Lack of good storyline.

Excellent, a Must See

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

ER was satisfactory but Chicago Hope was superior with mature cast of characters played by a stellar cast of actors and actresses. I loved the relationship between Mandy Patinkin and Adam Arkin. It appeared to be doing fine until Peter MacNichol who played the lawyer Alan Birch left the show and joined Ally MacBeal. Roxanne Hart played a nurse who was married to Arkin's character. Hector Elizondo appeared to be the heart and soul of the show. Christine Lahti later joined the show but the show lost it when cast members like McNichol and Patinkin who chose to leave for other opportunities and spend more time with his family. When ER and Chicago Hope first came on, I have to say that Chicago Hope had a greater edge than it's sister show also set in Chicago but ER seemed more elementary and spent more time dealing with personal relationships. I think Chicago Hope tried to do both very well and it would have had the original cast stayed on board.

Chicago Hope is a typical David E. Kelley production, relishing the extreme and the bizarre in favour of the more traditional themes and occurences found in similar shows such as ER. I started watching around the time Christine Lahti and co. joined the show, and found it to be moderately enjoyable, sweetened by the on-screen chemistry between characters and the light touch of humour ever present in each show. However, of late, Chicago Hope has fallen into the trap of believing "out with the old and with the new" will not be a complete and total disaster. Entirely replacing the cast except for two characters and bringing back the most annoying one of all, Dr Geiger, was an horrendous mistake. Chicago Hope is a drama, it's not a soap opera - you can't just replace the whole cast and expect things to carry on as normal. The strong scripts may still be there but the whole basis of a good television show is the characters themselves, not the actual script itself. Obviously good writing is necessary but the way in which the actors materialise it is the most important element. Given this, replacing the entire cast with a bunch of people the audience doesn't have a clue about was not a wise move. If you reach a point where the cast doesn't want to be involved any more, then that is the time to call it quits so at least the audience is left with fond memories of the show in its glory days, as opposed to the situation now where it will die a slow death, fading into oblivion with poor ratings and disheartened fans.

I don't really care for the genre of "doctor" TV shows, but to give Chicago Hope credit, it does have more appeal than the majority of them. I was once a faithful viewer in its first season, after seeing the characters played by Mandy Patinkin and Hector Elizondo on a brilliant "cross over" episode of Picket Fences. Back then, Chicago Hope was admirable for its "quirky" plots and great character development, but over the years it has adapted more of the "formula" doctor show(6 thousand subplots and little chance to "bond" with the characters)and I have moved on. I still catch an occasional rerun on the show, and while it would not convert me back to being a regular viewer.I do enjoy the characters of Adam Arkin and Hector Elizondo and the others aren't bad, except Christine Lahti's "feminist" character gets tiresome, and tends to overuse and ugly word that is a part of the male anatomy. Nevertheless, even an episode consisting of her, Jayne Brook and Stacy Edwards going to the mountains that I thought I would loathe did not turn out to be too bad, considering. Mark Harmon and Peter Berg's characters bring a slight amount of life, but as I said, it's still not enough to make me watch the show regularly and I hope it does not steal viewers away from Frasier, as it prepares to face against it in the 1999-2000 season. It's not THAT great.

Chicago Hope is full of good actors and dialogue, Hector Elizondo is a notable example. And is fresh in the fact that it has wonderfully light hearted moments which intense programs such as ER lack.I have two major problems with the show recently, in that it is severely lacking two characters which I believe made it the best series on television rather just the good series it is now.1) Peter Mchnicol as the eel was a wonderful character and he is missed (although its good to see him on Ally Mcbeal) 2) The major flaw in the series though is that Mandy Patinkin is not there. He is such a wonderfully sincere, intense, and brilliantly funny actor that he gave the series a depth not possible without him. For god's sake bring him back.Good series, can only be brilliant again with Dr Gieger back at the operating table.