Grey’s Anatomy – Season 7 Thoughts, Feelings, Ideas…

It’s kinda weird, this ‘thing’ I have with Grey’s Anatomy.  I don’t really watch many regular TV shows and of the shows that I do watch (or have ever watched) none of them have been hospital dramas. But there’s something about this show that keeps me coming back each year.  Some of it has to do with the writing. (Or at least the writing in the first few seasons). But most of the reason why I tune in has to do with the characters.  Creator Shonda Rhimes and crew have crafted a cast that, despite their unimaginable situations in love and life, seem to stay true to the integrity of the way that the respective characters are written.

Grey’s season finales have traditionally concluded with me scavenging for details from any Internet resource – credible or not – about what’s going to happen next season.  Will Izzie get kicked out of the surgery program?  Has Burke left the apartment (and Christina) for good?  Will Meredith and Derek stay together?  Yet having just completed a marathon session watching this, the seventh season, I find myself asking only one question: When will the writers bring this story to an end.  Clearly it seems to have run its course.  (Read on to understand my rationale).

Thoughts on Grey’s Finale (Season 5)

It would be easy to roll up my sleeves and pontificate about all of the reasons why I feel this season of Grey’s Anatomy was disappointing.  (And had I started writing the minute after the credits rolled, that’s precisely what I would have done).  But reflecting on the show (for all of, let’s see….two hours), my thoughts turn to T.R. Knight’s character, George O’Malley.

When people think of Grey’s, the character that they usually reflect upon is Meredith.  After all, the show bears her name and she narrates most of the episodes.  But in a strange way, I always saw the show through George’s eyes.  During the early episodes when Grey’s was just this show that came on after Desperate Housewives, I kinda looked at George and laughed.  He was every nerdy, ‘wish-i-could-hang-with-the-cool-kids’ dude I ever knew.  And while he was annoying, he was also the character that seemed to be the most humbled by the opportunity that was set before him.

As the show moved on, out of all of the characters on the show, I saw him as the character who evolved and matured the most.  One of the things that I loved about the show was the relationship that he and Isaiah Washington had as student and teacher.  It was one of mutual respect and it was wonderfully written.  (Which was part of the reason that I was so crushed to find out that in reality their relationship was less than cordial, the true reasons behind which we may never fully know.)  But even without ‘Burke’, George found a way always give us something interesting to chew on.  The guilt that he carried and emitted without words during the season where he cheated on Callie.  The pain of explaining his father’s sickness to his family, playing the ‘bad news-bringing doctor’ role in a way that he probably never figured he’d have to do.

By now it’s pretty clear to anyone that watched the finale that George was the victim of an accident and that T.R. Knight is no longer on the show.  I don’t profess to understand the complexities of running an award-winning primetime drama.  And I feel that for all of the good moments Grey’s writers have given us, we should all give them the benefit of the doubt when they make the decision that for whatever off-screen reasons that they need to somewhat abruptly end a character’s term on the program.  I just feel like there had to be a way…hell, there had to be a hundred ways… to give this character, whom you’ve invested so much time and energy and show-hours helping us to get to know… a proper good-bye.

Yes, I know by now that the theme of this entire season is that “life is precious” and that it should be cherished every minute that you breathe.  I get that.  But a tragic, quick death is one that is befitting a character who isn’t a staple of your program.  I don’t read TMZ and I don’t have a subscription to Us Weekly, but just like everyone else, I heard that both T.R. Knight and Katherine Heigl were leaving the show.  And it’s really none of my business why either the actors or the writers felt that they needed to part ways.  But if the Grey’s writers are fans of the show as much as they claim to be and are really concerned about what the fans want, then there had to have been a better way to “kill these characters off”.

I never really liked “Alex and Izzie” even though it kept being forced down our throats.  The funny thing to me about Alex and Izzie’s relationship this go ‘round was that the relationship that Izzie had with George made Alex (and thus the relationship) seem even more shallow than it did to being with.  Perhaps George and Izzie weren’t right for each other, but when they were together, for a moment you (or should I say, “I”) felt like love between two friends was possible.  Regardless of why they split (and yeah, I thought they were better as pals) it made Karev look more and more like a neanderthal.  After all, it was George – who wasn’t even with Izzie – who noticed that she wasn’t feeling well before anyone else did.

Shonda Rhimes Must Have It In For Katherine Heigl

It’s no secret that Katherine Heigl is as close to Isaiah Washington in terms of her current standing with the Grey’s Anatomy writers.  This isn’t to say that she’s making homophobic comments.  However, Grey’s fans can recall the buzzing that was circulating the set when Isaiah had an altercation or made comments towards T.R. Knight.  That same attention is here again.  I find Katherine (as an actress and as an interview) fascinating.  I guess it’s just something in the way that she responds to questions.  It lets me know that she’d make for an incredibly interesting conversation.  However, it might be that independent and against-the-grain attitude that ends her run on Grey’s.

It’s no secret that she’s very outspoken.  She’s different from most of the ‘Hollywood crowd’.  (She has a backbone.)  When Katherine felt that her character was underutilized last season, she took her name out of the running for an Emmy nomination for Best Actress (despite the fact that she won the award last year.)  A bit risky.  Some may say a bit ungrateful… but one that is undoubtedly the response of a person who considers their craft ‘art’ and isn’t just looking for a check.  She cares about how her character is being portrayed.

In defense of the series creator and lead writer, Shonda Rhimes, it is completely up to her as writer to decide how her on-screen characters are to be developed.  Shonda has gone on record as saying that she has a “Grey’s bible” and that every plotline’s resolution is pretty much ‘laid out’.  And so, perhaps, this was the season to de-emphasize Heigl’s character (Izzie Stevens) and to focus on the development of less prominently featured characters?  Whatever the reason, it’s a bit juvenile to think that someone who has given us as many compelling moments as Rhimes has would de-emphasize a character over a personal dispute.

Or perhaps I have it completely wrong.  Perhaps Katherine doesn’t have an issue with the way she has been used at all.  Maybe she just doesn’t think she herself gave 100% this season and would feel guilty if she won the award?  Or perhaps there is some inside disagreement that is beyond the reach of nagging tabloids.

Whatever the reason, it’s become clear to me this season that Shonda is making an exit for Katherine.

Grey’s Anatomy Season 4 Finale: Thoughts (I Still Like Rose….)

I had really high hopes heading into the Grey’s season finale last week.  While there are some questions that have been raised, ultimately I walked away a little disappointed.  The writer’s had given us such incredible ways to end each of the past three seasons.  (SPOILERS AHEAD if you plan on going back to watch.)  The clumsy way that Meredith met Addison to end the inaugural season.  The painful way that Izzie’s carried off after losing Denny, leading to all sorts of questions about her career.  And the third season, for me, gave us the ultimate in closure with the wedding break up, Alex being abandoned and so many other satisfying details.  I was expecting the same this season.  And while they can’t all be like last season’s finale, I wanted more.  Maybe the strike-shortened season is to blame.

I’m actually a little frustrated with the directions that everyone seems to be headed in… Just a few random thoughts…

• I once was ready to play my guitar outside of Callie Torres’ window.  (I guess that will never be now.)  But beyond my own personal hangup, I just kinda don’t get it.  I respect the writers for having characters that reflect folks that we live and love everyday.  But this just seems strange.  One minute she was begging Sloan to come in the closet and now…. I just need to see the way that this plays out.  Perhaps she was hiding the attraction?  Obviously that’s what the writers are hinting at, but they didn’t seem to go down this course until very late in the season.  Perhaps I’m reading into this too deeply, but one thing we do know about Callie is that she’s unstable.  She lived inside the stock closet.  She fell for George and took part in the mistake that was their marriage.  She started looking to Sloan and now this.  Perhaps the book isn’t closed.  And I hope it isn’t because…

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• …I can’t take Erica Hahn.  The attitude.  The snide comments.  The weird expressions.  She just bugs the hell out of me.  She’s one of those people that you see in the airport and want to slap because they remind you of everything that frustrates you about the show.  But in that way, she’s done her job — good actress.  I just don’t like the character.  And for her to kinda get the payoff in this episode was kinda unfulfilling.  I don’t wanna see her drown, but she just doesn’t seem to deserve to “go home happy”.  The chief made me proud when he carefully yet sternly told her how she might want to reconsider her approach.  I’d have preferred a slap from Christina.  (Kidding.)

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• George and Lexie.  I just don’t like it.  Lexie’s nice, but she needs someone else.  She needs another intern.  George has matured so much over the course of the show.  Lexie would be the “right now” girl…. again.  I hope this doesn’t come to pass.  It’s a step backwards for him and it certainly doesn’t help his reputation.  (I guess I didn’t get the theme of the episode: don’t care about what people think.  Yes… I got it.  You practically hit us over the head with it.) I still don’t like the pairing.  If he thought there was no chemistry with Izzie….

Grey’s Anatomy… still amazing

I stayed away. It had been awhile since Grey’s Anatomy went on hiatus due to the actor’s strike and, well…. I stayed away. At first, it was tough. Grey’s was that moment of tenderness (albeit artificial) in an otherwise hardened hustle-and-bustle New York City workweek. But after weeks of not watching, it became easier to reflect on what the show had already given me than to venture into anything new it had to offer.

Since the last new episode of the show earlier this year, I became a Tivo subscriber. The funny thing about Tivo is the more than you accumulate in content, season passes and those beloved ‘Tivo Suggestions’, the more than you don’t casually browse through channels. (You know, like real people do.) And so it was only after having seen a snippet of Meredith Grey at the beginning of my scheduled Lost recording did I realize that it was the third episode since the show returned with new content — and that I had neglected to start a season pass.

For a moment, I even considered just kinda sitting it out. Maybe I’d let the shows accumulate and if I felt the urge, I’d download them in a season and just start watching again. Or maybe not. Being away from the folks at Seattle Grace made me forget what made the show such a wonderful part of the week.

Strangely, I’d heard rumors that the show wasn’t doing well in the ratings anymore. There was talk that they’d even resorted to trying to use Isaish Washington’s likeness to try and bring the ratings up. (All lies, by the way.) Oddly enough, it was the rumor that the show wasn’t churning out ‘greatness’ anymore that made me curious. And so I thought now was as good a time as any. And with that, I downloaded the first three new episodes since March.

Shame on me for staying away.

Keep Breathing – Ingrid Michaelson

Like so many others, that Grey’s Anatomy season finale is still with me. What an incredible way to end the season. As much as the events that happened (or, depending on how you think about it, didn’t happen) in those last eight minutes were powerful enough, the soundtrack really went perfectly with the emotion. Independent artist Ingrid Michaelson’s song that accompanied the show’s epilogue is such a beautiful and powerful song.

Apart from Grey’s, the song is incredible. Amidst all of the really bad music that we have surfacing to the top of radio station’s commercialized playlists these days, it’s great to see independent artists like Ingrid and Regina Spektor making the kind of unique music that we’re hearing more and more of. It’s refreshing and hopefully a trend that others will follow (or hopefully not follow. Make your own music.)

When I think of the lyrics of this song, it almost makes me feel the same way I felt after watching An Inconvenient Truth. You reflect on all that you could be doing to change the world. You pass homeless people and wonder if a dollar was really all that you could have done. You watch the news and wonder how you could have become so complacent — the news of soldiers dying in the war barely gets you to look up from the magazine anymore. You reflect on all that you could be doing. And then you realize that you’re going overboard a bit. You’ll change the world yet….you just need to wait until the right moment. Your moment. And until then, “all you can do is keep breathing.”

(Above is a live version of the song. You can hear a clean version over at her myspace page (http://www.myspace.com/ingridmichaelson). Sadly, she can’t really capitalize from the success of the song now — she has to wait until the corporate execs at ABC say it’s time to release the song — in September. (Really smart business, folks.) Anyhow, let’s be sure to support her when the song releases then. Don’t forget — she’s an independent artist.

Keep Breathing by Ingrid Michaelson

The storm is coming,

But i don’t mind.
People are dying,

I close my blinds.
All that I know is I’m breathing…now.

I want to change the world,

Instead, I sleep.
I want to believe

In more than you and me.

But all that I know is I’m…breathing
All I can do is keep…breathing.
All we can do is keep breathing…now.
All that I know is I’m breathing,
All I can do is keep breathing,
All we can do is keep breathing……

Grey’s Anatomy: Everybody Hurts

It’s late. It’s Sunday. And writing this will certainly start my week off the wrong way. But there are times when you’re moved by something so much that all rational thought must take a backseat.

I’m a hopeless romantic. No reason to deny it. Shakespeare himself tells us, “To thine own self be true.” I lay claim to seeing most of the modern day “romantic comedies” (and owning most of the major ones). Despite how incredible Notting Hill and Love Jones might be, I still hold fast to the belief that the British version of the Office’s Christmas Special (which, in effect, was the “series finale”) was the most special and truly the biggest payoff for one who claims to be hopelessly infected by romance. It was almost as if every other moment in the show’s two seasons was filmed to bring the show to this perfect and fitting ending. It was great and I still lay claim to the fact that it’s the most special moment I’ve ever seen on the screen — big or small. But tonight almost rivaled that moment. Tonight reminded me of exactly why that episode of The Office or any moment on television has the ability to evoke so much more emotion than film. Tonight while watching the season finale of Grey’s Anatomy, I was reminded of why I’ve invested so many viewing hours on the show.

I was a bit critical of the direction that the series was headed earlier this year. I felt that teasing Meredith’s death mid-season was a cheap way to get ratings at the sake of viewers who were committed to the series. After all — we knew Meredith wasn’t going to die. (Well, actually I did kinda wonder for a bit.) But now after having seen the true season finale, I understand where the writers were leading us.

I waited to watch the finale. Somehow I felt as if it wouldn’t quite meet my expectations. With the whole “Addison spinoff series” thingy and no real dramatic event to build up to as heavy as last season’s Izzie and Denny relationship story, I was sure that this season finale would be a non-event. Happily, I was completely wrong.

The finale was perfect in so many ways. Not because it tied up every loose end. (Much to the contrary — it created new ones!) Not because I got what I wanted. (Again, none of the things that I had been hoping for actually happened.) It was perfect because it dared to be different. It dared to be unpopular. And in taking the road less traveled, I’ll certainly be hanging my head down this summer when I think about the characters that I identify so strongly with because everybody seems to be in pain.

ABC and the execs that dared to question the importance of the character of Izzie Stevens should seriously invite Katherine Heigl to the negotiating table and strike a deal. Now. Last season she was the highlight of the show, but one could argue that it was an easy feat considering the fact that her storyline was the biggest part of season two. But this season (and particularly this episode) she was clearly not the focal point, but she more than kept us engaged. She’s subtle and cheery when it’s required. She’s silly when the time calls for silly. And while some critics may argue that she’s crying more than she’s scrubbing in, the scene where she tells George that their chance encounter ‘meant nothing’, only to show her true emotions in private, was about as solid as anyone else has delivered this season. Perhaps this girl who falls in love too easy is confusing having a great friendship with a cool guy like George with actually being in love. Looking forward to next season, Izzie Stevens is certainly suffering from heartache.

Meredith Gray is the Modern Day Brenda Walsh

Without any hesitation, I’ll admit that Grey’s Anatomy is one of my favorite shows on television right now. Nope — I don’t watch it to participate in later discussions with women. And I don’t do it for any other reason than the fact that it’s a well written show. I never got into E.R., but if it was anything like this, I probably should have given it a shot. The great thing about Grey’s is that the focus of the show initially begins with the patients (who are promptly introduced at the show’s beginning.) But somewhere during the development of the story, the condition of the patient is often used as a mirror to reflect the struggles of the young interns. Patients come to Seattle Grace to seek help, but ironically they often do as much to help the doctors as the doctors do to treat them. (And in many cases, I’d argue that the patients do more — I am often amazed at the number of fatalities during the show’s run. Often my friends and will watch the show together and try to figure out from the first few minutes of the show which new patients are going to die. It’s morbid — I know.)

What truly separates Grey’s from other shows is how well defined the regular characters are. I watch because after having invested time learning about each character, they now seem like folks I know. Take Christina Yang, for instance. The over-achieving robotic cold, yet brilliant doctor who seems to do well at anything she puts her hand to — but as we learn, she’s still figuring this ‘love thing’ out. Then there’s Isobel Stevens. Izzie is probably one of the most interesting characters. The tall blond attractive intern spends a countless amount of time convincing everyone that she’s not the stereotype of tall blond women. Not only does she seem to be proving to everyone else that she’s deserving of her spot in Seattle Grace, but she’s also trying to convince herself. Katherine Heigl play this character to a “T” — and I’m completely in agreement with the actor in her recent grievance — she deserves as much compensation as every other character.

Dr. Miranda Bailey is often annoying as the overbearing commander of the interns, but having a child has softened her and I don’t find myself as annoyed by her as I once was.

The male doctors and interns on the show are also quite intriguing. While not quite as fleshed out as their female counterparts, all of the males have at some point bared their soul and earned our compassion for their situation. Whether it’s Derek “McDreamy” Shepherd, who’s trying to escape the shadow of a betrayed marriage — all while having his ex-wife and the best friend (the same best friend who she betrayed him with) in the same hospital. Dr. Webber, the chief of hospital surgery, is painfully going through a midlife crisis, having lost his wife and faced with the prospect of life without his persona-defining position.

This show is so well written and each of these characters have been deserving of our empathy. Beneath it all, they’re just doctors trying to make a difference. Well, that is, all except one….

Dr. Meredith Gray is the title character of the show. She’s a young intern much like the others. We’re supposed to be seeing the show through Meredith’s eyes. After all, she narrates each episode (an ABC trend that seemed to begin with Desperate Housewives.) But while the original intent of Meredith may have been to garner our sympathy more than all others, at this point in the show’s third season, she’s become one of the key folks that many of us are secretly wishing will fail.

Let me explain….

Attention: George….Your Hot Girl Is Getting Away!

Uh, Dr. O’Malley — just a small bit of advice. While you console your grieving platonic roommate as she sobs over a guy she probably helped to kill….. while she listens to a creepy posthumous voicemail message….. your incredibly sexy “don’t-quite-know-why-she-digs-you-but-she-does” Latin lover girlfriend is gettin away. While it’s true that ‘nice guys finish last’, sadly, you didn’t have to. Once that homewrecking bad boy ‘puts it on’ Torres, she might realize that there’s more to love than a clumsy-yet-cute disposition. And one more thing…..(and I’m only sayin’ this cause you’re my boy and I care)….. you ain’t gonna do much better than this. Hell, there ain’t been a woman this fine on the show in three seasons! Yeah, I know she’s a little weird, what with the ‘living in the hospital’ thing and all… and then there’s the ‘walking around the apartment nekkid’ habit (if there’s anything that the Seinfeld episode taught me, it’s that it sounds better than it actually is.) And then there’s the matter of her possibly not washing her hands when she uses the bathroom. But those are all un-trainable habits, George! You can break her out of that. Take my advice and dump the platonic “buddies” and develop your relationship before Addison’s man “puts it on” her.

But then again, perhaps you’re not so dumb after all. I mean, now that Izzy’s got a cool 8 Mil (probably more like 5 mil after taxes) you can get some cash and live like a doctor would back in the 80s!! I’m sure some clothes, a nice pair of shoes, a decent haircut and a BMW 5 series would up your stock big time. I see it now…. gee, I guess you doctors have much more than ‘book sense’ after all.
( I know it’s a bit crazy to shout advice at TV characters, but Grey’s is an exception…..)