Spoilers for last night's "Grey's Anatomy" coming up just as soon as I smell some lemons... I watched the last two episodes at odd hours during press tour and could never find a window to blog on them. But despite my fatigue, and my general disdain for this season since the Denny's ghost arc began, I found myself... not only not hating them, but actually liking them quite a bit. Yes, throughout this mini-arc I had to ignore all the Denny/Izzie stuff (which was mercifully brief until tonight), and to once again accept that there will never be any professional consequences for any of the insane things these surgeons do on a weekly basis. But the emotional conflicts -- between Meredith and Cristina, between Meredith and Derek, Bailey and time -- and Eric Stoltz's performance were all very strong, and helped carry me through some of the sillier parts. Chandra Wilson took her own performance to a new level with the Bailey storyline, and last night's closing montage, set to "Drifting Further Away" by Powderfinger, was one of the best needle drops the series has ever used. Even though I'd sort of lost the thread of why Meredith felt compassion for the serial killer, or even why she and Cristina hadn't made up yet, that song over those scenes gave them a power they might have otherwise lacked.
On the other hand, we apparently come to the end of Denny's appearances -- but not the end of Izzie's part of the story -- and I still don't know whether or not Denny's a ghost, regardless of what the head of ABC said last week. It would seem, as many of us speculated, that Izzie has some kind of serious medical problem that could have caused Denny to appear as a hallucination. But their final argument played out in a way implying something else: that celestial forces sent Denny to warn Izzie about her problem, and that Denny took advantage of the opportunity to rekindle the affair.
Now, I'll go with Meredith hanging out with Denny and Dylan the bomb squad guy while she's clinically dead -- it wasn't my favorite story of the series, but it worked in the context of that situation -- but this is just aggressively silly, even by the standards of a show where nobody ever gets fired for career-ending mistakes, and where one of the characters in this episode suffers a mortifying groin-related injury.
Steve McPherson promised that this story would turn out to be "insightful and actually smart." I ain't seeing that yet, not remotely, and if there's a better payoff coming, we've had to wait far too long for it.
What did everybody else think?
35 comments:
My roommate was watching last night and I drifted in and out, and i was really struck by how there are really three parts to this show.
There's the light funny stuff, like Mark's injury (the injury itself is no laughing matter, and made me cringe when i first heard about it) and the interns wondering who did it. This stuff is always enjoyable and makes me laugh, and Callie is a wonderfully funny character.
Then there's the serious stuff, like the death row guy and Bailey's wonderful performances. And as long as Derrick and Merideth aren't breaking up every week, I can tolerate them.
But then there's the Shonda-Rhimes-Is-Crazy plots, where i just want to smack the TV for showing me this.
The thing is, I'm slowly starting to wonder why we hate the Denny storyline. Why is it? Because having something like a ghost in a medical drama is 'silly', no matter what? This is a show where, in its very first season, we had a genuine psychic show up, in (my opinion) the series' best episode. Then there's the 'Miracle' arc. The Grey's Anatomy universe has always had glimmers of stuff beyond the 'real', and I'm wondering whether this Denny stuff is as bad as everyone's making it out to be, or if the concept of the story is stopping anyone from giving it a chance.
In the story itself, I find it interesting. I was iffy on it before, but when I started questioning why I hated it... I found it was mostly because everyone on the internet seems to. Otherwise, though. I find it interesting, and I like where it's taken characters like Izzie and Alex. Plus, Jeffrey Dean Morgan's always been fun to watch work. Plus, I like the idea of double-meanings, like on Eli Stone - her mental problem is both a fatal medical problem, but also allows the universe to contact her in this way.
(And I'm one of the ones who's thought that Izzie should have been written out pre-3x01, and complained for years afterwards that she was dragging down the show.)
The rest of the episode was quite strong, too. The 'scheme' didn't happen as planned, which I liked, and it made Bailey, Meredith and the Chief look at what choices they would make to save a child's life. Meredith's story arc in these episodes has been very strong, and it feels like Grey's has its mojo back after a couple (years?) having lost it.
I preferred last week's ep to this one, but I thought the serial killer storyline was what used to make Grey's interesting in the first place. The ending was just incredibly powerful to me, and having both Derek and Cristina support a bereft Meredith was very, very satisfying.
Frankly, I didn't really understand where the show was going last night with Denny's "I'm here FOR YOU" line of reasoning, and I also didn't hate the storyline until she started having lots of sex with him in the hospital and it was all jokey. Ick. They stretched it out WAY too long, at the expense of other storylines. And introducing both Mary McDonnell and now Melissa George with no support (also at the expense of better storylines, like Owen/Cris, Alex/Iz, Mark/Callie) was frustrating as well.
Very hot and cold, but it's improved considerably with the serial killer arc. Eric Stoltz was just terrific.
Just as Alan struggles to accept that there are no professional consequences to these surgeons who make career-ending decisions week after week, so must those of us who work in medicine accept the practical nonsense Shonda dishes out every episode. Easy example - Eric Stoltz (who rules) has a massive brain hemorrhage and craniotomy five days ago, but he's coherent and able to WALK to his execution with a FULL HEAD OF HAIR. I guess it's the masochist in me that brings me back for more.
The thing I'm enjoying most is the Cristina/Owen arc. I'm not minding the Lexie/Sloane pairing, either, surprisingly enough.
Please let Denny rest in peace now, Shonda.
The thing I'm enjoying most is the Cristina/Owen arc.
I'd like that more if it was getting more play. I haven't put on a stopwatch or anything, but it feels like that relationship gets less screentime than a whole bunch of other current arcs, and so everytime Hunt pops up, I'm almost surprised that he's still on the show.
So Denny's not a ghost, he's an angel there to guide Izzie to The Other Side? Oh, that's so much better and smarter. All is forgiven. ::bangs head against wall::
The Alden, I'm with you on the idea that Grey's has always had a glimmer of the unreal about it, and frequently it's worked. But to me, there's a big difference between a single episode about a psychic and a multi-episode arc featuring sex scenes for a dead character. "Eli Stone" had this kind of thing written into its DNA from the beginning; Grey's didn't, and I think it's really hard for a show to change the nature of its universe so radically in the middle of its fifth season in a way that makes sense to the viewers.
If Denny turns out to be a hallucination, that's a bit more in keeping with the Grey's universe. But I agree with Alan that if that's the case, it's been way too long for the payoff to be satisfying.
I agree that Hunt is never around, so much so that I didn't remember his name until Alan wrote "Hunt" in his last comment. That arc is interesting and hopefully will get more focus without Denny around...though I fear that just means more Izzie. Ugh.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought way back in the summer before the new season began, rumors started flying about Izzie having a tumor and being killed off? Shonda came out and said those rumors were false, end of story. Doesn't this seem to give some credence to those rumors??
I only read Alan's post - not the comments yet - and I was... pleasantly shocked to see something positive - not that I'm saying you have no reason to be negative.
Trust me, I'm trying to find a way to twist Aaron Sorkin's line about the President being the "chief executive of fantasyland" to fit SGH, but I'm just not that articulate today.
Doesn't mean it doesn't fit.
Especially with the Chief twisting bereaved people's arms to get organs (let me guess - if it was anyone else's patient, he wouldn't have done that. But Bailey is his protege)
I wrote my feelings to the writers last night.
In notepad.
Before I watched ER.
(oh and btw, Mark Wilding did, at least, acknowledge that many of us HATED the Denny crap)
So in answer to What did everybody else think?
-----
Finally. It's over.
Oh *please* tell me it's over!
I mean, I'd love to know what's wrong with Izzie, but other than that.....
and btw, someone please give Chandra her Emmy.
still...
before anything else, while I have your ears, I need to beg you for one thing:
Please give your department heads their own offices.
[I've been posting at 1am lately, and thought to take advantage of first post status by actually askig for something]
I can still (in my head) see Derek and Addie doing consults in a conference room and it drives me nuts. Not Ghost of Denny nuts, but really
THEY ARE DEPARTMENT HEADS - at least Sloan and Derek are.
Would it really kill you all?
Just one little set. You can redress it to make it each person's office...
Pretty please?
Okay, it's 10:16 pm ET and I'm just going to write this. I'm avoiding ER in order to write this. (and I can't do that for long cause my House list has a big thread that says SPOILERS FOR ER!) If I stay up and read the blog then I'll be up till 4 - cause when I read a good blog, I don't come down for a while.
I wanted to tell you that I loved Derek asking Cristina to stop fighting and be there for Mer - both before she was going to need it, and when she did need it, albeit for a different reason.
I loved Meredith. Period.
You're doing a good job rehabbing Mark, but does need to go back to his $400 per hour shrink (or his colleague in Seattle) - for Lexie's sake. If he loves her, you really have to do with him, what you did with Alex. You have to make him really *try.* Even shrinkless. People don't change overnight. Alex's story and its progression - all he went thru to be worthy of a real relationship with Izzie, who was his friend and then his lover - that relatioship is the realest thing you have going in this show. Please remember this when you are working with Mark and Lexie. Also please remember that Lexie was "in love" with George and please really address that. Go to hell Dr O'Malley and whoops! now I'm in love with Mark! is not addressing that.
If you can do those two things, then you can complete the rehabbing of Mark.
So yes, I want to find out what is wrong with Izzie.
Why two weeks??? and are all the good Grey's things going to be squeezed between Private Practice things like when Susan died? (I do watch PP, but I edited that one ep so only Seattle remained)
And the Chief and Dr Bailey - are they going to have to deal with what they just did? Even emotionally? The two of them don't get a lot of storyline but this would be an excellent one. I'd truly prefer that their punishment came from within them, rather than from the hospital - and also I want to see Bailey apologize to Izzie, now that she knows what it's like. Crisis of conscience, anyone? Re-evaluting your whole career? I could deal with that.
George got to be seen for a few minutes, although he didn't do much.
New black intern seems to only be there to talk about sex.
I still dislike Sadie. Although slightly less for Lexie's sake.
Overall, aside from Denny - whom I kept telling to go to hell every time he mentioned hell, and other times throughout the episode (and did Alex find out, or does he now think Izzie is truly nuts - please, no! He's come too far) - I liked this episode. I don't mind the ethical problems as long as they are combined with the Grey's "family" that I know and love.
As noted - Derek knowing Mer and Cristina would both need each other to "freak out to" - that's my Grey's.
So let's diagnose Izzie (send her to House if you have to) and get back to the wonders that are Der/Mer, Alex/Izzie, Cristina and her new half-basketcase, and... fixing Mark so that he can be worthy of the "girl who [doesn't] sleep around."
btw, loved Derek's mom last week.
I don't watch the coming attractions. Or even clips people bring to talk shows. I did catch "event" and "in 2 weeks."
And please
Let's go back to this season's Focus On Teaching
cause if you guys aren't back down to #12 again after this Denny crap, I have no idea why. There was a time when I was slightly embarrassed to like Grey's. (but I'm a Donny Osmond fan - I'm used to being laughed at) But now I want to hide under the bed!
You started this season well - with the new focus on teaching (and rotation) - please go back to this. It gives the show the least little air of realism. And this show really needs it!
All that said, I'll repeat
Bailey and Meredith were awesome tonight, and Derek making sure someone was there for Mer, and Cristina and Dr Hunt were good too.
Whatever it is you do to Izzie now - I hope it's more interesting that the crap that led up to it.
And remember (said in drunk Mer asking for ice chips voice) -- Offices for the department heads.
thanks
and now I'm going to watch ER (sorry Addie)
Mark & Allison - I will read your blog in the morning. Unless there's news on Scott Bakula being on Chuck or something, like there was last week.
PS - the ER ep is
Love is a Battlefield, which is just as confusing as Grey's ep:
My Favorite Mistake.
Can we please allow Grey's to stick to the song titles and leave Scrubs to the ep titles beginning with the word "My"?
thanks
oh come on! did I actually *leave out* the part where I was *not* "pleasantly surprised" at the way the story turned out???
Did I delete it? I so very much wanted to toss McPherson's words back in his face.
Did I FORGET??
Aaaarrrggghhh!
9:30 Friday morning
This is my *reply* after having finally read the Writers' Blog
Good blog.
Good serial killer insights.
Thanks for acknowledging our dislike of the Denny crap (and how we might still dislike it)
I can say Shonda was right about the serial killer and Mer. And I'm happy that Derek could grey his black and white world enough to not leave her or condemn her over it. And that he could go to Cristina to get help for Mer. It's nicer than him trying to kick her roommates out so he can have "their life."
I still don't agree with Shonda that the Denny crap was a good idea (not unless what Izzie has is going to require an LVAD, at least). And I think I hope her illness is not mental (just potentially terminal - but save her please. Give Alex a break! She wasn't wrong about the writing last year. I don't think it was a "ploy" of *any* sort.)
If you could keep George too... would he stay if you gave him a storyline?
Lexie should have more interaction with Mer (and both with Thatch - there's more story there)
Sadie should go and the other interns should speak now and them, as their resients Actually Teach Them and perhaps deal with *their* screw ups as Bailey had to. (I mean unauthorized autopsies, not LVAD cutting level screw ups)
And I still want that office.
Thanks for not revealing The Ring to Mer yet. Former Derek would be selfish and insensitive enough to do it right during Death Row Guy Crisis.
Perhaps there is growth.
The only thing I want to know is - this is season 5 but year 2 - how are you going to wrap a 5 year residency before everyone's contracts run out?
But at least Denny is gone.
Right?
Good blog. mostly good ep.
---
back to here. I'd like to agree with Michael on the three part approach. It really helps to get the elements in just the right balance.
sorry for the repeated posting - but hey, it's better than one 3 page post!
someone on my Grey's list is looking for someone who can read lips, in order to find out what Mer said to Cristina at the end (if anything)
I think I finally put it together. Denny Duquette and John Winchester are THE SAME CHARACTER.
He died on Supernatural so that he could come get all Grim Reapery on Izzie.
Pamela Jaye:
You're as nuts as Izzy. Hogging up space that others could use. matudge
Clearly, Denny is a Cylon. Can we please refer to him as "Head Denny" from now on?
Hey, it makes as much sense as anything else.
Does anyone else think it was a sell out that there just happened to be another patient who had organs to give who could save the little boy? I know why they did it, blah, blah, blah, but it struck me as cowardly writing. I think the dilemma between Meredith\Bailey & Derek never fully reached its potential because we knew they (the writers) wouldn't let the boy die. If the stakes had been raised (and the boy actually died) it would have made it more real, and more pronounced. I mean, how easy is it to write that there just happens to be a guy, at the same hospital, who is brain dead, and just happens to be a match? What a cop-out. That boy dying would have destroyed Bailey, therefore giving Chandra Wilson her own storyline (which she deserves) instead of playing off of everybody else.
Also, I was laughing so hard and so long at Christina's response to Derek - "You proposed?" - that the emotional impact of her comforting Meredith was lost on me. That was the funniest joke I think I've ever heard on this show, but it was perfectly timed and ill timed at the same time, because it was too big a laugh for that moment.
MCB, don't bother banging your head into a wall - Derek will just save you so you can walk with a full head of hair to your execution, annyway.
Weird, I was coming here to reply to ED's comment, and when I saw that screen cap of Denny and Iz kissing, I was just...ugh. Amazing how the show could take the sexy out of Denny and Iz. He looks like he's attacking her. Bring the sexy back, Denny! But on a different show!!
Anyway, @ ED--I completely agree, and thought it myself during the show. I knew where they were going with Chief pressuring the woman for her husband's organs, but I thought--this would be SO much more interesting if it really was an either/or dilemma. The boy dies, or the killer. Someone's going to end up either heartbroken or have their medical oath take a hit, but there would've been something AT STAKE in this situation. i think they mitigated it a little with Mer going to the execution and just crumbling afterwards, but still...the tough questions remained unanswered. What if Bailey really did make the call to stop surgery? What then? I guess that would've been another Iz/Denny callback to her cutting the LVAD wire. But at least that led to an interesting debate (despite the unrealistic fact that Iz wasn't fired when she should've been). This was a little too pat.
I was surprised how much I enjoyed in this episode. I teared up when Bailey told the kid's mom that it was time to hold him and when the mom told the kid it was okay to go now. And I really enjoyed the complexity of the ending - Meredith not quite understanding why she had to go to the execution, but Derek understanding that in this moment, she needed her best friend. I can barely remember the argument between Christina and Meredith (though I remember thinking that it was excellently written) but I was glad to see them get back together.
However, I really hate it when they hit us over the head with the episode's theme, and the "heaven/hell" theme was way too blatantly worked into the script for my tastes, especially in the Denny/Izzy scene, which was full of "I thought I was in heaven, but I think this is my hell" crap. I did like that Izzy finally realized that Denny was there *for her*, not for himself - although it was really a little of both. I'm anxious to stop seeing ghosts and start finding out what's really wrong with Izzy.
Poor George. Was he on screen more than two minutes in this episode?
I also really like Christina/Hunt, and I think there's a lot of potential there, between two intelligent, wary, damaged people. I'm really interested in this pairing, which has chemistry... as opposed to Lexi and Sloan, which just goes cold for me. Maybe if we SAW a glimpse of the "talking for hours" version of them, I could get with it, but so far, I don't see it.
ED, I like your ending better! (although I think the man should have still been there and his wife should have said no)
"I agree that Hunt is never around, so much so that I didn't remember his name until Alan wrote "Hunt" in his last comment."
Ha. I also forgot his name was Hunt. I keep thinking Christina is dating Lucius Vorenus (who I adore and want to see more of).
I know this is meaningless, but when Scott Bakula arrived on Murphy Brown as a hunky visitor from a war zone (although he was a reporter, not a doctor) slightly worse for wear and for the purpose of sweeping someone off her feet, his name was Hunt, as well.
I did cry when the mom came back and told her son it was okay to go - but I always cry... it really doesn't take a lot with me.
On a slightly related note - last week's ep of Private Practice featured a whole family with CF. I found it odd that it was not mentioned that Addie had done two years research (fellowship?) in CF, as she told Mer when Mer was questioning her involvement with Bailey's *last* nearest and dearest patient.
I can't understand why people do what they do on this show. I can't understand why they couldn't use to serial killer's organs (props to Eric Stoltz for a wonderful performance). He's going to die anyway; using his organs could have saved a dozen lives. That's more than the five women he killed.
I don't understand why Meredith is still with Derek. It's wasn't about not being an executioner as he sanctimoniously said, he wanted the Dunn to survive so he could die a more horrible death. That would be a death breaker for me.
Doesn't matter anyway, I'm just watching for the Hunt and Hunt/Yang scenes which they fortunately haven't screwed up yet and the actors sell like nobody's busness. And great stuff to address the very real PTSD that is the heritage of war.
Someone said that there was only 2 mins 44 secs of Hunt this week. Not nearly enough amidst the silliness of the interns and Dead Denny.
Can someone please remind me what the fight between Meredith and Christina was about?
Can someone please remind me what the fight between Meredith and Christina was about?
I believe it was the result of fallout from the interns' surgery on each other; Cristina thought that Meredith should've stood up for her or taken the blame along with her when they were in front of the Chief, but Meredith didn't say anything and let Cristina take all the blame, so Cristina got pissed. I think. I'm ashamed that I know this, though, and that I'm even still watching this show.
I believe it was the result of fallout from the interns' surgery on each other; Cristina thought that Meredith should've stood up for her or taken the blame along with her when they were in front of the Chief, but Meredith didn't say anything and let Cristina take all the blame, so Cristina got pissed.
that was most of it. though, in the moment, Mer had no idea, so of course she said - right in front of the Chief "you knew?" This was right after the Chief was praising them for dealing with the intern uprising in a more mature manner, which was interrupted by Lexie barging in to apologize and somehow letting it slip that Cristina knew - unfortunately, no one but Lexie and Cristina knew how much she knew (when she "tried to shut it down") or that she only knew about suturing - not edidurals and actual surgery.
But somehow it never got sorted out, so when Cristina had to forfeit the solo surgery, and choose someone else, Mer said "just do what you have to do" - thinking Cristina would choose her - and when Cristina didn't, for reasons that were totally unrelated to their fight, Mer then ..accused may be a strong word... Cristina of letting her personal feelings get in the way of doing her job (choosing the right person) and that was when Cristina went ballistic - accusing a roomful of people that "it was your interns too!" - even though, actually, only one of the people she was screaming at was actually in the room (George came in after, Alex was in the scrub room freaking out, and Izzie was probably still in the on call room with Denny)
So Cristina accused Mer of "being the one who made it personal" and "not being able to separate her personal life from her work"
and actually the only reason I know half of this is that none of it made any sense to me the first time I saw the solo surgery selection episode, and I had to go back and try to figure it out.
I know - you're sorry you asked.
Actually, I'm blaming it all on Sadie (Lexie was *not* going to go thru and operate on Sadie, but Sadie grabbed the scalpel. Lesson? General Anaesthsia is your friend) - though there's something to be said about Cristina's continual lack of teaching which led to the interns (somehow not all *hers*) having to teach themselves in secret.
also, what ever happened to Sadie and her secret father? os that going to be a dropped plotline and is Sadie going to just vanish one episode like Hahn? (actually I hope so)
Regarding Kevin McKidd and Sandra Oh: they killed me last week with "Owen's best/worst surgery ever" scene. Left my speachless. How can they say so much with so little? Understated, raw emotions are the best.
I agree that McKidd's screen time is a joke though. I heard that they make him a regular? Why? To make him pop up for two minutes to treat McSteamy's broken penis? Good Lord.
Celia
Thanks, T-Boz and Pamela Jaye, I remember now.
Pamela Jaye, I am always amazed by your memory for details, BTW.
(And I did read that Melissa George quit the show...)
Pamela Jaye, I am always amazed by your memory for details, BTW.
thanks :-) But here is my dirty little secret: I fall asleep each night to episodes of Grey's playing on my DVR (ever since I discovered the "playlist" function, and ever since we got external speakers, which mean I can shut off the TV and just till I drift off.
Of course this means that I remember the first halves of any ep better than the second halves.
In this particular case though - I know it because the first time I watched it, I had no idea what was going on - which is a rarity with me and Grey's - so I had to go back ad rewatch it (and the one before it) and actually pay attention, to figure it out.
and of course, this is my favorite show (much as I love Scrubs, for example I could tell you what happened in most episode and only generally in the rest)
On the other hand, if you tell me the place I'm going is "right behind the KFC" I'm likely to say - there's a KFC there?
not to duck the compliment or anything, though. thanks :-)
re: the screen time of various characters - a friend of mine and I once scripted (for role laying online) a (what turned out to be) 12 episode Dark Shadows... epic saga.
Only later did someone run stats on it and discover it had "86 speaking parts" (typing your dialogue part actually). We had 8 to 15 people to fill these roles (Jeremiah was played by a different person very episode) and our cast was never guaranteed to "show up" any given week.
even with all of that, our ongoing battle was: I was focused on futhering the story and Kay was focused on giving everyone *something* to do.
I'm please to report that, 9 years later, we are still speaking to each other.
Grey's is hard, cause the main cast is just huge. I'm not sure how it compares to ER Of Olde, but I'd be interested. Even House can't find enough story for its cast of 9.
Alan, I'd agree that the serial-killer storyline had promise, but then -- as a couple of others have pointed out -- they utterly copped out of a moral dilemma they spent three episodes working on. What makes something like that compelling to me is that there is a hard choice involved. Either you have to take someone's life a few days early (and then where do you draw the line, etc. etc.) to save someone else, or you have to honor the letter of your obligation and the child dies, in a way that seems senseless.
For there to magically be another donor at the last second so that they didn't have to make the choice at all? I thought it was extremely unsatisfying, even though I agree that Stoltz was very good and the story was more affecting than most.
And I was happy to hear Bon Iver again, as I believe I did.
I must know - if you are executed by hanging, would your organs be viable for a transplant later? I assume not, since they never pursued this option (although maybe it would have been too late then)
Linda, I disagree about the hard choice not having been made - Bailey made it, in Shepherd's operating room. She told him to pick up the scalpel, and later she told the mom to hold her son while he died. So she did make the choice, and the kid was going to die.
The other donor's organs came into the picture after the choice was made.
Having said that, I didn't care for the pat ending, either.
if your organs were deprived of oxygen long enough to begin dying, then no, they wouldn't
also, you can't harvet organs without consent
and if you could take organs simply based on the fact that the donor was being executed - slippery slope. i think
third ep of Grey's covered donations from John Does - they needed to find family to consent. So Grey's was into transplants very early in the series (but so was Chicago Hope)
"So she did make the choice, and the kid was going to die."
Right. Exactly! But he didn't! Ta-da! Didn't matter. This is exactly my point; they set up an entire storyline around the idea that actions have consequences, and then in the end, that decision had no consequences at all.
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