Warner Bros. | 2005-2006 | 1012 Mins. | Unrated
With almost all of the original cast checked out of County General by the end of the eleventh season—Noah Wylie would return as John Carter for a special story arch and it was simply announced that Dr. Susan Lewis, played by Sherry Stringfield, had accepted a position elsewhere—newer characters, such as Dr. Ray Barnett played by Shane West and Dr. Archie Morris played by Scott Grimes, were given the chance to show what they could do. Unfortunately, while they all had moments, none of ER’s newer cast members could capture the magic of Clooney, Edwards, Wylie, LaSalle or Margulies
The series picked up right where the previous season left off; nurse Samantha Taggart (Linda Cardellini) and Dr. Luka Kovac (Goran Visnjic) search for Sam’s son who ran away without his insulin, looking for his jailed father (Garret Dillahunt). Thankfully, that first episode, “Cañon City” marks the end of the relationship between Luka and Sam, as that pairing never really clicked.
I will say that Grimes and West give the series a much needed shot of youthful exuberance that was noticeably missing in the prior season. However Dr. Barnett’s sexual relationship with a girl who turns out to be fifteen-years-old, is troubling, and his attempts to juggle his surgical career with his fly-by-night presence as a fledgling rock star is just ridiculous. I know it’s always been an ER staple to have a set of star-crossed lovers, but the pairing of Goran Visnjic and Maura Tierney—while logical in the scope of the series—seems forced and has as much heat as a wet blanket. Though that relationship does result in Tierney’s best performance of the season in, “If Not Now,” where Abby must make a life-changing decision.
During the twelfth season, a couple of new characters were brought in, and ultimately given little to do. Kristen Johnston as Nurse Manager Eve Peyton certainly added an imposing female force to the cast, and the characters ability to be imposing yet less confrontational than Kerry Weaver (Laura Innes) was entertaining, yet ultimately, unnecessary. Also added to the mix was new attending physcian Victor Clemente portrayed by John Leguizamo. His performance was solid albeit limited in dimension. One can’t know for sure, but I got the feeling that ultimately ER’s producer’s didn’t know what to do with his character, so they made him a total screw up as a way to write him off the series.
The three episodes spent following Doctor Carter in Darfur are interesting, but ultimately too much time is spent away from the ER, and both the character of Dr. Greg Pratt and the performance of Mekhi Phifer seem lost. Nonetheless, anytime spent in Darfur in season twelve is preferable to the time spent in episode six “Dream House”. From the treating of a monkey to the antics of Dr Dabenko (Leland Orser) on the two-way mobile television, this is one of the worst episodes in the series. The writing markedly in “Two Ships” which blends storylines featuring not only our regular cast but those involving patients, visitors, and characters normally found outside the ER.
While the twelfth year was definitely a season of ups and downs, ER showed it still had the power to be tremendously affecting with “Body and Soul;” James Woods guest stars as a brilliant researcher and professor who also served as Abby’s mentor, now in the last stages of Lou Gehrig’s Disease. In a nice twist, the episode is directed by ER alum, Paul McCrane. The twelfth season also features notable guest appearances from Mary McCormack, Danny Glover, Ernie Hudson, and Diane Ladd. So while ER’s heyday was clearly over, fans of the series will definitely want to add the twelfth season to their collections, stat!
Warner brings the ER: The Complete Twelfth Season to DVD in its original broadcast aspect ratio of 1.78:1 with anamorphic enhancement. Black levels are decent, colors are well-saturated without bleeding, flesh tones are consistent, and detail is very good. There are some noise issues, but these are minimal and not distracting. All and all, it’s a solid visual experience for a standard DVD.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo soundtrack, encoded at 192 kbps, is quite impressive. The dialogue is always intelligible, and mostly confined to the center channel, with music and ambient sound effects spread across the left, right, and surround channels.
The only special feature on this set is Outpatient Outtakes for 16 episodes, otherwise known as deleted scenes, all in non-anamorphic widescreen.
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