01.03 Hit and Run

I have an assignment to finish for work, hence working through a bunch of these.

Carter drools and snores when he sleeps.

Doug knows that Mark fancies Susan, or at least likes teasing him about it.

Holy crap! There's a guy using a mobile in a hospital! And it's the size of a brick! It's wierd to remember that in '94 mobiles were rare and the automatic thing of switching them off when you get in a cinema, a plane or a hospital had yet to become habit. I, er, used my mobile in a hospital last year. I felt guilty.

I've seen this guy in something else. I've got it! He's Principle Flutie. The headmaster of Sunnydale High who was eaten by some students who had become were-hyenas. Everyone loved Principle Flutie.

Kook of the Week: a mother who hears her dead mother and the Princess of Wales. Also, the mother's kid was in something as well. Wait! He's the Annointed One! The creepy kid who the Master annoints as his disciple in Buffy season 1 and whom Spike fries when he gets to Sunnydale ("from now on we'll have a little less ritual and a lot more fun around here!"). No wonder the kid ended up as the right hand of the head of the Order of Aurelius when he sees his mother dragged away by the staff of Cook County Hospital whilst screaming about Princess Diana.

Also, Jerry's idea of child-minding is showing the soon-to-be-evil-brat pictures of diseased gall bladders. I seem to remember him doing the same with Alex when he shows up with Sam.

Having watched episode 12.09 the other night, I've noticed that the trauma rooms are essentially unchanged, whilst the rest of the entire hospital seems different.

Susan is still getting pissy at surgery, this time because they won't slice and dice when she thinks they should. Benton's arguing with his family about how he is more commited to his career than his folks is very similar to a lot of the Pratt stuff.

There's a front of the building? I can't even imagine Cook County as having a posh front, but there's Carter doing the life-affirming 'delivering a baby' thing on the steps. Maybe they banned any patients drawing up there ater all the blood he leaves on the floor?

This is, I think, the episode where the series finally finds its feet and its style. Carter goes through the horror of a patient dying, then delivers a baby and realises he can be a doctor. The star-crossed ex-lovers bicker, with Carol and Doug fighting it out on a El platform. The potential lovers don't even realise they are flirting. The driven doctor does his brooding thing. The boss appears and is waspish at people (it's still William H Macy!). It's the balance of all these elements, along with the various patients of the week, which the show needs in order to work. It's when it goes too far off the combination in favour of one or another thread that I suspect I drift away from following it.