1) Using time travel has literally no negative consequences for the main character

2) There is no conflict / obstacles / problems to overcome because they are immediately solved

But a couple of the details frustrate me.

Carter saying ‘I owe you’. This kind of is their relationship in reality, but it’s not what I want it to be and it’s not how I want them to see their relationship.

I guess this is more a bigger thing of me wanting things to have been less one-sided between them e.g. if had Benton shared literally any aspect of his life with Carter. But also I don’t like the idea that Carter felt indebted to Benton. In a sappier show that line would have been followed with “you don’t owe me anything”. And usually I like when stuff is left unsaid, but it doesn’t feel like a denial was left unsaid, it just feels true.

Does this ring a bell with anyone in ER fandom?

X

I’m rewatching Gilmore Girls and it’s reminded me of the way I’m convinced this was what was going of with Benton and Carter / Eriq La Salle and Noah Wyle in early ER days.

His nickname is Rocket Romano and his whole thing at the start is that he’s a hot-shot surgeon who spends 10 months a year in Europe. I think he was supposed to be a stereotypical dreamy but heartless surgeon - the closest they’d had to that before was Dale? (I guess?). Maybe he’d have been a romantic rival in the Benton/Corday romance and probably he wouldn’t have lasted nearly as long as he did or been half as memorable.

They sort of move away from this after mid-S2 but I think it’s a bit of a shame because it’s a good, realistic character flaw, and it frankly fit him pretty well in a way it wouldn’t for Greene etc.

I think Doug’s character arc is done pretty well - hitting rock bottom with the woman dying so he could then start to work on himself and become worthy of Carol.

They obviously continue (again and again) with his recklessness causing problems until the bitter end. Which is fine but it’s a bit too ‘my biggest weakness is that I care too much’.

S3: Dennis Gant

S4: Chase Carter*

S6: Lucy / the concept of hope

S8: Grandfather, Mark Greene

S9: Gamma