Customer Ratings & Reviews

This is a well written television show with a superb ensemble cast. Most of them have gone on to succeed in other shows or movies. While the sets and special effects aren't up to today's standards, the realism of the characters, the situations and the discussion about controversial topics is far superior to ER, Grey's Anatomy or House. As a physician in practice for 25 years, I find today's show's silly and overdramatic. (When was the last time you saw two HS football teams break into a brawl in an ER?) Comparing it to House - which is a fine show, there are no doctors that can do everything from surgery to pediatrics to internal medicine to cancer treatment and then finish the day doing an autopsy. Ridiculous to say the least. (Don't you wish doctors were really that good?) If you want to see a show that is as close to real life medicine in revealing situations and dilemmas that doctors face on a day to day basis, watch this series. Getting to see terrific actors early in their careers is icing on the cake.

Up until St. Elsewhere, medical shows were either light comedies or sappy melodramas where doctors were shown as almost superhuman in their abilities. St. Elsewhere was the first hospital drama to realistically focus on doctors and hospitals. Some patients actually die in the show and doctors are humans who make mistakes. St. Elsewhere might look lackluster if compared to today’s shows (Grey’s Anatomy or ER) but it paved the way for them. They didn’t shy away from topics that were taboo, and some are still taboo to this day. Unlike today’s usual fast-paced fare, it focuses on the characters so it’s not for someone who’s looking for a quick and exciting story that gets neatly resolved by the end of each episode. But, if you like superb writing and acting along with compelling character-driven stories, you’ll love this show.

This was always my favorite medical drama and a lot of stars got there start on this show such as Denzel Washington.

One of the first series of medical realities excellent did'nt get enough credit back then. This started my career in the O.R.!

If you like medical dramas you'd be much better off buying a Grey's Anatomy DVD set or maybe an ER DVD set. Compared to today's tv shows St. Elsewhere is like a high school production. One website that lists actor credits mistakenly credited David Duchovny with an episode of this series causing this mistake to be spread throughout the media. David Duchovny does NOT appear in this series. I personally watched the episode in question, and the actor is definitely NOT David Duchovny. I'd give this DVD set 0 stars if Best Buy would let me.