Strike Watch: Separation Anxiety on Thursday Night
Chandra Wilson in Grey's Anatomy by Ron Tom/ABC
Around the time Bailey got a big hug from McDreamy, comforting her in her hour of need, my heart began to break. Not so much for Bailey- I felt for her, but figured her little boy would be OK- but for fans of Thursday night TV, who were enjoying their last "normal" night of mostly original programming for the foreseeable future.
Parting is such sweet sorrow even under normal circumstances, when a typical season ends on schedule in May. But to have premature and unintended strike-imposed "finales" so soon into the new year, and just as some of these shows are hitting their stride (not just
Grey's Anatomy, but also
Desperate Housewives, Gossip Girl and
30 Rock, to name just a few shows that aired first-rate original episodes this week that just happened to be the last ones in the can), it feels wrong. In fact, it sucks.
At least we have two more episodes of
Ugly Betty to enjoy until its inventory is depleted. Last night was a typical hoot, with Annie Potts delightful as a skeevy psychic enlisted to help Amanda (the wondrous Becki Newton) discover her true father. (Gene Simmons? Isn't he already busy on
Celebrity Apprentice?) I howled during the delicious scene as Amanda tried to explain her latest scheme to Betty: "It's magic and like science. You don't actually have to understand it. You just have to believe it." And then she says, "You matter to me, Betty Gonzales." (That should be Suarez, honey.) I'll be savoring the next two hours of this show, believe me.
But back to the goodbyes. A superior and highly emotional episode of
Grey's, narrated this week by Bailey (the always awesome Chandra Wilson), was all about faith, embodied by a mystical healer (Glenne Headley) with a serious heart condition, risking her own life to lay her hands on others. She and her posse could read auras pretty well, including the dark one hovering around Alex. "What happened to you?" she wondered. (We'd all like to know.) "You were a good, sweet boy, but you're not a very good man." He'd be the first to agree. And how chivalrous of Alex to put Izzy in these seers' cross-hairs, the better to buck up her confidence in her own gifts. Scratch Alex's surface, and there's still a good boy in there somewhere.
I loved the Dr. Hahn/McSteamy "pretty boy" banter and all of the scenes with Mrs. O'Malley (Debra Monk) interacting with a chastened George, a foot-in-her-mouth Izzy and a regretful Callie, who admitted she loved being an O'Malley for a while.
And can I just say that my heart goes out to Lauren Stamile, who plays Rose, a character who's in the crosshairs of fan hate (if my mailbag's a sign) for her current flirtation with McDreamy, who knew he was passive-aggressively baiting Meredith when he showed her his "dream house" plans. "I can't trust you," Meredith said after she learned he'd impulsively kissed Rose. "You can't trust anybody," Derek replied, quite rightly, to his damaged-goods off-and-on soulmate. Yes, it's frustrating to watch them endure another speed-bump separation. But we've got miles to go on
Grey's Anatomy before this couple gets their happy ending. Be patient. Like we have a choice under the current circumstances.
In the same time period, there was a gamy final episode of
CSI set in the rodeo world, with a twisty plot involving bull riders, bull-semen poachers and one-night stands involving cowboys and hookers that went fatally wrong. This show always gets such terrific guest stars, this week including two comic actresses I always enjoy: Nicole Sullivan as a woman who knows her way around bull, and Julie Brown (remember her Medusa/Madonna parody years ago on Showtime?) in a cameo as a wedding-parlor witness. And how cool was that graphic device that showed us the skeleton of the bull rider so we could see how much stress and strain he endures on his wild ride. I'm going to miss my Thursday
CSI habit quite a bit.
I ended my prime-time night playing back the final original
30 Rock episode for now, highlighted by Kenneth the Page's
Reefer Madness-like descent into instant coffee addiction. "That's the devil's temperature," he declared about avoiding hot beverages until he took a fateful sip. Once he came down off his caffeine high, he decided to hightail it out of the corrupting big city, leading to a rollicking and surreal musical production-number climax sung to
Midnight Train to Georgia. Even Jack (Alec Baldwin) and C.C. (Edie Falco) chimed in, having severed their long-distance relationship for good after several rendezvous at a Pennsylvania coal-mining betting parlor midway between NYC and D.C. This show is so fabulously bizarre. And let's not forget how Liz, fumbling her college German, managed to almost sell NBC to the Germans. (I wish.) Blerg, indeed.
While I found plenty to laugh with on
30 Rock, it was undeniably bittersweet to not know when we can expect a fresh episode of this or so many of our other Thursday staples.
Of course, all is not lost on Thursdays.
Survivor will be back on Thursday within a month, with a format pitting all-stars against longtime fans. The return of
Lost is only three weeks away, paired with the promising
Eli Stone. The CW may be able to take advantage of the strike situation with a batch of new episodes of
Smallville, Supernatural and eventually even Reaper.
But I'd be lying if I didn't say that this Thursday was one of the strangest nights I've spent in front of the TV since the strike began. I enjoyed myself fully, watching episodes of some of my favorite series, but the enjoyment was clouded by separation anxiety. Even though I knew it was coming, I'm not ready to let them go just yet.
But until the sides get back to negotiating, and hammer out a deal in time (one hopes) to salvage at least a part of the remainder of the season, and the summer and fall schedules to come, it's time to learn how to live in limbo.
The good news is that once we get past the debacle of this weekend's laughable Golden Globes "news conference," next week I'm betting that strike talk will take a back burner to talk of actual TV. It's Fox's week to shine, with the new
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles on Sunday and Monday, followed by two nights of
American Idol auditions. Let the games begin.
