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Show:		9.0
Picture:		8.0
Sound:		9.0
Extras:		3.0
Score:		8.0

Director(s):	Arthur Albert • Christopher Chulack • Jonathan Kaplan • Lesli Linka Glatter • Nelson McCormick • Paul McCrane • Stephen Cragg
Writer(s):	David Zabel, Joe Sachs, R. Scott Gemmill, Dee Johnson, Lisa Zwerling, Lydia Woodward
Starring:	Alex Kingston • Goran Visnjic • Laura Innes • Linda Cardellini • Maura Tierney • Mekhi Phifer • Ming-Na • Noah Wyle • Parminder Nagra • Shane West
Genre:	Drama • Television
Website:	http://www2.warnerbros.com/ertv/home.html
Release Date:	July 14, 2009
Rated:	NR

List Price:	DVD - $30.49
Amazon:

Fifteen successful and award-recognized seasons of primetime television would make even the most hardened TV studio exec turn their head. Further sweetening the appeal of this wunderkind program, the drama and stories allow audiences to come and go week by week with no loss in quality if they happen to miss an episode here or there. Faithful viewers are rewarded with medical and personal drama while the television vagabond gets an hour of high-class surgery, triage and bloody excitement. Few shows can boast such an unfailing return for its patrons.

At eleven seasons in The Simpsons was feeling the slothfulness of age slowing its wit and only continued to deteriorate. Even M*A*S*H* barely made the eleven season mark as the stories began to suffer and cast members lost the will to give another year to the program. Frasier just barely made it to season eleven and in all fairness it limped through the final three. Keeping a show running for fifteen years makes you realize that television isn’t a runner-up career choice for actors who couldn’t make it on the silver screen; it’s a test of endurance. Unless Peter Jackson is directing, the average actor spends anywhere between two months to a year on the set of a film – but then it’s over. Next job. Next press circus. But television is the same office full of shiny lights and make-up crews for years on end (if your show achieves success).

Which makes the veterans of ER that much more impressive in their commitment. Noah Wyle played Dr. John Carter on and off for the first eleven seasons and finally makes his bow in a storyline that didn’t even rear its head until the tenth season. Wyle didn’t even start as the main character; instead he played second fiddle to Anthony Edwards’s Mark Greene until his on-show death. Alex Kingston joined at the start of the fourth season and, with little warning or ceremony, leaves abruptly in the eleventh season in a move that’s wholly desperate and out of place for the character’s arc. At first glance her write-off seems like a waste until you take a look back at the seven-season-marathon she’s run ever since 1997.

Even as ER’s eleventh season sees two strong veterans bow out, it’s always introducing new faces and pulling the heartstrings to wrap around the new rising stars. Parminder Nagra’s nervous Neela Rasgotra continues her searching for her path in life after the last season’s events leave her without a residency or even a hospital to practice in (which is example enough for not annoying Dr. Weaver). Then Shane West enters the hospital as a new hotshot doctor whose cocksure attitude makes his life easier some days while putting him at odds with all the other doctors on others. West’s addition to the cast shoves a new vitality down the show’s throat and it actually sticks. The character’s dialogue enlivens the interactions of other doctors and reinvigorates ER as a series.

The writing remains at Emmy-winning levels and the episode “Time of Death”, guest-starring Ray Liotta, earned the actor numerous nominations and wins for the TV season. The show’s poignant moments often come unexpected and the writers have no qualms about hitting the audience in the back of the head with an emotional two-by-four. ER: The Complete Eleventh Season may not carry the impact on the ER mythology that the previous season did (affectionately known as ER: The Season of Death and Ruin) since it didn’t kill off nearly as many people, but the exit of Noah Wyle leaves a large gap in the cast which the others struggle to fill in the season that follows. It’s a fantastic season that gets off to an electrifying start with a car chase on lower Wacker Drive and even non-ER fans can watch it and be enraptured.

DVD Bonus Features

The ER season sets have disappointment in spades when it comes to extra features. Each time it’s just “Outpatient Outtakes”, which are glorified deleted scenes. No commentaries from writers, directors or even the late Michael Crichton. One thing’s for certain: you’re not buying this box set for the extras, so it’s a damn good thing the show is consistently as strong as it is.