Your take, please, on my ...
Question: Your take, please, on my impression that television critics always focus on the new and buzzworthy while ignoring popular, good long-running shows. The most striking example from this season is the superb work of
Maura Tierney in recent episodes of
ER, as her character, Abby, succumbs to the bottle once again. Sure,
ER's been on forever and its quality has waxed and waned, but Tierney's performance this season has been heartbreaking. Certainly among the best acting I've seen on the tube this year. But will we see her name on the list of Emmy nominations next summer? I doubt it, and in large part, it seems to me, because voices like yours aren't interested in what's considered "old" or so-been-there. So I'm curious as to whether critics recognize just how loyal many viewers continue to be to seasoned shows. I get that your job is to search out and critique the latest and greatest, but programs like
ER endure for a reason. I would have followed Christine Cagney and Mary Beth Lacey into their dotage as they solved "The Case of the Missing Dentures" at their nursing home. (And how great to see Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly still kickin' it as the talented and charismatic actors that they are.) See my point here?
Answer: There has been a lot of fan flurry in my mailbag about Maura Tierney's performance this season, and I don't doubt for an instant that she's doing great work. She has been one of my favorite things about
ER since she joined in 1999, back when I was still watching. I have made a fuss about her many times over the years — most recently, probably, in that memorable episode from 2004 when Abby and Neela were on NICU duty. I drifted from
ER a few seasons ago. (You know you're no longer a fan when your DVR is stacked with episodes but you can't bring yourself to watch.) I tried to get back into it last year when John Stamos joined, but it only took a few weeks before he became as miserable as everyone else on the show, and the conclusion of the Forest Whitaker-vs.-Luka arc was the last straw. Watching Abby fall off the wagon again — which to me reveals that
ER has run out of ideas — is not enough incentive to bring me back into the fold, and I'm sure I speak for many others, not to mention most critics, who do tend to have more commanding priorities than trying to find signs of life in a show that has run on fumes for years. By the way, I agree about
Cagney & Lacey, but only to the point where I'm forced to return to my conviction that no TV series (except maybe
Law & Order) is meant to last forever, and that the greatest challenge for any show is to know when to bow out with dignity. Sadly,
ER crossed that threshold long ago. (I would add that promoting Scott Grimes' obnoxious character to a series regular was my other breaking point.)
