Captain TV: TV News, Coverage and Attitude

Grey's Anatomy: Thanks for the Grief...

2009-09-25T09:26:00.006-04:00

TV is back and that means I actually have something to blog about here on Captain TV. Granted, there was a ton of reality dreck to slough through during the summer but unlike some recap sites, I don't like to recap something just for the sake of it. I have to actually, you know, not mind watching it.

Which is why, dear readers, I think I have to admit defeat. It's time to give up on Grey's Anatomy. After all my posts last season in which hope for improvement slowly dwindled away, I figured I'd give it one more shot. What better way than with a two-hour season premiere?

Um, yeah. So, I'm probably in the minority when I say this because die-hard Grey's fans are...die hard. I should know, I should be one. I was there to defend the show when it jumped the shark and had Meredith die in that dreadful ferryboat crash story arc.

I'm not defending the show any more. It's awful. It doesn't make any sense. The characters have become unlikeable, annoying, selfish...caricatures.

Meredith and Derek are married because they said so on a Post-It. I know Shonda Rhimes thinks this is perfect for them but they might have a spot of trouble proving that legally. I know it's not supposed to be a 'legal' marriage but more of a 'forever-bond' between them but...what happens if they fight, they tear up the damn Post-It? Does this mean all it takes to "remarry" them is a new pack of Post-Its? For a couple who is so unconventional, they don't have to get married to be...married, why bother then? Isn't it enough to be Mer and Der and live happily ever after after Meredith got 'cured' with her therapy?

But they can't. Because George is dead. I suppose for such a major character, it was fitting that the show focused on the after-effects of his death. I just don't think they did it very well.

For example, I love Izzie's 'miraculous' recovery. When I say "love", you should hear the sarcasm dripping. She had a minute chance of survival last season and yet despite the fact that she literally dies, she's well enough to go to the funeral of George and walk on her own, looking more robust and healthy than anyone else? Sure, they gave her a headscarf but, not to whoever's in charge of that stuff, we could see her hair peeking out the back!. Now her cancer is in remission even though she couldn't go for a week last season without a brain-tumour growing.

I hate that Izzie's alive. I've made no secret that I despise the character but last night, she did nothing to redeem herself. I was actually proud of Alex for telling her that her demand that he comfort her for losing George was not exactly a turn-on.

I think the part that cemented my dislike for the show is the funeral. I'm guessing that the hysterical laughter was a throwback to The Bomb Episode in which Izzie says she has inappropriate reactions to stress. Yet, seeing them all laughing reminded me of the final episode of Seinfeld in which you realized the characters are miserable, mean people who live to mock others. In this case, I don't care how grieving you are, going off by yourselves to hysterically laugh is ridiculous. It's rude. It's cruel. It's inconsiderate. Those other people at the funeral cared about George. What about his mother? Is she really going to understand that George's best friends had gathered to laugh? Yeah, didn't think so.

I felt sorry for that girl that George saved who spent the whole episode crying outside the hospital. I felt sorry that she had to endure Izzie's "pep talk". I think we were supposed to applaud Izzie but, sorry, I wanted to slap her. Have some SENSITIVITY! People handle grief in different ways. Sure, this girl was wasting her life grieving for a man she didn't know and was annoying but who the hell was Izzie to give her a dose of reality while Meredith beamed with pride? I know, I'm letting my Izzie-hate taint my opinion but, wow, was that harsh. I suppose that's Izzie's way: Direct and insensitive to other people's feelings.

The rest of the characters irked me. You know when I find Lexie the most interesting character, something's wrong. Callie bothered me. Bailey bothered me. Bailey has become WAY too soft for my liking. I know she's having a crappy time with her former intern's illnesses and deaths. I know her husband left and she's a single mother but...Bailey breaks down too much. She does get too emotionally involved. She said it herself. I miss "The Nazi", the Bailey who would push the elevator button to hold the elevator to let another doctor have a meltdown away from prying eyes. I hate that she's now the one having the button pushed for her.

Overall....I was bored. There were no surprises. Owen and Christina made strides in therapy so they're becoming yet another happy-but-tormented couple. Lexie and Mark are a couple. Derek and Meredith are married on a Post-It. Alex and Izzie are married but seemingly regretful. Arizona and Callie are living together, it seems, and both are emotional wrecks. Isn't there ANYONE on this show with a backbone anymore? I like Arizona but I didn't like how she used Callie to get what she wanted. I don't like that she's becoming as screwed up as everyone else on this show.

I've flip-flopped. What I used to love about Grey's, I now hate. I'm fed up of all these people and their soap-opera drama. Where's the reality? Is it a girl who they call 'cerviche' because she was crippled from a boating accident? That storyline got way old with Lexie-as-cheerleader and the parallel's to all the other characters on the show. I guess she was grief in a human body, angry, denying, bargaining, depressed and, finally, accepting. Yes, writers, WE GOT IT. Thanks. Now if you could do it in a way that didn't involve a nasty, flacid pair of amputated arms wrapped in a towel, that'd be dandy.

I'm going through grief myself when it comes to Grey's Anatomy. I was in denial for a while that the show had begun to suck. Then I was angry because they kept bringing Dead Denny back, even though the fans hated it. Then I bargained..."Give me one storyline that makes me care and I'll keep watching!". I sort of got depressed because I was disappointed but, ok, that stage is a little dramatic for a TV show..now I'm accepting that the show is just...bad.

I think I'm going to have to give it up. I started DVR'ing Fringe so I can catch up. The Office is already on at the same time and I also watch Skins, BBC America's gritty, dark and fascinating teen drama. They're all on at the same time as Grey's and...they're all better.

So, maybe it's time to let it go. It's going to be a hard break-up but maybe it's time. I just don't care anymore.

And that's not a good thing.

"V": A review of the Pilot Episode

2009-07-30T21:42:00.006-04:00

A week ago, I was at Comic-Con in San Diego, CA. For a TV geek like me, this is pure paradise; it's a chance to wear your TV pride on your sleeve and indulge yourself in panels, memorabilia and screenings. I can't lie: I love TV. I love that the shows suck you in, make you care about characters and take you along for the ride.

At the moment, I'm a True Blood junkie. I recently subscribed to Direct-TV. Now I can actually blog about cable shows instead of just network TV. This is probably a good thing because one more blog post about Grey's Anatomy and I was about to shoot myself in the head. I also get a free three-month subscription to HBO. It couldn't come at a better time. I get to watch True Blood and at least part of Dexter.

I got to endulge my love for True Blood at Comic-Con, which you can read about in my regular blog. They had a panel made up of most of the major characters which was fantastic.

Yet, aside from my current and past favourite shows such as Dollhouse, Comic-Con is also a great place for getting to screen new shows. Most of the time, the shows fall into the Comic-Con demographic: They're usually sci-fi, shows with some kind of fantasy element like Buffy, Lost, Heroes, etc. or horror, like Dexter, for example.

This year there were a few screenings. I missed out on the Flashforward panel and screening, choosing, instead, to use the time to explore the Exhibition Hall and wait in line for the 24 panel. However, I did get to see the screening of the pilot episode of the V remake.

For those of you too young to remember, V was first a mini-series then a TV show in the early part of the 1980's. It was quite a sensation when it aired: A sci-fi show with a human element complete with a slight touch of shivery horror. Hey, I was only seven when it first aired and, let me tell you, people ripping their skin off to reveal lizard flesh combined with lizard-babies was pretty scary.

Now, they've remade the series for ABC television. It's going to air beginning in November. And, as an opinated TV blogger, I think it only my duty to give you my review of the pilot episode.

Overall, it was very entertaining. I like that ABC has chosen to go with a strong female lead, an FBI agent played by Lost's Elizabeth Mitchell. The show also features Scott Wolf as a slimy reporter clamouring to move up in the world along with Morena Baccarin (Firefly) as the leader of the "friendly" Visitors (hence the "V" of the title, standing for Visitors) and Morris Chestnut as a man just trying to keep his head down after living a somewhat dark past.

I won't post any spoilers because I don't like doing that. I could go back and recap the original series and compare it to this one but, to be honest, I don't remember specifics because I was so young. I do remember Robert Englund as friendly alien Willie and he was always my favourite part but as to plot, effects and overall review, I can't tell you much about the original show. Although if you IMDB it and look at the pictures, there was some BAD '80's hair going on there.

However, the updated version has no bad hair. In fact, it's a nice, shiny remake. The first episode focuses on the arrival of The Visitors and their claim that they are friendly aliens who are here to exchange their advanced technological knowledge for minerals we have on earth that they desperately need. Elizabeth Mitchell plays Erica Evans, an FBI agent who is investigating a case that eventually takes her deeper than she planned and reveals that the aliens are not quite as benign as they seem.

As I said, the show was quite entertaining. What worries me, however, are the cliche elements on which the show focuses. For example, Mitchell's character has a seventeen year old son who, as I said in my other blog, has the same eyebrow-acting ability as Zac Efron. To be honest, I'm already sick of the new wave of 'hearthrobs.' I know, I know, it shouldn't bother me because I'm too old to read Teenbeat and Bop but am I alone in thinking the new wave of male teenage hearthrobs really need to lay down their straightening-irons, stop wearing mascara and watch more Clint Eastwood films?

Anyway, I digress. Mitchell is a divorcee. She's bitter and her husband seems to be a good-for-nothing. She works for the FBI, cares about her son and works hard to support him. However, instead of appreciating the hours she works to support him, her son rebels against her, blaming her for the divorce and being angry at her for being a workaholic. Once, just ONCE, I'd love to see a teenage boy on TV admire his mother and support her as she works hard to support both of them. Unfortunately, V does not provide this. Instead, it provides an overplayed plotline in which Mitchell's character realizes the aliens are bad whereas her son has become enamoured with them. While we didn't get to see the ramifications of this opposing view of the Visitors in the pilot episode, I can only guess that somewhere down the line, the storyline will be concluded with the son having a near-brush-with-alien-death and his mother running to his aid and saving him. This will be concluded with a lot of hugging and a vow from the son to help his mother take down the evil Visitors.

I could be wrong. I'm not sure I will be though. I watch an awful lot of TV.

There are a couple of pleasant surprises with the pilot. Alan Tudyk, a favourite actor among the Comic-Con fans for his work on Firefly, Serenity and Dollhouse, pops up and adds a welcome burst of comfort to the episode. The set-up for the show is good; there are moments of surprise and darkness, especially surrounding the character played by Morris Chestnut. While some of his storyline is a little overdone with a doting fiancee who doesn't know about his secret past, he adds a layer of depth to the show. Also starring is Joel Gretsch who plays a priest who is not taken in by the seemingly benign arrival of the Visitors. His role is interesting in that his suspicions are, at first, unfounded but as the pilot episode progressed, he began to understand more and take action rather than relying on his faith to help him.

As a show, I think V has tremendous potential. Even though they weren't 100% complete, the special effects are 10 times better than they were in the original. The pilot episode was...interesting. I'll probably watch it, just to see what happens. But the hardest part about a remake is trying to make it original and one thing I did notice is that the remake gave a lot away in its pilot episode. Whereas the original show was a slow-burn in revealing the true appearance of the Visitors and didn't allow viewers to know who was a Visitor and who was human, the remake doesn't try to do anything slowly. In the pilot, we start with the arrival and end by knowing the Visitors are bad. We know who is/was a Visitor and how long they've actually been around.

I'm hoping the remake's technique of giving away so much is deliberate. I'm hoping that means that the following episodes will give us new information, will surprise us on a whole new level. While there are new viewers out there who are not familiar with the original show, I have a sneaking suspicion that the majority of the viewers in November will be older folk who saw the original and want to know why they're redoing it. As one of those viewers, I'll withhold judgement until I've seen a few episodes. In the meantime, I'd suggest you check it out. It's worth a watch; if nothing else, it's entertaining. And, also, Elizabeth Mitchell is pretty great in it...now, if only her son would be revealed to be a Visitor. That might make up for his Zac-Efron-ness. Still, we'll see. Watch it and then let me know what you think. I'll be curious to know.

George out, Izzie in...I only wish it was the other way around...

2009-06-18T22:17:00.005-04:00

So, Grey's Anatomy's been off the air for a while now for the summer hiatus. It isn't that I haven't been watching TV. It isn't that the only show I appreciate is Grey's. I mean, honestly, I think appreciate is a strong word for that show at the moment. Thanks to the syrupy, contrived season finale, I've got a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.

Fortunately, this time of year means I'm delving into my Netflix membership and watching TV on DVD. I'm catching up on shows I should have watched all along except for the fact that I still rely on my rabbit ears and haven't yet given in to the power of cable. That's going to change, I have to confess. I am sick of adjusting my antenna to try to see a show. I want more selection. I'm submitting the power of cable TV. It's time. I feel it in my bones. Also, I hate using aluminum foil to try to get a better picture. As a TV blogger, I think I owe it to my blog. Even if that's not true, it's nice to have an excuse.

My Netflix so far has given me an addiction to True Blood on HBO. I'm reading the Sookie Stackhouse books at the moment. You can read my opinions on those on my regular blog. Needless to say, I love the show. It's enticing, intriguing, sexy and fun. For me, that qualifies it as something worth watching.

I'm going to watch BBC America's Skin's next. My brother recommended it. I'll let you know what I think.

But, for now, because I'm a Monkeypants of Habit, I have to talk about Grey's. You see, this seems to be the week for answers of the show. Yesterday, it was confirmed that T.R. Knight, our friendly George O'Malley had officially been released from his contract. This means that yes, when the finale episode ended with George greeting Izzie in the elevator of DOOOOOM, it meant he was dead.

I'm sad about that but I get it. Poor T.R. had been relegated to the role of extra, popping his head in to summon Meredith, Izzie, Christina, Alex or Lexie somewhere or other. He'd become an afterthought on the show, someone who we were supposed to forget existed. For me, however, I never forgot. I'm rather fond of rewatching old Grey's episodes; they're a comfort blanket for me. After a rough day, I like nothing better to come home, order pizza, drink wine and watch a Season 1-3 episode of Grey's. They make me feel safe. George O'Malley makes me feel safe, even when he made the horrible mistake of sleeping with Meredith. I watched as he rebounded to Callie, convincing himself she was his perfect match, marrying her and then realizing it was a mistake. I ignored the fact that he rebounded from Callie with Izzie; that never happened because it sucked and was a mistake for the writers and creators of Grey's. I cried when his dad died because it was tragic; the use of Gary Jules' song, "Falling Awake," will forever trigger the memory of the scene where George has to grow up and be a man so he can let his father go.

I suppose this is my eulogy for George O'Malley. I cared about him a lot. He was a strong character, one of the truly 'nice guys' we women are supposed to ignore in favour of 'bad boys' like Alex. Ok, so I'd admit if it was a George vs. Alex contest for sex, I'd pick Alex. But if it was about longetivy and humanity, George is/was my man.

Izzie never realized how lucky she was.

So...let's talk about Izzie. I just found out from a friend that Katherine Heigl has just accepted a renewal for her Grey's contract. All I have to say is, in the immortal words of Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Bugger this!"

I'm frustrated. I know there are Izzie fans out there. People like her. I don't get why but I'm willing to concede that I'm a bit judgmental and often tend to form an opinion and can't be swayed. I'm willing to be swayed with Izzie.

The thing is...I've had, what, five seasons now of Grey's and I still despise her. I think she's a hypocrite. I think she's cruel. I think she's boring. I think she's crazy. I could go on but I won't.

I know that I let my opinion of Katherine Heigl taint my view of Izzie Stevens. It's hard not to; any actress who pulls herself out of the Emmy race because she thinks the writers weren't good to her doesn't win points in my book. I also don't feel that being in a successful movie like "Knocked Up," and then stating publicly that it was a movie that should be offensive to women is a smart career choice. It reeks of conceit. I've said it before and I've said it again: Katherine Heigl hasn't exactly proved herself to be Meryl Streep. Sure, "27 Dresses" was...cute... but I, personally, think Anne Hathaway, Amy Adams, Rachel McAdams or any of the new Hollywood darlings could have replaced her in that movie and it wouldn't have made a difference. It's a generic role. She was generic in it. Sure, it made money but that's because we women like a nice romantic movie and James Marsden is nice to look at.

Which brings us back to Grey's. I've lost my faith in that show. I no longer look at it as my Thursday night reward. I look at it as my Thursday Night charity. I want it to be good but I know, deep down, it's lost its strength. Dead Denny is the show's Kryptonite. Every episode in which he appears just drives the stake deeper into the heart of a dying show.

Because you know that since Izzie is now miraculously going to live, Dead Denny is also going to linger in the shadows as a horrible threat. Let's face facts: Izzie had cancer and it was bad. I figured she might make a recovery but I'm also a realist. People with a 5% survival rate don't usually survive. Of course, it is Izzie Stevens we're talking about.

I confess that I expected the miracle recovery. In the early days of Grey's, in the days of Pink Mist and train-crash-victims-who-wrenched-our-hearts, the show would have killed Izzie because that would be the right thing to do, the sadly realistic approach to life. It would have made us sob with the sadness by picking the right music, by having GEORGE O'MALLEY live and be the one to represent us as an audience as the sheet was pulled over Izzie's face, by having Christina be slightly robotic in her way of dealing with death, with Meredith being strong with her resolve to deal with the reality of life.

Yet we're talking about the Softer Side of Grey's these days. I've mentioned that I do love that Meredith has grown, that her dark twistiness has given way to a softer more adult approach to crises. Yet there was comfort in knowing our characters. Yes, Christina loves Dr. Mc. PTSD, Dr. Hunt. He's messed up. Rather than have Christina deal that with her multi-layed Christina approach, it's become a 'hug it out, love conquers all' approach to a scary subject. The Softer Side of Grey's is starting to drive me nuts.

I suppose my complaint can be boiled down to this: Grey's Anatomy has become a Lifetime movie for women. The man dies (George), the true love reappears (Denny) long enough to bless the heroine (Izzie)'s relationship with her new love (Alex), conquers terrible obstacles (cancer) and rises stronger and ready to begin again.

I was very much hoping that Katherine Heigl wouldn't be asked back to the show. I wanted to hold that candle of hope of the unpredictable. We all knew that ABC, Shonda Rhimes and the audience was so used to Izzie that it'd be painful to lose her but I, at least, hoped they'd take an atypical approach and just...you know...kill her.

I'm not heartless. If they would go back in time and save Kyle Chandler's 'bomb squad guy/pink mist' guy from blowing up at the end of the "It's the End of the World as We Know It/And I feel Fine" episodes from season two, I wouldn't be devastated. I liked him. Pink Mist could have given Dr. McDreamy a much better run for his money than Dr. McVet, Chris O'Donnells' charming but hopeless challenge to Dr. McDreamy's love for Meredith.

I can't change time any more than I can change ABC's decision to renew Katherine Heigl's contract renewal. All I can assume is that when they get fed up with her/when she gets fed up with the show that her cancer will rear its familiar head. Hopefully this time, at least, it won't mean Dead Denny. It just means that, sooner or later, Izzie will die and they'll try to make us sad about it. Trouble is...I just want her to get hit by a bus. But...wait....ooops, they did that with George. Bummer.

Oh, Grey's....oh but I had faith in you as I used to. But it's like Peter and the Wolf, once with Dead Denny was interesting, twice was silly, three times was ridiculous. Beyond that...I stopped caring.

Now that George is 'dead', I have a secret fear. Maybe it'll mean Dead George and/or Dead Denny. The two of then combined might be entertaining. They could have a vaudeville act or something. They could take turns coming out of the elevator and rapping, dancing or even miming. Now mime on Grey's? You have to admit that would be unpreditable.

Don't sneer your nose up at me. Can you honestly say after the last season of Grey's it's really not possible?

Yeah...I thought so.

Oh, Grey's.

Oh, Grey's...Really?

2009-05-14T23:03:00.009-04:00

So...I have a confession about Grey's Anatomy. It frequently makes me cry.

It's made me cry during deaths of random patients, moments of relationship strength and weakness. It's made me cry when I see how loyal those friends are to one another. It's made me cry when a character's parent dies. It's made me cry when a random bomb-squad member becomes 'pink mist'. It's made me cry when the interns lay beneath the glowing lights of a Christmas tree and looked up at them.

I have another confession. Tonight...I didn't cry.

I KNOW! I was supposed to cry. I was supposed to weep when we realized that John Doe who'd darted in front of a bus and was an anonymous hero was revealed to be....George O'Malley. I was supposed to cry when he died at the end. I know this. I WANTED to cry but, in the spirit of honesty, I was so annoyed that his death was so contrived, I just wanted to turn off the TV. Seriously. SERIOUSLY!

This is it? This is the end for George? George O'Malley? The same "Heart in the Elevator" guy? The same George who was everyone's pillar of strength? The same George who we loved because despite his great bedside manner, was still always learning? The very same George who managed to get Bailey to deliver her baby in the midst of crisis and trauma?

I'm annoyed. Not sad. Poor George. We didn't even get to mourn him until the last few seconds. We were supposed to be SO shocked that it was him that...that's it? He gets hit by a bus...AND DIES? REALLY SHONDA? REALLY?

Nope. Not going to cry for him. I can't. It's not right. We deserve more. HE deserves more. I think I'm supposed to be reeling now. I'm not. I'm furious. It was a cheap, cheap trick. Maybe others would have figured it out...I didn't. When I did figure it out...there was no overwhelming cloud of dread there was just...incredulation. Really? This was it? This was the way you're going to let T. R. Knight leave the show? You're not even going to let him have the heroic- if predictable- dignity of leaving to join the army? I hate to ask what T.R. did behind the scenes but, clearly, it wasn't anything forgiveable.

And then there was Izzie Stevens. I have to confess...I was furious when she came out of the surgery and seemed to be ok and then I became very content when she showed signs of brain damage. Given her odds, given all of the dramatic build-up, if she'd have come out of the surgery with no ill-effects, I would have thrown my remote at the TV and contemplated walking away.

Did she die? We don't know. That's the point, I suppose. We're supposed to wonder until next season. I think she died. Whether she stays dead...we're supposed to tune in in September to find out. At this point in time, I'm not truly sure I will.

To be fair, I've mentioned I'm a Lost fan. I watched that show's finale last night. It gave me a headache because it made me think but it also left me gasping and wanting to find Carlton and Damon, the creators, grab them by their throats (in a very pleasant way, of course) and say "WHAT HAPPENS NEXT????".

Tonight, on Grey's Anatomy, I didn't feel that way. I felt cheated. Mostly, until the last five minutes, I was bored. I was actually texting a friend who was also watching and she, too, conveyed her boredom. Then we found out it was George O'Malley who was John Doe. It got interesting. Then my brain caught up with the show and I realized what a contrived, cheap plot device that was and I was irritated. They did that on ER. YEARS AGO. Remember Dr. Gant? You probably don't. He was a patient that came in as a John Doe. No one knew who he was until they tried to call his pager. Then they realized. Now that? Was dramatic tension. This? Was a cheap plot device.

I've not been the strongest advocate of Grey's this season. I started out with a heart full of hope that it would pick up from the irritating George/Izzie pairing and move back to the good medical drama I'd loved once. It had some good moments. Mostly, it just made me feel like I was doing ABC a favour by watching each week. If you've read my previous blogs, you'll know I'm not an advocate for Dead Denny. He was on tonight. When I saw him, I actually stifled a scream of "NO! I THOUGHT HE WAS GONE!" I stifled my cry because I live in an apartment building and I didn't want my neighbours to think I was nuts. Just because I can hear them spanking one another through the floor doesn't mean I want them to hear me overracting to TV. Also, the spankee is the CEO of my company and even if it's ok for me to hear her having her sado-masochism adventures through the ceiling, it's not ok that she hears me shout at the TV. Yes, I know there's something wrong with that but...there you have it.

I was angry that Dead Denny was back...again. Yes, we KNOW Izzie had a tumour but...can't we just politely imagine her talking to Denny? Do we have to see him dressed in his beach linen whites, giving her the stupid moon face that says he loves her, even though she married Alex?

Obviously...I didn't enjoy the Grey's finale. Shonda Rhimes? Seriously- don't write another episode without rewatching season 1-3.5. You started out brilliantly. You progressed brilliantly. But, like so many before you, like so many Stephanie Meyer's, you're moving forward in a way that suggests you're writing for you and that you don't care that you've got an audience who feels invested in what happens.

Tonight, I felt robbed. I was actually CHEERING that Izzie died. Yes, I know...I've never been a big fan of hers to the point where I've been slightly cruel but even so...I wanted to be sad that she was (possibly) dead but...I wasn't. I was merely glad that the writers didn't give in completely to self-indulgence and let her have the miracle-recovery that they'd threatened in the last moments of the show. I just hope, on this, they follow through.

I know. This makes me seem heartless and cruel but...I have high expectations. If you engage me, I expect you to keep me engaged. Grey's Anatomy once more evoked Dead Denny. They didn't give George a dignified death but went for the cheap shock and awe value. All rules and expectations are off, as far as I'm concerned. Until this season, Grey's Anatomy was my Thursday night best friend, the reliable comfort for which I could pour myself a glass of wine and curl up in my pajamas. Now, as I feared, it's become that friend that I almost wish I'd never invited, the friend that comes in second to the notion of a warm bath, good book and glass of wine.

I have a few months to process this cheap finale. I may give it another shot but, honestly, I'm not sure at the moment. I miss my Thursday night friend in Grey's...it's become an obligation, not a treat. That's never a good sign. I'm not sure if I'm ready for a break-up but at least I have time to think about it. They killed George. I knew they would but...really...Grey's? Like that? You're really going for the "Titanic" ending where Izzie goes to join George? What, no little chorus of former patients who'd died under their care to greet them both at their death?

Of course we don't know they're dead. That's one of the reasons I'm so irked. They're going for the cliffhanger. But when George is that mangled, you KNOW he's dead because he'll never be our George again. Izzie on the other hand...well, she's still not above a miracle. Which means, yay, next season we'll have more Steven's Anatomy and when things get dull, they can bring back Denny which means the ugly, vicious pattern will be repeated.

Question is, do I want to be there to see that?

A Theory on the Grey's Anatomy Finale...

2009-05-07T22:15:00.004-04:00

So...I've had this theory for the past couple of weeks about Grey's Anatomy. Call it a product of WAY too much thinking time combined with a sadly accurate knowledge of TV showrunners/writer's logic but...I think I could possible be right.

Before I get to my theory, I have to ask did you notice I DIDN'T blog about Grey's last week? It's not that I didn't think about it but I'm really trying to make this TV blog a little wider in scope. Sadly, my post about Dollhouse is proving to be futile. Stupid FOX looks like they're giving in on this fantastic effort by Joss Whedon. Of course, they gave him the Friday at 9 p.m. time slot so, honestly, didn't they give up on him before they even aired the show. FOX? I hate you. Just so you know. Unless you save Dollhouse. Then I'll like you again. In the meantime, can you honestly admit that 'Til Death is a worthier show to be renewed than Dollhouse? If you answer yes, that pretty much underscores my theory that you have to be mentally deranged be in charge of the programming lineup for FOX. And, while we're on the subject, about House....it's getting stupid. I love Hugh Laurie but, seriously, House is becoming hateable. He can't even do his job anymore. That's the only reason we stuck around. His ten-minutes-til-the-end-of-the-show ephiphanies were predictable but at least he proved he was worthwhile. Now all he does is hallucinate, debate popping pills and let Foreman take control. FYI? That...is bad.

Anyway, back to Grey's. My theory is that Shonda Rhimes and co. have known Izzie was actually going to die for a while. However, they've been watching Lost and have realized that the fact that Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindloff, the brilliant writers/creators of Lost can get viewers in by simply NOT TELLING THEM ANYTHING AHEAD OF TIME...means something. Not that I'm saying Greys and Lost are anything alike except they're on ABC. However, I think Shonda and the network decided that they didn't want people to know they'd agreed to let Katherine Heigl leave the show; they wanted to bring in viewers due to the simple fact that there was some question about it. However, my theory? They decided to let her go weeks ago.

I'm not pulling this theory out of thin air. Katherine Heigl was in the news a few weeks ago suddenly talking about how much she LOVED being on Grey's and how great her role had become. This is a far cry from the blunt comments she'd made just a few months earlier about the lack of good writing for Izzie, comments that also implied that were she to be nominated for an Emmy, she'd have to decline because she didn't feel that she deserved it. Now, not so long after that, she suddenly does a 180 and changes her mind? Doubtful. My thought? ABC had decided to let her go by killing Izzie but wanted a 'shock' ala Denny's death at the end of season two. If they led everyone to think Izzie would survive her cancer and thus Katherine Heigl was willing to be back, the finale would draw more viewers who wanted to see what happened.

I've mentioned that I was afraid they'd have a miracle and Izzie would live. I've changed my mind on that. Tonight's episode only supported my new theory and, I have to say, 'well done, Grey's', you're finally making sense.

I'm ignoring Denny's presence tonight. He was a ridiculous, unnecessary waste of screen time, as he was for the earlier part of the season. Yes, he did lead Izzie to her suspicion that she had another tumour resulting in Derek's realization that he couldn't operate leading to his unselfish act of giving her his wedding because he couldn't help her otherwise. Yet...Bailey and Derek are Izzie's doctors. I can't help but think that they would have found it eventually. Did we really NEED Denny? We all hate him by now. He's appeared on our Grey's screens one too many times already. Tonight was just gratification. It was the 100th episode so...why not have Dead Denny return?

I tell you why not. BECAUSE HE FINALLY LEFT AND WE WERE GLAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He came back tonight. Fortunately, he didn't say "I'm here for you." If he did, my brain tuned it out because like the presence of the that awful horrible Pedia-egg they promote on TV that grates the skin off your feet LIKE CHEESE (and they air it on the FOOD NETWORK which is...disgusting. Don't worry...I complained.)...my brain refuses to acknowledge that which irritates it to the point of irrational remote-control-throwing.

I did like tonight's episode though. I loved that Meredith proved she was an adult by not pouting that she had to give up her wedding to Izzie but, instead, chose to do it and beamed happily through the whole thing. I love that Alex, though in pain at realizing Izzie was likely to die, overcame his commitment issues and gave himself to her fully and utterly. I love that Christina and Owen still love one another even if it's going to take time. I loved that George essentially gave Izzie away to Alex, a sign that he, too, had grown-up and moved on. I loved that Izzie finally lost her hair, not because I have a sick thrill from seeing someone beautiful have that happen but because it was realistic, because it made her cancer believable.

I was sad for the ER victims who died in the car crash, young students on the day of their college graduation. When I was in high school, a classmate accidentally shot himself and died just a few days before our ceremony. It cast a pall over the entire event and made us all grow up a little too fast when we realized that no matter how young we are, our lives are temporary. I felt for the student who watched all his friends die, who crumpled when he realized he was left alone and what was supposed to be a triumphant day had turned into the darkest day of his life.

In short, this was Grey's Anatomy at its best. It focused on the medicine as a parallel to the lives of the characters. It was easier to sympathize with Izzie for once. It was easy to ignore Dead Denny- which earned a lot of points in my book. Although NOT having Dead Denny at all would have earned more.

Next week, I'm curious to see what happens. I stand by my earlier threat that if Izzie doesn't die, I'll consider being so annoyed that I might stop watching. Yet...if my theory is true, I might not have to. If Grey's does what it does best, I'll care that Izzie dies and I'll even cry for her. Given the fact that, for the most part, I despise Izzie...that would be good TV.

Here's hoping.

Grey's Anatomy: Hoping for a Giant Talking Rabbit

2009-04-24T09:53:00.006-04:00

I wasn't going to do a Grey's Anatomy post this week; I figured this was a TV blog, not a Grey's blog. However, it doesn't feel right to watch an episode without blogging these days.

Truth be told, I missed the beginning of the episode. I'm one of those strange creatures without either cable or satellite and relying on the ancient technology of a rabbit-ear antenna and a digital-TV converter box. So, last night, just as Grey's began, my formerly clear picture decided to turn into a series of strange, digital blotches that sounded like a robot was trying to take over Grey's Anatomy. I spent ten minutes fiddling with the stupid antenna only to settle for a picture that, while interrupted by digital static, was, at least viewable. Thus, I missed much of the stuff at the beginning with Callie, Arizona and Callie's father. I missed the part where Izzie decided to become a maniacal wedding planner. I finally managed to get my picture back when Callie was ranting in Spanish to Arizona. Which reads rather strangely unless you know Arizona is a person.
So, static aside, I quite liked this episode. I love that Meredith and Lexie are finally acting like sisters. I've mentioned it several times, but I adore how Meredith has grown. She allows herself to be happy now, even for short spells. I love that. I like that I saw Lexie when my static settled and I was shocked that she seemed to have gained weight and looked much heavier. I remembered that the actress who plays her, Chyler Lee, is pregnant in real life and I enjoyed the fact they covered this up by making Lexie into a stress-eater. It worked nicely.

I am sad that Bailey's marriage is likely to be over because her dedication to her job is taking her from her family. Yes, she should have been at home with her little boy instead of at the hospital on her day off but watching her cradle that little dying girl was heartbreaking and sad and it reminded me that one of the reasons I love Bailey is because she's more than just a doctor. She's a person with a heart and though it gets her in trouble, it's also one of the best things about the show. The only thing that worries me is that she's TOO close to her patients and she has the danger of becoming The New Izzie. I confess, as touching as some of her scenes are, I do miss the smart-mouthed Bailey who used to be called "The Nazi" and kept her interns in line.

I loved the scene with Alex and George in the bar. I love Alex because in spite of his cockiness, smart mouth and meanness to others, it's all a mask for the fact that he's vulnerable and scared. It's taken a few seasons but we're getting to see the real Alex and it's hard to watch. The way he treated George was wrong and...yet...the scene in the bar explained it all. Alex is terrified. He knows he might lose the one thing that is making him human, the one thing that makes him brave enough to show his vulnerability. Ironically, it's also the one thing that is going to break him because of this vulnerability. Watching him admit he wasn't sure he could handle Izzie's sickness was hard to watch because it was so believable.

Owen and Christina...well...there's not much to say about that except Hunt is broken and he needs to be fixed before he's safe for Christina. They're good together but his moments of rage and disorientation, caused by his PTSD...not good for her. I'm glad he's getting help.

I saved Izzie for last because it's Izzie and you know how I feel about Izzie. I AM sad that she's sick. I am sad that, finally, last night, she had to face the fact that she was sick and she can't be the same annoying, perky person she used to be. I'm glad for that because I wanted to smack her a couple of times. Her faking symptoms and medical crises to get what she wanted was too Typical Izzie. Typical Izzie is the one I don't like because she doesn't think about others, just herself. I know she has cancer and that it's understandable to think of herself but we all knew she was going to be the Girl Who Cried Wolf and so when she collapsed dramatically on the wedding dresses, it wasn't a shock.

I stand by my original hope: I want Izzie to die. I'm not some cruel, unfeeling human who goes around typically wanting cancer victims to die, trust me. I just don't think the show will be the same if Izzie beats the odds and somewhat miraculously recovers. It's time for her to go while we still care. Also, I'm hearing rumours that Dead Denny will be back in which case, you know I'm going to say much harsher things in the future. I get that he's a symptom of her illness but can't the writers do something a little more tolerable like...I don't know...have her hallucinate a giant talking rabbit? It worked for Donnie Darko and that was an AWESOME film.

So...I'm hoping Izzie follows through and dies. I think the show would be new and fresh again and give it room to grow. It's improved over the past few episodes but it still has a long way to go to be as exciting and interesting as Season 2. Yet...it's better. At the very least, there's no Dead Denny.

For now.

"Better Off Ted," and "Dollhouse": Don't Let them Die, Please!

2009-04-21T10:38:00.004-04:00

I haven't done a TV post in a while. This is not because of the lack of new Grey's Anatomy episodes but, rather, because life sometimes gets in the way of TV.

However, it hasn't been getting in the way of my watching two of this season's new shows, ones that I have recently learned are 'on the bubble'.

For those of you not as obsessed with TV as I am, an 'on the bubble' show means it's in danger. It means that the Networks aren't enamoured with its success and are contemplating getting rid of it. This means...no more show.

Firstly, I have to tell you, my first favourite new show is Better Off Ted. If you're an American Idol watcher, chances are you may not even have heard of this show. It's on at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesdays, in the slot right before Lost. Let me tell you, if you haven't been watching, you have missed out.

Better off Ted is hilarious. It's clever. It's slightly sarcastic and has that very "now" sense of humour that anyone who lives in today's world should get. The setting of a show is an office but not just any office, it's Veridian Dynamics, a company which invents things and isn't afraid to try anything. For example, just a few of their products over the past episodes have been "cowless beef," "hurricane-proof dogs" and "weaponized pumpkins", just to name a few. The company is headed Veronica, played by Portia de Rossi. Veronica is fascinating because she tries to have morals but she doesn't quite get them. The show's main character, Ted, played by Jay Harrington is her Head of Product Development. Ted does have morals though, often, he has to be reminded by his smart five-year-old daughter to employ them. Other notable characters are Lem and Phil, the brilliant scientists responsible for inventing the products. In the first episode, Veronica decided to freeze Phil for a cryogenic experiment. Phil, a loyal employee, decided he was game. As he froze, he was told he would experience extreme pain and the biggest worry was that his eyeballs would burst out of his head. The employees of Veridian watched, anxiously. Fortunately, Phil's eyeballs did not explode though his face was captured in a good imitation of Edvard Muench's "Scream" painting. Unfortunately, Phil was accidentally unfrozen a couple of days later and, in following episodes, occasionally, in the middle of conversation suddenly screams for no reason. Irritated by the interruption in meetings, Veronica now sprays Phil with a squirt bottle to get him to stop screaming.

This is only one of the funny moments of the show. In an effort to save energy, Veridian employed a motion sensor of virtually everything in the company including the elevators, doors, water fountains and lights. Unfortunately, because the technology works by reflecting off the skin, none of the black employees are able to activate the sensors. Because the expense of replacing all of the equipment is too vast, Veridian's solution is to employee white people to follow all the black employees around, thus activating the sensors. Lem, Phil's scientist ally, becomes a hero, a former passive-agressive voice in the company taking a stand and ultimately solving the problem. It sounds vaguely racist but that's the beauty of Better Off Ted, it takes shots at everything, mocks everything and doesn't come out looking like a Public Service Announcement about diversity in the workplace. It ridicules the fact that diversity in the workplace has to be a considered factor in the workplace rather than just hiring a person.

I'm gushing. The show makes me laugh, what can I say? The final icing on the cake is the fake TV ads for Veridian, usually spoofing whatever topic is the theme of the show. Veridian, as a company, has no morals. They will do and make whatever they have to in order to succeed. If you haven't watched it and you need a laugh, go to ABC.com and watch their free episodes online. I recommend "Racial Sensitivity" but any of them are worth a watch. I'm not a huge fan of sitcoms because they're not very funny. I still enjoy The Office but have given upon on 30 Rock mostly because, like so many good shows, it began to believe its own critical acclaim and became too self-congratulatory for my tastes.

My fear is that not enough people discover Better Off Ted before ABC decides to give it up and cancel it, instead choosing to make more Dancing with the Stars type shows. I'm hoping that they listen to the critics on this one and keep it around, giving it a chance to build up an audience as it so deserves.

The other show that is in danger is Dollhouse. I've mentioned that Joss Whedon is my hero. I will watch anything he writes. Case in point: Dollhouse. Like so many others, I was a little worried during the first couple of episodes; the trademark Whedon humour was missing, the show seemed so serious and made little sense. Yet, I stuck with it because I trust Joss completely. I was rewarded. By episode five, the show found its groove. Now, even though it's on Friday nights, I find myself anticipating the next episode. If I can't watch it, I watch on Hulu.com the minute I get a free chance. The show has so many layers, centering on a mysterious 'dollhouse' in Los Angeles in which the dolls are young, attractive humans who have 'chosen' to have their minds erased and allow themselves to be formed into whatever personality is requested of them.

It sounds ludicrous yet Joss makes it work. We don't really know if the dolls really chose to become dolls. It seems that way but we don't really know. We get to watch Eliza Dushku (Echo), Dichen Lachman (Sierra) and Enver Gjokaj (Victor) change their roles every week, defaulting to a childlike state when their 'imprints' have been removed and they are just 'dolls'. The head of the company is Adelle, played with a British crispness by Olivia Williams. Her technological genius is Topher, played by Fran Kranz. Topher is a geek. He's also brilliant, responsible for designing the imprints for the dolls and installing them with all the complexity of building a chemistry experiment.

Each week, we see Paul Ballard, a former FBI agent, played by Tahmoh Penikett, try to uncover information about the Dollhouse, a place he knows exists but cannot prove. One 'doll', Alpha, escaped and is wreaking havoc from behind the scenes. We haven't even met Alpha yet but his presence is so strong that he's in the shadows of every episode, even though his role exists through discussion only.

Even though the actor's names sound like they come from a fantasy novel, the show is held together by the strong cast. It's compelling, clever and always leaves you wanting more. The show is on Fox who have a history of failing Joss. They seem to place his shows in the worst possible slot in the viewing schedule, just to watch them die. The joke is on them though, with the help of Hulu.com and Joss's strong internet followers, Dollhouse, unlike Better Off Ted, will not die easily. This is the type of show that will inspire save-the-show campaigns. I'd love that to be the case for Better Off Ted too but that's a new show, without a cult following.

I'm only one tiny voice in the blogosphere; my internet presence is merely a whisper. However, if I can do anything to encourage people to watch these two shows, to help keep them on the air, I will. Yet the one thing I can do is have an opinion...and if ABC and Fox decide to cancel these shows, I will not be happy. Take a chance, networks. Stop assuming that everyone likes American Idol and Dancing with the Stars and let those of us that still love scripted television to have something good to watch. Please.

Sympathy for the not-so Devil...

2009-03-26T20:12:00.004-04:00

So...tonight, I went into Grey's Anatomy with a new attitude. I decided that I wasn't being fair on Izzie, that just because if I knew her in life, she'd drive me to the edge, it wasn't fair to be so harsh on her. She is, after all, dying.

Mostly, I went into it with the attitude that her impending health decline was going to affect her friends and I do care about them. George, for example. He and Izzie have been best friends, soul mates in compassion and caring. Yes, they had the ill fortune to have an affair but, in all honesty, in real life...that happens. Friends mistake friendship for...something more. It's a nice bond; sex is just the sealant on an already strong relationship. But it also becomes a corrosive, wearing away at the bonds of friendship; perhaps it wasn't good sex, perhaps the deep feeling of connection didn't last beyond the last passionate embrace. Whatever it was, their friendship suffered because of their attempt to take it further. He's hurting because he feels as though he's lost touch with Izzie. Only Callie, once the victim of George/Izzie's ill-fated relationship, could make George see how much Izzie really meant...to both of them.

I care about Christina's reaction to Izzie. Christina "the Robot" as Izzie dubbed her. Christina is a strong, amazing doctor but she's used to detaching from a patient so that she can be a better doctor. Try as she might, she can't do that with Izzie, for better or for worse. Izzie and Christina have always been polar opposites, one feeling too much, one feeling too little. Now, at last, they're finding a way to balance each other out which is, in my opinion, a reason to not hate Izzie. Christina is strong, so strong she's allowed Owen to hurt her, to strangle her and still she forgives him. Yet, alone in the dark with him, she realizes that even she, as strong as she is, is afraid. So she does the only thing she has the power to do, she lets go. It hurts...but she lets go.

Then there's Meredith who struggles to be a better, stronger person, a strong, smart doctor and a girlfriend who isn't imprisoned by her past mistakes. She's always tried to extend the hand of friendship to Izzie but has never understood her; Izzie found light in darkness, Meredith absorbed the darkness and let it become her. Yet tonight, Derek finally proposed the right way, the only way that he could possibly have done in order to get Meredith to say yes. I admit, I knew it was coming but...yet...I can't help but be ecstatic. The elevator non-proposal, the recap of their amazing moments together in surgery...everything about that was right and so I look to these two in the future to guide the show, to continue to make us care.

And Alex...poor Alex. He's opened himself up, fought his natural instincts to let Izzie into his heart. He fell for her, completely and utterly. He's never had anything to hold onto; his family was abusive and cruel, providing little foundation for healthy romantic relationships. Yet Izzie provided the stability he needed and, at last, Alex found sure footing on which to build hopes and dreams. I love how he struggled tonight; he wanted to run but he couldn't. He cares too much. He knows Izzie is the best woman he's ever had and so, rather than cut and run, he's there, sitting by her bedside, ensuring a future life will be made of their union. He's trying...and Izzie is the reason.

So, you see, I can't hate Izzie, no matter how irritating she can be. Her character has had an influence on everyone, good and bad. Yes, mostly, I want to make her stop talking, even before she had cancer that affected her brain, I wanted someone to take away her medical license so she couldn't hurt anyone else. I always though Izzie would make a fine social worker, her do-good nature perfectly placed to help others without the risk of killing them accidentally.

Yet that's not going to happen. I don't know what will happen to Izzie, whether Derek's skills as a brain surgeon will truly give her more time or if, as I suspect, they just postpone the inevitable. Last week, I pleaded for Izzie to die. I've had a change of heart. I do want Katherine Heigl to leave the show because I think it needs changes and I think she's bringing it down. I don't know if I want Izzie to die; it would make sense but it might not be right. The odds are against her, whether or not Derek gave her more time to live her life and, perhaps, say goodbye.

Here's what I suspect...Izzie will have a new lease on life. She will seize the day with Alex; I wouldn't be surprised if a wedding is in their future. Yet I also suspect the happiness will be brief. We may not be witness to Izzie's sad death but, then again, I don't rule anything out. I do think Alex will be crushed and have to rise out of the ashes to regain his grasp on life. I hope he does. I hope all of my troubled yet brilliant residents at Seattle Grace can deal with Izzie's illness properly...by appreciating that which she gave them but knowing that they have to carry on, no matter what the outcome.

So, you see, for once, I'm not rooting against Izzie Stevens. Instead, I'm rooting for her. I did feel sorry for her tonight, she sat alone in her hospital room, terrified but trying to be brave. Bailey was there for her, reassuring her through science, comforting her with facts. Her friends were too scared, too afraid of what Izzie's illness means to them. Yet, in the end, they were there, terrified with her, hoping that she would be ok, proving that they are truly the 'people' that Izzie needs.

It took a while but I might be finally jumping on the bandwagon. Don't get me wrong, it still doesn't excuse Dead Denny but it does, at last, make me care about Izzie. It took long enough and it's scary but...it's happening. I just hope it lasts.

Christina Yang...Episode Redeemer

2009-03-19T21:42:00.004-04:00

It's another Grey's Anatomy post. I do have the intention of writing about different shows but somehow it's Grey's that inspires me to write. Or, lately, complain.

You see, I think they want me to feel sorry for Izzie. Poor Izzie Stevens, Izzie who's dying, Izzie who has some horrible form of cancer that's in her brain. I tried. It lasted about one minute.

The rest of the episode, I seriously had this feeling that if I had to work at Seattle Grace with Izzie Stevens, I would have pushed her down the infamous staircase that is the scene of so many dramas that don't happen in the elevator. No, seriously.

On the other hand, if I worked with her and if she actually liked to be hugged, I would hug Christina Yang for being herself.

Tonight's episode was...interesting. It had one of the most disgusting surgical procedures that they've ever simulated on the show. Seriously, a face transplant? I'm not that squeamish but....ugh! I think it was the peeling skin sound effects. I could have lived without that.

I did like that patient though. He had a horrific face as a result of a horrible accident and, yet, by the end of the show, I was used to it. It wasn't hideous anymore. I loved that his online friends could see past the horrific face and see the person within but I think that was the point. It worked well.

What didn't work well was Izzie seeing it as a parallel to her own condition. I know, I know, I seem heartless. I should feel bad for this beautiful woman who just found out she's potentially dying.

Yet...it's Izzie. Everything is about her. In her world, it's always been about her. This poor man, hideously deformed because of a car accident, who has been waiting 12 years to be able to look something close to normal again is suddenly in the hospital in order to teach Izzie a lesson. What he has to live with on the outside of his body, she's living with on the inside of her body. If she shares that with her friends, she's afraid they'll run away, afraid to get close.

To be honest, I was afraid that Izzie was going to drag this out, to make it such a secret that we'd spend the next couple of episodes wanting her to tell someone, just to move the plot along. Fortunately, there is Christina Yang who likes to deal with facts, figures and surgical truth and doesn't like to mess with emotion. She has emotion for Izzie because as much as she'd hate to admit it, Izzie is part of Christina's world; a flesh and blood representation of a habit. Christina doesn't like that Izzie is willing to wilt away quietly or, as Izzie would probably perceive it, nobly. Yet it's not noble, it's almost pathetic. Again, it makes me sound cruel but she's always been so self-righteous that it's hard to seperate that. Even when faced with a life-threatening disease, Izzie can't just do the right thing, she has to internalize everything, make herself a victim and wait until someone stronger comes along to push her forward, as Christina did tonight.

I'm glad everyone knows now. It's about time. No more will we have to live with Izzie being Patient X. Hopefully that means no more Dead-Denny (note to Jeffrey Dean Morgan: You were GREAT as The Comedian in "Watchmen", do NOT let the Grey's folks persuade you to come back to their show. Do NOT allow yourself to step backwards and become annoying again).

This is going to sound really cruel but I hope Izzie dies. If she doesn't, Grey's will truly be resorting to the soap-opera-y plots that it's been accused of all along. Yes, there are soap-opera tendencies of the show but because of the strong acting and writing, they're forgiveable. If Derek Shepherd manages to save Izzie and thus complete his own journey through darkness to light, I will be furious, and I mean that. I get that Derek is lost and needs something to put him back on track. I get that a successful surgery would help that. Yet Izzie has a less than 5% survival rate. If she makes it, it'll be so unrealistic that it exceeds even the ferryboat disaster that happened in Season 3.

The truth is, in my opinion, Izzie needs to die. Katherine Heigl needs to get off the show. I find myself despising Izzie more every week even though I'm supposed to feel sympathy for her. I don' t know if that's Izzie or Katherine Heigl that's doing that to me anymore. I used to know. I used to be able to seperate fact from fiction. Lately, though, I just want Grey's to get back on track and I think without that character/actress, things might settle down a little. I know George might also leave. I don't really want that because I like George but if it's his time, so be it.

All I ask is that we get some of the old tone/theme/feel of the show back. There are parts of this season I like: Meredith and Derek, for example. Meredith has grown up. She's not running scared but running towards the danger of commitment. I like Christina; she's grown up but let some humanity colour her personality a little, no longer a full robot. I like that Alex, also, has become more human; he's no longer a cocky frat-boy but a doctor who actually lets himself care. I just hate that he finally lets himself fall in love and it's with Izzie. He deserves better.

I think you've probably figured out that I don't like Izzie. I've tried, believe me, I've tried. Yet even when she's dying, I find myself having this urge to shake her, to make her wake-up and realize that not everything in the universe is about her. That she's not some wounded soul, seperated from those around her. That isolation is her own doing; she's condemned Meredith and Christina multiple times for their choice of romantic partners, for their friendship, for their choices. She's fallen in love with a patient, stolen another patient's heart (literally, not figueratively), seduced her best friend, caused him to divorce his wife, only to discover that they're not a match made in heaven, after all. She's condemned Alex, used him as a sex toy, condemned him again and then, finally, decide he's worthwhile and used his crush on her to make him her own. She's had sex with a ghost. She's lied, a lot. She's killed a couple of patients. She's betrayed her friends. I could keep going but you get the idea. When it comes down to it, Izzie doesn't do much good. She's a bad doctor, friend, lover and girlfriend.

So, now that she might be dying, I find myself watching Grey's with new hope. The hope is that they won't be wimps and let Izzie live. I know that it depends on the behind-the-scenes stuff, whether Katherine Heigl can wiggle out of her contract and, thus, leave the show. I hope she does. I think the show will be better for it. I've said that before and I'm saying it again. I just hope that if, Izzie does leave, it's a realistic leave-taking, not some Meredith-having-a-fatal-drowning-accident-in-which-she-ends-up-talking-to-Dead-Denny,-Pink-Mist-That-Girl-Who-Was-Impaled-in-the-Train-Episode-and-her-mother-and-realizing-that-life-is-worth-living-after-all episode. That was NOT good Grey's. Good Grey's are the moments like yucky-face-transplant-man getting to look at his new face and realizing that even if he hadn't have had the surgery, his friends don't care how he looks. It sounds trite but that was a good storyline because it makes me care.

It's not too late to make me care about Izzie. Trust me, I'll care if she knows she's dying. I'll root for her to keep going with that and I might even promise to be sad. As long as she doesn't come back as a ghost to have sex with Alex.

Because that would be a ridiculous storyline...right?

Depressed Derek, Soft Bailey...What's Happening to Grey's Anatomy?

2009-03-12T22:05:00.003-04:00

So, it seems that unless I'm blogging about Grey's Anatomy, I don't blog much on Captain TV. Sad, really. It's not like I'm not watching any TV. Currently, my roster of shows is down to: 24, Lost, Grey's Anatomy, The Office and Dollhouse. This is a rather shocking thing to realize. I usually watch much more TV than that. Of course, I'm not admitting that I do, occasionally, get horribly and reluctantly sucked into The Ghost Whisperer but I promise you, afterwards I feel guilty, as though I should take a shower or something.

However, Grey's was back this week and, naturally, I have to blog about it. It used to be my favourite evening of TV. I won't say that I don't enjoy it anymore but it feels a little more like work and a little less like a way to unwind.

I don't like angry Derek. From the moment he sat on the sofa eating Alex's cereal, I wanted to smack him. I'm sure that killing that pregnant woman accidentally in the last episode had to have been hard but you'd think his high level of self-righteousness that surrounds him like a cloud would at least assist him in accepting his mistake. After all, when Meredith was trying to be a good human being and give the benefit-of-the-doubt to Eric Stoltz's serial killer character a few weeks ago, Derek was quite happy to condemn the prisoner and satisfy his own ego instead of doing what would have been the best action for the greater good. Machiavelli has been coming up a lot in my life lately and whether the end truly justifies the means. It does in TV shows, I can tell you that. Just watch 24 sometime. Jack Bauer's rather brutal torture methods are effective and usually assist in saving the U.S. from a rather nasty attack of some kind or another.

I think Derek is feeling sorry for himself. He has a right to, I suppose. His death toll is greater than the lives he's saved. He gets to wallow for one week, in my book. This has been his week. Next week, he better suck it up and start acting decently again or I'm going to dislike him even more than I ever have before. As I've said, I have a soft spot for Meredith. I'm not as dark and twisty but there are aspects of Meredith I can relate to just because I get her. I don't like Derek treating her badly. I was angry when he threw away that ring but I'm proud of her for not leaving him. I just hope they find that ring. When I was a little kid, I used to like to play hide and seek with objects. I once had a Snoopy ring that I loved. I thought it'd be fun to 'lose' it and then find it again so I tossed it into the long grass of our backyard. I never did find that damn ring and to this day, I kick myself for being so stupid that I threw it in the first place. Maybe I'm a little too invested in that ring of Derek's but not because I want him to propose; rather, I just want him to find the damn thing before it's lost because he'll wake up 20 years later and still wonder where the heck it went to.

But I digress. I haven't even begun to talk about Izzie yet. For a few moments, I actually felt sorry for her. She has cancer. She wasn't supposed to have cancer, if you believe the early spoilers for the show but I'm guessing that it was the only diagnosis that made sense. It's fine with me just as long as she doesn't start hallucinating about Dead Denny* again.

(*side note: Dead Denny, aka Jeffrey Dean Morgan, was in "The Watchmen" which I saw this weekend. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to deal with him given how much you know I adored him when he was haunting Izzie (yes, sarcasm intended). I will say he was excellent and not, for one moment, did he act like Dead Denny. I like him again now. Just as long as he doesn't come back to Grey's Anatomy.)

Anyway, I feel a little bad for Izzie. I get that she's not ready to tell Alex that she's sick. He's finally getting respect as a doctor and it suits him. She doesn't want to bring him back down again when he's finally getting to move up. I even get why she's not ready to tell George; he's her best friend. Telling him makes it real. So she told Christina. I get that, I suppose. Christina will digest the news and process it but she won't let it get in the way of her being a good doctor. Everyone else would be too emotional. It makes sense.

Yet there was still a little part of me that wondered why she was going through such drama with the interns. Did she know her diagnosis or did their discovery of her disease provide the answer that she sought? If so, honestly, did she really trust those interns and their accuracy? Seriously? They're the lamest, most generic group of characters on any show since Season 7 of Buffy when the Slayerettes invaded Sunnydale.

I wanted her to tell Lexie. I used to think Lexie was a stupid plot device yet somehow over the course of a season, she's become a real character and I like her. She's the new George O'Malley only, you know, smarter. George is pretty useless these days. He pops up, interjects a few lines of dialogue and then he's gone.

I would have liked to have seen Izzie be honest with someone who would have probably had an emotional reaction in the beginning but would have been able to pull it together enough to figure out what Izzie's best course of action should be. I think Lexie could have been that person. I was ok with it being Christina until I saw the previews for next week. It looks like Izzie is going to swear Christina to secrecy which is going to annoy the crap out of me. We had to endure weeks of Dead Denny, can we not move Izzie's plot along any faster? If Katherine Heigl is leaving, I say just get rid of her now. Let her go forth and make more generic romantic comedies like "27 Dresses" that are entertaining but would be the exact same movie if she were replaced by Reese Witherspoon, Kate Hudson, Anne Hathaway or even Anna Faris.

I know it sounds mean but I really hope they follow through and kill Izzie. There's rumours that Shonda Rhimes is going to pull a bait-and-switch and kill George and let Izzie live. That would annoy me a lot. Kill Izzie. Seriously. Really. She's annoying. She's a terrible doctor. She's kind of stupid. Mostly, I just don't like Izzie and I think it'd be a more interesting show without her.

The rest of the characters were a little bland tonight. I normally like Bailey but I hate that she had to enlist the aid of the Chief's wife to get him to listen to her. The old Bailey, the one who hadn't suddenly decided she wanted to be a pediatric surgeon even though she crumbles at the thought of a child dying, the old Bailey would have made the Chief respect her decision. She wouldn't have needed help in getting him to listen to her. I don't like that she's softening up. I love Miranda Bailey because she doesn't take crap from anyone. Or, at least, she didn't used to.

I can't say I don't like the show anymore because if I didn't, I wouldn't still watch it or spend the time blogging about it. What I will say is that I recently rewatched Seasons 1 and 2. I wish Shonda and her team of writers would do the same thing. Those seasons were excellent. Season 3 wasn't bad but it had a few mistakes. Since then, the characters have evolved but not in the way you want them to evolve. The only character change I like is Meredith because hers has been a natural growth, a move from being isolated to being part of something. Sometimes it's best to stick with a good thing. Shonda, you don't need to make crazy things happen. The best moments of the show are when the doctors are being good doctors and they have good patients. There are fewer and fewer of those. I live in hope that we'll have more again but I'm starting to lose my faith again.

But, as I remind myself, there's no more Denny and that, at least, scores some points with me.

Izzie Stevens, it Really is Time to Go....

2009-02-19T22:39:00.004-05:00

I have a confession to make. I'm starting to like Lexie Grey and Mark Sloane as a couple. I admit, in the beginning, I thought it was a gimmick, just another inappropriate pairing to try to bring ratings.

For weeks, I thought it was contrived and now, a few weeks later, I'm starting to think it could work. I'm starting to think that Lexie in all her sweet neurosis is the calmness that Mark Sloane, Dr. McSteamy himself, needs in order to stop being a cliche and start being a real man.

I'm not sure I like my change of heart. It could mean that I might have to doubt some of my earlier opinions on Grey's Anatomy. For example, I might rethink that Denny coming back from the dead and being the Most Smugly Annoying Ghost Ever was a good idea after all. I might think that maybe, just maybe, I misunderstood Izzie Stevens, that her do-good but act-stupid nature was actually compelling rather than groan-worthy annoyance. I might start thinking that it's ok that George O'Malley doesn't do much at Seattle Grace anymore.

However, I think I'm safe for now. I know it sounds mean but I'm actually hoping beyond hope that the rumours behind the scenes are true, that Katherine Heigl is going to be let out of her contract as she's been wanting for a while now. I think Grey's would be the better for it. It's obvious that Katherine thinks she's better than TV, that she believes her Oscar is waiting. Unfortunately, what she doesn't seem to realize is that any young female actress in Hollywood could play the roles she's choosing. Seriously, think about "27 Dresses". Now, replace Katherine Heigl with, say, Anne Hathaway, Reese Witherspoon, Isla Fisher....not much different, huh?

Seriously, I think Grey's needs to lose Izzie. It's time. She's a whiny pain who does nothing but complain and try to get other people to solve her problems. She judges others for the same things she, herself, does on a regular basis. She's been relagated to the clinic, rarely does she interact with Alex, Meredith, Christina or even George anymore. She somehow ended up with ALL of the interns (who knows how and why that happened) and she's now realizing she's dying of some as-of-yet undiagnosed condition.

I should feel sorry for her but I don't. I feel sorry for Alex who might have be losing the first women he's really let himself love. I feel sorry for George who could be losing his best friend, the inevitable confused relationship that male/female friends inevitably explore. I feel sorry for Meredith who has tried to stop and be friends with Izzie even though Dr. Stevens has ignored her, embarrassed her, exploited her and used her.

Yet there's little sorrow for Izzie herself.

Aside from Izzie, tonight's episode was better. I think it was better because I realized that I didn't have to watch Private Practice too. The storyline was resolved on Grey's and Addison Montgomery got to go back to Los Angeles to the stereotypical new-agey lifestyle that Southern Californian's exude and escape the misery of Derek Shepherd.

And he has misery. Poor Derek. He lost a lot of patients on his clinical trial and, even though, in the end, he succeeded, he can't forget those deaths he caused in trying to be the best, to be better than a man, to be a god. He tried so hard to save his patient tonight, even trying to save her life though she'd live as a vegetable, a near-monster, unrecognizable to anyone who'd ever known her. In the end, he lost his fight. He's not used to that. He's a broken man, now a mere mortal when before, he'd been a god, the best of the best.

I'm just glad he has Meredith. She's come so far over the past couple of years. Though she's still neurotic enough to be bothered by Derek working with his ex-wife, she's now mature enough to be there for him, to recognize that now, she's the one he listens to, the one who can pull him out of his own mind and bring him back to earth.

And, when he crashes, she's there to catch him, to bandage his wounds and give him a drink and just hold him, to let him know it's ok to just be a man. Meredith has matured over the past seasons and Grey's is the better for it.

I can't say there aren't flaws in the show. I mean, Izzie IS still on the show. I wasn't sure about Dr. Hunt and Christina but these last episodes have shown that they need each other. His hardness brings out her softness and, for Christina Yang, that's definitely an admirable feat.

I'm still not sure about Bailey going to Pediatrics. I like the idea of her becoming Chief some day. Yet she wants it and, maybe, it'll work. I'm also still not sure about Callie; one minutes she's experimenting with being bi-sexual and the next, she's fully gay. I think Callie needs to focus on medicine for a while, to let herself figure out who she is instead of jumping from relationship to relationship.

And Sloane and Lexie....they're swaying me. Ever since she broke his penis, she's been good for him, slowing him down and making him realize that there's more to life than sex. She's a good fit for him as long as she doesn't tame him completely. Grey's wouldn't be Grey's without a little McSteamy. Just because he's experimenting with being tamed doesn't mean he's completely ready.

And while the show continues to lose me one minute and hook me the next, I still live in hope that'll it'll find its footing again. I just hope it doesn't mean I have to keep watching Private Practice because, seriously, I can't...I've tried, oh, I've tried. And I can't. Not for Piz, not for Taye Diggs and not even for Addison Montgomery. No more crossover 'events'. Please.

An Ode to Benjamin Linus

2009-02-19T15:59:00.001-05:00

I like dark characters. You've probably got that from reading my Dexter posts. I have a fondness for the complicated and shadowy non-black-and-white world. I like that while Dexter Morgan does what is regarded as wrong and inherantly evil by taking human lives, his moral code complicates matters and turns it into an act of heroism, ridding the world of the rubbish that preys on it.

This is probably why I'm enamoured with Benjamin Linus from Lost. I have a confession; I was a fickle viewer back in Season 3. I quit Lost, cast it aside like an old boyfriend that no longer fit me. I don't remember where exactly I gave it up but the show was starting to wear on me and I couldn't be bothered anymore. My giving it up also can be blamed on J.J. Abrams. Since he had helped create the show and it was going into inevitable decline, i assumed it was going to go the way of all J.J. Abrams shows- a great premise, exciting action and then a complete and utter jaunt into the ridiculous that took away from everything I'd originally loved about the show*

(*For a prime example, see Alias)

Yet then came the writer's strike and there was nothing on. I had friends who said that season 3 of Lost had the coolest ending ever. So I Netflixed the rest of the season from the point at which I'd quit.

And I realized then that I shouldn't have given it up. Realizing that the flashback was a flashforward was genius.

Since then, my admiration for the show has grown. Every moment is carefully choreographed like an elaborate dance, weaving in and out of mythologies, creating intricate connections between all of the characters in some way or another. It's amazing, compelling TV.

For me, every week, though, it's Ben Linus who has me truly hooked. He's a perfect villain, the Keyser Soze of the small screen, complicated, manipulative and so full of lies that it's impossible to know when he's telling the truth.

I love him for that. The actor, Michael Emerson, plays him with brilliance; he's both creepy and compelling. I don't want him to be the bad guy because I don't want him to lose. How's that for screwy thinking? The villain always loses at the end of every heroic tale. It's hard to say if Ben is really the true villain of Lost or if he's just an ambassador. Yet most of the time, especially to the Oceanic Six, he is the villain. He's a chessplayer moving all of his pieces exactly where he wants them even though even Ben may not know what the endgame is. He never misses a beat. One of my favourite scenes is where he gets transported off the island into Tunisia. He's instantly assailed by would-be attackers. Ben doesn't miss a beat, deftly beating the crap out of the men with his telescopic beating-rod (sorry, I don't know the technical name for it). He then walks into a hotel as though that happens every day. Who knows, for Ben, it probably does.

Every week, we learn more about the Island, more about the characters. I love that the stakes are raised, everything is changing all the time. The time travel is brilliance and being executed perfectly, revealing the truth about events that happened clear back in Season 1, events that, on any other show, would have been forgotten, abandoned in hopes of a more sensational plot. Not with Lost, however. Lost is a show for the nerds of the world, the geeks who thrive on details that most people would miss. I confess, I'm one of them. I live for the "holy crap!" moments that the show delivers every week. It's a puzzle and even though it seems as though we're getting closer to solving it, instead we're seeing that it's not just one puzzle but an artful weaving that goes on indefinitely.

At the heart of it is Ben. We still don't know if he's good or bad, not really. We know he lies but only at times because at other times, he's brutally honest. For example, a couple of weeks ago, Kate confronted Ben and accused him of trying to take Aaron away to manipulate her. Jack, not wanting to believe that even Ben could be that cruel, tries to defend him and, in response, Ben simply says, something along the lines of, "no, that was me." Cruel, blunt and precise, Ben never minces words. He can be snarky, particularly with John Locke. He always gets what he wants.

While this week's episode, "316" had a lot of unanswered questions, where is Aaron?, why is Jin in a Dharma jumpsuit driving a Dharma van?, why are Sayid and Hurley on the plane, the one question that I want to know is this: Benjamin, who did you kill and who dared beat you up this time?

There's only one and a half seasons left of Lost, the writer's endgame is moving forward. I hope that means Ben's is too, no matter how grisly and dark it gets. The darker Ben is revealed to be, the more compelling the show and the more I'm hooked on watching it. In a way, I can't wait for the end of the show, to see how it plays out.

On the other hand, I don't want it to ever end, the ride is too much fun. Especially when Ben is the driver.

So...Exactly...What WAS the Point of the spinoff?

2009-02-12T22:26:00.007-05:00

So, I'm currently watching the Private Practice/Grey's Anatomy crossover. It's the Private Practice half now. During the Grey's portion, I did, at least feel like I was interested. I mean, in spite of some horrid mistakes over the past two seasons, Grey's still continues to compell me.

I admit, when I sat down to watch the two hours of television, I did wonder if I'd have quitter's remorse towards Private Practice. I gave it up a few months ago and still remember the show, the characters and the reason that I quit in the first place.

Then I watched tonight's crossover and I realized that no, in fact, I did not miss this awful show.

I do miss Dr. Cooper, the unlucky-in-love pediatrician. But I don't actually miss Dr. Cooper, I miss Agent Kellerman from Prison Break, also played by Paul Adelstein. I miss Kellerman's ruthlessness, his backbone, his vicious sense of purpose. I do not, however, miss Dr. Cooper's drippy world of Oceanside Wellness.

I miss Addison Montgomery but not the Addison from Private Practice. I miss the Addison from Grey's Anatomy. Seeing her back at Seattle Grace again reminded me why I missed the old days of Grey's. These days, the hallways are filled with too much drama that seems so farfetched, it's hard to relate. Tonight, I hated watching Meredith, who has come so far over the past season, who has confronted her demons and named them, watch the love of her life morph into a different man, a man she doesn't know.

Because tonight, Derek became a character on Private Practice and that was ugly. I don't care that he wrote a song for Addison for their wedding. I don't care that his oldest, dearest friends are suddenly back in his life. I like Derek with Meredith. I like the Derek who remains steadfastedly a part of Seattle Grace, not the one who's caught in the half-life between Oceanside Wellness and the world we've seen him occupy for the past four years.

Mostly, I confess, I hate that I'm being suckered into watching the insipidly annoying characters of Private Practice. I want to like them....but I can't. I find myself wondering how Dr. Charlotte can have such terrible hair. I wonder how Taye Diggs can pick such bad roles (Kevin Hill, anyone?) and still remain attractive. I wonder how Tim Daly can be so bland. Then Dell, the midwife-receptionist-whatever-he-is-these-days, wanders on screen and suddenly I find myself missing Veronica Mars with a longing that only the best TV can fulfill.

I can't complain, really. At times, Grey's still fulfills that longing. These days, Lost is blowing me away with its intricate genius. I'm watching 24 and enjoying Jack Bauer's breathless sense of action for the first time in several seasons. And tomorrow, I have the first episode of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse to look forward to. So there is good TV to watch. I'm just not watching it at the moment, no matter how much they try to throw Alex Karev, Derek Shepard or Dr. Bailey at us during an episode of Private Practice. I mean, seriously, isn't the whole reason Addison left in the first place was to try something new?

Clearly, if that something new has to rely on the something old to get some ratings, something is wrong. I gave Private Practice a fair shake, a season and a half of watching. Yet it annoyed me and I quit. Now I'm watching it for the first time in weeks just because it's gone back to the world that gave it life in the first place.

It's like trying to take a cutting from a plant. Sometimes, it can thrive on its own and grow into something unique, something different. Yet sometimes that cutting can't survive on its own, it has to go back to its source to survive and renew it.

And that is where we are with Private Practice. It was a noble experiment but it just didn't work. It's time to either take the transplant back to its roots or put it out of its misery. Addison is a strong character but she's not enough to support a dying show. She needs to go back to Seattle Grace. She can take the place of Izzie and George, if the rumours are true that Katherine Heigl and T.R Knight are really leaving. I think Grey's would be better for it. If not, at least the 10 p.m. slot behind Grey's could be filled with something new.

I gave Private Practice a fair shot. I even tried tonight but when I'm spending the hour blogging instead of watching, you know something's wrong. I hate this Archer character. He's annoying. I think I'm supposed to, actually. Yet when he's just one of a roster of annoying characters, it's nothing special.

Also, I hate being manipulated in having to watch a show because otherwise, a story is not complete. Seriously, Private Practice, if you need Grey's Anatomy to give you life, it's time to let go. Seriously. Seriously.

But I Don't WANT to Watch "Private Practice"!

2009-02-05T22:03:00.004-05:00

I apologize for not having any new posts for a while. I thought about blogging about Lost but there are far better, far more loyal bloggers who already cover that. I could have covered the super-bizarro dream I had last night in which I was on a Lost-esque island that turned out to have strange 'stations' which were more like something out of Stephen King's The Waste Lands than Lost. The same dream also featured Weevil, a character from Veronica Mars trying to attack Logan Echolls (also from Veronica Mars, lately of Moonlight) with Heroes' Ando/Elle powers of super electricical impulses and then being sucked onto the Lost-esque isle in order to help solve the mysteries. I mean, this is a TV blog and wow, my subconscious did seem to tell me that maybe I watch too much TV.

However, rather than expose you to the minutae of my addled brain, I thought I'd wait until this week's Grey's Anatomy since that seems to be the main theme of this blog lately.

On a side note, I read a spoiler/article that mentioned that Denny is NOT 'dead' as I had celebrated in the last blog but will appear until March. I'm ignoring that because tonight's episode had no Denny and no Denny is as good as Dead-Denny but not the haunting-Izzie-Dead-Denny but the good Dead-Denny who died at the end of Season 2. You know the Denny I mean, the charming one who made you sad when they played "Chasing Cars" and saw Izzie in her prom dress.

I digress. Onto tonight's episode. It wasn't bad, actually. Especially in light of some of the more recent episodes. I will say that until next week, I'm choosing NOT to acknowledge the big Private Practice/Grey's Anatomy crossover. It happened at the very, very end of this week's Grey's and one minute into Private Practice when the "Fourteen Hours Earlier" flashed across my screen, I realized that this week's PP was probably going to do something very similar and involve Grey's at the very last minute. Thus, I refuse to watch it. I already blogged about how I gave up watching that show. I don't care how much you try to tie Addison back into Grey's; if she comes with that super-sexed, super-annoying, super-smarmy lot from L.A., I'm not watching until I have to. For now, I'm going to try to skip the PP part of the crossover and try to stick solely to Grey's. It'll probably be a bit like trying to eat vegetable soup and picking out everything but the carrots but still, I'll try it.

Yet tonight episode of Grey's had some good moments. I'm so relieved that Christina and Meredith are friends again. I'm loving that Meredith is treating Lexie almost like a sister rather than an abhorred stranger. I'm enjoying that Christina is giving Dr. Hunt a chance, even if he is a little spazzo and very, very much Dr. McPTSD at the moment. I like that Derek is going to propose although I hate that the uber-dramatic PP/Grey's crossover "event" is getting in the way.

The things I'm not sure about is Callie and Arizona, the 'new' pediatrician. See, I though Callie wasn't sure she WAS gay. I thought Callie had decided she would never be gay in the way that Erica Hahn realized she was. I thought Erica Hahn left the show because ABC decided that the gay relationship was too much. Now, suddenly, Callie is gay. And she has a new love interest. I'm not sure where this is coming from. I'm not against gay relationships and actually, I quite like Arizona. I'm just confused, like I'm sure so many other viewers are as to why Erica got left behind, inexplicably and permanently in the allegorical parking lot of Seattle Grace and now, suddenly, it's ok for Callie to keep having flings with other women. I actually liked Hahn. I thought she was growing as a character but...whatever. I'll follow this storyline for now and hope that it grows and becomes something and isn't another excuse for Callie to be bitter and hurt by the cards that Shonda Rhimes deals her.

I'm also not sure about Bailey's newfound aptitude for pediatric surgery. I think that's a bad idea. Yes, she's good with kids but she gets WAY too emotionally involved and that's dangerous. She became much less Bailey and far more Izzie during the storyline with Jackson, the kid who was dying for the past three weeks. I don't like seeing Bailey falter and become unsure; I like my Bailey confident and secure. I think she should stick with General Surgery. It suits her.

And then there's Izzie. Now that Denny's 'gone', I thought she'd be better. Instead, she wastes hundreds, even thousands, of dollars having the interns run tests on her under the guise that she's teaching them because she knows she's sick but doesn't want to admit it. Once more, Izzie proves to be a financial drain on Seattle Grace and a drain on my patience.

Of course, she did get a lot more screen time than George who made a cameo this week. Yes, readers, George O'Malley appeared long enough to provoke our thought processes to respond: "Oh, hey, I forgot he worked here" and then he vanished. I like George. My advice to the Grey's powers-that-be, save George, lose Izzie. Not that they'll listen but I live in hope.

So, next week it looks like Addison's back, bringing her cronies from L.A. I know they're all friends with Derek so it'll probably make sense. I even think bringing Addie back to Seattle Grace makes sense. I just wish that would mean that her stint in Private Practice is over and she's realized that she belongs in the far more interesting world of Grey's Anatomy. However, I'll watch, hoping that Grey's will continue to make a come back into the world of good TV and finally leave behind the dangers of shark-jumping.

Because when Grey's is good, it is very, very good. It makes you count down until the next episode. It makes you compare people you know to characters on the show. It makes you smile when you remember quirky moments, sad when you recall the poignancy that stellar storylines can give you.

Yet when it's bad, it's scary. And when it's bad, it brings back Denny. And if he comes back, he'll probably tell Izzie: "I'm here for you". And we all know how Captain Monkeypants feels about that. It inspires anger and a tightly-gripped remote control. I've already worn off the writing below the buttons, don't make me break it too.

But this week had no Denny. And no Denny is good.

I live in hope.

Ding Dong, the Denny is Dead (again!)

2009-01-22T22:05:00.004-05:00

I think he's gone.

I think Denny might actually be gone.

I think I'm ecstatic.

Of course, it took a little while and a lot of annoying Denny/Izzy moments tonight to make that happen but in the end, it's worth it. Denny vanished with a quiet whooshing sound. I hope he stays gone. Seriously, if he pops up again, it's time to call an exorcist on Seattle Grace.

I won't say he wasn't annoying tonight. In fact, tonight was his most annoying episode. In what I suspect was supposed to be heartfelt sorrow that he knew it was time to tell Izzy she might, in fact, be dying, it turned out to be slightly vapid whining. And if he said "I'm here for you" one more time, I was about to throw the remote at the TV. WE GOT IT. WE KNOW. SHE'S SUPPOSED TO DIE. HE CAME TO HELP HER. SHUT UP, DENNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Uh, sorry, Denny irritated me more tonight than ever. I really hope he's gone. And, in honour of the fact that he might. truly. be. gone. this. time- I'm going to stop talking about Drippy Dead Denny now.

Aside from the Denny plot, I think the last three episode's of Grey's were some of the best in a long time. Eric Stoltz as serial killer, William, was fantastic. I love the polarizing effect he had on the staff. I love that Meredith could see why it was a waste of a perfectly good set of organs to keep him alive just so he could die a few days later. I love that although Derek and Christina opposed her, in the end, it didn't matter.

(Since I liked the plot so much, I won't point out the irritating fact that saving the serial killer's life probably cost a huge amount of money, not just in salaries but in equipment, time etc. I won't point out that even when the economy is good, there are people who can't afford to go to the doctor to treat an illness even when they're decent, honest people. And by not pointing that out, I also won't point out that since the serial killer was going to die anyway, essentially, Seattle Grace spent a huge amount of medical resources that could have saved the life and health of several others who weren't going to die a couple of days later anyway.)

Since it's TV, I'm suspending disbelief. I have to. It's Grey's and while there were moments I hated (DENNY!), there were almost those beautiful, poignant moments that make the show great. Those are the moments like Bailey's efforts to not cry in front of the chief even though she got too emotionally involved with her patient and wants nothing more than to sob and cry because he's going to be ok. Moments like Meredith's bravery and humanity in showing William compassion by being there as he was killed by lethal injection and her subsequent breakdown afterwards. Moments like Derek not understanding his girlfriend but loving her enough to know that sometimes a friend is what you need, not a boyfriend. And, finally, the moment where Christina sits next to Meredith and we know that even though we can't hear them, their friendship is renewed, that their quarrel is over.

This is why I love Grey's. It's farfetched and soap opera-esque but it still finds our emotional cores and burrows deep, forcing us to care, forcing us to want to know what happens next.

And yes, I know Lexie broke Mark Sloane's penis and that she now has a friend in Sadie but that was merely for comic relief, a way to break up the intensity of watching a little boy die while a serial killer gets to live.

It's episodes like these that make me glad I'm staying with the show. I'm sure in the weeks to come, I'll find something annoying but, at the very least, I think, finally, Denny is gone. Ding Dong, the Denny is (finally) dead!

Does that mean Izzie is dying? Now that, I could get behind. We shall have to wait and see.

There is NO Denny, There is NO Denny (Say it with me now)

2009-01-16T08:15:00.001-05:00

I've figured out how to make Grey's Anatomy good again. I simply ignore all contact and conversation between Izzie and Denny. It's that simple. It's actually getting easier each week; I think I've mysteriously trained my brain to ignore it and so tuning them out is rather simple.

That being said, I have to confess: I liked Grey's this week. Seriously.

Ignoring the Izzie breaking up with Dead Denny storyline (although, seriously, didn't you for just one moment wish, at the end of the episode, that Alex could see Denny too so that maybe he'd punch his lights out and send him back from whence he came?) I have to say, I'm liking the drama of the serial killer played by Eric Stoltz. I can't remember the serial killer's name so I'm just going to call him SK for now, ok?

Yes, it's farfetched and overly dramatic but it's working for me. I love that Meredith is continuing her journey from being dark and twisty to being a multifacited individual who can seperate herself from her boyfriend's wants and needs. I love that she's so torn about doing a kind thing for SK and knowing that he probably doesn't deserve it. I think that's a natural reaction; I mean, honestly, isn't wanting a serial killer to die still wanting to take a life, no matter how much the killer deserves it? That's a heavy issue and I'm not going to start a debate about the death penalty. Yet I think SK was right when he told Derek that they were two sides of the same coin. SK wanted to take the victim's life because it made him feel better, regardless of how twisted that is. He took his victim's freedom of choice away. Derek wants to save SK's life so that he can die by capital punishment, taking away SK's freedom of choice. It's different...but it's not.

I like that the show is making me think. What would I do? Would I be compassionate, like Meredith, treating SK like he's any patient or would I be like Derek, bitter and slightly self-righteous because of a personal tragedy that occured because of someone like SK?

I don't like that Sadie is trying to be sympathetic. She's going away though, thank goodness, according to several TV spoiler sites. Thank goodness; maybe we can get Meredith and Christina back on track.

Because, let's face it, they need each other. Tonight, Meredith had the terrifying task of meeting Derek's mother, even though she's 'not good with parents'. Christina got asked out on a date by Dr. Hunt. Normally, there would be scenes of angsty discussion where they snarkily exchange information that shows the deep bond that holds their friendship together. Instead, they had to turn to Izzie, which is NEVER a good idea. Izzie has terrible judgment. She falls in love with dying patients, cuts their LVAD wires, saves a deer in the parking lot instead of being inside the hospital, she breaks up marriages and declares herself to be in love with George when the only chemistry they really have is the momentum of the wrongness of their being together. Now she has Alex hooked, poor, emotionally stunted Alex who is trying harder than he's ever tried to be right for Izzie. She's trying, I'll give her that. She tried to kick Denny to the curb but he didn't go.

Yet she is no substitute as a friend for Christina or Meredith. Izzie is too perky, too sunshiny to be helpful to Meredith and too fluffy to help with Christina's romantic issues. Meredith and Christina need each other and I'm hoping that they realize that sooner than later because it's hard to watch them skate around one another, the tension so thick it's visible.

So, overall, it was a good episode, ignoring that Dead Denny stuff. I can't wait until next week, which is definitely a forgotten feeling with Grey's as of late. I want to see if SK really does save the life of little Jackson, whether even a serial killer can find redemption by saving a life. We'll have to see, I suppose.

The "House" Drinking Game

2009-01-15T11:46:00.002-05:00

It's time for me to pick on House. Let me say upfront, I love Hugh Laurie. Being British, I appreciated him long before he became Gregory House; I particularly love him in his small, surly-but-kind role in Sense and Sensibility.

However, I've been watching House for a number of years now. I had the opportunity to catch a marathon on cable over the holidays. During this marathon, I was watching one episode and I remember glancing at the clock and seeing it was 25 minutes into the episode. Dr. House and his team of useless twits were trying to diagnose a difficult disease and throwing out guesses. I thought, "Well, we know they're wrong. We still have 25 minutes before House has his weekly epiphany". Then, at exactly 50 minutes into the episode, presto! House figures it out.

It led me to realize that while I enjoy Dr. House, the show is horribly predictable. I won't go into detail about how I used to think Dr. House was an arsehole but he had some redeeming qualities but, lately, he's just a miserable man with few redeeming qualities. He's mean, cruel and selfish. Not much is new there, I know but there are fewer and fewer moments where I care about him anyway.

Enough of that. Since my epiphany over the break, I decided to try a House drinking game. So, without further ado, here it is:

Take a sip:

General:

When House says the patient of the week is lying.
When House insults Foreman
When House says something inappropriate about Cuddy's breasts
When House bursts into Wilson's office to talk about Cuddy
Take a bonus sip when House uses metaphors to talk about his relationship with Cuddy
When House calls Dr. Kutner "Kumar"
When House mocks 13 for having Huntington's Disease
When House makes a racial slur to anyone
When House does something illegal
When any character breaks into a patient’s house

Diagnoses/medical conditions/treatment:

When any of the doctors suspect the patient of the week is on drugs and a tox screen is ordered
When the diagnosis is suggested to be any of the following;

Sarcoidosis
Lupus
Legionnaire's disease
Allergy to _____(fill in the blank)
Pancreatitis (chronic or otherwise)
Cushing's/Kawasaki's/Parkinson's disease
Poisoning (any type)
Lymphoma
Cancer of whatever organ just bled/exploded/failed
Toxoplasmosis
Tuleremia

When any patient starts bleeding from an unexpected place
When they give a patient steroids
When a patient needs chemotherapy/radiation even though they might not have cancer
When a patient suddenly loses one of their senses (sight, vision, etc)

Characters:

When "13" gets the diagnosis wrong
When Foreman acts self-righteous and then realizes he's just like House
When Chase appears on the screen for more than 2 minutes
When Cuddy scolds House for going against her orders
When House gets his ephiphany re: the diagnosis in the last ten minutes of the episode
When Cameron gets emotionally involved with a patient
When Taub says something really mean but is dead-on in his accuracy

Take a big drink:

When Wilson stands up to House and House actually listens
When bad things happen during an MRI
When a patient actually has one of the diseases listed above
When a patient’s kidneys or liver fails
When a patient has a cardiac incident and is saved at the last moment
When House takes a vicodin, someone comments and he offers a smart remark
When House eats someone else’s food or makes them buy him lunch

Drink the entire thing:

If someone other than House makes the correct diagnosis
When the patient isn’t actually lying about anything
When House plays the piano because he’s sad and alone
When a prostitute is present in the episode
When Cuddy wears something that doesn’t show off her breasts
When House says something genuinely nice to someone and means it
When Wilson has a patient of his own

So, there it is for now. Feel free to modify it any way you like or make up your own rules. I just really wanted to see how many predictable things there were in an episode. I know this isn't the only game out there either. Happy drinking!

Dancing it Out with Grey's Anatomy

2009-01-08T22:03:00.004-05:00

I haven't done a TV blog for a while. It's hard in the holiday season- mostly because shows are all in repeats and there's not much to complain about. One of these days, I'm going to do a House drinking game; I need to consult a friend on that but it's not exactly going to be hard. I watched a couple of House marathons over the break and, let me tell you, that show, back-to-back...is WAY boring and predictable.

Today though, I'm going to do a brief blog about Grey's Anatomy. When I started this blog, I didn't mean for it to turn into all Grey's, all the time. Except that's what it seems to be. That may be because despite it's flaws and terribly plot twists this season, it's still my favourite show. Grey's is my security blanket, my way to lose an hour, guilt-free, glass of wine in hand on a Thursday night. It's the perfect night for it: Close enough to the weekend that I can relax but still a workday so I'm still home.

Tonight, I have to say, I enjoyed the show. I still don't enjoy the fact that Denny's STILL around. I already posted about that though, a couple of times. I'm fed up with Jeffrey Dean Morgan now. I think the writer's might be too- he's been reduced to a wisecracking shadow- a blip on the radar of the show. I'm hoping that means he's on his way out, even if he takes Izzie with him. I liked him when he was a live character and I'm sure the writers have the best of intentions now but, honestly, I no longer care about him. I can't even go back to my DVD's and view him the same way- that's a bad thing to do to a formerly beloved character. Sorry, Shonda and co. but I now, officially, hate Denny.

I know there are people that think Denny shouldn't have died in the first place; I disagree with those people. His death was poignant. The "Chasing Cars" montage in which the interns gather around Izzie was one of the most powerful moments on the show. As a writer, I know that sometimes you have to kill a character to make their life mean something. That's what Denny used to be for me.

Moving on from Denny, I'm still bitterly disappointed that Meredith and Christina aren't speaking. I've mentioned that they were my favourite relationship on the show. I know that, in real life, friend's fight. Yet I think it's time someone gave a little. I can't stand to see them not speaking. Mostly, I can't stand to see Sadie being the voice of wisdom. Actually, I just can't stand Sadie.

Yet tonight did have some redeeming moments for the first time in a couple of weeks. I'm intrigued by Dr. Hunt's ability to summarize the world around him yet do little about it. He's astute but he's not doing much about those observations. He's proved he's a doer- our very first introduction to him had him stapling up his own injuries. So why can't he be the one to bash Meredith and Christina's heads together?

Yes...wishful thinking, I know. I will say that Derek redeemed himself tonight. I was a little confused by his coldness towards the death row inmate. Yet his explanation to Meredith was honest, short and to the point. I love the evolution of Meredith and Derek as a couple. They really have grown and it's a wonderful thing.

My favourite moment though was Derek's dancing. I'm a sucker for a bad dancing sequence. One of my favourite TV moments ever is the episode of Angel in season 1 in which Angel goes to a party, acts like a wallflower and imagines what would happen if he danced. It's pure comedy when you see how bad his dancing really is. I laugh aloud every time I see it.

Derek's dancing tonight was like that. But it was wonderful because he didn't care. He did it for Meredith because her usual 'dance it out' partner- Christina- wasn't there with her. It was the best moment on the show in months.

So I'm not giving up on Grey's. I can't. I thought that the break between the last episode in December and this new one would make me realize I didn't like the show anymore. It didn't. Instead, it made me realize that like a true friend, I have to give it a chance. I have to be willing to forgive. That's what I expect Meredith and Christina to do for one another so it's only fair I try the same outlook.

It doesn't mean I'm forgiving the Denny stuff but I'm trying. Don't let me down, Shonda and co. Please.

SWF Seeks Decent TV Recap Site

2008-12-17T10:49:00.005-05:00

I wrote a blog a while ago regarding the demise of the Television Without Pity website. The nice thing is that people are reading it and people are agreeing with me.

Lately, I've had some downtime at work and have been reading old recaps. I've tried to read the new ones but I'm finding them increasingly sloppy and dull. I'm disappointed in the writers I used to enjoy. M. Giant, for example, has been assigned to The Office. This should be a good thing but, unfortunately, he seems a little bored by the show. I've enjoyed his recaps of 24 and Six Feet Under in the past and he's funny. He always had just the right amount of snark to be witty but not enough to seem cruel. However, his recaps of The Office are, frankly, boring. I'm disappointed. One of my favourite things to do at work when I have a break is read about my TV shows. Entertainment Weekly has a pretty decent TV Watch column that recaps shows but like TWOP, it's hit and miss. Their Office recaps leave a lot to be desired, mixing up cutesy with entertaining. The writer, Whitney Pastorak likes to refer to readers with annoying terms like Binder Clips. That gets old really quickly. Also, Whitney also doesn't always seem to watch the same show as the rest of us and her recaps often miss the funniest moments of the episode as well as not finding it funny when it is.

So, I turn to TWOP for a recap instead. Unfortunately, lately, it's a little like reading a synopsis of the show with none of the witty snark I once loved about this site. Yes, I want to know what happened on the episode but I've previously relied on the recap writers to laugh about or be annoyed about the show with us. Where's the clever humour that we used to get?

Speaking of Television About Pity, I think it's time for Jacob to get a better editor. I don't watch Ugly Betty regularly but I like to follow it if I miss it anyway. It's a cute show. Entertainment Weekly has stopped including the show on their TV Watch. I missed an episode and thought I'd turn to TWOP for their recaplet, just to see what I'd missed. I didn't want the full recap, I just wanted to know, in a nutshell, what had happened. Unfortunately, it lead to this recaplet (you might have to click on the URL at the top of the page to get the recaplet in a nutshell to which I'm referring). I've never been a fan of Jacob's recaps, I think he waffles and has pretentions that he's writing great literature. However, he used to be a little better edited so that his soapbox speeches and monologues about being gay weren't so blatant. We get it, Jacob. You're gay. You're proud. How exciting for you. Could we now have a recap in which we don't have to read about it AND in which we can actually understand what you're saying about the show? You want to grandstand, do it on your own blog. Let us read a recap of a TV show on Television Without Pity, ok?

Yes, I'm a little bitter. As I mentioned in my original post, I used to want to write for this show. Part of the reason I thought about doing a TV blog in the first place was to give back from the days I'd loved TWOP. Yet I don't want to copy them or do recaps of my own because it was once an original idea and I don't like to steal ideas like that.

I think my biggest problem with TWOP is that they don't always replace recappers when it's time. Occasionally, a recapper gets burned out and it shows in their writing. The recapper still stays on a show but the readers become subject to venomous and hate-filled posts about a show that really isn't that bad. As I pointed out before, there's a fine line between snark and bitterness. This reluctance to replace recappers has been going on even prior to Bravo's buyout of the site.

The best example is the former recapper known as Pamie. She was a recapper for Gilmore Girls. I've been reading past recaps since I'm rewatching the show and I have to say, she went from being funny to just being tiresome. In the beginning, she loved the show and her recaps were fresh, funny and well-observed. Somewhere around the third or fourth season, her love turned to hate and we readers were subjected to recaps in which she complained she was bored. These recaps became filled with important details from Pamie's life such as what was in her handbag, what music she was putting on her iPod and the inane and dull details of her upcoming wedding. She would give us this information under the guise that the show was too boring to recap.

The thing is like every job, if you hate it that much then leave. Seriously. The culmination of Pamie's loathing came during a recap for a Gilmore Girls episode in which she bitterly informed readers that she'd received a lot of emails that irritated her, that complained about her recaps. She even posted a couple of the emails which, for the most part, were dead-on in their accuracy and were polite and extremely kind. Unfortunately, rather than face the truth about her writing, Pamie launched into a recap that she wrote in two parts- her own embittered, dull and cruel writing and the voice of Stac(e)y, a fictional fangirl who adored the show. The problem was that Stac(e)y was an insult to all of the readers: She spoke in fangirl talk, using acronyms, exclamation points, and text speak. She gushed about the show and provided a thinly veiled cover for Pamie's own bitterness. It was insulting to the readers and rather than provide a snarky and clever retort as I think Pamie intended, it made her look ridiculous and proved that she could not take criticism. She finally 'left' her job a couple of recaps later under the pretense that she was too busy. My opinion is that the editors FINALLY realized it was time for her to move on. They were a little late; Pamie's moderate success as a novelist and screenwriter had allowed her ego to grow to the point where I think they couldn't control her. I could be wrong but read the recaps and you'll see what I mean.

Yet this inability to take criticism is echoed throughout the site, from Jacob's recaps to the forums. For a site that takes pride in mocking the work of other writers and loves the freedom of speech, the forums certainly don't reflect that. Forum posters are strictly bound to rules they must follow in order to be 'permitted' to participate. They can't insult or mock the writers because otherwise they'll be banned. The forums are so heavily moderated that it is impossible to have a good discussion about a show anymore.

I know I said most of this before in my earlier post but I've had a lot of supportive emails from people who've found me and agree with me. While I think the Bravo takeover drained the soul from the site completely, I think it was already in a decline before. The Bravo buyout hasn't done them any favours, it's a mishmash of videos and blogs that are hard to get through. They recently completely irritated me by listing "Love Actually" as one of their worst Christmas movies. "Love Actually" is fantastic. It's funny, poignant and brilliantly poignant. The ensemble cast is smooth and the moment where Andrew Lincoln's character holds the posters up for Kiera Knightly's character to tell her he loves her is one of the sweetiest non-sappy moments in any romantic comedy.

This post is really not to serve any purpose but to rant about the lack of decent TV recaps on the web anymore. If anyone has another site to point me to, I'd greatly appreciate it. I really want to break up with Television Without Pity because it just doesn't fill my compulsion to follow up on my TV shows anymore. I know TV is a vice but it's a vice I love. I love to talk about it, read about it and learn about it. I used to love to read the recaps but that love is fading fast and I don't want to lose it completely.

Thanks for reading. Feel free to comment or complain; I promise not to be passive-agressive and write a post mocking you for it.

Knowing the Truth About Denny Helps...Just a Little

2008-12-04T22:04:00.006-05:00

I cheated. I know why Izzie is seeing Denny on Grey's Anatomy. I'm glad I cheated. I can't say it makes it much better but it helped. A lot.

I read a lot of entertainment news. I try to avoid spoilers unless they're staring me in the face. That happened today. I went on Entertainment Weekly's website to see which movies were opening this weekend and there it was, the Michael Ausiello scoop on why Denny is back on Grey's. If you don't want to know, don't read any further because I'm going to spoil it. But I guarantee, if you do know, it will make it slightly more bearable.

That's what happened for me tonight. According to Ausiello, Izzie has some kind of brain problem that isn't a tumour but, rather, some form of aneurysm that causes her to see visions of Denny when it acts up. Knowing this made the show suddenly more bearable. It doesn't mean I like Izzie because, as I've said before, I don't. I've tried. It's not happening.

But it gives the sudden appearance of Denny a somewhat logical explanation which sometimes I don't need but when it comes to TV shows, sometimes I need those. It doesn't mean I think it was a good idea to bring Jeffrey Dean Morgan back to play Denny yet again. Surely there must be some other show he can go be killed on; he's got quite a history, what with his turns as Dead Hero on Grey's, Weeds, Supernatural and in the movie "P.S., I Love You."

But at least it means that Grey's isn't strolling into CBS's Ghost-Whispery territory. That's something, at least.

I'm not going to change my mind about the way this season is going though. Tonight's episode didn't make me happy. I don't like that there's suddenly a magical vent in Seattle Grace that brings a sudden calm and need for kissing. There's enough places that inspire the need for kissing in that hospital already, we definitely don't need another one. I don't like that Dr. Hunt has now completely gone from being Interesting New Guy Who Might Actually Do Something Other than Make Out with Another Doctor to being New Guy Who's Already Kissing Another Doctor. I don't like that Erica Hahn left Seattle Grace because Callie couldn't completely commit to being gay and yet has been replaced by the ultra-annoying, Sadie. Especially when I can't help but notice that occasionally in an effort to be sexy, Melissa George can look remarkably like a hamster.

I also don't like the new heart surgeon with Aspergers because I think the actress is overdoing the disorder. Aspergers is a very mild form of autism but it is not autism. Asperger's sufferers are usually highly functional. As far as I know, it doesn't make the afflicted person lose all humanity and blurt out inappropriate statistics related to organ donation in front of an obviously suffering family. Yes, the need to concentrate on statistics might be there and that the usual filter that prevents people from put their foot in their mouth is lacking but it doesn't make the person forget how to be human and ignore every obvious clue that the family is not ready to hear the diagnosis, especially in such a cruel and heartless manner. Also, if she was that incapable of understanding humans, how did she make it through med school? I get that she's the best of the best BECAUSE she's so focused on the science and facts of medicine but I doubt a doctor like that would be interacting with patients when it's clearly offensive and rude to the patients. Yes, understanding disabilities and treating those with disabilities no differently to non-disabled people is important but when it comes to causing borderline emotional harm or devastation to a family, I think it's time to get her off the floor. I'm proud of Meredith for kicking her out of the room. I'm actually proud of Meredith for the way she's grown this season, actually, even if she and Derek have almost no screen time anymore.

And as for Lexie and Sloan, well, I went from thinking Lexie was just a complete drip to now thinking she needs to go away. I feel like this season, the writers are not watching the same show that we are. It's painfully obvious that Callie and Sloan are good for one another. They're good at sex, they're good at being friends. That's an obvious pairing. But no, for some reason, the writers keep throwing Lexie at us, even though she's served no purpose whatsoever other than whiny annoyance. They've now forced Sloane and Lexie together. My suspicion is because they think it's a bit naughty and slightly sensational. It is not. It is contrived and forced. There is NO reason that the two would go together other than the fact that it gives yet another reason for Mark and Derek to go back to being foes rather than friends. The renewing of their friendship has been one of the best things on Grey's over the last season.

But apparently, friends are no longer the in-things on the show, anyway. After all, Meredith and Christina are bickering because of a contrived little detail. Last week, Meredith reacted to the fact that Christina knew the interns were being self-mutiliating idiots with a very human reaction: Shock. She had no time to think: "Oooh, must stick to the code. Must protect friend." She merely reacted to the news as anyone would. This has now caused friction in the friendship because Christina feels betrayed. Well, yeah, I'm sure that would happen but in the first season, Meredith stole Christina's surgery because she was sleeping with Derek and yet the two became best friends right afterwards. Christina, usually the cool-headed one, logical and sensible, is not acting like Christina. She's acting like Izzie and I don't like that.

There were moments I did like, moments that are classic Grey's: The scene in which the younger sister has to talk to her brain-dead older sister was classically heartbreaking. The awesomeness of Miranda Bailey never fails to impress. The scene in which the woman realized she could talk again. These are the good parts that make Grey's good. They may not be very realistic but they're good TV. If we could just do away with the pesky doctors and their overblown personal issues, it'd be good again.

I'm ignoring Denny's presence now. It was actually quite easy tonight. I find that if I mentally just ignore the scenes with Denny and Izzie, it makes the show much better. Even though I know why Denny's back, doesn't mean I want to watch Izzie having 'fantastic sex' with him. That's just stupid. We get that Izzie always manages to have "mind-blowing sex". Really. It's not the first time. We get it. She likes sex. Now stop showing us. Now that we know Denny isn't really there makes it even more disturbing. Surely SOMEONE has to notice she thinks she's having sex with a ghost. But, wait, this is Grey's. No one notices anything until the writers thinks it's time.

Which leads me to suggest that maybe, instead of waiting until February to explain Denny's presence, maybe they should do it now. I know I'm not alone in hating the storyline but at least, now, because I know the reason, it's more tolerable. It's already gone on too long. It's time to end it. Now.

So, apparently, I now have a weekly Grey's blog. I'm hoping the show will redeem itself next year. I have a few weeks off before it's back on the air. Maybe with the new year will come a new faith in the writers. Maybe it'll make me like seeing Denny.

But then again, probably not.

So...About "Heroes"...

2008-12-02T12:00:00.004-05:00

I blogged about Heroes before. I'm trying so hard to stick with this show because once in a while it does something smart, like cast Seth Green and Breckin Meyer as comic book geeks. I try to pretend I'm not a geek but, frankly, the older I get, the geekier I become. I love Iron Man, I love The Sandman and I enjoy going to Comic-con. That's as close to a confession as you're ever going to get.

So, I keep watching this show. I actually enjoyed the episode a couple of weeks ago in which Hiro spirit-walked or whatever to a year earlier. It was nice to see the show and cast acting like the past year never happened. I think it might have been a metaphor, I'm not sure.

But now, we're back to the present (fortunately NOT to the future, that plot device seems to on hold for now, thankfully). And I'm still slightly baffled. I usually like to let my imagination go and ignore things that defy reality on TV. But now, along with Grey's Ghost Whispery Anatomy, I'm getting really, really fed up with shows that assume we'll go along for the ride even though we know we're being screwed around.

Heroes, for example. I know, I know, it's fantasy. I'm ok with that. I'm not ok with stupid plot devices that defy the conventions of superheroes in a realistic world. They make me ask questions such as:

1)An eclipse that lasts two hours....really? Also, how come none of the Heroes figured out the connection but a comic book geek does it without any cerebral effort?

2) The comic book, 9th Wonders: Last week, I wondered who was mysteriously still drawing it now Isaac Mendez is dead. Then we find out that Isaac apparently published enough issues to cover the events of almost two entire seasons that occured AFTER HE WAS DEAD. Now, if you were a person who could see the future and knew you were gonna die, would you really spend the time until that death drawing comic books? I mean, I know V.C. Andrews has had a lot of new books since "she" died but there's a whole ghost writing thing going on there. What would be cool if Isaac was ghost writing them. I mean, really ghost writing them. I liked Isaac. He was much better to watch paint than Arthur Petrelli.

3) Why is Hiro still around? Really? Why couldn't Arthur eat his powers the way he did to Peter? He did that head-sucking thing, couldn't he just remove the powers completely? Why, oh why, have we been reduced to watching Hiro doing the pee-pee dance and eating chicken and waffles?
And how come all it takes for Hiro to time travel is to screw up his face and he can do it? He did that for hours in the first episode of the show and nothing happens. Now, Ando tells him that's all he has to do and YATTA!: Hiro time travels?

4) What happened to Hayden Panettiere's acting? I think she used to be fairly good. Now she's painful. That scene last week with Noah in which she played Buffy to Noah's Giles was painful. We get it, she's a tough girl. She's angry at Noah but, dude, seriously? He's TRYING TO STOP THE BAD MEN. Claire ran away and ended up almost being puppet-mastered in her attempts and she IS a Hero. Noah has no abilities and managed to slice Sylar's throat with his sheer Noah-ness. Noah would work well with Jack Bauer.

5) Why is Mohinder still on the show? He's always been annoying. He was interesting when he had to observe the Heroes while remaining merely human. Now he's gone all scaley and buggy, he's vile. And why is he pining after Maya? Seriously, she's gone. We were HAPPY when she went away. Please, please, Mohinder, go away and do NOT make us watch any more Maya story lines.

6) Matt Parkman: Greg Grunberg, I liked you on Alias. I liked you as Dead Pilot on "Lost". I even liked you on Felicity. But please, please, please, either grow a personality or leave. I liked the turtle. I liked that you even said "high five, turtle" because you're cute and funny and sweet. But your character is useless. Your reaction to Daphne's crutches was just plain dumb. "What are those for" or whatever it was you actually said? Really? How were you ever a cop? And why do you look like you have something in your ear whenever you try to read someone's mind?

7) Sylar: Are you good or bad? Because I can't tell. I think that might be the point but it'd be better if it wasn't in five minute increments. Also, are you SO dumb you believed Arthur Petrelli and his attempts to manipulate you? Go back to Noah- you two made an awesome team. I hope you did kill Elle though. I like Veronica Mars but I just watched "Pulse" and I'm beginning to question Kristen Bell's script choosing abilities. Granted, this could have been a good role and she does ok with it but, well, the role is annoying. She was much more interesting in her first episode when she appeared to be unbalanced and slightly crazy. Now she's just annoying.

9) How come the Haitian's presence prevents the Heroes powers from working and yet Nathan was able to use his Super Flying Ability to push the Haitian's evil brother into a car? Also, if the Haitian hadn't found Nathan and Peter in the jungle last week, how were they planning on finding him? Were they going to walk around Haiti and say "We're looking for The Haitian"? Uh, yeah, I would like to have known how that would have gone.

10) Where's Mr. Muggles? Just wondering. I liked him.

I could go on for hours. Obviously, the show is not making me happy. I'd like some feedback on my questions. I'm sure I'm just being obtuse and not getting the deepness that I'm supposed to. However, I find myself watching the show and being very irritated during and afterwards. This is not good. I watch it right after Prison Break which, for all it's absurdity, is still terribly fun and entertaining. That's way more than I can say about Heroes, right now.

Oh, Grey's, What are you DOING?

2008-11-20T23:01:00.007-05:00

On a normal Friday morning, my routine is normally pretty standard. I go to work. Since I'm an early-bird, I'm usually in early enough that I can write one of my daily blogs and, occasionally, throw one out to my Captain TV blog. I'm a TV junkie. I like to write about my shows whenever the urge hits.

Except tonight, since I'm in the EST viewing area, I've already watched Grey's Anatomy. And now I'm even more worried than I was last week.

This is supposed to be a general TV blog but it seems to be turning into a Grey's Anatomy worry-fest. Normally, I'd be writing about all the shows I love, shows I can't miss on a weekly basis. Normally I'd wait for the Grey Matter blog to show up, to make sense of the show I just watched. But tonight, I can't. I'm too agitated. Picture me pacing up and down, up and down. That's why I'm writing this, fresh after watching the latest episode.

The reasons I used to love Grey's are myriad. They are a collective of wishes and hopes for the show. But, in essence, here are the reasons I liked the show and believed in it:

Because Meredith and Derek were really good together and as soon as they started acting like grown-ups, I knew it would work out.

George will always be a bit of a wuss but he has a good heart and it always shows through in the end.

Alex Karev is a tough guy with a heart of stone but he is just waiting for the perfect moment for the stone to dissolve and he'll reveal the fact that he is a softy at heart.

Because I want Callie Torrez to realize she is worth so much more than George or Hahn and that she and Mark Sloan will flirt but never quite declare the fact that they are perfect together.

Bailey is always be the smart, amazing, cool force that keeps Seattle Grace running and keeps the surgeries treacherous, tough but always possible.

Because Izzie will always annoy me but she always have moments in which I actually like her.

Because I believed Meredith and Christina's friendship would be the ship to weather all Grey's storms, whether ferry-boat disasters, near-bomb experiences, bad relationship choices and bad, stupid, contrived stupid-intern-created surgeries.

Now, most of those will happen and have happened. And Shonda and her gang could pull the show back to reality and make it happen. But, after tonight, the last three on my list....well, I'm a little skeptical.

Izzie Stephens is seeing ghosts. No, correction, a ghost. She's seeing Denny, played by the excellent Jeffrey Dean Morgan (who really needs to find a gig in which he's not dead, dying, or a ghost). At the moment, we don't know if she's sick, crazy or she's seeing what is really there.

Here's the thing. I don't care. Denny died. I liked him while he was alive. He made me smile and cry. Then he died. I moved on. Izzie did too. She moved on to George. She ruined his marriage. She gave the mass amounts of inheritance that Denny left her to Seattle Grace, a sign that she'd moved on. Then she continued her move forward towards Alex, another troubled soul. That wasn't so bad. I like Alex. I think he's interesting because we don't know that much about him and he has these moments in which he's a nice guy. They might be mere moments but they're enough to keep us fascinated. Izzie liked him too. She'd moved past Denny.

And, then, BAM! Hey, look, Denny's back! He's hot. He's in his white t-shirt. He's having sex with Izzie. He patiently smiles while she goes off to sleep with Alex. He's perfect.

But he's still dead. He died with dignity and poignancy. He's been revived in flashbacks and (near)death experiences. But he's dead. Until now. Now he's free to make Izzie moan like a porno and make her ignore the career that could lift her up from the depths of her grief.

Yet, that's not the worst part. The worst part of the show is suddenly my very favourite relationship is in jeopardy. Yes, Meredith and Christina are not getting along. And I'm furious.

Let it be known that I hate fan-fiction. Let it be known that slash fiction, erotica, and non-canon pairings make me cringe. I find it a poor substitute for reality. My Meredith and Christina never became a pairing in my mind, never was it more than what it was on the show: A friendship that was real, true and relatable.

And thus, tonight, I wanted to throw the remote at the TV. I HATE that suddenly, the 'you're my person' relationship has been ruined by the need for shock value, by the need to boost the ratings. Yes, I know Melissa George has a nice accent and that, by many, she's considered sexy. I know that the show isn't as exciting as it was because it's no longer a new show and has become a habit and a routine for Thursday Night TV watchers.

Who cares? I, for one, salute routine. I love the fact that I make sure I have my glass of red wine and my cosy couch in order to fully enjoy my Grey's Anatomy. I watched Alias. I tried to like Melissa George on that show, to try to distance myself from the fact that she'd married Vaughn after he'd thought Sydney was dead. I knew she'd turn out to be evil and she was, naturally. I liked being right.

And now she's on Grey's and, sadly, I don't care. I really wanted her to die onscreen tonight. I really wanted her to be the brave step that the writers were taking to pare down their desperate efforts to throw as many characters at us as they could, to try to make one of them stick.

None of them are sticking. Not even Kevin McKidd. I liked his character at first. I liked that he stapled his own leg closed. I like that he made out with Christina, just because. And then he came back and there was a Before and an After and I was a little worried. Then the writer's gave him a personality: He was the doctor that didn't like the soap-opera of Seattle Grace. He was the doctor that wanted to help the patients.

Yeah...that lasted for a week. Now he's sitting on Christina's stoop, waiting to kiss her again. I HATE that he's already succumbed to the fact that no (featured) Grey's doctor is irrisistable, that he must plant on his lips on Dr. Yang, A.S.A.P.

Don't get me wrong: I haven't given up on Grey's. I don't even want to. I love my Thursday nights; I love the catharsis I feel in watching the doctors screw up both professionally and personally. But one thing I could count on is that Christina and Meredith were the solid relationship on the show. That they were both screwed up just enought that they could talk to each other, rely on each other. But tonight, even that is in doubt and it scares me even more than the Return of Dead Denny does.

I don't understand why the writers can't just go with something when it's successful without wanting more. I don't understand why Seattle Grace can't have even but a few weeks in which they actually practice real medicine. I hate that the interns were stupid. I hate that Meredith and Christina are fighting. I hate that Izzie is talking to a dead man and we're supposed to just go with it.

Most of all, I hate that the one constant bright spot in my TV viewing week is tarnished by its own quest to shock, excite and gather viewers due to Blatant Writing Acts of Stupidity. I don't care why Denny is back. I just want him to go away. I want Sadie and the rest of the stupid interns to go away, to fade into the background in which they belong. Most of all, I want the show to give Sloan the storyline he richly deserves, to give Callie a chance at happiness and to show us that Christina, Meredith and Derek can all be friends because they're grown ups.

Ok, so I know it's TV and, thus, true grown-ups don't exist. But I can dream. And if dreaming means that Grey's loses its ghosts and gives LIVE characters a chance at having an on-screen personality that isn't tied to sex, sexual preference, or willingness to perform in the On-Call room, then I won't give up. Yet.

You can make Izzie nuts, you can make Denny real again, you can make him a mystical, Twilight-esque love (complete with allergic reaction from all sane adults who have read the insipid Stephanie Meyer series) But if you really destroy the Christina-Meredith "You're my Person" relationship then that's it.... I can't watch anymore. That's the relationship that resonates. That's the one that we get. Because when we're as mental and nuts as we can be, it's the friends who are there to pick up the pieces that matter. And Christina and Meredith are those friends, they're the ones who never fail one another, no matter how many stupid death-defying interns try to interfere. Don't make me worry about Bailey either. She's our rock. She's the force that guides us through the storm. She's an excellent General Surgeon. She almost gave up her marriage for that and now we're supposed to believe she's suddenly bored, even though the chief is letting her do domino procedures?

Also, let's not discuss the fecal transplant storyline. That goes back to the need for shock value except it doesn't really shock, it's just disgusting. I think it was supposed to be funny because there are people who always find poop funny. I, for one, don't. I do NOT want to think about that poor woman having to have poop go through her nose. Can we not find a better medical storyline than that? Seriously?

Don't desert us now, Shonda and the gang. Please. Don't be a Stephanie Meyer, falling in love with your fictional character (Denny) and unable to give him the dignity he deserves. Instead, let him go. Let Izzie move back to life. Death is hard but it's final. Disappointment and disillusion linger. Forever. Remember that.

Just give us back the Grey's that we love. Exorcise the ghosts. Clean up Seattle-Grace. It's ok. We don't mind. Seriously. Denny can Rest in Peace. We've already dealt with his death a couple of times. It's time you did too. Seriously.

Private Practice: No more TiVo for you!

2008-11-20T09:13:00.004-05:00

I find there's a slow progression to breaking up with a TV show. If you're a TV junkie like me, TV shows are a little like a good relationship. When it's good, it's good and when it's bad, it's like a beatrayal. I've broken up with a few long-term-relationship shows before. I was with ER for almost 8 years before the African episodes with Benton and Carter made me realize I was too bored and unfulfilled to keep watching it. I broke up with Lost once because it irritated me and made me angry. I gave it another chance after hearing so many people tell me how amazing the finale of Season 2 was. Right now, I'm back on with Lost- I hope it's a lasting relationship this time.

At the moment, I'm going through a breakup with Private Practice. I gave it two seasons. Mostly, I watched it because I liked Addison Montgomery, who'd brought a spark into the walls of Seattle Grace on Grey's Anatomy. I also watched it because I love Taye Diggs. He's nice to look at, his voice is like velvet and I find him dynamically interesting. Usually. The final icing on the cake was Paul Adelstein who I had LOVED as Agent Kellerman on Prison Break. Agent Kellerman was awesome. He would have worked really well with Jack Bauer. If Jack Bauer was slightly evil. I'm hoping that he comes back to Prison Break. It would add to the ludicrously fun silliness of the show.

I've been trying to have faith in Shonda Rhimes.Greys had me a little worried last year but I trusted and believed and it got better again. Lately, Grey's is frightening me with it's potential-shark-jumping silliness (Read my previous blog for my take on that). But I believed in Shonda. She'd given me one show that I devoured weekly, loving the soapy-steam of Seattle Grace. I followed her to Private Practice. It was slower than Grey's, the doctors more grown-up, the slightly-cliche California hippy-chic setting cleaner and less messy than Grey's.

The thing was it wasn't really the Addison I'd loved on Grey's. She lost a lot of her steel and fire, she whined. She'd always been a grown-up on Grey's, her skill, expertise and no-nonsense attitude making her into a great doctor who cared but not too much. She started mooning over a man immediately as soon as she left Seattle Grace. She didn't fit. Kate Walsh didn't fit. The private practice itself, Oceanside Wellness, was annoying and filled with characters who were supposed to be quirky but turned out to be irritating. Most of the time I found myself wondering exactly how Violet the psychiatrist managed to get a license to practice because she's crazier and more unbalanced than most of her patients. Paul Adelstein's character was formerly addicted to internet chat rooms where he set up dates with women because he was supposed to be pathetically lovelorn. He's the pediatrician. I don't know if I'd want my kid to see him.

The first season was somewhat entertaining if a little uneven. I didn't really like any of the doctors much but I wanted to be as addicted as I was to Grey's.

So I started watching the second season and, well, frankly, I'm bored. I'm so bored with the routine of sex-scenes-in-the-beginning, bickering in the middle, sappy at the end. I hate the doctors, even Addison at times. I don't care about them. I've given it five episodes now and I'm done. The show is boring. Nothing happens. I don't care about any of those people. In fact, part of me sort of wants an earthquake episode in which Oceanside Wellness gets swept into the murky grey of the Pacific Ocean. They're terrible doctors. They come and go as they please. They have sex a lot. I have no problem with sex but I at least want to care about the characters so I'm happy for them. I like Addison's boyfriend, not as a character but because he's played by David Sutcliffe who was Christopher from Gilmore Girls.

At this point, I feel as though should be pointing out tips for improving it, finding ways to make it more enjoyable. But I can't. It's the type of TV viewing situation in which it's better to just put it out of it's misery. However, I would like to propose the following:

Paul Adelstein goes back to Prison Break and has a spin off with William Fichner as "Mahone and Kellerman: Agents of Doom" (or something to that effect).

Addison goes back to Seattle Grace, exorcises Denny and gets rid of all the new interns except Lexi. She sits Lexi down, lectures her on how pathetic and whiny she is and how she needs to grow a backbone. Lexi, in turn, gives Meredith a few pointers and the two sisters actually get along as well as co-existing. She also develops a specialty in Cardiothorasics so we can stop having heart surgeons who leave or have Aspergers.

Taye Diggs and David Sutcliffe should get a new script that is funny and suits them both. They should invite Jeffrey Dean Morgan to join them. As a living character. Who does not die. And then comes back again. Several times.

Chris Lowell should go back to Veronica Mars. Which would mean reviving the show. Which would be fantastic.

Everyone else can find their own projects. I like Audra McDonald so I'd be ok with her going elsewhere. Amy Brenneman has never been my favourite and Tim Daly is too smarmy for my tastes, no matter what role he's in.

But in the immediate future, it's time for me to break up with the show. I find that if you record a show and then make excuses for not watching it, it's time to face reality and give it up. That's how I feel about Private Practice. Maybe if Shonda lets it go with whatever dignity it can gather (though it's low on that in the first place), she can turn her attention back to Grey's and stop the gathering storm of mystical silliness that is gathering there. What I don't get is that this show gets to stay on the air and Pushing Daisies is in jeopardy. There's something not quite right about that.

But then, if TV executives listend to the fans, we'd have a lot more good TV and a lot less crap. And we can't have that now, can we?

[Ghost] Whispery Worries about Grey's Anatomy

2008-11-14T18:22:00.007-05:00

Last week, I was a little hard on Izzie Stephens. It doesn't change the fact that I find her to be an annoying character and that Katherine Heigl just isn't my favourite actress but I was hard on her.

This week, I'm going to be a little hard on Grey's Anatomy. Call it tough love. To be fair, I usually read the recaps on Entertainment Weekly's TV watch as well as the Grey Matter blog by the writers of each episode. I haven't done that yet and so my opinion is based purely on what I'm seeing on the show, rather on where they're trying to take it.

The thing with Grey's is that it's always been one of those shows that never quite stayed on the line of reality and often ventured into rather silly territory yet because of the writing and the acting, I never minded. I know it has a lot of soap-opera moments. I know that no hospital would really permit residents and interns to go at it like rabbits in the on-call room. I know that most hospitals have a lot more doctors and that their love lives are not nearly as interesting as those on Grey's.

But some of my favourite episodes have been the ones that have been a little unrealistic but still excellently done. The End of the World...As We Know It are two of the best episodes of TV ever. The bomb, the tension, the drumbeats...all executed brilliantly.

Ok, so last year with the ferry boat crash and Meredith's dying-and-seeing-ghosts worried me a little but I trusted Shonda Rhimes and her staff to bring it back to reality and, to be fair, they did. The show came back down to earth and though there were still some not-so-great-storylines, they weren't enough to worry me.

Until now. Last night's episode has me worried. Izzie's seeing Denny again. I won't go into a tirade of why they can't just let Denny be gone. I liked him as a character but I'd actually much rather see Kyle Chandler as a ghost because I liked his snarky-yet-sensible attitude a lot. But then that wouldn't mean that Kyle Chandler had time to make Grey's episodes which would mean Friday Night Lights wasn't in production...which would be a very, very bad thing. Friday Night Lights is fantastic TV, worth all of the praise that's heaped on it. If you haven't watch it, run out and rent it. Now. It's that good.

But Denny's not gone. He's back. He's a ghost. I don't like that because Grey's while a little far-fetched, has never gone into that weird ghost-whispery territory aside from the Ferry Faux Pas episodes. Now it's going there. I don't know if it means Izzie has a brain tumour that's giving her visions, he's really there or she's going nuts but I don't like that Denny is walking the walls of Seattle Grace again because it just doesn't fit the show. I also don't want some contrived plot line in which we discover Denny isn't dead. But since no one else seems to see Denny, I don't think that's likely. Worst of all would be if Shonda was trying to go for a 'it's really happening because sometimes magical things happen' because that isn't the Grey's we love either.

The show is about our motley crew of residents, flawed and imperfect and yet still fun and interesting to watch. The show is about the relationships of those people. It's not a show about ghosts. I haven't bothered to read the spoilers about future episodes but I'm sure there's a reason Izzie is seeing Denny. And it's going to bother no matter what it is because I already don't like Izzie. She always gets the silly story lines. That's not her fault but she never reacts well to them and I end up not liking her. Don't give me another reason to not like her. Let's just let her concentrate on being a decent doctor. She's definitely not that at the moment. She's too busy crying all over her patients to actually practice medicine.

And then there's the interns. I get that they're not getting the hands-on experience they want. But what I don't get is that no one has done anything realistic about it. Lexi and her band of newbie doctors are angry and upset that Christina and their residents aren't letting them do anything, aren't teaching them anything. So instead of the sensible route, perhaps going to Bailey, the beacon of all things Reasonable and Sensible at Seattle Grace and telling her that they really want to learn but their residents are being selfish bastards, they decide to cut themselves and give themselves I.V.'s.

Ok, so there's always been a lack of common sense at Seattle Grace Hospital. I get that. I get that's why it always takes characters so long to find out things that we, the viewers, know. Like George and Meredith, George and Izzie, Meredith and Derek. Like why Mark Sloan doesn't lock the door while having sex with Callie. Things like that.

But I don't like to throw that common sense out of the window completely and that's what I'm having to do. Next week, they supposedly take out an intern's appendix because he doesn't need it. In the classic words of Grey's Anatomy, Seriously? Seriously? Why. Doesn't. Anyone. Just. Tell. The. Truth.

I get it. It wouldn't make for good TV if those interns just confessed their frustration and, perhaps, got the residents into trouble. I get that they're terrified of Dr. Yang but they are mutiliating themselves. Last week, Lexi stole corpses so they could practice medicine. The residents, Alex, Izzie and Christina stole them from the interns so they could hone their skills. Bailey found the residents and yet Lexi didn't speak up. She didn't say WHY they wanted to use the corpses.

I know there's drama and then I know there's TV drama. But there's also the phenomenom of jumping the shark in TV drama. And while I was willing to be patient last year, it was because I had no reason to not trust Grey's to get back on track. This season it was on track and suddenly, it looks as though the train that is Grey's Anatomy is about to jump the track and find a new way to move. The trouble is that the track keeps things going and without it, there's a crash in store.

The last straw is Sadie, "Die" to Meredith's "Death". I hate her. I know she's supposed to give us information about Meredith's past. I know she's supposed to be a plot device to show us another more jealous side of Christina. I know she's supposed to shake things up. But she's like an anvil. She walks in, so cool, so irritating and so extraneously. She's a wild one. We get it. The scene in which she slices her own back was ridiculous. Ok, so she's a tough cookie but we have one of those. Our new Dr. Hunt already stapled his own leg, he's enough of a tough-guy for the show. We don't need a tough chick. I think dark and twisty is fine enough. Let's learn more about the characters we have without introducing even more plot-devices, uh, I mean characters. Please, Oh Great Writers of Grey's, please. Reign it in now. Please don't fall for the mistaken belief that you can bring in even more viewers by 'taking it up a notch.' Remember us loyal and faithful viewers who love the show as it is.

I want to be wrong. Oh, how I want to be wrong. But as soon as Izzie reached out and touched Denny and then kissed him, I felt a strange, gnawing dread grow within me. I've felt it before and it's never good. It usually leads to Entertainment Weekly covers in which they say things like "What Happened to [This Show]" and "Can [This Show] be saved. I know I have to intrinsicly trust Shonda and her gang and that's what I'd like to do.

It's just this isn't Ghost Whisperer and it's not a J.J. Abrams show. I don't want any more Denny no matter how likeable he is. He's gone. Let him be gone. Please, show, don't jump the shark. Let my suddenly wavering trust in the show be wrong.

I really hope I'm wrong.

I'm Afraid for Dexter Morgan

2008-11-10T12:15:00.005-05:00

So, I'm a fan of Dexter. I've already done a regular blog post about the show which you can read here . However, since this is a TV blog, I will limit my musings strictly to the show.

I must confess, I sometimes am an episode or two behind schedule since I have to rely on someone else's TiVo to capture them. Yes, Captain Monkeypants still does not own cable but, instead, has a rabbit-ear antenna. The reason for this is that I love TV and I love to watch it. TV is not only entertaining but also the worlds' best procrastination method. Long story short, if I had cable, I would do a lot less writing and a lot more couch-potato-ing. The only way to control my TV addiction is to not tempt myself with the source. Of course, this is limited to my own apartment. If I go elsewhere to watch cable, that's just fine. Rationalization=less guilt. Moving on...

So, back to Dexter. This, to me, is one of the best shows on TV. As I mentioned in my other post, I've read the books and though I tend to always favour the written word over the visual interpretation, Dexter is an exception. That's not to say the books, by Jeff Lindsay, aren't good because they are. After all they did create the character.

It's just that Michael C. Hall is Dexter Morgan and trying to read the books without picturing him that way now is absolutely impossible. The character is one of the most layered and interesting on TV, now and ever. He appeals to that darkness in all of us and though we all know killing is wrong, bad, a sin and all that, there's just something amazingly compelling about watching Dexter choose his victims and prey upon them. I find myself favouring the episodes in which Dexter commits his signature serial-killer acts of murder on the victims he stalks.

In his defense, Dexter is no cold-blooded killer. Well, ok, so he actually is and he doesn't claim otherwise. He's a sociopath who can't feel emotion but he fakes it well. But our Dexter isn't as much like that as he claims. He feels enough affection for the people in his life that he likes- his sister, Deb, his fiancee, Rita and her children- that it could actually be confused for love.

Yet when it comes down to it, he needs to kill. It's a bloodthirsty voice in his soul that cannot be satiated. He calls it his Dark Passenger. It is this which leads him to seek out the guiltiest and cruelest of criminals in the sultry landscape of Miami, Florida. He stalks them, makes sure they're guilty and when the time is right, he pounces, cleanly killing them and disposing of their bodies.

Dexter has had a little trouble in the past. The messy ties he has to others tend to get in the way. The body parts of his victims were discovered during season 2 and Dexter had to play a tricky and dangerous game to not get caught.

He's a master of avoiding consequences, a genius, even. His lack of messy emotional investment in life means that he can observe and study others. He can see their weaknesses and he can see their strengths. It is this which makes him a master of the kill, a genius manipulator who never seems guilty.

This season, I'm worried about Dexter. He's leading himself to believe he has found a friend, an assistant D.A., Miguel Prada, who has the same bloodthirsty urge for justice as Dexter but without the stomach for killing. Together, they are a perfect team: Miguel does the research, delivers the 'package' and Dexter kills him.

It seems like the perfect arrangement but past experience should teach Dexter to be very cautious. Last season, there was Lila, a crazy artist who thought she could manipulate Dexter. He fell for her at first until he realized how dangerous she was. Naturally, she is no longer around.

This season, I feel guilty again for wanting someone to die. Ok, it's a TV show but it still pulls at the dark passenger within us all, part of the reason Dexter is so popular. We can't kill, we wouldn't kill but it doesn't mean we can't get a secret, ominous thrill out of watching Dexter neatly murder his victims without a hint of regret. And so I find myself hoping that Dexter's new friend, Miguel, doesn't last a long time. I don't like that there is someone else who thinks he knows Dexter. I'm afraid he's going to screw things up. I'm afraid he will make Dexter sloppy. I almost feel like Dexter is cheating on us, his secret, silent audience, by sharing his hobby with Miguel.

Most of all, I don't trust Miguel. He's too slick, too slimy. Something about him worries me. Yet Dexter seems ok, truly believing he's found a friend. He thought that before, with Lila, a big mistake. In his urge to connect with people, to feel as though he's in control, Dexter is very vulnerable, an ironic twist considering his socipathic, violent nature. He wants to be loved so maybe it will rub off and he will feel that love back. He wants to connect with Miguel and be friends because that's what normal people do and, for all of his nighttime butchery, Dexter has always wanted to be normal as well as seem normal.

And I know this is random musing because the show has already been written and filmed and the ending will come, regardless of what I think. However, I can't help but hope that it means Miguel Prada will go away. More than that, I hope that Dexter will see the light from the darkness within and realize that he works best alone. I could be wrong and a partnership will be born but I doubt it. Dexter Morgan is a loner and sooner or later, I think he'll find a way to cut himself loose from Miguel.

And I can't wait to watch it happen.

Why I Despise Izzie Stevens...

2008-11-07T09:24:00.003-05:00

I love Grey's Anatomy. It's gone through some growing pains over the past three seasons but I've never had an urge to stop watching. I find it compelling. The writing is good. I care about the characters, well, most of them, anyway.

Ok, so there are flaws, most evident in the slightly self-indulgent grandiose Ferry Disaster episodes. Those were bad. Meredith seeing dead people was not something to which Grey's should have resorted. I know some people dislike Meredith. I, however, love Meredith because in all her dark twistiness, she's layered. She has issues but she knows it. She makes an attempt to confront those issues. Both the writing for the character and the actress, Ellen Pompeo, make her a very three dimensional character.

The rest of the cast also adds to the quality of the show. Chandra Wilson deserves her own mention because she's awesome. Her portrayal of Miranda Bailey should be winning Emmys every year because every year, she gets better and more brilliant.

The only character I don't like is Izzie Stevens. And I have tried. Oh, have I tried.

I find myself actually wanting to smack her, to tell her to shut her self-righteous trap and butt the hell out quite often. I find myself wondering how she always manages to find redemption even though she commits horribly selfish acts and delivers tongue lashings to the people who don't deserve them.

I suppose some might say that it's the sign of a good show that I have such a strong reaction to the character. I suppose it is. I just don't think the show means for me to hate Izzie. I think I'm supposed to like her. I just can't. She lectures everyone when they screw up, treats them like dirt for making a mistake and yet when she does it, she's forgiven.

Take last night's episode, for example. I've been waiting SO long for Dr. Hahn to find out that Izzie stole a heart for her beloved Denny from a man with two kids who had been waiting a while for it. Denny didn't want the heart, he only let Izzie cut his LVAD wire and steal the heart because she had a breakdown in front of him about how she NEEDED him to live because she'd die without him, blah-blah-how-romantic-blah. Even her empassioned speech to Denny was selfish. Not "I need you to live because I want you to be happy, I want you to have a chance to run again and live a life without being reliant on heart machines" but "I need you to live because I cannot survive without you".

Denny only gave in because Denny was a good guy. He didn't condone her to steal the heart because he wanted to live, only because he couldn't bear to see her in such pain. I liked Denny. He could have done SO much better than Izzie.

And so Izzie stole a heart. And though she was suspended and lectured and put on probation, she wasn't fired. She was let off the hook because she was an intern, because her superiors didn't stop her when they saw her falling for Denny, because she deserved another chance to learn from her mistake.

I'm not saying people don't deserve chances but I do think Seattle Grace should be watching Izzie more closely. Since the Denny Debacle, she's done some pretty awful stuff. She slept with George and then claimed to fall in love with him, splitting up a marriage that could have been good, if a little rocky at times. Not only did she condone George cheating on his wife but she acted like a prize witch to Callie, said wife of George. Never did Izzie try to get to know Callie, to find out why George liked her.

Then there was the deer. Izzie took her new interns and had them save a deer. No one seemed to find out about this or do anything about this.

And then there's the emotional involvement. For example, the case in which Bailey was doing the domino kidney surgery. Izzie was working with a father-son pair. They were having issues and Izzie decided to get involved. She didn't try to find out why the son disliked his father, why the son had reservations about giving his father a piece of himself. Instead, she immediately jumped in, assumed the son was wrong and acted extremely unprofessional. As usual.

I HATE how she lectures everyone on their faults and yet, no one cares. I HATE how she's always trying to make Meredith and Cristina accept her as one of them and yet she's constantly judges them for things she doesn't agree with. (Anyone remember the episode where she found out about Meredith and Derek and she kept, self-righteously (of course) saying "karma" over and over. Again, shut up, Izzie and mind your own business). She wants to be friends with them but when they try to reach out to them, she doesn't reach back. Last night, for example, Meredith tried to talk to her about Denny and be a friend and Izzie pushed her away. Again.

I was hoping that Hahn would do more than yell at the chief about Izzie. I was hoping she'd do...something. I don't know what, honestly. I just wanted someone to yank Izzie up, pull her out of her Denny-laced brooding and hold her truly responsible. Ok, so we heard her say "it was my fault". Yet she wasn't paralyzed because of her guilt, she was paralyzed because of Denny. She was unable to help the poor guy she stole the heart from because she kept feeling the pain again of Denny's death. Naturally, in the end, she came through, yelling at the guy to survive, which worked. It seemed like she did it so she could move past Denny, not because she wanted to help the guy who was there because she'd stolen the heart that could have saved his life.

Some of it is the writing for the character. Some of it is because I just don't like her. Some of it is Katherine Heigl. She just doesn't seem to like Izzie much herself. You can almost tell she's not happy with what she has to do on screen. A good actor can take any role and make it good even if they don't like what their character does. Sarah Michelle Geller's portrayal of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a prime example. Buffy could be extremely self-righteous and unlikeable but she was still the heroine and in the end, you always rooted for her. Kristin Bell is another example. She shines on Heroes even when her role is beyond silly. She was fantastic as Veronica Mars even when she wasn't doing very likeable things. Lauren Graham as Lorelie Gilmore is probably the best example yet. Loralie could be selfish, petty, rude and childish and yet I always loved her anyway, just as everyone else on the show did.

I'm not saying Katherine isn't a good actress. She has her moments though I'm not with the group that thinks are Izzie-histronics are good (her "Do this for me!" speech to Denny being the best example); to me they are overdone. I like her when she's a little realistically nuts, like the episode where she goes nuts about Christmas and in which she, Meredith, George and Doc, the dog, end the episode lying beneath the tree. I like Izzie then.

But lately, those moments are few and I find myself hoping that Katherine Heigl pisses off the writers again so Shonda gets rid of her She prides herself of being blunt and outspoken but when it comes down to it, she really should think before she opens her mouth in public.

I do hate that Dr. Hahn is gone because ABC doesn't like to show lesbians on TV. They just made her interesting. They just made it possible for SOMEONE to hold Izzie Stevens accountable for her selfishness. I like that Dr. Hahn fought for her patients. In a few episodes, Brooke Smith has made me like her slightly mean, very condescending, newly gay character with some short but strong moments on screen. Four seasons into Greys and I still despise Izzie.

I'll miss Dr. Hahn when she was just getting interesting. Perhaps the network can order Shonda to fire Katherine next and then, finally, they could stop making poor Jeffrey Dean Morgan who plays Denny come on screen for a few saintly moments.

I liked Denny when he was alive. Dead, he's just annoying. Then again, that's probably Izzie's fault.

What Now, Rory Gilmore?

2008-11-05T12:05:00.004-05:00

I was a fan of Gilmore Girls. I picked up it up somewhere around season 4 though so I can't claim to be a die-hard fan or a fan from the beginning. Back in Season 2, when I was living in L.A., I went on a tour of Warner Bros. and they let us wander around the soundstage that doubled as Emily and Richard's fancy Hartford Mansion. I did not appreciate that because I was irritated that there wasn't more Buffy or Angel stuff included in the tour or more movie-type stuff. At the time, "Stars Hollow" (the centre of the backlot tour at Warners) was decorated with 'a thousand yellow daisies.' At the time, I had no idea what that meant. I was bored. Bring on the Buffy.

And then, on a whim, I decided to try renting the seasons from Netflix, just to see what the fuss was about. It didn't take much to get me hooked. It was a good show and Lauren Graham's portrayal of Lorelie was amazing. I loved the relationship between Lorelei and Rory. I loved Luke. I fell under the spell of Stars Hollow and, like so many others, I wanted to move there. It was a quirky little place, full of charm and personality. I never could figure out how that store that just sold cat-stuff managed to stay there without going out of business and how no-one pelted popcorn at Lorelie and Rory when they insisted on being loud at the Read, White and Blue bookstore's movie nights but it was a wistful place that helped me escape for an hour on Tuesdays.

I liked how the show never went for the pretty, polished happy ending. Lorelei never could get it together with Luke enough to live happily ever after, at least during the run of the show. Rory made mistakes and didn't take the easy path. Emily and Richard, Lorelei's rich, upper-class parents, never had that moment of revelation where they truly forgave Lorelei for getting pregnant at 16 and running away from home to raise Rory alone.

There were flaws during the run of the show, flaws which increased as the seasons went on. Jess, played by Milo Ventimiglia (pre-Heroes) was irritating and annoying. His Rebel Without a Cause was just a plot device to help Rory grow during season 2 though, in later seasons, he did pop up to provide some much needed, blunt advice to Rory when she most needed a slap in later seasons.

When the creators of the show, Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino, decided to leave, something to do with contact disputes, during season 6, the show took a dip. In my opinion, season 6 was the worst (though I'm sure there are MANY who would disagree). Season 6, to me, was the Palladino's way of saying, "think you can do this without us, huh? Well, let's screw up the story as much as possible." And so the season ended with Luke and Lorelei having a fight, and Lorelei hopping into bed with her former flame, ruining the absolute best non-mother-daughter relationship on the show.

I hated season 6. I hated that suddenly Luke had a secret daughter who was irritatingly like Rory had been as a child. I hated that Rory went from being a sweet girl to being a prize brat to being a sweet girl again in the same season. The boat-stealing incident was a stupid plot device though it did its job in driving the mother/daughter apart for a few episodes. Most of all I hated that Luke became a wimp, terrified of Lorelei and unable to be honest. I hated that Lorelei and Luke couldn't have a normal conversation anymore.

You get the idea. So, by season 7, there wasn't much to be done. I actually enjoyed that season because it quietly tried to undo all of the damage the Palladino's had recently done. It ended with the hope of Luke and Lorelei. It ended with Rory taking a stand, not settling into the easy life but trying to make her path.

Her path is one that I couldn't help ponder last night after the election. You see, Rory went to join Barack Obama in the beginning of his campaign to run for president. It was before he was the Democratic nominee, when the hope of a historic change in regime was just a dream.

And now Barack Obama will be president. And though it's happening in the real world, as a fan of the fictional, I'm curious to know what Rory is doing now. Is she still staying with Obama? Was he so impressed with her journalism skills he took her along for the entire campaign? Is she going to help him now he's in the White House?

Did she decide to continue her quest to become the next Christiane Amanpour, an international news correspondent?

Did she leave half-way through and move back to Stars Hollow? Are she and Lorelei grabbing daily coffee at Luke's Diner?

I know it doesn't matter. I know it's fiction. I know the show is over. Yet, it was the kind of show that crawled under my skin and became part of my life. It's been a couple of years since it ended and I still miss the Gilmore women and the charm of Stars Hollow. I would love to know what they're doing now, not the actors but the characters.

And I know the election will have a big impact on history and that the country is about to change. Yet at the moment, I can't help but think of Rory Gilmore and wonder what she and Lorelei did on Election Night. When McCain conceded and Obama spoke, would she have been there?

It was a whimsical world but it was a good one.

The Beautiful Ridiculousness of "Prison Break"

2008-11-03T23:16:00.004-05:00

I'm a fan of "Prison Break." For the second and third season, I wasn't sure I could admit that out loud. Now the show is in the fourth season and I'm extremely proud to admit that I watch the show. I can't help myself. I look forward to it every Monday. I record "Heroes" and watch "Prison Break". For the past two seasons, it was the other way around. '

The reason is simple: Unlike "Heroes", "Prison Break" has taken a right turn at reality and just plunged itself, blissfully, off into the ridiculous. It has no pretentions of being high art, it holds no claims at reality. It has simply given in to the ludicrous nature it was born with and gone along for the ride.

Season one was interesting. The premise was simple: A very intelligent architect, Michael Scofield, landed himself in jail in a quest to break his death-row-interred brother, Lincoln Burrows, out of jail. The architect had actually designed the prison that held his brother prisoner and so he had the blueprints. In a very artistic manner, he managed to have key elements of those blue prints tatooed onto his skin so that at every crucial turn he had the next part of the escape plan at hand. Or on his back. Or his neck. You get the idea.

Very long and twisty story short, Michael succeeded. He broke Lincoln out of jail. In the meantime, a motley crew joined them ranging from the sweetly innocent-but-framed Sucre to the deliciously psychopathic T-Bag, a pedeophilic sociopath with a photographic memory. Hands were lost, secondary characters died but, in the end of that first season, the brothers were free.

You might wonder how "Prison Break" could continue after the aforementioned prison break had occured. You weren't alone. In truth, it didn't continue very well. The second season considered of a lot of running from the law. It did introduce a new character, Agent Mahone, played by the excellent William Fichner. Granted, his character was so irritatingly brilliant he could practically telepathically link to Michael Scofield's brilliance but he was interesting. But the show grew silly in its attempts to remain viable, tossing big deaths and other story stretchers in an attempt to keep the audience. In the end, I think the writers must have recognized how redundant it was to have a show titled "Prison Break" which featured characters and a plot that had escaped their confines.

So they did what any self-respecting writers/show runners did: They orchestrated a plot that wound the main character back in jail along with several of his former prisonmates. This time, it was Lincoln Burrows who had to break his brother, Mr. Scofield, out of jail. Voila! Prison Break II.

Except it didn't work. The circumstances had moved beyond a clever stretch of reality to completely fictional and unrelatable. Lincoln Burrows had consistently proved the fact that he was good for little except smashing, punching and destroying things. He was just not smart enough to get Michael out without Michael telling him what to do. He always bungled everything. Somehow, by the end of the show, almost every major character was either in prison or trying to break the inmates out. Naturally, they succeeded because "Failed Prison Break" wouldn't exactly be an appealing name for the show, would it?

Enter season four. It is a season in which the decapitated suddenly have their heads again and gunshot victim recovers enough the next day enough to climb ladders, dig holes and lift a REALLY heavy pipe almost entirely by himself. It is a season in which the writers/creators/directors recognize that Lincoln Burrows is not terribly smart but is REALLY good at using an axe/his fists/a car...whatever violent means it takes for him to achive his goal. And, finally, it is a season in which the bad guys get their due, the good guys slowly but surely die heroically and in which there is no prison break scheduled at all. How can you not love it?

Ok...It may sound silly but, trust me, it's fun. Ok, so Michael Scofield and the formerly decapitated Sarah Tancredi- the love of his life- have WAY less chemistry than Michael and his former cell mate, the aptly named sweet Sucre or even, cringe, Michael and Lincoln but at least they're trying. This season the show revolves around the Little Black Book to end all little black books, Scylla, encrypted on some kind of storage device. Michael and Lincoln have been recruited along with all of the other previous regulars (hereafter known as Team Brilliant made up of Michael, Lincoln, Sucre, Bellick (a former corrections guard from the original prison), Agent Mahone and a bunch of other familiar faces), to find Scylla for Homeland Security. Or something like that.

I knew the show was going to be entertaining from the day they introduced the Fabulous Magical Electronic Device. Said device managed to conveniently suck up all electronic data within a ten feet radius. Thus, if the device was planted within ten feet of Scylla, it would absorb all of Scylla's data and feed it to Team Brilliant's laptop. It was ludicrous. It was silly.

It was fabulous. It was then that I realized the show had thrown all reality, plausability and reason out of the window and didn't care one bit.

And neither did I. There are gaping plot holes and gratuitious violence galore. And it's beautiful. Just tonight, Sucre managed to recover from a near-fatal gunshot wound enough to crawl down into pipes with his brofriend, Michael. Sucre managed to climb ladders, lift a super heavy pipe, make a hole with a sledgehammer and do all kinds of physical activity that normal gunshot victims couldn't have even comprehended.

You might think, after reading my "Heroes" post, how I could possibly enjoy such silliness. But as I said earlier, it's because "Prison Break" doesn't try to resonate anymore. It doesn't have to. By deserting its redundant premise, it's become something that "Heroes" wants to be: Entertaining. "Heroes" is agonizing in its earnest attempts to try to reach fans, to reach out to those comic book/graphic novel fans who like a side of super with their hero. It still strives to stay within the guidelines of lore and myth; to pay attention to the rules of the superhero universe. And it's failing. Because try as it might, "Heroes" is boring. One of the appeals of great superheroes like Batman or, one of my personal favourites, Iron Man, is that they were normal, flawed humans who had to WORK at being a hero. There was no dithering. There was no grand analysis of why they should be a hero or villain. There was no misleading attempt to lure readers into thinking their villain was a hero or vice-versa. The story and progression was natural, not overly manufactured and fabricated like "Heroes".

And this is why "Prison Break" has become great. It has taken a hero (Michael Scofield) made him brilliant and flawed. He has a nemesis or two (T-Bag, Gretchen, General Baldy, Giant Evil Agent who Kills Everything in Sight (and who used to be married to Bailey on Grey's Anatomy, on a side note). He has a delicate, yet damaged love (Sarah Tancredi) , a hulk of a brother who might be quite dumb but is fiercely loyal (Lincon Burrows) . In fact, any one who knows our hero can't help but be loyal. This is why his former nemesis, Agent Mahone, the fatally flawed, most nuanced character on the show, is now working with our hero. He has a sidekick (Sucre). Truth be told, Michael Scofield represents the evolution of the superhero: strong but vulnerable, brilliant, pretty and sporting his Blue Steel gaze that always shows he's one step ahead on his enemies.

The show might be silly. It might be unbelievable. Yet therein lies it's beauty: It does what any TV should do. It entertains and, for one hour on every Monday night, it lifts me from the comparatively dull universe of my life and throws me into one in which is silly, ludicrous, daft and unbelievable. But, most of all, it's fun and, for one hour, it's a place to which it's worth venturing. Because when all reason has been thrown out of the window, there's no limit to where it will go next.

And that's what keeps me watching.

The Confusing World of "Heroes"

2008-10-29T12:50:00.004-04:00

So...I was a fan of NBC's Heroes. I say 'was' because...I was. I admit, it took me about five episodes of the first season to get into it but I kept coming back and then it got good. Really good. Like...must be home on Monday nights to watch it good.

The second season was kind of silly but I watched it. When it was halted by the writer's strike, I was left wanting more.

And now it's back. I missed the first five episodes but I caught up this past week and, I admit, I'm not sure if I'm going to keep going.

There's an article in this weeks' Entertainment Weekly that details what they think is wrong with the show and how to save it. Mostly, they're right. Yet they don't point out what I think is a major flaw: the confusion about who's a hero and who's a villain.

I think I might have figured it out. I think that Tough Claire and her gang of merry, super gifted, men from the future are villains. But I'm not sure because they seem to be trying to stop Peter. And when it comes to Peter Petrelli, I am stumped. There were two Peters. One was future Peter, one was present Peter. They both wanted to save the world but apparently it gets destroyed because of Peter...Future Peter (I think). Except I think that Peter didn't mean to destroy the world. Which should make him a hero. Except people like Matt Parkman think he needs to be stopped. Parkman is, let's face it, a tad extranous these days anyway. I like him and I like his turtle but he's really not much use and hasn't been for a while. But I thought Parkman was good which would make Peter bad. And Parkman's super fast-future-wife, Daphne, is trying to stop Peter. Which makes her a hero. She's working with Tough Claire and co. so...they are heroes?

You see my confusion? It all goes back to Peter Petrelli. I don't get him. He always seems so earnest but then he does something dumb like take Sylar's-tinged-with-evil power even though he knows it's probably not good to do so. And why did he do that, anyway? It was supposed to help him figure out how things worked, all their pieces. Then again, if I were in the Heroes universe, I'd probably want that power too- it'd make the line between heroes/villains WAY less confusing. Except...Peter already can read minds, become invisible, fly, live forever, use telekineses, start fires with his hands, etc. Wouldn't those powers combined make it fairly easy to figure out what was going on? And he's already been in contact with Sylar before so...why didn't he have his powers before. He can absorb other heroes' powers just by touching them so....

Also, if that's his way of getting his powers, shouldn't he have been able to fight his father's power-sucking-hug by taking his father's power at the same time?

And then there's Claire. I'll ignore the fact that poor Haydn Panetierre is WAY out of her element in the future scenes. She is about as convincing as playing Tough Future Claire as Keanu Reeves is at doing Shakespeare. (I like Keanu...but, well, he's no Kenneth Branaugh- that's all I'm trying to say). Future Claire is ridiculous. They darkened her hair, slicked it back and now she's supposed to be an emotionless robot. It's just not working.

At the moment, the only things that are working are Jack Coleman (Noah) and Zachary Quinto (Sylar). Their partnership was awesome- funny and clever and just what the show needed. David Anders (the late Adam) was also fantastic because he, too, had fun and you could see it.

And maybe that's what's wrong with the show. No one's having fun anymore. No one's realistic, anymore. The first season was awesome because it gave us a fairly believable universe in which ordinary people discovered they had extraordinary gifts. They lived in the world we live in. Then came time-travel and the show started to try to make comic-book plots. Now, it's all a comic-book-esque show with nothing left that makes us relate. The time jumping is confusing, the characters are WAY too many and way too one-dimensional and they keep stealing plot devices from other sources as well as themselves. Mohinder as a giant bug? Really? Claire as Trinity from the Matrix? Really? Parkman spirit walking? Really? Buffy did that WAY better when she met the spirit of the first slayer...it's been done before. In fact, most of it has.

And Hiro...the first true breakout star from the show. He was goofy, funny, geeky and cute. Now he's a cliche. We get it, he represents fanboys and geeks worldwide. We get that he reads comics. But if he says "Nemesis!" one more time to Daphne, that's it, I can't watch anymore. He's become ridiculous and unnecessary. Adam should have killed him and been done with it. Even Ando is more interesting merely because he gets nothing but abuse and scorn from Hiro but he's always there for his friend, anyway.

What it comes down to is the same thing that kills most good TV shows eventually; they can't stick with what made a show popular in the first place, they always have to try to make it bigger, to get even higher ratings, to be more talked about. The network and creators can't accept that a show is fine as it is; they always have to overshoot. It happens to the best of them. Sometimes, a show corrects itself mid-course (see Lost as an example), sometimes it just goes so downhill, people can't watch. Because for every second and third season of a show that was great in its first, there's a new show that's premiering that's better and it's only a matter of times before the fans leave.

I only hope Heroes comes back swinging.

The Demise of Television Without Pity

2008-10-28T10:43:00.002-04:00

Once upon a time, there was a website that used to recap television. It was a website that had some attitude, a healthy amount of perspective and some very funny, if blunt, opinions of the best shows on TV. It was a site in which a collective of writers covered select TV shows and did a thorough recap of each episode, peppered with snark and sarcasm and a healthy dose of realistic editorial opinion. It was a site for which TV loving writers would have loved to write, especially those writers, like myself, who can objectively and sarcastically talk about TV shows, beloved or not.

There were some flaws, naturally. Some of the writers were much better than others. The collective of writers were a little clique, their FAQ proving that they didn't take well to outsiders and didn't care to. The forums were too heavily moderated, almost communistic in some of the ways in which comments were censored. Sometimes their writers were downright cruel to the readers who criticized them, coming across as petty and mean rather than snarky and funny. But, aside from all that, it was a fun, entertaining website in which one could easily get lost in reading the witty, funny and mostly dead-on recaps of television shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Alias, Veronica Mars, Gilmore Girls, America's Top Model, etc. They were always shows that would have the type of following to seek out recaps, shows that were so good they deserved a recap, even when they had bad episodes, or shows so bad that they simply had to be recapped in all their cheesy nonsense.

The site was Televison without Pity (TWOP for short), once glorious, now a commerical site in which the snark is lost in the glitz of Bravo Television.

But let's back up to the glory days. The site was founded by three individuals, known on TWOP as Sars, Wing Chun and Glark. They built the site based on their original effort, Mighty Big TV, a site originally built entirely around one TV show: Dawson's Creek. Mighty Big TV eventually became TWOP. The site was tightly run, the recaps well edited and mostly hilarious. The forums would entice undercover Hollywood players like Aaron Sorkin who would defend his show. There were interviews with writers of TV shows, humble, well-written interviews in which you'd actually learn about a show. It was evident that those that worked for TWOP loved their job, even when they were assigned awful TV shows to recap. Though other sites sprung up, most notably TWOP Sucks, that would bash TWOP and its writers, these sites did little except emphasize the point that TWOP had become a pop culture must, a place for TV lovers to congregate, virtually and it the case of events like TARCON (The Amazing Race Conventions), in reality too.

And then, the site was sold to Bravo. It was most likely financially a smart business choice for the founders. After all, what had begun as a blog had become a viable business. It hosted advertising, so there was definitely some profit being made as well as a store that sold TV gear, referencing obscure moments in TV. Yet, Bravo came calling and it's likely a lot of money was offered. To founders like Sars, Wing Chun and Glark, there probably seemed little to lose. They would make money, the writers would be guaranteed payment and the responsibility would be off their shoulders.

Bravo took over and one year later, Sars, Wing Chun and Glark left the site. There is little to be discovered about their departure, whether it was part of the original buyout contract or whether the site went so far from the original conception that they were disgusted enough to take their big checks and leave. It doesn't really matter. What does matter is that Bravo's takeover of TWOP has killed the site in almost every way that matters.

Certainly, the site still exists and the archive of recaps is still there. The writers still recap the shows still airing that they recapped before the buyout. Yet now, there are recaps for shows that the original site didn't acknowledge, shows like So You Think You Can Dance, Law and Order: SVU and The Biggest Loser. There are many more photos and images. There is much more advertising. There is a spin off called Movies Without Pity. There are videos now. All in all, it's very glossy and shiny. It looks like a big budget site.

But the heart is gone. The soul of TWOP has fled, perhaps with the founders, perhaps when the contract with Bravo was signed. Some of the writers from the glory days are there, like Jacob and Couch Baron. But without the editing and tight reign of Sars and co., they have also declined. Jacob, always prone to waffling, has become boring. He has always brought the fact that he is a gay man into his recaps, often a tiresome aside, but nowadays, it has become the forefront of the majority of his recaps. We get it. We get that there is homosexuality on TV. But it would also be nice to read about the show instead of the recapper's issue with Americas acceptance of homosexuality (His American Idol recaps and Ugly Betty recaps especially). Jacob has started loving the sight of his own words and without a strong editor to reign him in, he's become pompous, irritating and unreadable. Couch Baron, still one of the strongest writers on the site, has become lazy. His perceptions are still sharp but without editing he, too, often rambles and sometimes its hard to get through the recaps of shows like Heroes. The writing is no longer snarky, it's just outright mean. There are now many Weecaps, shorter versions of recaps that basically give the episode in a nutshell. The site used to nail much of why a show was silly, Clifford the Big Red Ball from Alias is still one of the funniest references ever. But those references and recaps are few and far between these days. The effort to get a recap up quickly means that editing in minimal and there are grammatical, spelling, punctuation and factual errors in many of the recaps that are published.

The forums have grown worse. They are more heavily moderated than ever. The moderators have the right to delete a post, commenters must carefully phrase emails so they're not accused of flaming someone just because they don't agree. They are no longer fun to read and it's often hard to remember they're there anymore. The number of posts has declined dramatically and it's hard to find a reason to visit anymore.

Bravo attempted to get more people onto the TWOP site by hosting the TV Bigshot game in which participants attempted to create a TV network and picked shows to air. Points were assigned based on a show's ratings; if your network owned a show that did well in the ratings, you won points. It was a good idea, in theory. In reality, it was a game that wasn't well moderated; the rules would change, the points were miscalculated and the top scorers were always the same. Players would attempt to use strategy to pick their shows and then, because of a 'server error' or other such excuse, points for the week weren't calculated, thus ensuring no way to climb up in the rankings. As seems to be the case of the new TWOP site, it looked pretty on the outside but it lacked substance and guidance from within.

TWOP remains. It is still a place to read a decent recap or two; Drunken Bee's Friday Night Lights recaps are examples of beautiful, lyrical writing, especially the early episodes. Yet because there is no soul, the site seems empty. The personality is gone, clouded by corporate commercialism. Though it's still a site to read about TV, it has lost the sheen of talent that made it great and given way to a gloss that makes it mediocre. It's always a shame when greatness falls, even when it's just a site for television geeks and in the case of Television Without Pity, greatness has fallen far.