First of all, I have belatedly started to add content tags to my archives, so there will come a day when you can click on a tag and see all my posts about a particular series. Eventually. It’s an ongoing project.

Onto the post.

It’s a funny time for TV in my house: we don’t currently have a Monday night show, and we started watching season 14 of ER (preview of my eventual review: oof) so I don’t have a limited or short series to cover.

Instead, I watched three new episodes on Friday night, and now it’s Saturday morning, and I have the Artemis landing in one tab and this newsletter in the other.

Let’s watch TV.

I spent a lot of last season complaining about the time lost to the inevitable “Deb and Ava are estranged and have to learn, again, that they need each other” plot.

No such nonsense here! As the season opens, Deborah Vance is alive and well (and TMZ has retracted their claims to the contrary) and so is her friendship with Ava.

Less healthy is Deb’s career, given that she’s still trapped under an onerous no-compete clause and Evil Media CEO Bob has wiped her late night catalogue from streaming and gone on a crusade to make her look crazy. But that’s fine. Nothing will defeat the intersection of corporate media culture and capitalism like shenanigans, right? Right?

See, now I feel bad about complaining about Ed’s presence in season 5. Because here we are, three eps in, and he’s gone.

And for all that I have been deeply annoyed by his character, and by the narrative’s refusal to let him go, or even to sideline him as The Main Guy, it was a really touching end. He spends time with his family and friends, gives them some aggressive support and love, and fades away to memories of his lost friends and loved ones.

Speaking of aggressive familial support, I find it deeply amusing that Aleida’s husband and daughter are like, “No! You should go to space! Please go to space! We want you off this planet!” In a … loving way. It’s a little bit too convenient for the plot, and for a minute I was afraid we would contrive a situation where Aleida has to bring her daughter with her. (I love having multiple characters who are mothers in this story, but you do need to, um, arrange childcare.) But no! Aleida’s family will be fine.

But will Margo? It looks like Aleida is her only visitor. It makes sense that Margo, as the last original character left, might also be shuffled to the side, but I will miss her way more than I’ll miss Ed. Her “I only make good choices” line had me laughing out loud, because, ma’am. Ma’am.

The story is moving on to another generation. Alex has lost his grandfather, and encouraged his mother in her dream of going to Titan. (Again: “Please leave the planet, parent whom I love deeply.” No, this actually is too convenient, where are the kids who want to leave home themselves but assume that their parents’ lives will go on unchanged?) His friends, whose names I should learn, have been arrested for vandalism. Which brings us to the law enforcement plotline.

It turns out that the First Amendment doesn’t apply on Mars, which honestly makes sense (doing a colonialism, plus you have to assume all sorts of concessions have been made to keep the USSR on board), but it’s rough. I am calling for a Martian Revolution, stat, but I fear that Miles’s daughter (her name is Lily, I checked) is being radicalised faster than is safe.

Boyd, The Only Good Cop On the Planet, is still conducting an off-books investigation into the murder. We get a look at the accommodations for people who aren’t main characters, and it has a real “the slums that inexplicably existed on Babylon 5 even though that station had only been open for five minutes” vibe. And then she gets punched in the face as a warning to mind her own business. Are we taking bets on which of her colleagues is secretly working against her? The sheriff is the obvious choice, so instead, I’m putting my money on her buddy.

Me a week ago: Oh, Robby is the big crisis of this season!

Everyone on the show this week: Oh, Robby is the big crisis of our lives!

Okay, not everyone. Whittaker has lost his badge, Langdon has found his mojo (and also provoked Whittaker by being overbearing), most of the remaining day shift are dealing with charts. But, like. Dana. The hospital’s social worker. Robby’s buddy. Abbott. Lots of people are aware that Robby is Not Okay, including — now — Robby himself.

He’s been a difficult character to enjoy this season, but that’s a testament to the quality of the writing. As Robby’s mental health — which wasn’t great back when season 1 began — has frayed over the course of the day, his biases, which were subtle in season 1, have come to the fore. His patience and professionalism have evaporated. I cannot credit Noah Wyle enough for the work he’s done in writing and performing Robby, especially this week, and also for the storytelling courage it took to make the popular, likeable lead character of the first season an unremitting asshole in season 2.

What is the best outcome for Robby, and what is a likely outcome within the narrative structure of the show? How do you treat someone who is beyond burned out at work, but also unable to envision a life beyond his job? These are interesting questions, and I don’t know if we can resolve them in one episode and a time jump.

While all this is going on, we got one of my all-time favourite scenes in the entire two seasons of the show so far: a bunch of day shift people just quietly sitting, scanning charts and chatting. Specifically about Mel’s search for a new hobby (she’s thinking of Revolutionary War re-enactment, and I am so excited for her life life as a LARPer in season 3), but the important thing is that everyone is just … together. Being friendly. I kind of want this season to end with the residents watching the fireworks together from the roof. I need a camaraderie fix, you know?

Speaking of, I am extremely here for Cassie defending Javadi’s TikTok to Robby, and explaining why she is posting on the clock (to see if any of her followers can locate Nurse Jesse). I love that apparently everyone knows about Victoria’s TikTok. There is no doubt in my mind that Santos follows her.

Standout patient of the week

Absolutely the lady whose heart attack was almost missed because the paramedics didn’t attach the monitors properly. Remember, guys, heart attacks manifest differently in women and AFAB people!

And she’s not actually a patient of the hospital, but I appreciate learning what Al-Hashimi’s deal is: a seizure disorder triggered by meningitis when she was five. Given that she has had a long and successful career, this obviously isn’t normally disabling, but clearly her current treatment is no longer working. I assume that Robby will be an ableist dick about it, and that the ideal solution will be some sort of job-share arrangement where they support each other while they both get their health issues sorted.

Standout doctor of the week

I gotta give it to Langdon. That procedure took guts, but also, as someone who experiences a lot of neck stiffness, I would quite like three ER doctors to do some aggressive cronching of my vertebrae.

But also, Langdon needed a professional win after his rough day — and on a writing level, I love that we also saw a remnant of season 1’s arrogant Langdon. His interaction with Whittaker in the break room wasn’t really out of line, but he was being condescending in a way that our huckleberry only accepts from Robby and Santos.

(If anything, I think Whittaker was a bit too aggressive in the way he reacted. But it’s been a long day, everyone is exhausted, and no one is their best self. Except maybe Cassie, who has frankly had a good day.)

Standout nurse of the week

Perlah and Duke was a very fun interaction.

Standout nightmare fuel of the week

The rope embedded in the guy’s hand. At this point I’m beyond squeamishness, but I did not care for that!

The Dr Michael “Robby” Robinovitch Award For Achievements In Petty Bitchiness

Langdon, in the break room, with the whole “farm boy” schtick.