How awesome was Grey's ...
T.R. Knight and Chandra Wilson, Grey's Anatomy
Question: How awesome was
Grey's Anatomy last Sunday? For an hour I forgot all about losing shows like
Threshold,
Arrested Development and
Love Monkey. The shower scene near the end echoing, but so starkly contrasting, the fantasy the week before —
fantastic! There were way too many great details to mention them all. I was so glad that Bailey's husband didn't die. The whole widowed-while-giving-birth thing just seemed so gimmicky. My only beef is that once the bomb was out of the body, it just seemed so obvious that it would blow up the bomb guys. It's hard to forgive anyone for blowing up
Kyle Chandler, but all in all it was pretty amazing and I guess that with the other surprises they gave us, I shouldn't complain if there was some predictable stuff.
Answer: No, indeed, this is not the time to nitpick. That sensational two-parter was, I think, the turning point in
Grey's Anatomy's already sensational success story. As you may have heard, Sunday's episode was the first time
Anatomy actually built on the audience of its lead-in,
Desperate Housewives. All season I've been wondering when that would happen, given that
Grey's has been so much more satisfying and consistent, and the post-Super Bowl burst appears to have done the magic. (Of course, it's also possible that the Olympics was a factor in keeping
Housewives' numbers down, although both ABC hits outdrew the Olympics.) But yes, as I noted in my
Dispatch earlier this week, I thought these episodes of
Anatomy had everything you could hope for in a medical drama: high suspense, high emotion (George and Addison getting Bailey's baby delivered), big shocks, flashes of humor, and great and sexy personal moments (the latest Meredith-McDreamy face-off, Cristina's declaration of love while Burke slept, Izzy and Alex making the best of a desperate situation). These episodes ran the gamut of what a popular, populist and thoroughly entertaining ensemble serial drama is capable of. I can't help dwelling on how much this reminds me of the early days of
ER (the original cast now taking on a mythic quality not unlike the first five years of
Saturday Night Live). I just hope
Anatomy keeps it up, and I don't see why it shouldn't.
Since we're on the topic, thought I'd share another expression of genuine praise, this one from Jill: "I'm sure this will get lost in the million messages you get on the subject Grey's Anatomy, but Sunday's episode really blew me away. (Sorry. Couldn't resist the pun.) When Meredith stepped out into the hallway to look after the bomb-squad leader, I thought, 'I hope she hooks up with him. It'll get her mind off McDreamy.' And then he blew up. I watch a lot of television, and there is no excuse for my not seeing that coming. But I didn't. I sobbed at the end of that episode. For the bomb guy whose name I don't remember, for Meredith's shock and comfort by her friends, for McDreamy's being hugged by his wife when he was thinking of Meredith, for Bailey naming her son after George. With so much garbage out there these days, it feels really good to have characters I care about and whose fictional travails can affect me so deeply."
