An Hour of Peak TV: ‘ER’s Love's Labor Lost’ Was Medical Drama at Its Most Harrowing Best
In 1995, Michael Crichton showed us what it’s like when everything goes wrong in the ER
‘An Hour of Peak TV’ is a column in which I celebrate and dissect some of the most iconic and beloved episodes of acclaimed shows that aired on television from 1990 onwards.
One of the unsung heroes of 90s television and the medical hit drama ER was undoubtedly Anthony Edwards. Despite being one of the hallmarks of the popular NBC show, he never really became the utmost star he would’ve deserved to be. That title went to George Clooney and his brooding charmer pediatrician, Doug Ross, who not only healed hearts in the program's heyday but stole a few million, too. He earned the recognition, no doubt, but that also meant casting a shadow over some of his fellow actors who were maybe less showy and sensational but did spectacular work, too. Just like in Top Gun in 1986, Edwards wasn't the first name who came to mind when someone mentioned Tony Scott’s classic.
Dr. Mark Greene — the gracious and benevolent chief resident of the Chicago hospital’s emergency department — is a fitting embodiment of Edwards' career. He doesn't have the most engaging arc and isn't the coolest, funniest, or most memorable face on the show, yet his comfortingly powerful presence is undeniable. He’s just always there — working tirelessly, giving advice, and offering a shoulder to cry on. He cares deeply (as much about his patients as his friends and family) with a sincere affection that often goes unnoticed. Something the people around him take for granted. In Season 1’s nineteenth episode, however, Edwards finally got to fulfill his potential wholesomely: In Love’s Labor Lost — a potent, devastating, and singular showcase of his underrated talent — he is the spectacle.
Love’s Labor Lost begins like any other regular day at the Chicago hospital’s ER department. It’s a busy one (which is standard) with some light cases and a few emergencies. Dr. Greene sees a 30-year-old pregnant woman (who’s due in two weeks) with mild symptoms and suspects nothing more than a textbook bladder infection. After treating her accordingly, he sends the couple on their way. That’s until the woman collapses in the car and is rushed back with seizures that Greene identifies as eclampsia. It’s an uncomfortably harrowing sequence because director Mimi Leder’s camera doesn’t shy away from the more gruesome details. The unconscious woman’s rapid convulsions are raw and aggressive, almost too terrifying and real for a network drama.
Though they manage to stabilize her, Greene knows he made a mistake by misdiagnosing the patient early on and, as a result, she needs to be delivered soon. So, instead of handing the case over as he should, Mark decides to stay, somewhat out of guilt, to see it through. He induces labor with the intent to later send her up to the OB ward, but things go haywire, and he begins to lose control. The baby needs to be delivered right there, and despite several urgent requests, no obstetrician turns up to help them until it’s too late.
At this point, almost every other plotline in the episode is dropped, and we are locked in on Greene and his patient. Complications arise fast, and our doctor realizes he's way over in his head. Every decision he makes seems to backfire, and all his staff have a first-row seat to watch him make error after error. Once we see the baby stuck in the birth canal, the tension goes through the roof. Again, Leder puts us in a position where we’re forced to become one of the many people in the room. It’s not only emotionally but physically draining to witness what’s happening as we slowly shift towards an inevitable tragedy that’s bound to happen.
As desperately as we want this disorienting and nerve-wracking anatomical nightmare to turn into a happy ending where Dr. Greene heroically saves the day, there are no signs of such an outcome. Someone will die here, we can sense it, and the only questions are who and when. Regardless, Greene gives everything he has to keep both the mother and the baby alive. And so does Edwards, poignantly capturing how his character agonizingly tries to hide the internal panic he’s having on the outside, though his frightened eyes and puzzled facial expression can't lie. The way he speeds through the various emotional stages (frustration, anger, desperation) in such a breakneck scenario conveys every ounce of Edwards’ tremendous talent he can finally showcase entirely. When given the floor, and the right script, he’s as good as Clooney.
When it’s all over, the heart monitor’s beeping in the silence that falls on everyone in the room, including us, is deafening. There's nothing to say. Words are useless. Whatever can be felt is written on the characters' perplexed faces as they stare at Greene, utterly hopeless and defeated. And the worst is yet to come: to tell the husband the news.
Love’s Labor Lost was trauma in the making, something we'll never be able to erase from our minds alongside Dr. Greene. For him, this is the beginning of a downward spiral, a case that will constantly haunt him, effectively destroy his marriage, and leave an unremovable stain on his career. But more than that, it'll become a painful memento that his error in judgment cost a life and that, even as a doctor, he’s only human.
The combination of stellar writing, breathless direction, and superb acting is what made ER such a blockbuster on television, paving the way for shows like Grey’s Anatomy and House M.D. in the following decades. It’s staggering how deftly a network series that premiered nearly 30 years ago holds up today, easily outranking other dramas in the genre that are now on cable and streaming services. It was no coincidence that Michael Crichton’s creation bagged 23 Primetime Emmys and ran for 15 seasons. But more importantly, it gave us meaningful, heartfelt stories (like this one) and relatable characters that shattered any illusion of what really went on in the emergency rooms across America — and, perhaps, across the world.
Last week, I reviewed the upcoming Netflix miniseries, Griselda, for Paste, an absorbing crime ballad about the infamous drug lord Griselda Blanco. If you’re a Narcos fan, you should free your evening on January 25 to watch it.
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