On Wed, 2 Apr 2008 20:49:25 -0400, "Sharon Too"
<askformyaddy@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> No, if you consider the length of time this series has been on the air
>> and all of the medical drams which preceded it, this is classic
>> television. Granted, the quality isn't anywhere near what it was when
>> the show first started, and there have been dozens of recycled
>> plotlines as well as a complete cast overhaul ala "Law & Order" (two,
>> actually), but considering what has come since it has held up pretty
>> well as a groundbreaking series.
>
>The proof is in the numbers. Check the ratings. Since ER became the Abby
>Show the ratings have dropped considerably, and hit the basement last
year.
Those ratings were about two years behind where the show actually is,
which is largely on a creative upswing to a point where it hasn't been
since just before Mark Greene developed his brain cancer and the show
immediately bellyflopped into a turgid soup of awfulness never seen
(since . . . well, Passions that afternoon. Ba-dum-bum-pssssh!)
Yeah, the show has a huge, glaring problem -- the showrunners seem to
be incapable of remembering that Maura Tierney is an hilarious comedic
actress and so they write the exact opposite of what they should be
writing for her. And yes, IMO, Abby's relapse is, I think, the worst
longterm storyline they've ever done, far eclipsing the
Carter-drug-use-Carter-finds-himself-in-Africa-Carter-and-Kem-have-a-miscarriage
arc by several orders of magnitude.
However, the current Abby-Luka storyline aside, the show's fixed.
Archie is hilarious -- the best thing the writers did for any
character on the show in the past decade was turn Archie into a
competent doctor and yet keep him as the social idiot. Scott Grimes
is hilarious and it seems that through this one move the writers broke
the code, finally figuring out how to bring non-tragic storylines back
onto the show.
Also, as long as next season is the last and, well, NBC doesn't try to
pull a 7th Heaven with it at the end of next season, I think it
deserves a real swan-song year. The Five or six more episodes this
season wouldn't have been enough to close out several of the
characters storylines. Yes, Abby's, but also Pratt's, Neela's and
Gates's, for starters. So this gives them the lead-time to write the
ending properly, which is FAR less than The CW gave, like, Gilmore
Girls, y'know.
-- Rob
--
LORELAI: I am so done with plans. I am never, ever making one again.
It never works. I spend the day obsessing over why it didn't work
and what I could've done differently. I'm analyzing all my shortcomings
when all I really need to be doing is vowing to never, ever make a plan
ever again, which I'm doing now, having once again been the innocent
victim of my own stupid plans. God, I need some coffee.
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