Latest ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Ep Felt a Lot Like ‘ER’

*Warning, spoilers from recent Grey’s Anatomy episode ahead.*


With Ellen Pompeo and Katherine Heigl sidelined for personal reasons (Pompeo just had a baby and Heigl just adopted one), Grey’s Anatomy writers have had to come up with ways to explain their absences. For Meredith Grey, it’s that she felt guilted into donating some of her liver to help save her alcoholic father, and she needs time to recuperate. For Izzie Stevens, she was fired for making a bone-headed decision at work at the same time when the Chief needed reasons to fire people as his hospital merged with another Seattle Hospital. Now she’s taken off. And is . . . somewhere.

Ever since then, Grey’s Anatomy – which I’ve liked because it’s largely been a character-driven, not necessarily action/plot-driven show – has turned into ER. Especially the latest episode. While cleverly written so that you, the viewer, felt as confused as the Seattle Grace administrators about what led to the death of a mother of a young boy who’d been in a hotel fire, there was precious little in the way of character or relationship building on a smaller, individual scale, with the exception of Lexie reacting to a teen burn victim and Arizona telling her to toughen up. The episode was almost all based on chaos in the Emergency Room – as Derek told the Chief at the end – and the hostile relationship between the two groups of competing hospital staffs. Between the groups, not the people. As individuals.
 
Back in Grey’s first season, the focus was on a group of interns, but it took the time to take each character and really examine him or her. We saw what their lives were like, personally and at work and how those affected one another. We learned their backstories and why they interacted the way they did. They felt like fully fleshed out characters, not cardboard characters about whom I don't care what happens. (I simply didn't care about the Mercy Wester getting fired last night.) The medical cases on Grey's were used as dramatic tools by and through which you could get to know the characters better. (Yes, the ferry boat accident a few years ago was over the top, but it led to the heart-breaking exploration of whether Meredith Grey was suicidal and depressed.)


Last night’s theme of “chaos” was well executed and snappy, I'll give it that. The actors were convincing. But that “I Saw What I Saw” episode, along with the one that preceded it called “Invasion,” felt much more like ER, than Grey’s. And I wanted to watch Grey’s.

Image credit: ABC.

How Many Days of Mourning on the Too-Long 'Grey's' Premiere?

*Warning: Spoilers ahead from the season premiere of Grey's Anatomy*

Yes, I sniffled while watching Callie's reaction to her ex-husband's death. I also teared up when each of George's friends -- in his or her own time and in his or her unique way -- came to terms with his passing. I'm not one who shies away from five-hankie TV shows (or else I would've stopped watching not only Grey's, but other shows like Private Practice a long time ago), but the two-hour Grey's season premiere, primarily focused on two hours of mourning, was too long and seemed to drag.

I understand that the writers were attempting to dramatize how long it takes for some people to give themselves permission to feel something as awful as the loss of a friend. In Cristina's case, it took 40+ days and she only let herself react after she and Owen slept together. For Meredith it also took several weeks and her emotional reaction was triggered by the cleaning out of George's locker. And I understand the writers were likewise trying to illustrate how Izzie's near-death in Alex's arms on the same day that George died, had a lasting impact on Alex, chiefly that he was trying to protect himself from losing the woman he loves by pushing Izzie, now an out-patient (and living in Derek's TRAILER?!) away.

Ditto for Lexie and Mark, as Lexie, initially rebuffed Mark's invitation to live with him, to shield herself from being hurt. Only the repeated appearances of Callie, Mark's neighbor, in various states of undress and walking in on Mark while he was showering, prompted Lexie to get with the program and bring some of her belongings to his apartment.

All of this, I thought, could've been handled more succinctly.

The woman who George heroically saved was sitting on the bench outside the hospital, every day, day after day. Did we really need all those scenes? I say, "No," unless she was going to somehow be folded into the show as a regular character. I was more interested in the grieving the regular characters were experiencing.

Beyond George's death, there was the business about the Chief being ousted in a potential coup by the hospital's Board of Directors. This was interesting and has potential, but the tension between Derek and the Chief didn't warrant several curt scenes that did nothing to move the story forward: Derek was offered the Chief's job, said he needed time to think about it as a strategy to get the Chief more time to strategize about how to stave off his firing. The twist at the end of the episode, where it was announced that Seattle Grace would be merging with Mercy West -- the place where Callie, filled with grief and rage, abruptly secured a new job in short order -- has long-term dramatic potential, especially in this economic climate where not only are people losing their jobs, but health care costs and the impact of cuts on patients is being debated in Washington. Could provide excellent topical commentary, should the writers choose to go there.

What did YOU think of the Grey's Anatomy season premiere?