The mood I’m in when I watch an episode might affect my opinion of a new Grey’s episode more than I’ve realized before. Or maybe this last one really was just mediocre. It wasn’t really bad, but it wasn’t really good either. And I was in a crappy mood when I watched it yesterday morning :-) But seriously, I’m getting a bit worried, that the storylines in this season won’t do much for me.
First of all: the merger. I enjoyed the paranoia last week, because the doctors’ behaviour was so exaggerated and ridiculous that it made me laugh. This week it was still exaggerated and ridiculous, but it wasn’t funny anymore. And it wasn’t meant to be. I don’t know what it was meant to be like, but it made some characters act so out of character and I don’t like that. Cristina and Callie for instance. They used to be hardcore. They used to go after the things they wanted and they usually got them. I know they’ve changed a bit during the years, but I don’t like to see them behave like they did. Cristina was annoying while she was so desperately seeking a surgery. And Callie never used to be so passive and reluctant to act.
Another thing that bothered me in this episode was, that the merger seemed to be all they talked about. I know that’s not true, there were also patients and drunk dads and all, but the whole merger issue was still lurking in every scene, at least it felt like that to me. And the whole plot still didn’t go anywhere. Nothing really changed yet. I hope this episode was just meant as transitional episode to the next one when the Mercy West folks will be introduced. But during this episode I realized what bugged me most about the merger story. The way the whole merger is handled at SGH is just so not like it would be in real life. I know it’s just TV and a lot of other things are not what they would be in real life either. Like Meredith coming back to work just a few weeks after she drowned and was dead for hours, while she now has to stay in the hospital bed for a month because she had abdominal surgery :-) But we all know the real reason for that and I kind of like the way the writers dealt with that.
Anyway, there is no way that the chief of surgery of hospital A would make all the decisions about the merging process with hospital B, like who will be cut and further more. Who is he to make these decisions? What about all the staff from Mercy West? Maybe their chief is much better qualified to run the new (joined) hospital? Probably any chief of surgery of any hospital would be better qualified than him. Oh, well that’s my Webber hate speaking :-). The way this is handled just feels wrong to me and it makes me dislike the whole storyline more and more.
The second major complaint I have about this episode is, that there was way too much screentime for the characters I like the least: Webber, Thatcher and Izzie. Not together in a storyline, but still :-) I think it was overdue to bring back some of the Grey’s family issues, but even here I thought the characters acted a bit out of character. While last week I thought Lexie’s exaggerated reactions were kind of cute, I found exactly these slightly annoying in this episode.I get that she was upset about her dad’s condition, but the way she dismissed Mark felt so wrong. I don’t know if Meredith just tried to act like she didn’t care of if she really didn’t care. The last would have been out of character, because I just can’t (or don’t want to *g*) believe that Meredith would really just wait for him to die, because she didn’t want to have to deal with him in the hospital. And supposedly not remembering her sister’s name? Sorry, out of character to me. I would have loved to see her talking to Derek when she had to make up her mind, but that’s basically because, there was not enough Derek in this episode :-) I actually liked that he knows her well enough to give her space to make up her mind and I’m sure she would have turned to him if she had needed to.
So, too much Thatcher and Webber – finally making their peace (Ugh, I just don’t care!) – and much too little of Derek. There was a lot of Mark, which I didn’t mind at all, because he was awesome and the medical aspects of his storyline was kind of funny. I realized that I just do not care about Izzie anymore. Not at all. So…. too much Izzie on my screen as well.
I really find it difficult to find something really great about this episode. Ok, there was Alex rinsing out his mouth with beer *g* And there were Meredith and Derek and Bailey outside and inside the OR. The first scene was really cute and the second one was awesome as well. Bailey rocks! How many years does she have to be an attending before she can finally take over the chief’s office?
It goes along with the show as I see it these days. A fine 43 minutes of tv, but not great and not horrible. The only thing that keeps it from being horrible, I think, is that I am invested in the characters. When I had a friend over who had never seen the show but knew I loved it, I was cringing and found myself justifying why I cared so much.
Also, can they just stop with the soliloquies? Normal human conversation doesn’t happen like that. Usually, it’s a dialogue, you know? Now, there’s a time and a place for a a monologue – like the “You don’t get to call me a whore” speech and “It was a Thursday morning”. They are more poignant when used sparingly. So too with the pained staring. The elevator scene where Mer/Der opted not to speak, it made it that stronger because they had just screamed at one another. This time? I wish we had seen Derek express that maybe he wouldn’t want to see his “wife” (still annoyed by that, and have said from the beginning they are going to use it to fuck with them) unconscious in the OR again. I’m elated that he is supporting her, but really, it’s a cop out for them never addressing any of the things they really would if the writers didn’t ignore their original cast in favor of the new bright and shiny characters.
oh also, for some reason I can;t see you on my IM list. If you want, you can add:
rebbylynn AT yahoo.com
ljauss on AIM
ljauss on gTalk
:)
Added you via yahoo and AIM, hopefully I will show up in your list now. I try to always have the IM open when I’m online, but sometimes I just forget it :-)
I have to agree that there is a lack of real conversations on the show, at least among the main characters. I like Lexie (and Mark) most of the time, so I don’t mind that they sometimes have more screentime than MerDer. But you are right, there is just so much screentime for all the cast and if they bring on new characters (like the whole batch of new interns) and new attendings (the whole Dr. Dixon storyline was so bad as well) it steals time for my favourite characters. And without enough screentime they can’t really tell any kind of background story or just a ordinary “how to deal with being ‘married’ ” storyline. What happened to the blueprint of candles and the plan to build a house and move there… Let them move forward as a couple, please. And even though I liked the post-it wedding (for the time being) I wouldn’t mind if they made it official anytime soon as well.