There was once this show. I had watched Desperate Housewives at the time, and there were teasers for this show Grey’s Anatomy. It was a mid-season replacement, and used the fantastic Postal Service song Such Great Heights and quick cuts to show off this little drama that could.
I was hooked from the get-go. The story about five interns, focusing in on Meredith Grey specifically, as they navigate the beginning of their surgical careers was compelling. Even more addicting was the love lives of these people. They weren’t perfect, and sometimes you wanted to smack them upside the head, but they were very relatable people. Add in some Patrick Dempsey? I’ve never missed an episode.
Season two came along, full of angst and longing. I cried when Doc died. I laughed at the way the interns played off one another. LVAD wires were cut, adulterous but hot prom sex was committed, surgeons were shot. The cliffhanger had me on the edge of my seat.
Season three started with great promise. Sure, we all knew that Finn was no contender compared to McDreamy, and maybe Izzie coming back to surgery was a bit far-fetched, but it was my show. They had moved to the coveted 9pm Thursday slot, so I was willing to give the show a pass.
Then the ridiculous, out of body, overacted (I’m looking at you Ms. Heigl) ferryboat arc occurred, and the show was never the same. Derek clearly had PTSD over Meredith’s drowning, but it was never addressed. Izzie slept with George, though there was no chemistry to show why. The show grew more morbid and dark, and DRAMA! replaced the conversations and connections in relationships. On some level, I knew that the show I loved, to quote Meredith at the altar, was “Over….so over.”
The season 4 premiere was awesome. Derek finally got Meredith’s abandonment issues, and I thought that the writers had heard the outrage of the fans. Meredith’s sister had appeared, but instead of hitting on Derek again, she wanted a relationship with the show’s main character. Hope was in the air. But then it went to shit. Derek did a 180 degree turn and issued ultimatums to the woman who he claimed to love. Mark and Derek made up with no explanation. The Gizzie fiasco wouldn’t go away. Thankfully, there was a writers’ strike, alllowing the show to regroup. The focus on the main couple with decent storylines for side characters (of which there were far too many) seemed to breathe new life into the show. It wasn’t as great as in its hey day, but they were solid episodes for the most part,
This season? It was fine. It coasted on the memory of a show I once loved, due to stellar acting in spite of weak writing. Meredith and Derek were finally together, though the show never addressed the reasons they had been apart. The new interns and revolving guests (Sadie, Dr. Dixon, etc) took away precious time from the core characters. Bailey and the Chief changed from voices of reason to Izzie 2.0 and an incompetent jerk respectively. There were high points, such as Alex’s reaction to Izzie’s cancer, Derek’s mom coming to town – providing a great mid season look at Derek’s backstory, but they were overshadowed by two words. Ghost Sex.
All of it brings me in a long way (though I could go much longer) to last night’s season finale. It was a solid episode, but it wasn’t my show. I get the sense that what creator Shonda Rhimes thinks the fans will enjoy is very different than what I want from this show. She’s gone in another direction, and so I need to accept Grey’s Anatomy for what it is – an overpopulated show that is written per episode. There is no character continuity and there an expectation that we fill in the blanks in our own heads.
For example, one of the smaller storylines is that Mark wants to buy a place and move in with Lexie. She is much younger than he is and wasn’t expecting to move this fast. For some reason, I’m supposed to believe that Lexie is this amazing woman who has gotten so under Mark’s skin that he’s changed his manwhore ways, that they’re in epic love. Can anyone tell me why they are so head over heels for one another? Is it because she can recite the periodic table? Because she was the forbidden fruit? I don’t get it. At the beginning of the season, I could see them getting more intrigued by one another – and I bought it. I wanted to learn more as they learned about each other, but I never saw that. I was just expected to accept this all-encompasing adoration that got a 40-something man to live in the attic of his girlfriend’s kind of estranged sister. Speaking of unexplained things, a few episodes ago, Meredith proclaimed that Lexie “of course” would be in the wedding. If it had been written more as a growth item and not “OF COURSE”, I’d totally have been on board. Why, though, all of a sudden was it so clear that Lexie was Meredith’s sister now? Derek brought her in as a stray, but no conversations were had. Oh well, I’ll fill in the blanks.
The George storyline was well written and acted, if not entirely predictable for a freaky superfan like me. Knowing that he’s wanted off the show for quite a while, I wasn’t surprised that his life hangs in the balance over the summer. All of the doctors watching over their colleague was bittersweet, as they all came together in an attempt to save his life. Him signing “007″ to Meredith was a nod to his first episode, in what will likely be his last.
Izzie’s cancer was a heavy handed mimicking of the season premiere where she played the role of the woman who had lost her short term memory. Alex’s passion for her was fantastic, and I loved seeing Justin Chambers sink his teeth into something meaty for once. Was he a jerk when he chastised his new bride? Of course! But it was entirely in character for him, given his history. He may have been one of my favorite outcomes of this season – his fear, his heart, his anger – it all came out. Had this story of Izzie’s illness simply been introduced without the hallucinations, I would have cared more. Unfortunately, Denny was the dead man who would not die. The constant returning visual of Izzie on the beach was superfluous and insulting. I don’t need to be shown her hallucinations to believe she sees them, yet time and again Denny was crammed down our throats. That being said, while I hated Katherine Heigl’s overacting in earlier seasons, she really showed fantastic acting through the garbage. Hats off to you, Izzie.
Note to Shonda Rhimes. If you like a boy, you can ask him out. You don’t have to write a ridiculously idiotic storyline for him.
Bailey once told Derek, when he was up for chief, “If it comes down to a choice between the position and the person, you choose the person.” I was pleased when Bailey chose general surgery over pediatrics. In peds, she seemed to become a whiny over-attached person who lost rational thought. She wasn’t the kick ass leader that I loved. She was what she hated in her former interns. She also then said she was leaving her husband. Why even go there? Why not just allow her to choose the person. Women can actually have a job and a family, though the writers have never shown us that on this show. Marriage comes second to the job, for some reason. From all we learned about Bailey, I was sorry to hear that this was the direction that the writers took.
Cristina and Owen, played by the amazing Sandra Oh and Kevin McKidd, are the new Meredith and Derek. Angsty longing looks and an all-or-nothing mentality. However, I’ll give the writers this one. The two discussed that they do, in fact, love each other, and are going to try to find a way to make it work. While Major McHottie is not my cup of tea, I’m at least enjoying the slow and steady build that they are finally pacing with this couple.
I also loved Meredith and Cristina – finally over their fight over nothing, admitting that they love each other. And they hugged. They aren’t huggy people, but we all need to hug the ones we love sometimes, and their friendship made me smile again.
Finally, the heart and soul of the show, Meredith and Derek. I’ll start off by saying that I enjoy them much more together than apart. I am however, upset that aside from a few episodes, ABC used them to pimp the show, but were relegated to bookends of the episode. For half a season we were taunted with the ring and then the rushed wedding. I didn’t need any of that, so long as they were together, but if the writers dangled the carrot in front of me, you bet your ass I’ll damn well want it. I’m glad that they didn’t have the big churchy church wedding, and when Meredith offered up getting married at City Hall, I was psyched. But…we didn’t even get that. We got a committment on a post it. I get that the couple likes to do things in a non-tradional way, but that felt like a slap in the face. Don’t build me up and then give me two minutes of airtime on a sticky note. It isn’t legal, it isn’t binding (not that marriages on this show are anyway), and you bet your ass that’s going to bite them in theirs next season.
I wasn’t disappointed by the episode, because I expected exactly what I got. I don’t expect to see Derek and Meredith actually discuss why they were on opposite sides of Izzie’s treatment plan – even though they were trying to imagine what they’d do in Alex and Izzie’s shoes. I didn’t expect Mark and Derek to address Derek’s being an ass about telling Mark that “you don’t have to do everything I do” even though the two have serious jealousy and anger issues between them. I would have been surprised if they just let Izzie explain her symptoms rather than show us Denny…again.
I would have expected it from that show I watched in Season 1 and 2. Now, at the end of Season 5, I take what I can get. Because I fell in love with the characters years ago, and like Derek said to Rose in season 4, “I have to see it through.”
eta: If you want a good laugh/cry, click here to read Shonda’s exclusive interview with Entertainment Weekly’s Ausiello. Warning, spoilers and a severe lack of self-awareness follow in the piece.
It’s stuck in my head and don’t know how to start it.
Mr. Badger and I watched a movie tonight, and then before going to bed, he got up for some ice cream. He was standing up, eating and I asked if he thought I should give V a bottle before we went to sleep. He agreed and as I turned to the fridge, he hit the floor. Like…thud. Out. Not joking, collapsed onto the hardwood.
I’m going through my old posts and publishing the ones that aren’t better left private, so bear with me if weird posts start showing up. They may not, but if they do, that’s why.
As I perused the web over the last week or so, I saw a number of posts, not just in the IF-sphere, that decried the fact that Mother’s Day was a Hallmark holiday. For all I know, you may have been one of them.
Oh wait, next year is finally now?
Check out the link if you want to join us for food, fun, and a plastic ute!
