ER: Season 14

As other reviewers suggested, it's remarkable how an ER season can be made or broken by good guest appearances. This is a shortened season, cut to 19 episodes by the writer's strike. The first nine episodes are dominated by the guest appearance of Stanley Tucci as the new head of the ER, having been transferred from intensive care. In episode 9, Skye Wexler, another major guest star, takes over as temporary head of emergency medicine, and Dr. Pratt considers leaving County General.After Tucci, the most important non-lead role is Leland Orser as Dr. Lucien Dubenko as chief of surgery. His presence is usually the only thing which makes Parminder Nagra's role as Dr. Neela Rasgotra interesting. She is one of the very few major characters who, for me, tend to add to the mix of characters and plot.Goran Visnjic and Maura Tierney are still the leads, but their roles are less important to the main action. The addition of David Lyons as Dr. Simon Brenner spices things up around episode 14.John Stamos' role grows in importance. But the biggest change with lead characters is Dr. Archie Morris' becoming a far more serious doctor, comparable to Pratt and Kovac as the ER's best attendings, even if, sometimes, he still appears to be a klutz.Near the end of the season, Hal Holbrook appears as a guest. That is always a treat.One of my constant aggravations on ER is that whenever one of the doctors or nurses shout's "Call Security", it seems as if Security never arrives, until the doctors, nurses, and clerks have already subdued the disturbance. One would think that the ER is one place where two security guards would be posted on a 24 hour basis. This season has just such an episode. It seems as if most in hospital scuffles could be put down in a few seconds if the guards were a few steps away.The last episode of the season ends with a great cliff-hanger, and an appearance by one of my favorite actors, Steve Buscemi.

Season 14 was originally intended to be the last for ER. Thank God it wasn't.One of the few positive effects of the 2007-2008 Hollywood Writers Strike wasdelaying ER's demise so that this mediocre (by comparison to other seasons) year was not the way the most emmy nominated drama of all time signed off.We'll never now how the second half of season 14 would've gone if there wasn't a writer's strike, but I can say with certainty that the first half of the season,which was written pre-strike, wasn't up to the challenge of sending ER outwith a bang. Too many subplots are end abruptly and uneventfully (example, Archie'srelationship with Hope). Maura Tierney gets a great storyline with Abbyfalling off the wagon (much harder than that wink and you miss it season 8 sub plot) and her performances are excellent. The problem is, the writers seem to put all their effort into that storyline, and don't balance it out enough with patient storylines or well developed arcs for the other characters. The 300th epsiodeis decent, but pales in comparison to other milestone ER episodes.After the 300th episode, things improve somewhat. We get fantastic guest appearances by Gloria Rueben, Hal Holbrook and Steve Buscemi, and more fast paced medical storylines (the first ten episodes of season 14 are very soapy).It's still an entertaining season. But I'm glad the writers strike gavethe pwoers that be some time to plan a stronger final season.

My three favorite shows of all time are The Twilight Zone, The Fugitive, and ER. I had already purchased every episode of TZ and The Fugitive on DVD, and had all but the last two seasons of ER on DVD. About two weeks ago, I was scanning through Amazon.com and found Season 14 of ER for about $17 and Season 15 at the regular price of $39. I decided to bite the bullet and buy both seasons. I'm not in the medical field, but I remember staying up on a Thursday night, knowing I'd be paying for it the next morning at work, just to watch this great show. My series is complete. I want to thank Amazon for making a little bit of it less expensive (similar to a medical co-payment - LOL-) and thank you for the cast and crew of this wonderful show for making medicine so friendly, yet believable.

saw a smattering of e.ps...not really involved with the characters.

A good send-off to a medical series that was one of the best shows ever! Brought back a lot of characters from earlier in the series, everyone from Ross, Greene, Hathaway, and even dreaded Rocket Romano in a 'flashback'.Honestly, if you've been the previous seasons and enjoyed them, you'll be extremely happy with this season. Characters that left the show coming back for bit pieces within the season and some (Carter) with a small story arc, characters leaving. It's all a very good tie up for the series. My only wish is that they had done some kind of gag reel for the complete series with some new clips as this season didn't have any gag reel whatsoever.

After reading all of the negative reviews I was a bit hesitant to order this DVD set but thankfully I went ahead & ordered it because I loved it!SPOILER--It did seem like Dr. Pratt was made "too nice" because they knew he was going to die so it was to make us miss him even more! If I didn't know he was going to die I'd have bought this Big Brother to everyone act and been impressed w/the character's turn around.I reluctantly ordered S15...I say reluctantly because I dread watching the episode where he does die! :((

I watched this in sequence, after season 12 and 13, and have to say was slightly disappointed. WHilst there are some excellent episodes, this season feels slightly disjointed, perhaps as a result of the writers strike, shortening the season to 19 episodes.There's no real character development for Dr. Morris, until the end of the season in my favourite episode, 'Under Pressure'. This season concentrates mainly on Abby, and her clearly troubled life. Maura Tierney is a great actress, and the writers know how to write for her, so she is great. Luka only appears in a couple of episodes, but isn't missed that much, surprisingly. Mekhi Phifer shines as Dr. Greg Pratt, really getting into the character, and growing up somewhat. Linda Cardellini and John Stamos also do an alright job. Neela seems much more peripheral this season, but her intern, Harold, is hilarious.Stanley Tucci really does a great job guest-starring as Dr. Moretti, its just a shame he wasn't in more episodes.Highlights include: 'The War Comes Home', 'Blackout', 'Coming Home', 'Under Pressure', and 'The Chicago Way'.I found this season disappointing due to the lack of continuity, characters change at (what seems like) random, the shortened episode number, and the quality. It isn't quite as good as previous ER seasons, but I love ER so it still gets a 4-star.

I have watched this series since the beginning. Still a great show recommend to anyone who likes their medical dramas .This series was initially inspired by Michael Crichton's days as a medical intern

I'm only about half way through this program so far but I'm loving it more than I thought I would. New interesting characters have arrived and familiar faces are either leaving, about to leave or have nice juicy storylines to freshen their roles up. Loving it!I would really recommend watching this program to anybody as it's really entertaining and sometimes quite funny too!

Definitely the last great season of ER. Too many people left for season 15. The dvd is good quality my only issue is i hate double sided dvds, id rather have a thicker box. I never watched ER when it was on tv but spent a few months watching it continuously. one of the greatest tv series ever made in my opinion.

Amazing tv show, must watch