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Once again, I am being extremely timely… if by “timely” you mean 30 years late.
After writing about The Pitt—that weirdly compelling ER-adjacent fever dream—I found myself doing what anyone with a Max subscription and vague nostalgia does: starting a full ER rewatch. Yes, ER. Yes, again. Yes, it’s streaming on Max (or HBO Max? When are we allowed to call it that again?).
I’m currently at Season 2, Episode 9, and ER has officially become my “morning coffee and existential dread” wake-up show. Nothing gets the day going like a Code Blue at 7:00 AM.
Let’s start with Dr. Peter Benton, played by Eriq La Salle. Now, look—I get the trope they were trying to work with: the tough-love mentor for young, wide-eyed John Carter (Noah Wyle). But watching this through a 2025 lens, it feels like they really did La Salle dirty.
Instead of writing a character with the complexity and nuance of, say, Dr. Cox from Scrubs, they went with something closer to “Angry Black Man #1.” Two full seasons in, and Benton’s storyline boils down to: “I had it rough, no one gave me a break, so I’m going to haze every intern and probably die alone.” They dipped into every tired stereotype of Black male authority figures and somehow forgot to give him a soul. It’s frustrating. Eriq La Salle had the acting chops to do so much more. The writers just didn’t let him.
To be fair, I’m not done yet—this is just where I am in the rewatch. Maybe they course-correct later. Maybe they finally give him emotional depth. But right now, I’m side-eyeing 90s network TV hard.
Now let’s talk about George Clooney. Will I ever rush to watch a Clooney movie? Absolutely not. Not even a plane movie. Not even on a plane with free WiFi and no other options. But ER? This is where he belongs.
This show was built for the Clooney Effect™—that mix of charm, smugness, and occasional soulful stares into the middle distance. I don’t know his full IMDb page, nor am I a certified Clooneyologist, but I’ll die on the hill that TV Clooney > Movie Clooney. In some scenes, he’s electric. In others, I feel like he’s doing the bare minimum. But hey—bare minimum Clooney still out-charms 90% of the cast.
And this morning, in a haze of half-sipped coffee, I found myself thinking: “I’d actually watch Clooney on TV again. He should come back.”
Yes, I’m aware this means I’ve officially crossed the Rubicon into armchair quarterback territory. But you know what? That’s what this rewatch is all about.
I’m not watching ER like a critic. I’m watching it like someone yelling “OH NO, NOT THAT NURSE” at their screen while pouring cereal. It’s my comfort show with a side of medical chaos. And 30 years later, it still slaps—flawed character writing and all.
So yes, this is your official warning: more ER rewatch thoughts are coming. Probably when I hit Season 5 and start yelling about Mark Greene again.
If you’ve also fallen down the Max nostalgia rabbit hole, or if you want to shout about the injustice done to Peter Benton, I’m all ears.
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