Spoilers for last night's "Grey's Anatomy" coming up just as soon as I investigate some local customs...An almost entirely comic episode of "Grey's Anatomy" -- and one that, for the most part, is as funny as it thinks it is? Can they still do that?
A very fine light episode, particularly the interludes in Dermatology and George's reaction to the kid's reaction to seeing the face-off patient. In a conversation with my friend Rich Heldenfels, he complained that the Callie/Erica story was a little cheap -- that a trained doctor wouldn't be that baffled about going "below the equator" -- and while I can see his point, Bailey's lecture was very funny.
I also thought the writers have done a good job with the new phase of the Mer/McDreamy relationship, particularly with Derek reconciling his work and personal lives and making sure Izzie and Karev understand the difference.
What did everybody else think?
I - dare I say it - really enjoyed it. I'd take Grey's off the DVR last season with the George and Izzie debacle, and now have it firmly back on the season pass - and this episode reminds me why. Loved the dermatology department scenes, Christina in general, and George doing his awesome George stuff - and still being an ass to Lexi. I enjoyed Izzie getting her own back on Alex and hope that relationship gets back on track b/c I think they're a great match up in several ways. And Bailey was awesome, as usual, with a return of the va jay jay.
ReplyDeleteJust a good, funny, wild west episode.
Totally agree with your whole post, Alan. (And I'm mainly posting so you won't think there's no interest for Grey's wrapups anymore!) I laughed out loud for the first time in a long time at Grey's - especially at the scene with George, the kid and the two operating rooms - and I loved the bizarro world of dermatology. Also loved that even as Derek finds his footing in living with Meredith, he's not giving up, he's moving forward (by "giving" Meredith the trailer as her safe space).
ReplyDeleteI'm still not on board with Callie and Hahn. It seems so awkward and stilted, like two characters/actresses wondering what the writers are going to make them say next. But I did love Bailey's "find the embassy" monologue. Bailey continues to rock.
I can't believe it: someone commenting at Grey's Writers said "I'm actually starting to like Izzie" !
ReplyDeleteI loved this ep to the point of bouncing up and down and shouting "Yes!" at the TV (yes, like JD, I'm 12)
I loved when groups of angry people were passing each other in the halls and stairways, yelling at the angry/sullen groups following them.
I expected Cristina to be jealous of Mer's happiness (though I don't disagree with Cristina about Mer's *un*happiness level - they sort of coexist) but I forgot (cause the fanfic writer i read this summer didn't think of it, i guess) what was going to happen to Lexie is George passed.
Oops.
Alex was awesome, saying the right thing to the right person, in the end.
If I were Izzie, I'd have gone and bitched to Bailey. I'm not a cowboy. But Izzie is doing so much better at following the advice of Bobbi on Mad Men than Peggy is (hey, you guys interpolate Sopranos all the time, and I've never ever seen that show).
That's the thing in this show - someone is always saying the right thing - to the wrong person.
and what? every week House gives us "graphic" warnings (mostly for no reason) and for a guy with his *face pulled off*, we don't get one??
(PSA from Childlife Specialist posting to Grey's writers - they apparently don't take kids into actual surgeries - but biy, it was a funny scene!)
Debora's blog is boring. I posted that she should write the blog right after she writes the ep from now on. (at first I thought they did do it that way) Her head is in like ep 12 or something.
People griping like: Thank you for the awesome 35 seconds or Mer/Der this week! I look forward to the 25 seconds next week! but really - Mer's life is like - See Derek, have a problem, go bitch to her friends, rinse and repeat. Would love more of Dr Amy Madigan, but I can live with this.
Really. I can. :-)
and didn't Cristina dis derm back in season 1? or was that geriatrics and OB/GYN. (darn! no Addie to palm Cristina off on - *that* would be fun!)
While I can really live without Callie and Hahn at least they're not Kevin & Scotty on B&S (who actually turned out to be rather interesting last ep. (see: moral dilemmas))
Happy camper here. (but hey, i was happy when Mer was miseral in episode 11 (now officially numbered 2.02)
The episode was kind of amusing, but not as funny as your headline.
ReplyDeleteI think the universe would implode if Dr. Hahn ever had to go to Dermatology.
ReplyDeleteThis episode, while not one of the best, was definitely a marked improvement. I enjoy the lighter episodes of the show, and I miss when they used to do them more often.
"Below the Mason-Dixon Line... of your pants" made me LOL. I don't have the Callie/Erica storyline as much as everyone else, though it does seem way less natural than the only other straight-girl-falls-for-a-girl storyline I've ever watched, which was Willow with Tara. But I hope that they start making Callie actually seem interested in it, rather than acting like it's some terrible fate she's being forced to endure. Hopefully the little bit at the end of the scene with the two of them at dinner is a sign of things to come.
ReplyDeleteI wish they'd give Bailey more to do. More Bailey, less Lexie. More Chief, too, and not just grumpy Chief. Over the summer as I was revisiting original 90210 I discovered that the actor was Brandon's boss at the Beach Club, and he was usually my favorite thing in those scenes.
And hooray for Izzie finally growing a pair. Maybe if things keep going the way they did in this episode, I can begin to like the characters again. Well, probably not Christina, but the others, maybe.
I didn't know the Chief was at the beach club! I did know he was on The Practice, as was Ellis.
ReplyDeleteDid you do your 90210 on DVD or hulu? (or Soap net, which i don't get)
I did the pilot on hulu and now there's no more!
big-ted - I hear Erica was in that lotion/skin scene. did you already know?
ReplyDelete(and are you related to "have you met" Ted?)
and finally - Alan
how much of this TV that you have to watch does your wife watch with you?
An odd thing happened when I got married - I got used to having someone to *share* TV with. It's not as much fun without.
Of course you have a blog (the column falls under work and so doesn't count)
Alan, one thing I meant to say previously - it didn't bother me that Callie would be baffled about heading south of the border. Sure, she's a doctor, but there's a big difference between viewing the body in a medical capacity and wanting to share it with someone you're close to and care about. I didn't see her as a doctor, just as a chick who wasn't sure what she was getting into. I think mostly she was worried that things were going to go too fast and that she wouldn't like it and not know how to handle that, more than she was worried about mechanics.
ReplyDeletePamela - I watched the whole thing on SoapNet. I discovered it when they were a little ways into the third season, so I watched it from there to the end of the series, then it started over again with Season 1. So I started over too, and watched up until I caught up with where I'd originally started in Season 3. That's a lot of 90210. :) It was weird seeing Fresham Year David Silver, then turning on Sarah Connor and seeing very grown-up Brian Austin Green.
My husband and I watch almost all of our TV together. There are a few things one of us will watch that the other one doesn't care about (Like Grey's) or in the case of The Shield and Entourage, he'd been watching from the beginning and I didn't want to start in the middle and they haven't been high DVD priorities. (Though I did catch up on BSG s I can watch it with him come January.)It's a huge thing that we share, and we really enjoy it. It's also fun because he's a screenwriter and blogs about TV and movies a lot (though not professionally, just for fun), and we have a lot of friends who work on various shows which is fun for us too. Although I'm beginning to worry a bit about our TV viewing habits when recently while watching a football game, I was lamenting that our TV is too small. Then I realized the ridiculousness of that thought, as our TV is 52". (I think what I really want is hi-def for football, it gets pretty blurry otherwise.)
That's a lot of 90210. :)
ReplyDeleteno kidding! I didn't even watch that many seasons! I left when Brenda did.
But I do envy you the watching TV with Hubby. I watch with Brother, when he has time - he likes most of what I like, and then some and then some not. I remember specifically not making him watch ER (who wants to start with 11 seasons of missing backstory? that would be cruel) but I remember one day when he asked me what he was "watching" and then gave me a list of shows including Buffy, and i replied "no, only "selected" Buffys." It was only after i got the DVDs that I forced him thru all seven seasons IN ORDER with him protesting half the time that he'd "already seen this ep"
Yes, but you didn't see it *in order*, and that matters!
there are shows that I will watch by myself - these are usually the shows I like enough to not mind watching twice. and then I have this whole backlog of Eli Stone, Pushing Daisies, etc (I know there's another)
And then there's Brothers & Sisters where he has a whole season backlog and I can't tell him what he doesn't know about Rebecca or Kitty. It's annoying. He doesn't even knwo that he doesn't know, cause the thing he thinks i don't know he knows is not the whole story!
(was that vague enough for people two years behind on B&S?)
oh, i'm also fascinated that hubby is a screenwriter - and did you mention a blog? if so, where?
ReplyDeleteAlan, thanks for keeping up with Grey's. I totally agree, it has vastly improved this year. It's like the whole George-Izzie thing never happened, and amen to that. It's even almost like the George-Callie marriage didn't happen, either. And instead we can enjoy all 3 of those characters now that they're back to being a little more their original selves as introduced. I've always loved Cristina and Bailey, too, and I'm so glad they got some lighter scenes in this ep.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I rewatched the entire X-Files series earlier this year (bought the box set - $300!), and was amazed to see that the Chief was big bad Assistant Director Kersh. I'd totally forgotten it was the same actor!
I have to laugh at the title of this post because I also caught Silence of the Lambs on TV Saturday and the actress who plays Dr. Hahn was the kidnap victim who had to "put the lotion in the basket"...LOL.
ReplyDeleteMuch better episode -- loved George yelling at Cristina, Izzie and Meredith when they were in a dermatology trance!
I have to say I am starting to love Grey's all over again! With Bailey's return of the va jay jay and loved Bailey's "find the embassy" monologue. Bailey continues to rock.
ReplyDeleteLexi and Mark need to get together and spice up Grey's with the Doctor/Intern relationship.
Mark talking about the wild wild west and how Izzie is not a cowboy. She takes this line to heart and gets her surgery back! Go Izzie!
Number 12 no longer! ;-)
ReplyDeleteactually Grey's is apparently doing well on the DVR witthin 7 days ratings thing, so hooray for DVRs!
was it someone here who said a West Wing writer wrote this?
I know I'm a little late -- I'm in Europe and iTunes barely works with the Internet here, but I actually enjoyed this episode of Grey's. Not as good as Season 1-beginning of Season 2, but definitely getting back on track. I always though Grey's was at its best when it was about the competition, and it seems to be moving in that direction a little bit more in the past few episodes. Loved the Alex-Izzie problems, and George is finally developing a little more after going crazy back in Season 3. This show is finally being less of the prime-time soap opera it became- thank you Shonda Rhimes and the rest of the writers. And a final thought- did anyone else notice that there was more music and less of the annoying "Grey's drama-filler" that we had so much of last season?
ReplyDelete