I loved this show when it first began. I watched it over the more popular "ER" in the first season, when they were opposite each other on different networks, and I liked the complexity of the characters. Mandy Patinkin as Jeffrey Geiger made the show for me, but once his character left (after having a breakdown), the show gradually lost its luster for me. Bringing Mandy's character back towards the end was too little too late, and his character's edge had gone from a brilliant but difficult surgeon to just an angry man. It was hard to watch what began as a very good medical drama sink into evening soap opera melodrama. Peter MacNichol's character was killed off, Adam Arkin's character seemed more and more lost and confused, and I eventually stopped watching because the program lost its initial edge and direction. Mandy Patinkin doesn't seem to be able to start a television series and stay with it (he also left "Criminal Minds") and while I understand his personal reasons, it is frustrating because his talent is prodigious and his departures left both shows wanting in his absence. "Chicago Hope" had a marvelous beginning with a wonderful cast, but it became terminally ill and a shadow of its former self and gradually died a slow and painful death, which was sad because the potential which was evident in its early years was gradually lost and it limped off, a shadow of its former self, it its final season.
Review of Chicago Hope
