Post by lubylubylu on Sept 9, 2006 10:45:51 GMT 10
Check out the new Entertainment Weekly with a preview of the new season. Great photo of Maura and Goran...
www.ew.com/ew/report/0,6115,1516190_3|13800||0_0_,00.html
Heads up: The 13th season of ER kicks off with an episode that You. Can. Not. Miss! No, really — this time we think they might be serious. ''It's the most challenging work I've done since I came on the show,'' promises Goran Visnjic, who's entering his eighth year as brooding Croatian doctor Luka Kovac. ''It's gonna be a blunt, head-on episode — a real Kleenex seller.''
Pulling off new tricks isn't easy for NBC's medical juggernaut, but boy, can they serve up the cliff-hangery goodness: May's finale ended with Kovac handcuffed to a gurney and injected with a paralyzing drug by a pair of escaping convicts, while his pregnant girlfriend, Dr. Abby Lockhart (Maura Tierney), collapsed out in the hall. So on a show that's no fan of happy endings (see: Edwards, Anthony and tumor, brain), what are the chances that Kovac, Abby, and child are actually okay? Visnjic's answer: ''On our show, it's really difficult to write happiness for a long time. They're gonna make it ugly.''
Gracious. Let's hope it's not too ugly. Because after nearly a decade in scrubs, Tierney and Visnjic have emerged as the show's heart and soul, and their characters' relatively stable relationship has become a welcome respite from all the medical melodrama. ''It gets to be too much,'' agrees Tierney, whose character has endured debt, alcoholism, kidnapping, and her brother's bipolar disorder. ''You have to find the balance between what's dramatically compelling but not too over-the-top.'' Likewise, a big goal for the writers this season is a return to the gritty urban realism of the show's salad days. ''It's gonna be much more old-school ER,'' promises executive producer David Zabel. (In other words, no more African field trips.)
But the biggest challenge for County General — besides finding room for its umpteenth new cast member, John Stamos (as a paramedic-turned-intern) — is keeping up with current broadcasting trends. For the first time, the season will play out in two halves: Starting Sept. 21, the show will air 12 original episodes and then take a two-month break, before returning in April with its final 10. ''Like any serialized drama, ER always had difficulty repeating,'' says NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly. ''Having all originals will help maintain momentum.'' And despite the fact that it has flagged in the ratings (the once–Must See hit pulled in an average of 12.2 million viewers last year, down from 32 million in the mid-'90s), Zabel has no plans to alter the serialized structure, because it still works. ''We have the luxury,'' he says, ''of knowing we're not going to be canceled next week.'' It's true: For whatever reason — chalk it up to Stockholm syndrome — we're still hooked. ''That's one thing ER does well,'' says Reilly. ''Even when you feel, 'I gotta give this up,' you go, 'Well, maybe just one more week.'''
By Whitney Pastorek
www.ew.com/ew/report/0,6115,1516190_3|13800||0_0_,00.html
Heads up: The 13th season of ER kicks off with an episode that You. Can. Not. Miss! No, really — this time we think they might be serious. ''It's the most challenging work I've done since I came on the show,'' promises Goran Visnjic, who's entering his eighth year as brooding Croatian doctor Luka Kovac. ''It's gonna be a blunt, head-on episode — a real Kleenex seller.''
Pulling off new tricks isn't easy for NBC's medical juggernaut, but boy, can they serve up the cliff-hangery goodness: May's finale ended with Kovac handcuffed to a gurney and injected with a paralyzing drug by a pair of escaping convicts, while his pregnant girlfriend, Dr. Abby Lockhart (Maura Tierney), collapsed out in the hall. So on a show that's no fan of happy endings (see: Edwards, Anthony and tumor, brain), what are the chances that Kovac, Abby, and child are actually okay? Visnjic's answer: ''On our show, it's really difficult to write happiness for a long time. They're gonna make it ugly.''
Gracious. Let's hope it's not too ugly. Because after nearly a decade in scrubs, Tierney and Visnjic have emerged as the show's heart and soul, and their characters' relatively stable relationship has become a welcome respite from all the medical melodrama. ''It gets to be too much,'' agrees Tierney, whose character has endured debt, alcoholism, kidnapping, and her brother's bipolar disorder. ''You have to find the balance between what's dramatically compelling but not too over-the-top.'' Likewise, a big goal for the writers this season is a return to the gritty urban realism of the show's salad days. ''It's gonna be much more old-school ER,'' promises executive producer David Zabel. (In other words, no more African field trips.)
But the biggest challenge for County General — besides finding room for its umpteenth new cast member, John Stamos (as a paramedic-turned-intern) — is keeping up with current broadcasting trends. For the first time, the season will play out in two halves: Starting Sept. 21, the show will air 12 original episodes and then take a two-month break, before returning in April with its final 10. ''Like any serialized drama, ER always had difficulty repeating,'' says NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly. ''Having all originals will help maintain momentum.'' And despite the fact that it has flagged in the ratings (the once–Must See hit pulled in an average of 12.2 million viewers last year, down from 32 million in the mid-'90s), Zabel has no plans to alter the serialized structure, because it still works. ''We have the luxury,'' he says, ''of knowing we're not going to be canceled next week.'' It's true: For whatever reason — chalk it up to Stockholm syndrome — we're still hooked. ''That's one thing ER does well,'' says Reilly. ''Even when you feel, 'I gotta give this up,' you go, 'Well, maybe just one more week.'''
By Whitney Pastorek
