Okay, first I want to say that I never watched ER until the 5th season. So I'm watching the 3rd season for the very first time. I just saw "Fortune's Fool". There is a big difference in a couple of the characters between then and now. Benton- didn't care what Carter did in the 3rd season. At the end of 6th season he was in the plane to Atlanta with Carter to support him. Carol- a guy died because she gave him the wrong bloos. She felt guilty and got suspended for going to the press about it. This season- didn't care about anyone but herself and her kids. Didn't care that Lucy was dead. I know some people say that she was just shocked but actions speak louder than words if you ask me. I can tell that the mood is also different. People seemed to have more fun back in the 3rd season. Now they don't which probably has to do with Lucy's death.

-- Cammie (rmaelhorn@home.com), June 09, 2000

Answers

Cammie, maybe it is just me, but I don't think ANYONE had much fun in season five......especially the viewers.

-- Deb (KHege@AOL.com), June 09, 2000.

Of course just my $0.02 worth... I noticed Benton's change too! It seems like he used to treat Carter kind of like Carol treated Lucy, but once Carter became a resident or doctor or whatever, Benton treated him with a friendly gruffness, not a superior gruffness. About Carol: I thought she changed a lot due to the circumstances the writers put her in and also it seemed like she aged a LOT in just those 2 seasons. And it seems like season 3 was the funniest-- but season 1 comes close. It seems ER has lost a lot of it's humor. And don't everyone send me those one-liners that come from ER; it's still funny; it just seems like the characters are older and more serious now, that's all.

-- Kim (ILuvSnowB@aol.com), June 10, 2000.

I agree that relationships have grown since the advent of the show but I disagree about the Benton/Carter thing. I think that Benton cared a lot about Carter since the beginning of the show but during the fallout of the death of Gant, Benton had his protective shield up in a big way and it appeared that he was indifferent. Benton was very disturbed about the death of one of his students but to show that to the one guy who could read through him was more than he could do. It's kind of like saying that Benton is OK with not doing a lot of procedures for these weeks after Gant's death. He's not OK with it but his biggest struggles are inside himself right now. He doesn't just start to care about Carter one day in season six. Just this gal's opinion. I couldn't live with the thought of it being any other way!

-- Joan (joanofarc24@hotmail.com), June 10, 2000.

Season three is new to me also, and I am really enjoying it especially the growth in Benton and Carter. I thought "Night Shift" was a good episode while watching it, but the conclusion when they find out it is Gant that they were working on really blew me away. "Post Mortem" was another great episode watching Peter and Carter each deal with Gant's death in their own ways. The look Carter gave Benton while leaving the trauma room in the beginning, Carter's demeanor all throughout the episode, the scene in the operating room, and meeting in the end at the L platform were great. I really felt with this episode and alot of season three, especially the episode with the infant who had complications resulting from liver surgery, that we were getting a chance to see a little of what goes on inside of Peter.

-- SB (SB@aol.com), June 10, 2000.

The thing that I like to see is that Carter actually did stand up to Benton when he gave him a hard time. For a long time I thought that Carter was just into doing anything to please Benton. But I remember him chewing him out after he didn't show up for their presentation together (after Gant's death), and constantly commenting on the days that Benton was particularly crabby...I'm glad that he didn't just take *all* of Benton's crap. The scene where Carter tells him, "everything I did in there you taught me" after he leaves his code team.

And it is even easier now to see how much Carter was like Benton with Lucy. Sometimes Carter was great with her (like after THe Good Fight and into the Amanda Lee era) and sometimes he was truely rude to her. I hate to admit it, but Carter was horrible to her sometimes, like in when he was shaving his beard, I didn't understand where it was all coming from! I know Lucy made some big mistakes, but he didn't teach her the greatest either (this improved later though) And now, as I *think* it was said in the reviews, the Carter/Lucy situation was very similar to the Benton/Gant situation. I'm not saying that the relationships were exactly the same; Carter knew Lucy better, he *was* more friendly, laid back, and personal, he would never say, "I'm just your teacher, not your friend" (and then there was the sexual tension!) and Benton was all business, but they both wanted their students to succeed and they both felt like they were too hard on their respective students after both of the tragedies. it's so similar I can't believe we haven't seen a conversation about it.

-- Elaine (mrsclooney78@hotmail.com), June 10, 2000.

While Benton was certainly no pal to Carter back then, he sure was nicer to him than Gant. I think comparing "Fortune's Fool's" to Benton in season six is a bad example. It is the episode where he is still dealing with the death of Gant and the news that Carla is pregnant but is not expecting any help from him. Carter did not know this when he confronted Benton on the rooftop, which makes his words justified but we know why Benton was acting the way he was that particular time in his life.

-- Joanne (bucklind@hotmail.com), June 10, 2000.