Chicago Med Hitting 100th Episode Tonight

Tonight, Chicago Med will air its milestone episode.

The hours and minutes clock down to the milestone of the 100th episode of Chicago Med. That got me thinking about how this spin-off of the Chicago series began when Chicago Fire aired the episode "I Am The Apocalypse" during its third season. Firehouse 51 was called to a chemical leak that had them taking everyone to Chicago Med until a patient blew up the emergency room because he believed he was infected with a deadly virus. Go figure, right?

After the explosion, Severide was severely injured while Will Halstead and April Sexton tried to keep order in the ER with help from Firehouse 51. Boden meets with Goodwin and Charles as they team up with Chicago PD to figure out the suspect, and after testing the infected blood with Herrmann's normal blood, it was good. At Molly's, Boden gives a lovely speech to the people who worked at Chicago Med.

Soon after Chicago Med was picked up into a series, some cast members were kept sand somewhere changed. We got the famous #Manstead and carried on to #Sexchoi and more. We've gotten heart-pounding moments, heartbreaking moments, and laughs as well. We've gotten amazing episodes from the past 100 episodes, like W, ill going against a cancer patient's wishes to die, and Natalie battling her decision-making after losing her memory. Evan Ethan is fighting hard to keep a patient alive to say goodbye to his wife and more.

Tonight's the 100th episode, and while the landscape of television has changed just a bit, the meaning of 100 episodes used to be syndication for that series; nowadays, shows like Chicago PD get syndication deals before its 100th episode while Chicago Fire doesn't have any. Shows today might have two to four seasons and either be canceled or end on their terms. Some last more than a decade or two and still have more stories to tell. We should take the time to appreciate the moment that a series, whether yours, pa patches a milestone.

I re-watched the backdoor pilot of Chicago Med that I just talked about earlier, and it still holds up. And with season one, episode one still holds up as it reminds me of an updated version of ER. When Chicago Med premiered, the dramatic drama was a risk because since ER and House ended their run, the only thing was Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice, which was too soapy for my taste. The Night Shift brought the medicine and character-driven drama back on television.

Chicago Med's episode tonight should be one not to miss. I'm ready for tonight and more to come. To the cast and crew of Chicago Med, here's to 100 episodes and 100 more and beyond! Cheers!

You can catch Chicago Med tonight at 8/7c on NBC.

Always In my Television Heart: ER: 10 Years Later After Series Finale

It's one of those days I can't forget that changed my television world forever.

I remember it like yesterday, April 2, 2009, as the day it would change my life in the future television world forever. I've been through other series finales that made me cry, mad, and even laugh, but this one show meant more to me than anything else in the television universe. That specific date is the day that ER ended its 15-season run.

The morning of Thursday, April 2, 2009, was one gloomy day to start, as I had an early class downtown. It was cloudy with showers. I had stopped to pick up newspapers like the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune as I would think they would have put something in there for the series finale of ER. I've gone through each section and found several pages about the show and some with poster ads.

After my only class for that day, I headed back home while listening to the ER soundtrack on my MP3 player. As I get home, I go through the VHS tape of the Today Show when Noah Wyle was on to promote the series finale. I kept myself busy with the usual stuff from watching ESPN until 5 p.m. of the news that the Chicago Bears had made a trade for Jay Cutler (how great that turned out to be ten years later). My grandmother and I ordered Chinese food for dinner, and as time flew by, the world learned that Guiding Light was also ending.

At 7 pm, the special retrospective of ER begins as well, as the waterworks started as the doors opened at County General. As you're going through the hospital doors and into the ER, you hear the voices of all the characters that had worked on the show, from Anthony Edwards' Dr. Greene in the pilot to Noah Wyle's stepping up during an outbreak in Season 4; to George Clooney's Dr. Ross talks about how he tries to help kids who suffer from pain to even William H. Macy's character telling Edward's character that "you set the tone."

The special was an hour-long celebration of the show's origins and how the show has changed network television in medical drama and drama. Two parts restarted the waterworks, reliving the events of Dr. Greene's last episode to even acknowledging the creator of the series, Michael Crichton, who had passed away in Nov. 2008.

The series finale was one that I believe was written for the fans but also paid tribute to the pilot. The two-hour pilot was like a documentary-style episode with bits and pieces of moments that took you back from the past 15 years of the show's history.

There were many moments of laughter, but moments that brought you to tears, from a husband losing his wife to a mother dying after giving birth to twins. Not to mention, a homosexual HIV patient learns that he's got terminal cancer and accepts it without fear as he feels he lived long enough.
I can't forget the significant moments of former cast members returning. Susan Lewis, Elizabeth Corday, Kerry Weaver, Peter Benton, and Rachael Greene, Dr. Greene's daughter, try to get in as medical students at County General, where her father worked.

As the finale ends, we get a moment when residents, doctors, nurses, and Rachael discuss their med-student experience. Sam got a call from EMTs about a mass casualty at a chemical plant explosion and was on the way. As everyone gets ready, all the doctors and nurses come out together, awaiting, and Carter gets prepared, too. As the ambulance rolls in, everyone takes each patient. Carter takes a burn victim. As he rolls them in, he turns to Rachael and asks, "Dr. Greene, are you coming?" and she comes along.

As the episode closes, the doctors and nurses check on other ambulances outside the hospital. As the camera moves back, we see for the first time the building that is County General Hospital with the theme music playing in the background.

"And In The End" was a series finale that was a remembrance of the 15 seasons of the show, with its powerful and emotional stories to the humorist side of the show too. Now, it only shows the strong character growth of the doctors and nurses, but the patients who come in and out may or may not live in the hospital. Still to this day, ten years later, I am still overwhelmed by rewatching the finale of ER.

Watching the series finale of ER was the first time I would lose a television show that I had watched since I was five years old. I'd always thought that ER could live forever, but I know that it will live forever, not only on DVD and digital but in my heart as well.  And on every April 2 since I do indeed rewatch the series finale, and not only do I still get emotional watching it. But I felt so lucky to have watched a show that ran for 15 seasons.