I’ve never seen a single episode of the hospital drama “ER.” The series has been running for years, yet I’ve never found the time to tune in to watch. Admittedly, that’s not entirely the reason I’ve never watched. I’m not one of those viewers who can tune in mid-season and go from there. I have to start from the very beginning. This way, I know all of the characters and I know everything that has happened. With season thirteen, I had to make an exception. Though it was difficult for me to accomplish, I managed to sit through the entire season, however, I’ll probably end up going back and watching every season released on DVD up until now.

I’ve heard a lot of good things about “ER” over the years, however, I’ve also heard a lot of negative feedback as well. Most of the negative feedback came after George Clooney’s departure from the series years ago. As you can imagine, the writers begin to run out of original concepts come the thirteenth season and it really has shown. It’s quite difficult to review a series based on one season, so I’m going to try and be as fair as possible.

The season begins with a woman Sam and her son Alex who’ve apparently been kidnapped by their escaped convict husband/father. Luka has been tied to a bed and intubated while Jerry has been shot. Needless to say, there’s a lot going on and the writers do a poor job with execution throughout the entire first episode. Fortunately, things begin to pick up come episode two and the series is more recognizable. I say that yet I really have no idea what “ER” should look like. I’m merely going off what I’ve heard from friends, family, etc. that have watched the series religiously over the years.

I must say, while this season has seemingly countless dull moments, there are many plausible story-lines as well as tremendous performances thrown into the mix. We have some incredible guest performances from actors like Forest Whitaker, John Mahoney and Sally Field that help move the season along.

For those of you who have watched “ER” from the beginning, it really doesn’t matter what I think of this particular season. You’re going to buy it regardless of what I have to say. For those of you newcomers like myself, I will say that starting with season thirteen may not be such a splendid idea. I would suggest beginning with a previous season that has been dubbed spectacular and then work from there. Otherwise, you’re likely going to watch a few episodes of the season before putting it away to collect dust for many years to come.