.edu/student-org/personal/arman/arman.html
"To create a new standard, it takes something that's not just a little bit
different. It takes something that's really new, and really captures people's
imaginations. And the Macintosh, of all the machines I've ever seen, is the only
one that meets that standard."
- Bill Gates, Microsoft Corp.
Mike Proto
sarah <sara...@juno.com> wrote:
>The Jeanie plot sounds awful promising, but I read in my TV Week that this
>kidney transplant Carter assists in leads to a revelation for him.
>
>sarah
>
I saw this blurb too in my tv guide, and I wonder if the revelation has
something to do with his desire (or perhaps his lack thereof) to be a
surgeon. The storyline last week spent a great deal of time showing
Carter's difficulty in "playing the game" of "surgeons sticking
together..." Perhaps he'll come to the revelation that he belongs in the
ER full time.... preferably as a pediatric specialist a la Doug Ross?
Later,
Susan
"Paper is more patient than people." - Anne Frank
sarah
Katy Demcak
Please do not put the TV Guide summaries in discussions about Scott's
reviews. They are spoilers, and those of us who are expecting to read
conversation of Scott's excellent reviews stumble across them
unexpectedly.
It's appropriate to post them separately, under a title such as "TV
GUIDE SPOILER 5/1" or something, but putting them in a discussion that
does not have spoiler in the title ruins the surprise for those of us
who love being surprised by new ERs.
I'm sure many of us would appreciate this.
Katy Demcak
kde...@wellesley.edu
Denise
Mike Proto <Mik...@concentric.net> wrote:
>I saw this blurb too in my tv guide, and I wonder if the revelation has
>something to do with his desire (or perhaps his lack thereof) to be a
>surgeon. The storyline last week spent a great deal of time showing
>Carter's difficulty in "playing the game" of "surgeons sticking
>together..." Perhaps he'll come to the revelation that he belongs in the
>ER full time.... preferably as a pediatric specialist a la Doug Ross?
>
I have to say this would be reat to see! I've always thought Carter
should be in Peds! If it doesn't happen, I think you should be a writer
for the show!
Just my opinion,
Denise
Shawn Hill
Scott Hollifield (sco...@cris.com) wrote:
: want to change that?" The problem is that this legitimate argument
: is arriving too late to sufficiently explain away Carol's nascent
: desire to be a doctor, where she could potentially make an even much
: greater difference in helping and changing the lives of people.
Not to mention making more money, and not being subordinate in status or
pay to that other class she works with, which includes Maggie, Doug,
sometimes Jeannie, etc.
: of Nina Pomerantz, though, I'm still undecided. Nina has a
: flippant, almost playful attitude in place that seems to stand
: out (even among the existing cast of wisecracking doctors), but
: is that enough to base a relationship on? Well, I'd go out with
: her in a hot minute, so I'm reluctant to admit that I actually
: expect more out of my "ER" characters than my girlfriends.
: In that vein, then, I grant Jamie Gertz probational approval as
: Mark's girlfriend, although in all honesty, it wouldn't have
: hurt so bad if they'd have let Mark sit out the rest of the
: season given his hyper-dating period earlier this year.
Well, he's over being hyper. Now he's just being himself.
Shawn
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"He sees a couple of things in me/
like how I'm not very hard to please"
--j. hatfield,
"forever baby"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
sh...@husc.harvard.edu Shawn Hill
Ian J. Ball
While I would love to see this happen too, the potential drawback is that
it could allow a rationalization for letting George Clooney leave the
show.
And I'd *hate* to see that happen...
--
Ian J. Ball | Want my TV episode guides or rec.arts.tv FAQ?
Grad Student, UCLA | http://members.aol.com/IJBall/WWW/IJBall.html
IJB...@aol.com | ftp://members.aol.com/IJBall3/FTP/
i...@ucla.edu | "What to do, with time so short?..."
Alex Elliott
Scott Hollifield (sco...@cris.com) wrote:
: in Carter on an emergency patient of Benton's, a GSW whose life
: Carter saves by stopping the bleeding with a Foley-balloon trick he
: read about in People magazine. Even Peter offers an accolade at this
: feat, although it's not enough to convince Anspaugh to let Carter
: scrub in when the patient gets sent upstairs; instead, Dale Edson is
: given his slot and told to take a history. "Can't win 'em all,
: Carter," says Peter sympathetically with a pat on the shoulder,
This was actually one of my favorite moments of the show. It's
great to see Carter and Benton finally getting along, with Benton
finally treating Carter like a competent, able colleague. Back in
the first season, he never would have praised Carter to his face,
no matter how well he did. Of course, this seems to be just a
part of the overall "humanization" of Benton.
Unfortunately:
: Carter, who had wanted to talk to Benton about the Edson
: incident (see PLOT TWO), knocks on the door with Benton's charts,
: but Peter takes them from him and shuts the door before Carter
: can say anything to him about what he really came for.
I really would have liked to see this conversation happen as part
of the growing friendship between the two. Of course, the fact
that Carter was going to consult Benton makes it apparent that
some of the respect Carter lost for Benton last season when he
kept screwing up has been regained.
I hope that they eventually end up having a heart-to-heart about
the Edson problem - it would make a very satisfying chapter in
the continuing Carter-Benton reconciliation.
Alex.
>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<
Alex Elliott
Yale University Physics Department
New Haven, CT, USA
email: ell...@minerva.cis.yale.edu
WWW: http://pantheon.cis.yale.edu/~elliott
>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<
SWilliams
:Arman Afagh wrote:
:Second, a high MCAT score does not come close to guaranteeing you
:admission to medical school. While this may have been true in the past,
:almost all current medical school applicants score extremely well on the
:MCAT and must have other accomplishments to set them apart from the
:other applicants. Certainly, Carol has some unique accomplishments, but
:her MCAT score by itself probably won't get her far. On the other hand,
:Carol does know someone important, Kerry, and knowing someone on the
:admissions committee is EXTREMELY helpful.
:
:Third, if I recall correctly from 3 years ago when I went through the
:hell of medical school admissions, you don't get a single percentile
:score on the MCAT. You get a letter grade (not A-F but somewhere from L
:to T, for example, T being better [I don't remember what the exact
:letter grades are]) for the writing portion and three scores (number
:scores) and three percentile scores for each biology, chemistry, and
:physics. So, you would not get a single percentile score, as they gave
:Carol.
:
:While I would have been willing to overlook a few minor inconsistencies,
:there are too many to ignore, and I'm afraid that the writers of ER have
:given the ER viewing public at large a gross misconception of the
:processof getting into medical school.
:
:Thanks, Scott, for the great review!
:
: ARman.
As with lots of admissions tests you get several grades for each
different category or section. But with many tests you can take those
grades and come up with one overall score. When I took the GMAT I got 4
(I think) grades one for Reading Comprehension, One for Math, One for
Analytical and one for the Essays. And then they added them up and gave
me an 'overall' grade. I had assumed that was what they did with Carol.
If I remember correctly undergraduate college admissions tests are the
same way. You get a grade for each level and then an overall.
But then again this is just TV and I would say that they greatly over do
a lot of the stuff that goes on and don't do all there research on lots
of things. I have a friend who is an ER nurse and she constanly will say
'oh they'd never do THAT in an Emergency Room'. Some of the stuff they
try to make it easier for us to understand some they just don't want to
bother with the gory details... It's TV. It all has to be taken with a
grain of salt.
Staci
Sher...@aol.com
In article <336629...@mailhost.pd4.ford.com>,
swil...@mailhost.pd4.ford.com says...
> :Arman Afagh wrote:
>
> :Second, a high MCAT score does not come close to guaranteeing you
> :admission to medical school
> :Third, if I recall correctly from 3 years ago when I went through the
> :score on the MCAT. You get a letter grade (not A-F but somewhere from L
> :to T, for example, T being better [I don't remember what the exact
> :letter grades are]) for the writing portion and three scores (number
> :scores) and three percentile scores for each biology, chemistry, and
> :physics. So, you would not get a single percentile score, as they gave
> :Carol.
Not that most people would care too much :) but it works like this.
Letter grade from something weird like J through T for writing and then
a score from 1-15 on the other three portions. Percentiles are given but
really meaningless. The best you could do is a 45 and a T. 45 is very
unlikely, and any score over 30ish is considered excellent. Most
outstanding candidates get 13's on the three portions: verbal reasoning,
physics/chem (physical sciences) and bio/orgo.
> :While I would have been willing to overlook a few minor inconsistencies,
> :there are too many to ignore, and I'm afraid that the writers of ER have
> :given the ER viewing public at large a gross misconception of the
> :processof getting into medical school.
Yep. But Carol still is an excellent candidate. She has buttloads of
experience that me as a poor pathetic candidate does not have :)
> But then again this is just TV and I would say that they greatly over do
> a lot of the stuff that goes on and don't do all there research on lots
> of things. I have a friend who is an ER nurse and she constanly will say
> 'oh they'd never do THAT in an Emergency Room'.
But then again, I have had EMT classes with ER nurses - and they'll watch
this show any day over Chicago Hope. As far as a medical drama is
concerned, its the most realistic one out there so far (past and
present). Of course, they'll also say that ER's level of activity is
almost unbelievable - and that kind of activity does NOT even happen on
that scale at Cook County. (Which is currently undergoing renovation at
the moment and is being plagued with continual rumors of its being shut
down and competes with tons of nearby hospitals like UIC and Rush. Cook
is downsizing personnel and beds... but I suppose nothing matters in the
TV world eh?)