DVD Review: ER - The Complete Ninth Season

By June L. Jun 18, 2008, 16:30 GMT

How do you separate your personal life from your professional life? Not easily. And if you\'re on the emergency-room staff of Chicago\'s County General Hospital it may be impossible.Challenges at work and at home overlap in the series that remains the right prescription for powerful entertainment. Carter\'s playful office love affair becomes a 24/7 crisis. Kovac\'s partying affects his performance. And be careful what you wish for staffers: Weaver is ...more

I In a year that begins with a hospital lockdown due to a smallpox epidemic, and ends with some of the physicians on a relief mission to a war torn area of Africa, the 2002- 2003 ninth season of ER is action packed. 

Not that this show ever lacked for excitement, but this season had some issues and events that rocked both the show and its viewers.

The death of Dr. Greene is in the near past, and many are still grieving as the ER is quarantined for a smallpox breakout.  If those events are not enough to raise stress levels and tempers, once the quarantine is over, another hospital closing fills County General to overflowing, gridlocking the ER with too many patients. 

Security becomes a bigger issue than ever as a patient pulls a gun on a doctor.  And the coping mechanisms of drinking and partying to banish the daily stresses go a long way towards ruining the lives and careers of those who use it.  Halloween has a haunting, and the yearly Christmas story is just as heart rending and tense as ever. 

Overzealous competitive math students taking Ritalin fill the ER.  Catch your breath, and there is a hardened cynical old doctor running a free clinic whose friendship is important and it is time to make amends with family, until bad news sends you back to the bottle.  Having a crazy mother doesn’t help things, but neither does having someone you’ve pronounced dead, suddenly return to life. 

Robbery and murder lead to racial tensions, wrongful arrests, and a promotion may come with a price that is too high.  A new order is not always the best thing for a group, and visits by old friends from back home may bring trouble as well as warmth and memories. 

We all handle things differently, sometimes it is as simple as night and day procedures, but when all else fails, volunteer to go work somewhere that is so bad your past problems seem tame.  Yes, it is another season of ER.

ER - The Complete Ninth Season is a nicely packaged set of six discs containing all 22 episodes, available with subtitles in English, French, Chinese, Korean and Portugese.  The playing time is over 986 minutes.  There is a nice selection of special features as well. 

There are “Outpatient Outtakes” for most of the episodes, which has unaired scenes.  There is also a gag reel called “Cut Ups” that is very funny.  The box is the fold type, and has episode notes including original air date, writers and directors.  

ER - The Complete Ninth Season is now available at Amazon and AmazonUK. Visit the DVD database for more information.