Customer Reviews

ER: The Complete Second Season

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This season is probably my favorite season ever. I think the episodes can stand for themselves without me giving a review of them, so I'll just recap some of the episodes in detail to jog your memory and give a brief recap for the rest.

#1 Welcome Back, Carter
Carter (Noah Wyle) is late for his first day back at County, where he is doing his surgical sub-internship under the direction of Peter Benton (Eriq LaSalle) once again. The highlight of Carter's day is fainting while trying to save a profusely bleeding patient. It's also Mark Greene's (Anthony Edwards) first day as an attending in the E.R. and he's swamped by his new responsibilities. He also has to decide who is going to replace him as chief resident, and finally decides to choose Kerry Weaver (the debut of Laura Innes), much to the dismay of Doug Ross (George Clooney), who has worked with her before. Mark also gets assigned the responsibility of dealing with four new med students, one of whom is Harper Tracey (Christine Elise), Carter's love-interest-to-be. We also discover that Benton and Jeanie Boulet (Gloria Reuben) have taken their relationship to the next level.
#2 Summer Run
Carol Hathaway (Julianna Margulies) begins her paramedic rotation with paramedics Ray "Shep" Shephard (Ron Eldard) and Raul Melendez (Carlos Gomez). Chloe (Kathleen Wilhoite) comes by the hospital to drop off Baby Susie (Gianna Beleno) with Big Susie (Susan Lewis, portrayed by Sherry Stringfield) while she goes to business school. Susan later finds out that Chloe quit school without telling her because it was "too hard".
#3 Do One, Teach One, Kill One
Susan continues to spend her days with baby Susie on one shoulder and Kerry Weaver looking over the other. Susan asks Mark to get Kerry off her back, but when he tries to do so, Kerry turns the tables on Susan by complaining about her. Carter is assigned to do a relatively easy procedure on a patient but botches it. Benton performs emergency surgery to save the man's liver, but the man has a heart attack on the table and dies anyway. It's not Carter's fault, but he still feels guilty. Doug Ross treats a young boy (Chia-Chia) with AIDS, Chloe is trying to become a mechanic but later decides to get into a money making scheme with a friend and skips town without the baby, Carol completes her last day of paramedic recertification, Peter and Jeanie break up, and Mark, sick of commuting between Milwaukee and Chicage, proposes to Jennifer (Christine Harnos) that he spend some of his pre-work nights in Chicago at Doug's apartment. She agrees.
#4 What Life?
Susan is stuck with the baby and finds out that she has to wait three months before she can claim legal abandonment against Chloe. Doug recommends a neurosurgeon and his wife (the Hallorans) to Susan who is looking to adopt a baby. Peter injures his finger so Carter gets to do the surgery that Peter was scheduled for, and gets a lot of praise from Dr. Hicks (CCH Pounder) for his performance. Carol starts dating Shep, Mark is having an interesting time living with Doug in Doug's "House of Love", Carter and Harper kiss, and Doug's AIDS patient Chia-Chia is back and is nearly exposed to chicken pox.
#5 And Baby Makes Two
The Hallorans can't adopt little Susie for three months, but they'd like to take little Susie to live with them before then anyway, seeing as Susan is having such a hard time finding child care for the baby. Susan has an epiphany and realizes that she wants to keep the baby herself. Chia-Chia is back, this time with meningitis. Doug tells Chia's tearful mother that it's only a matter of time before the boy dies but recommends a course of intrathecal (like a spinal tap but reversed) injections to prolong his life. Later on, Mark explains (while Doug is not around) to Chia's mother that the injections, while they will prolong Chia's life, are more painful than the meningitis. She takes her son home to die and Doug lashes out at Mark for doing that, but Mark says that only a miracle could have saved the boy anyway. Benton treats a woman named Vickie Mazovick who has been severely beaten by her husband. She refuses to press charges against her husband and refuses Benton's offer to help her get into a spousal abuse shelter. Later on, Haleh (Yvette Freeman) tells Benton that there is a police officer in the room with Vickie and Benton finds out that the man is Vickie's husband. Later on, Benton talks to another police officer, who tells Benton that he can't do anything if Vickie won't make a statement against her husband. Frustrated, Benton shows the officer pictures of Vickie's injuries, and the officer is quite startled and recognizes her from when she used to work as a dispatcher. Later on, a man who has been severely beaten is brought in by the same officer. It's Vickie's husband. The other officer tells Benton that Mazovick "took a fall" while chasing a suspect. Carter gets to perform more surgery because Benton is still out with the injured finger, E. Ray Bozman (Charles Noland) makes his debut in this episode, and it's Weaver's day off, which prompts the E.R. staff to throw a party.
The rest of the episodes are as follows:
#6 Days Like This (Doug is very close to getting fired)
#7 Hell and High Water (the big Emmy-winning one where Doug Ross saves a boy from drowning during a flood and becomes a local celebrity and gets to keep his job)
#8 The Secret Sharer (Susan's father comes over to help with baby Susie, against his wife's wishes)
#9 Home (Carol buys a house and a schizophrenic patient named Josh tells her all about it because local architecture is his passion)
#10 A Miracle Happens Here (Mark treats a Concentration Camp survivor and Mark is touched by her faith in God)
#11 Dead of Winter (Shep and Raul find an apartment in the projects which contains 22 freezing, starving children and we meet the smarmy Dr. Vucelich for the first time)
#12 True Lies (Rachel finds out that Mark and Jenn are getting divorced and Peter gets a spot on Vucelich's research team)
#13 It's Not Easy Being Greene (Mark refuses to sign his name to the hospital settlement to Sean O'Brien for the malpractice suit. Peter becomes slightly uncomfortable with the unethical-ness of Vucelich's clamp and run study)
#14 The Right Thing (Peter gets tossed off Vucelich's research team and decides that he wants to make public Vucelich's lack of ethics. His brother-in-law Walt advises against this)
#15 Baby Shower (There is a disaster in the OB/GYN department, so the E.R. gets to deliver a lot of babies)
#16 The Healers (Shep's partner Raul gets badly burned in a fire and dies. Shep blames himself for making Raul go into the burning building to rescue victims)
#17 The Match Game (Chloe is back in town and Carter gets suspended for drinking while on call--he was celebrating receiving his "match", which is his qualification for internship)
#18 A Shift In The Night (Mark gets called in to the E.R. and finds it extremely short staffed and overloaded with patients. Susan informs Chloe that she's hired a lawyer to help her keep baby Susie)
#19 Fire In the Belly (Peter is feeling the sting of blowing the whistle on Dr. Vucelich when other doctors refuse to work with him. Shep has a huge blow-up with a stranger and Carol worries about this new anger problem. Susan is forced by a judge to let Chloe visit Susie and Carter is allowed to work again)
#20 Fevers of Unknown Origin (Peter is made Resident of the Year, Harper leaves Chicago for Dallas, Mark and Jenn meet to discuss their divorce and end up having a reunion...of sorts. She ends up saying "What am I going to tell Craig?")
#21 Take These Broken Wings (Susan is in therapy because she lost custody of Susie, Shep is being investigated by the IAD for charges of abuse, Jeanie finds out she may have HIV)
John Carter, M.D. (Carter becomes a "real" doctor, but misses his graduation to stay with a young girl who needs a liver transplant)

When ER was in its initial heyday, I watched from time to time, but I wasn't a big fan. I was a recruiter for a college of nursing and every Friday, I would get several students wanting to pursuing a nursing career because of what they had seen on ER. Once I began to watch the reruns, I understood their feelings!

This show is still a great one, but the earlier seasons are the best. Season two has some great moments, my personal favorite being the Hell or High Water episode that shot George Clooney into superstardom. But other episodes are great, too.

What's really interesting is to see how the characters have evolved since the early days. Season Two John Carter is a wide eyed, eager, less jaded person than the one we see today. Susan Lewis is so torn by her career and the care of her niece. And Mark Greene (who I miss more than Doug Ross) is heart wrenching as he grapples with his life and the lives he saves.

This show is one of the best and this particular collection provides a great showcase of its acting, writing, cinematography, and direction!

As I said in my season one review, "ER" started off better than pretty much any show I can think of. It had an amazing feature-length pilot and then 24 incredible episodes which combined drama, comedy, and emotion perfectly. The good news is that season two is ever better.

Season two gets off to a great start, as Dr. Carter returns to the ER to the scoldings and snide criticisms of Dr. Benton. This is a great season because it keeps the original cast together. It is not until the next season that Sherry Stringfield tragically leaves the show. This season has the whole original cast and the addition of Boulet, a wonderful new character who stuck around for several years. The adventures the ER staff undergo in this season include:

Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards): Greene's obviously strained marriage from season one finally completely crumbles in this season when his terrible wife cheats on him and then leaves him for the other man. Dr. Greene takes the divorce hard, struggling with living as a bachelor until he finally gets back into the dating game near the end of the season.

Doug Ross (George Clooney): This is perhaps Ross's greatest season, and the season defines everything that makes George Clooney a great actor and Doug Ross a great character. A major continuing storyline this season involves Ross attempting to help a little boy dying of AIDS, and how his decisions interfere with Greene's beliefs. Also, Ross stars in perhaps the greatest episode of the season, "Hell And High Water," where he saves a young boy from drowning in a drain. This episode won multiple Emmys, and is a tense and exciting piece of television, and one of the most memorable "ER" episodes ever made.

Susan Lewis (Sherry Stringfield): Without a doubt Sherry Stringfield's greatest hour, this season wouldn't be nearly as memorable without her and her storyline is by far the best thing about the entire year. It's a major year of growth for Lewis, as her sister Chloe abandons her and leaves her with baby Susie. Lewis spends the year raising and loving the child, but trouble happens when Chloe returns and demands to have the baby back. Not to spoil anything, but one of the most heartbreaking "ER" scenes involves Susan and Baby Susie. It brought me to tears.

John Carter (Noah Wyle): Carter has a very memorable romantic fling in this season with another practicing med student, but when she cheats on him with Ross, there is tension. Carter also gets in trouble with Dr. Hicks when he spends his lunchbreak boozing it up.

Carol Hathaway (Julianna Margulies): This is a great season for Carol, as well. She spends pretty much the whole year dating the local ambulance driver Chep, and their relationship propels the year forward after the tragic death of Rowall, the other ambulance driver. This is a noteable season because there is not even a hint of romance between Doug Ross and Hathaway, as she spends the whole year dating Ron Rifkin.

Jeannie Boulet (Gloria Reuben): Boulet was the new addition to the cast in season two, and what an addition she was. In my opinion one of the most underrated characters ever on "ER," Jeannie has a very exciting year. She has an affair with Benton and ends up divorcing her husband, Al, but near the end of the season, she finds out that Al has been diagnosed with AIDS, and in the finale, she has herself tested. We don't find out the results until season three, however.

Peter Benton (Eriq La Salle): A big year for Benton, as he gets Ross into some major trouble but then pays the price when he finds out some naughty information about a local doctor, Vucelich, and chooses not to tell the administration.

All in all, an amazing year. The good thing about this season is that every character gets something noteable. My favorite of the cast this year would definately be Sherry Stringfield. Her story is unforgettable and it's a shame that the great writing couldn't stay with her character when she returned from 2001-2005.

Once again, the DVD set is excellent and shows a lot of care. The widescreen transfers are nifty and give it such a cinematic look, and the special features are pretty generous, too.

This just might be the finest season of "ER" ever. The storylines are totally gripping and addicting. Just trying watching one episode and resisting the urge to watch the rest! Nearly impossible! Buy this set now!

No commercials and I can watch it over and over again! What is better than that? For those who love early ER, this is a must! I am trying to collect all the seasons and the prices have been the lowest that I can find, not to mention the free shipping. A must see!

The second season of the multi-Emmy winning show "ER", 1995-1996, proves to be equally as great as the first season. Producer Michael Crichton wonderfully works his own medical experiences through this show. Many changes for the good happen through the episodes. This offers great variety that never becomes boring. This DVD set proves that "ER" is one of the best TV dramas on the air. Its combination of medical theme and the characters' personal lives (love, family, depression, etc.) offers the intensity that keeps audiences interested in every moment. No dull moment ever arises in a single episode. Every episode still holds its heavy impact as they did when they originally aired. Such quality answers why this deserved to have been the #1 show on television.

The acting from every cast member is wonderful. Everyone works at their fullest in every episode. They offer their own sense of theme into the plot, which keeps everything more interesting. This season saw the introduction of Gloria Reuben as Jeanie Boulet and Laura Innes as Kerry Weaver (she didn't become an official cast member until the third season; Weaver was a minor character on the second season). Those who didn't watch "ER" at the time will have an opportunity to see all the original cast members in action: Anthony Edwards, George Clooney, Julianna Margulies, Noah Wyle, Sherry Stringfield, and Eriq La Salle.

Beginning viewers of "ER" will get an opportunity to see Dr. Carter (Wyle) when he was still a medical student, Dr. Lewis (Stringfield) before she left for Phoenix, Dr. Boulet before she was diagnosed as HIV-positive, and Dr. Weaver before she realized she's a lesbian. This DVD set will give people an opportunity to see part of how the environment, the characters, and the plot became what it is now. It also shows part of how the show's quality has evolved through its run.

The second season of "ER" is an essential for all "ER" fans. This is sure to please many audiences. Those looking for more should also buy their first season and watch for the other seasons to be released shortly.

dvd's good at a great price. however, the dvd's weren't labeled and were out of order. I had to preview them to find out which was disc 1 2 3 or 4.

I was very young when ER first debuted, to be exact, I was 8 years-old. My Mother and Father put it on in our family room, and I actually watched. To be honest, it was the only show they allowed me to watch at the time. So, needless to say, I grew up watching ER. I fell in love with Noah Wyle from the start. By far, ER was one of the best shows of all time!

This season is just as good as the previous ones. ER is fantastic and completely absorbing

ER - The Complete Second SeasonExcellent synopsis of human conflicts and kindnesses beautifully portrayed by all the actors in E.R. Having a daughter in nursing/flight nursing, I am impressed by the eloquence and precision the series is presented. It has made us an 'E.R. Family'

If you're an ER addict like me, and you missed the first and second season way back when, then this is a must. I LOVE CARTER!! The first and second season set the whole basis for the key characters of the original series. Even though there is a whole new set of characters now, it's still fantastic watching with a great plotline and wonderful characters. The extras are great too, with commentary from the director and others, and some outtakes which are always fun for a laugh. GET IT!!