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It’s ER, but not as you knew it

Okay, so maybe the greatness of Maura Tierney’s acting is no longer a secret. But even knowing that she is the greatest actor of the modern era, I was unprepared for how widespread and unequivocal the praise for her acting would be in the early part of season seven.

Here is just a sampling of what television critics have had to say about Tierney’s acting.

“Meanwhile, the main reason to tune in to ER this season is to see the full-blooded character Maura Tierney is creating…. Tierney’s Abby Lockhart has quietly been revealed as a recovering alcoholic who’s now also suffering from an extended visit by her bipolar mother.

”In Tierney’s performance, you can see exhaustion, hope, and bitter humor flash across her face in a single scene—she’s raising the bar for performances in a well-acted series.”

Matt Roush of TV Guide has repeatedly eulogized Tierney’s acting this season with statements such as: “This season’s breakout star is turning out to be the sensational Maura Tierney as the very complicated and often prickly Abby Lockhart: divorced, alcoholic, broke, touchingly tentative in her relationship with the tortured Kovac (Goran Visnjic), ⁶ “Meanwhile, NBC’s top-rated ER is showing new creative vigor, spurred by Maura Tierney’s fine work as the complex Abby Lockhart: divorced, alcoholic, insecure and broke. She is valiantly filling the void left by Julianna Margulies,” ⁷ and “Maura Tierney has really helped to resuscitate ‘ER’….” ⁸

“Thanks to Tierney and the writers, Abby is a character to root for, a reason to watch every week. Other new ER characters have never met that standard.”

 

Dave Walker of the New Orleans Times-Picayune called Tierney “the best thing to happen to ER in years.”

Charlie McCollum of the San Jose Mercury-News wrote, “No actor has so energized a returning series as Maura Tierney as Abby Lockhart on ER. She’s single-handedly kick-started a stalling show.”

Finally, TV Dimension magazine recently chose her as “performer of the month,” saying: “All of which makes the rich, nuanced work of Maura Tierney (ER, NBC, Thursdays at 10:00PM) even more of a pleasure to behold. In less than one year, her Nurse Abby Lockhart, a recovering alcoholic reeling from a failed marriage, suspension from med school, and a demanding, mentally ill mom (two-time Oscar winner and ageless scene-stealer Sally Field), has emerged as one of the most complex, “real” women on television. Tierney supplies heart, humor, and a badly needed emotional center for the show’s often-hellish emergency room setting, and serves as a bona fide female lead in a cast thick with supporting types. And her sterling work even has her cast mates asking more of themselves…. Even as this aging drama reaps the rewards of Tierney’s acting clinic, we expect Emmy voters to reward Tierney herself when nominations are next announced.”

One pleasing observation is how often these critics remark on how Tierney has been able to portray a complex and complete human being – “full-blooded,” “very complicated and often prickly,” “rich, nuanced” and “one of the most complex, “real” women on television” are just some of the phrases used. The creation of complete human beings has been a Tierney trademark in all her performances.

(Of course, there will always be some viewers who don’t think that Maura Tierney is a truly great actress. A person is entitled to any opinion that can be justified. To make this case would require not only arguing that these and other critics are wrong but also, because of how strongly worded their support is, that they are wildly wrong. That is not an easy case to make.)

Importantly, Maura Tierney is the same actress (with exactly the same talent) in season seven as she was before season seven. So what has changed to make her greatness so obvious? Certainly, exposure on the most-watched television drama has helped. Some have mistakenly attributed Tierney’s ER dominance to a simple case of dominant screen time. Her screen time has been appropriate and proportionate for a leading cast member and hardly disproportionate enough to explain the striking impression of Abby that critics and many viewers have gotten this season. It would also be a fallacy to assume that any good actor would do well just by being giving more screen time in the fast-paced artistic milieu of ER – making scenes count in this fast-paced environment places a heavy demand on acting talent that few are able to meet.¹⁰ Those who think that Tierney is getting dominant screen time all the time should consider this evidence. In “Homecoming” she does not have a lot of screen time (it is just very memorable screen time). In “Flight of Fancy” she has only a minor role as a background character until the memorable final scene. In “The Greatest of Gifts” her screen time is minimal (but her scenes with Wyle are again memorable). What is really going on is that Tierney is making all of her screen time count heavily. ¹¹

Some have also attributed the dominance of her role to a case of better storylines. While partly true, that answer is also too simplistic. ER’s characters are given good, interesting plots of all sorts throughout the season. Some of them will work (are lastingly memorable) and some of them will not (are either immediately forgettable or only transiently memorable). In Tierney’s case all her plot lines work. Indeed, the danger for ER’s writers and directors is that an ill-conceived plot line involving Tierney may also work too well – in the wrong direction. Look at how a simple little, rushed-into affair between Abby and Luka has sent ER viewers into fits of consternation. Furthermore, if five out of the first eight episodes of season seven ended with a scene involving Tierney, that is not evidence of some master plan to let her take over the show but rather a reflection of the power of Tierney’s acting. They choose the images that carry the most emotional weight and will hopefully linger most memorably to close an episode. Plus, not everything that has been written for her has been gold. There are occasional moments when you can clearly see that Tierney is not impressed with a crappy line that she has to deliver.

The main reason why Tierney has dominated ER this season is because an important part of her talent that was at first subdued has now been unleashed. Maura Tierney has a unique power in signifying relationships, and it is in signifying relationships that she is most expressive as an actor. It was only a matter of time before she was given a relationship on the show to signify. (Relationships with patients do not count because they are neither deep nor long lasting.) That first relationship was between Abby and John Carter. This relationship was briefly touched upon throughout late season six, but it was the season finale, “May Day,” that was the turning point that unleashed a large portion of Tierney’s powers. The looks she gives Carter in this episode, in spite their inscrutability, are powerful signifiers that link the two characters. Tierney and Wyle possess naturally compatible acting styles that make the establishment of their characters’ relationship a fait accompli. This was to become obvious in their scene at Doc Magoo’s in “Sand and Water,” still one of the most complex and deeply expressive scenes to ever appear on ER. I have seen a lot of films and a lot of actors, but the acting sparks that fly between Tierney and Wyle in every scene they do together, even the most mundane, are something rare and special.

By early season seven, Abby Lockhart would have two fully active relationships with main cast members, three nascent and barely sketched relationships with main casts members and one relationship with a guest star (Sally Field as Abby’s mother). One of those three nascent relationships – one that may surprise some people but actually has the potential to be one of the strongest of the show – is between Abby and Jing-Mei Chen. Previously, Ming-Na’s acting seemed uncomfortable and on occasion a little strained around most cast members. The only exceptions tended to be her scenes with Noah Wyle, most likely because the peer-level comfort between their characters and Wyle’s style of acting making it easier for Ming-Na. Maura Tierney also seems to put Ming-Na at ease. In the only two scenes where they have substantial interaction (Jing-Mei and Abby tend to a Vulcan-wannabe in “Mars Attacks” and Jing-Mei asks Abby if Luka is okay in “Benton Backwards”) Ming-Na delivers some of her most assured and expressive acting to date. These two actors provide glimpses of a deep female camaraderie that the show probably has not seen in a long time (if ever). It is not an obvious relationship, but only the Abby-Carter relationship is potentially more interesting or complex.

The two fully active relationships are Abby-Luka and Abby-Carter. First of all, let me confirm what the majority of viewers already think: Maura Tierney and Goran Visnjic are not a natural match. They are a good match physically and an above-average emotional match, but the real obstacle is that they have very different acting styles. Tierney is strong in all acting styles, but she is supremely a morally expressive actor. Visnjic is entirely an emotionally expressive actor. (Visnjic knows that his acting is most expressive when he is playing moody and mysterious.) An artistically successful relationship between Abby and Luka is possible. After all, it is Tierney’s talent to establish relationships where there wouldn’t be one. She did this with a consummately psychologically expressive actor, Dave Foley, in NewsRadio and an emotionally expressive one, Ben Affleck, in Forces of Nature. ¹² Indeed there are times when Tierney does create chemistry between the two, most notably in the drug lockup scenes and the ambulance bay scene in “Mars Attacks” – a scene that features facial expressions and a kiss by Tierney that I regard as accomplishments of unearthly sublimity. (From these scenes I can understand how some people could think that Abby and Luka do possess some chemistry.)

On the other hand, the rest of the time Tierney establishes a distinctly negative chemistry between the two – a type of signification she is also fully capable of (see “The Virtues of Maura”, Vital Difference No. 4). For those who think that Abby and Luka are one of the worst (i.e., mismatched) couples the show has ever had, that is obviously what the writers and the actors have in mind – it’s what they want us to think. Also, contrary to what some may think, there were problems with Abby and Luka’s first date in “Benton Backwards” even before the mugging. In the bar, after their kiss, Luka immediately suggests a foosball rematch. There is a disappointed look on Abby’s face as she realizes that Luka did not regard the kiss as romantically important. Throughout the initial stages of the relationship Abby has been portrayed as more interested in Luka than vice versa – Luka’s inappropriate lack of concern for Abby after the explosion in “Rescue Me” was the most obvious example. In “The Dance We Do” the writers sought to temper Luka’s callousness by having Maggie (Abby’s mother) suggest that he was “a little too old to be playing hard to get” and that he looks at her behind her back and by having Luka for the first time show some interest in Abby and concern about her situation with Maggie. The first explanation (playing hard to get) fits with Luka’s character, as Luka/Visnjic is not as emotionally mature as Abby/Tierney. Visnjic’s real age is seven years younger than Tierney’s, and it shows emotionally. The third plot device (Luka’s interest and concern) is an acceptable way of complicating the Abby-Luka relationship. The second explanation (unseen looks) is just clumsy writing because of its narrative inconsistency, and it is also a bad sign of wavering intentions amongst writers who are not absolutely sure of what they should be doing.

Why Abby and Luka behave the way they do makes for very interesting discussion – certainly requiring too lengthy an analysis for this article. The very brief version is that Abby is a woman who, although emotionally mature partly because of having to fend for herself at an early age, has never learned how to find a man properly because of problems with her parental role models. Luka – tall, dark and handsome – is her idealized ‘knight in shining armor’ who rescued her emotionally when her confidence needed it the most (“Mars Attacks”). Abby is very intelligent, but all her recognition of the disappointing nature of the relationship so far won’t let her break free from what her upbringing has created. As for Luka, he is a man in limbo, not knowing exactly what he wants, and behaving accordingly. It all plays like a Jane Austen novel, which is a compliment considering that Austen was one of history’s most astute observers of male-female relationships.

Abby and Luka’s current problems, although inherent, do not exclude a future improvement in the chemistry of this love affair – Tierney is capable of generating enough positive signification to sustain it if needed. However, Abby-Luka will never have the natural advantages of Abby-Carter. Tierney and Wyle are a very good physical match, a very good emotional match, and an excellent acting match. Wyle’s John Carter is in many regards a morally expressive character. His proficiencies as a doctor have tended to mirror the order of his psychic universe. When Carter is doing well and is on top of the world, he tends to be the most skillful doctor in the ER. When his character falls into a state of uncertainty or disrepair, the state of his doctoring tends to suffer concomitantly. Carter’s endangerment of his patient in “Such Sweet Sorrow” was not only a clue to his problem with addiction but also an outward (morally expressive) expression of his compromised internal state. Similarly, in “Benton Backwards” (after his rehabilitation), the disastrous outcome with one of his patients through no fault of his own is a morally expressive warning of the fragility of his recovery. As for being an emotional match, both Tierney and Wyle have sensitive extroverted personas, but the greatest point in favor of Abby-Carter is that they have well-matched acting styles. This is why their interactions have such a natural chemistry, featuring an instinctive give and take between the two actors. The scene in “The Greatest of Gifts” when Carter tells Abby about the Vicodin and is frantic with distress is one of many demonstrations of the unique give and take of their acting that neither actor shares with any other actor. Everything that happens between Tierney and Wyle happens with an uncommonly natural ease. Both Tierney and Wyle contribute to the signification of the relationship, which is what makes it work so well.

Whether the show’s creators plan to have anything romantic develop out of the Abby-Carter relationship is a matter of pure speculation. (When discussing the future of the show my job here is not to speculate but to write about what would work very well, what would work okay, and what would not work at all.) To this point Carter has been signified as being much more interested in Abby than vice versa, and the relationship as a whole has remained in a ‘friends only’ stage up to this point. In fact, one of the most remarkable aspects of the Abby-Carter relationship throughout “Sand and Water” is the striking degree of ambivalence Tierney projects into the relationship on Abby’s part. What I will say is that if they chose to have a romantic Abby-Carter relationship it would work extremely well. Great screen couples occur because two talented actors are well matched in acting style, but great actors do not always have the fortune of finding well-matched romantic counterparts to play opposite them. Katherine Hepburn had Spencer Tracy, but Greta Garbo and Bette Davis had no one.

Someone raised the novel possibility that Abby and Carter may be too well matched – a recipe for boredom on the presumption that interesting romance requires the tension of differences and mismatch. Actually, the best romantic drama occurs between two people who have strong reasons why they should be together (natural chemistry and attraction) but between whom there are external obstacles. I will also state that I have actually seen a strongly morally expressive romantic couple in a film before, and the result was simply sensational. Morally expressive actors are not common so I can understand how people may have difficulty conceiving how interesting such a pairing would be. For the moment, let me just say that based on cinematic history there is no evidence that Abby-Carter would be anything less than thrilling. A full discussion of exactly what a successful Abby-Carter romance would be like would be too lengthy and speculative for treatment here. An improved Abby-Luka would also work – just nowhere near as powerfully as Abby-Carter. Abby-Luka fans would also be wise to wish that Abby and Carter stay well separated because nothing will prevent those Tierney-Wyle acting sparks from flying in scenes they share, which is enough to sabotage most non-Abby-Carter romances. Again, this is not a speculation on what will happen (and they may eventually choose not to have these characters romantically involved) but simply a statement of how well it would turn out if they chose either path.

Of course, from a ratings point of view, the showcase relationship for Abby this season has been that with her mother Maggie, played by Sally Field. One of the virtues of Maura is that her art is truth. Tierney’s acting is never manipulative or dishonest. As far as I know Tierney has never had either a parent or close relative with bipolar affective disorder, yet she is somehow still able to express all the truthful complexity of being an adult child of such a person. I remain extraordinarily impressed with how much self-understanding Tierney must possess to somehow to find something within her to use to flesh out this large portion of the Abby Lockhart character. Abby is completely different from any character Tierney has played before but nevertheless just as complete and fully realized as any of them. Judging from my own experience with such people and the unanimous opinions of posts on Internet newsgroups and messageboards from people who have had direct experience with such situations, Tierney and Field have truthfully captured the exact dynamic of the relationship between a bipolar person and her adult child. On Abby’s part, everything – including the circumspection about becoming emotionally involved, the desire to protect oneself from emotional harm that stifles outward expression of the love for the parent that lies inside (and that some viewers have mistaken for needless callousness), and the muted exasperation at every single antic her mother pulls (antics which are fresh for TV viewers but frustrating replays for Abby) – rings true. Abby reluctantly finds herself needing to be a mother to her mother, a role that she understands to be compromised because she does not have the moral authority to tell her mother what to do. On Maggie’s part, Field’s manic histrionics are well measured to express the crystallized anguish of a person with no concept of past or future. Consequently, the game between the daughter and her bipolar mother is a game without resolution, constantly being replayed. Together Tierney and Field describe the futile movements of “The Dance We Do.”

Moreover, I have never seen a more truthfully complex expression of human nature, desires and frailty than the final scene from “The Visit” where Abby tracks down Maggie at the train station. The tone in Abby’s voice and expressions on her face, with resignation mixed with genuine concern, as she maternally asks Maggie where her coat is, observing that she looks like she is freezing to death, and finally comforting the crying Maggie strike to the deepest parts of the heart and mind. As David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun describes it, “The final scene with Abby playing mom to her mom, rocking her in her arms as they sit late at night on a bench waiting for the train, is one of the year’s most poignant TV moments.” ¹³ Indeed, it is one of the most deeply powerful scenes I have ever seen on television. Most people watch television expecting (on some level at least) to be comforted, but this is intense and sometimes disturbing stuff, much deeper than we are accustomed to seeing on any television drama. Let’s hope ER fans are sophisticated enough to appreciate their good fortune.

The Future

Tierney’s next movie is Scotland, PA, a black comedy inspired by MacBeth. To this date I have never seen any actress give what I felt to be an adequate performance as Lady MacBeth. No actress has yet been able to portray the tragic conflict between sins of ambition and a woman’s “milk of human kindness” within the same whole and complex character. I wait expectantly to see what Maura Tierney can do with the role.

Finally, a last word on ER. For those who think that Maura Tierney’s performance as Abby Lockhart could not possibly get any better, I have surprising news for you. There are aspects of Tierney’s talent that have not yet been significantly utilized in the role of Abby Lockhart. (If you read “The Virtues of Maura” you should be able to work out which ones.) One of these aspects, a particularly important one, will come increasingly into play if the character progresses along the natural history of a medical student. In other words, the Abby Lockhart of the future will be a much more powerful character than the one you see now. Hard to believe, but you ain’t seen anything yet.

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⁵ Tucker, Ken. “Which Doctors?” Entertainment Weekly, No. 570, November 24, 2000.