DVD ER - The Complete First Three Seasons

The remarkably strong first season showed off its sharp ensemble cast through a variety of compelling story lines both personal (Carter's conflicts with Benton, Lewis's struggles with her no-account sister, Chloe, played by Kathleen Wilhoite) and professional (a holiday blizzard and especially the harrowing tale of a pregnancy gone bad, "Love's Labor Lost," which won five Emmy Awards). When Carter is pondering whether his future includes the ER, Green jokes, "It's not bad: Stress, late nights, hard work, no pay--it's hard to beat." It's hard to imagine people choosing to work under those conditions, but they do, and in the process these very human people perform superhuman feats as they face life and death as part of their daily jobs.

ER kicked off its second season by introducing a character who would turn out to be a long-term member of--and a major irritation for--the inner-city Chicago hospital staff. After Greene is promoted to attending physician, the door is open for a new chief resident, and in walks Kerry Weaver (Laura Innes), who wastes no time ruffling everyone's feathers with her strict managerial style and subtle putdowns. One of her prime targets, Susan Lewis, struggles to balance her personal and professional life when she has to take care of her abandoned infant niece. The Lewis character grows the most during the season, along with second-year student Carter, whose natural compassion gives way to professional ambition following the model of his teacher, ambitious and self-absorbed Benton. Benton angles for a position with a renowned cardiovascular surgeon (Ron Rifkin) and has to deal with the fallout from a relationship with physician's assistant Jeannie Boulet, yet he also starts to show some glimmers of humanity.

Greene has his own problems trying to manage a long-distance marriage, while nurse Hathaway bounces back from her aborted first-season marriage attempt to start a new relationship with paramedic Shep (Ron Eldard, who also became Margulies's real-life partner). She buys her first house and enjoys an entire season out of the companionship of Ross, who as always runs into problems with his cowboy style and philandering ways. But just when he's finally driven himself out of the ER, he has to go play hero when he finds a boy pinned in a storm drain in an episode that was nominated for six Emmys and remains one of the, excuse the pun, high-water marks of the series. That and such episodes as "The Healers," which deals with the aftermath of Shep's daring fire rescue, prove that when ER was at its best, it was as good as anything on television.

The third season had some of the series' most compelling and wrenching story lines. John Carter is now an intern, but his surgical dreams continue to be thwarted by Dr. Benton, a frustration shared by fellow student Dennis Gant (Omar Epps). Benton also torments former lover Jeanie Boulet, who has tested positive for HIV. Because he has tested negative, he's free to badger her about the risks involved in her treating patients while moving on to his next potential conquest, a sexy waitress named Carla (Lisa Nicole Carson). Mark Greene continues to be one of the series' focal points, struggling to survive the bureaucracy of management and still feel like a doctor. And now single, he goes on bad dates as does Dr. Lewis, both ignoring the obvious until a seemingly casual vacation invitation sets a number of uncomfortable wheels turning. The other focal point is nurse Carol Hathaway, for whom things go from bad to worse. She has serious money problems, her career choice doesn't look so good anymore, and when a patient dies, she finds herself suspended. That sets the stage for one of the series' most memorable episodes, which takes place almost completely outside the hospital. Hathaway goes to the corner drug store, where she meets guest star Ewan McGregor, and things take off from there. She also wisely keeps her distance from former lover Dr. Ross, who may have really done it when he brings into the ER a one-night stand suffering from a seizure and has to admit he doesn't even know her name. County General survives a closure scare, but instead has to absorb some new additions, including chief of staff Donald Anspaugh (John Aylward), intern Maggie Doyle (Jorjan Fox), and the best pediatric surgeon in Chicago, Abby Keaton (Glenne Headley), who attracts the attention of Benton and Carter for professional and/or personal reasons. But those additions are countered by two emotional goodbyes, and other gritty story lines, including a troubled teen (Kirsten Dunst) and an assault on a doctor, helped make ER's third season often tough to take, but unforgettable. --David Horiuchi