ER (TV Series) The Show Must Go On (2005) User Reviews

The Stunt Must Impress

[xenatorres · 9/10 · 23 September 2007]

"ER" is known for some heavy episodes – even some impressive stunt work for big accidents, but "The Show Must Go On" was probably the episode with the most ambitious and dangerous stunt of the series.

The main danger came simply from having a large number of stunt people in a small space, all on wires – the risk to them is getting the wires tangled. It speaks to how much planning had to go into the stunt.

Also impressive was guest star Wilkinson, who actually performed her own stunt (you can check out the behind the scenes footage of her performing the stunt on her myspace page).

Brilliantly shot by John Wells, this was one of the best stunts I've seen on television.

The Show Must Go On (#11.22)

[ComedyFan2010 · 9/10 · 27 April 2015]

A great finale for the season. I am actually very impressed that this is season 11 and they still manage to give us such a great and exciting episode.

Sadly, it looks like Carter is definitely gone with Noah Wyle leaving the show. This seems so from the very sentimental good bye he got, with all the old pics where we saw him with previous characters as well as his letter to himself. It feels bad as Carter was always part of the show, it started with him coming in as a young scared student, and this whole show we saw him grow. They made it so well by bringing in his patient from first season whose daughter he delivered and who is already 10 now. Shows us the big time that passed and also represents the growth and work done of his....I am kind of scared it won't be the same now.

The crazy collapse of the building was also wonderful as I think this was the way for Ray to decide if he wants to be a doctor or not and I am pretty sure that after this he will go with it.

And Alex taking off with the guy on the road is also a great cliffhanger. Will this be a guy who will inform the police about a kid travelling on his own or should we be worried for the kid?

No one left to set the tone

[neatmiker · 10/10 · 28 May 2020]

10 stars ONLY because it's Carter's swan song. Horrible episode and the writers should be ashamed for letting side stories take up space in what should have been an hour completely dedicated to Carter. HE WAS THE GLUE THAT HELD THIS CRAPFEST TOGETHER FOR THE LAST 5 SEASONS. And the idea that no one is left to watch his slide show at the bar except a noncharacter black man (shocker...gotta appease the ethnic diversity crowd) is insulting to not only the character but the audience that has stuck with this show.

Morris sets the tone?! Even Carter laughs it off.

Alex is a Freebird?! Good! I can't stand that he's Sam's story. She could carry a character without a script crutch like Alex.

Pratt finds his dad?! Who gives a damn. Him and his ghetto storyline have been old since his first episode. What happened to his scar?

ER has been awful for years. With Carter gone it's gonna crash and burn.

Deserved a better goodbye

[harmipad · 7/10 · 17 August 2022]

Although the episode was a nice fast paced one where we finally really got to see the quality of Abby, Neela and Ray as ER docs, it was a bit of a disappointment that a character like John Carter didn't get more of a goodbye from the show like the character Mark Greene got. Especially after being on the show for 11 seasons. Also the recurring sentence 'you set the tone' could have been better said to a character like Abby Lockhart since the two of them have a history together and she's a better doc at that point then Morris.

Carter doesn't bow out last!

[joeramos-39758 · 5/10 · 7 June 2022]

Instead of John Carter walking away and the super fans of the show having a nice teary goodbye, they switch to the boring relationship between Luka, Sam and her insolent son who wants to see his dad. Are we really supposed to be invested in this segment?!?

When a show runs out of ideas, it's okay to lower the curtain. ER consistently fell short by never having a "main" character after the departure of Mark Greene. This "cliffhanger" proves this point.

I Hate Ray and Sam, so This One is Especially Bad

[bkkaz · 3/10 · 19 August 2022]

I hate Ray. He's a beady-eyed, smarmy reptile, and his all-white-except-for-the-token-black-guy party here clues everyone into how he sees the world.

I hate Sam. She's a smug, sneaky user who dumps her problems on everyone and then blames them when things don't go her way.

So, you get a two-fer here. (Actually, a three-fer if you count Luka's stupid mullet). Ray picks up some floosie at the party who just can't keep her hands off of him (no accounting for taste) until a deck fall impales her on a table leg or something. Guess she's not a vampire. It's the best moment of the episode, only better if it had been Ray and Sam on the deck below.

Anyway, this is a mediocre episode otherwise, with stilted dialogue (like the horrible stagey exchange between some nitwits in costume from a community theater play). You'll pine for the glory days of ER, when there were interesting actors and characters.

One interesting moment saved the show

[polite-45692 · 4/10 · 17 April 2020]

One interesting moment saved the show: the incident of the drunks falling to the ground.

Presumably, the activity around Carter was supposed to be emotional. It was tedious and fell flat.