Can we have a zero rating, please? I've just watched the Thanksgiving episode and frankly will never watch another. To compare this TURKEY to ER is unbelievable...where to even start listing the points that make it a terrible show? Others identifying themselves as involved in emergency services have commented appropriately on various Darwin Award moments, so I shan't except to second their words. But let's put in one point about past shows on TV...waaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy back when there was a series about medicine in the field rather than in the hospital...it was called Emergency! and it did a pretty decent job of showing realistic paramedic work as well as gave us some character development and story lines to follow. Laugh all you want at the dated look of the series now, it did a far far better job than this ridiculous excuse for a "medical show replacement". This mess should be described as a soap opera, with just as little believability.
BTW, catch the sudden "you can't go off and eat turkey dinner, everyone get dressed, get the rigs, and get out to the airport...there's a big plane about to crash land" announcement for a real laugh. It's portrayed as if EMTs go home for the holidays, every holiday...like, man, ain't gonna be ANYONE out there at the station house on shift. Good grief.
Let's move on to the airplane crash, shall we? As a former medic and pilot I winced throughout the scene...airplanes that land belly up on paved surfaces have a strong tendency towards burning, which is why runways are foamed prior to such a landing. They had enough time in the show to have emergency vehicles along the sides of the runway, but they didn't foam AT ALL? And the plane, shown as creating a shower of sparks and spilling jet fuel all over, had no actual fire except in the conveniently detached engines? Oh, yeah, which the firefighter was training WATER on? As for the medical portion...where was the triage? You do not just randomly float about a major trauma scene blipping along happily from whoever to whoever as you please...or sit around hugging any of the victims while others have not yet been seen.
There is absolutely no urgency portrayed here. Either the actors are incapable, the point of the show is so much to be a soap opera rather than any sort of "medical show" that realistic emergency response has been tossed by the wayside, or the people writing or possibly directing have no idea of the realities. Definitely a miss of a show.
BTW, catch the sudden "you can't go off and eat turkey dinner, everyone get dressed, get the rigs, and get out to the airport...there's a big plane about to crash land" announcement for a real laugh. It's portrayed as if EMTs go home for the holidays, every holiday...like, man, ain't gonna be ANYONE out there at the station house on shift. Good grief.
Let's move on to the airplane crash, shall we? As a former medic and pilot I winced throughout the scene...airplanes that land belly up on paved surfaces have a strong tendency towards burning, which is why runways are foamed prior to such a landing. They had enough time in the show to have emergency vehicles along the sides of the runway, but they didn't foam AT ALL? And the plane, shown as creating a shower of sparks and spilling jet fuel all over, had no actual fire except in the conveniently detached engines? Oh, yeah, which the firefighter was training WATER on? As for the medical portion...where was the triage? You do not just randomly float about a major trauma scene blipping along happily from whoever to whoever as you please...or sit around hugging any of the victims while others have not yet been seen.
There is absolutely no urgency portrayed here. Either the actors are incapable, the point of the show is so much to be a soap opera rather than any sort of "medical show" that realistic emergency response has been tossed by the wayside, or the people writing or possibly directing have no idea of the realities. Definitely a miss of a show.