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

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.

Oh, Grey's, What are you DOING?

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.

[Ghost] Whispery Worries about Grey's Anatomy

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.