Oh, Mama: A Great New Grey's
Diahann Carroll in Grey's Anatomy by Craig Sjodin/ABC
If you don't like tonight's first-rate episode of
Grey's Anatomy, which fires on about as many cylinders as possible (humor and emotion coexisting wonderfully), then you should probably face the fact that you simply don't like
Grey's anymore, if you ever did. Diahann Carroll, terrific as the departed Burke's visiting mom, hovers around Seattle Grace this week as a much-needed reality check and conscience for the various characters: including Meredith, who could always use a good dressing-down for her narcissism, and George, who's still dithering about how to do the right thing in his romantic quandary involving wife Callie and obsessive crush Izzie.
But Mama Burke is really there for Cristina (the fabulous Sandra Oh), who is frozen emotionally as she surveys the wedding gifts that surround her to remind her of her broken relationship. Work is a thankful distraction ("Carnage always trumps rounds," she tells her nameless interns), but she can only hide from Preston's mother for so long. Their scene together is well worth the wait.
Even so, Chandra Wilson as Bailey steals this episode. Watch her exasperation build with the hapless interns assigned to the clinic, and then later dress down one of her former charges, now a resident, who has made the sort of reckless, arrogant blunder that really gets under her skin as a teacher and mentor and friend. How can you not love a show that has a character like Bailey?
I dwell on
Grey's, but it's not the night's only highlight. I've seen tonight's episodes of
Ugly Betty and
30 Rock as well, and would be hard-pressed to recommend one over the other. Both are silly, funny, garish entertainments.
30 Rock is certainly the newsier of the two, returning after its welcome surprise Emmy win, with Jerry Seinfeld showing up for a classic bit of stunt-casting (and to shamelessly promote his new animated movie). Jerry doesn't quite bring out the best in
30 Rock, although the scene where Kenneth the page (the hilarious Jack McBrayer) moons over his idol is a hoot. I probably laughed louder at the bit involving Jenna's summer weight gain while starring in a Broadway musical version of
Mystic Pizza (a nifty inside gag for those who remember that Jane Krakowski was originally intended to play the lead in the unexpectedly hilarious Broadway musical adaptation of cult clunker
Xanadu). Here's Jack (Alec Baldwin) to Liz (Tina Fey) about Jenna's new figure: "She needs to lose 30 pounds or gain 60. Anything in between has no place in television." It's for smart moments like these that we tune into NBC's Thursday comedy lineup, which continues to plug away against intense competition.
No discussion of Thursday is complete without a shout-out to AMC's brilliant period-piece social satire
Mad Men, which tonight unfolds during an Indian-summer heat wave that brings out the sensual side of several characters, including housewife Betty, who finds unexpected relief while husband Don satisfies his needs in other beds; and increasingly piggy Peggy, whose new assignment to write copy for a woman's weight-loss device proves unexpectedly stimulating. I've been making stupid jokes about "the Rejuvenator" ever since screening this episode a week or so ago.
There's a great line about the show's obsession with smoking ("It's practically mandatory in this office"), more terrific work from John Slattery as ailing ad exec Roger Sterling - his scene with sexy secretary Joan (Christina Hendricks) is a jaw-dropper - and unexpectedly pivotal developments in Don Draper's professional and personal lives. If
Mad Men doesn't make Jon Hamm a star, there is no justice.
Of all the terrific shows on Thursday, only
Mad Men is guaranteed a slot on my year-end top-10 list at this point.
