excuse me, i am trying to operate on this person and you are SINGING. that's just disrespectful. // abc promotional photo

So, tonight’s the already-infamous musical episode of Grey’s Anatomy. As I have since the announcement was first made, I remain skeptical but curious. I’ll likely be watching this episode by peeking through the gaps of my fingers as they cover my eyes in horror.

On the face of it, the whole concept just seems ridiculous. Callie, who’s just been involved in a serious car accident (nice driving, ARIZONA), is in critical condition at the hospital; her fate—and that of her innocent unborn child—HANG IN THE BALANCE.

AND THERE IS SINGING.

While the heavy-handed schmaltz-fest that will undoubtedly be Callie singing out her feelings during her out-of-body experience (seriously) has me already rolling my eyes, I have to admit there are a few things I’m definitely looking forward to.

We can’t deny that Sara Ramirez is a Great Musical Talent. In fact, it was her Great Musical Talent that landed her this gig; after seeing her in Spamalot on Broadway, ABC executives offered her a role on the series of her choosing. (I personally would have picked Lost, but to each her own.) I will gladly take the opportunity to hear her sing.

Apparently, everyone has at least a little bit of singing to do, so I’m expecting at least one .GIF-worthy moment for Mr. Patrick Dempsey and will be sorely disappointed if that opportunity is missed. I’m picturing him bursting out of an elevator at full volume singing.

It’s also a spotlight episode for Meredith, according to reports. Meredith is pretty much the only person who acts like a grown-up on this show, which is HILARIOUS considering that two seasons ago, she was pretty much the acting president of the I’m Technically Too Old to Have Random Tequila Sex, But IMA DO IT ANYWAY, BITCH Club. And retired members of this club deserve babies, but Meredith can’t have any, which is sad. And I like the episodes that talk about how sad that is, because it means that Derek and Meredith’s season finale healthy-fetus “shocker” (c’mon, you know it’s coming) will be all the happier. But for now, Derek’s hugging her while she cries in the elevator, and it is going to be some great angst. (Presumably, this is not the elevator from which Derek erupts with an exuberant tune.)

Guilty Arizona! Okay, this may bother some folks, but I REALLY don’t like Arizona, known selfish nag. In fact, I’m not convinced she didn’t crash the car on purpose, just to get rid of the baby she despises. (Oh, did she mention that she hates babies and hates that Callie had sex with Mark, even though they were broken up and SHE LIVED IN AFRICA AT THE TIME? Because she does. And she will make it very clear that this is Not What She Wanted, but she will go along with it, because she loves Callie so much, but she does have some conditions, including that she is allowed to hold it over Callie’s head FOREVER that this is Not What She Wanted—oh, and she would like to get married, because she NEEDS commitment.) So here’s hoping that this episode requires Arizona to do some serious thinking about her choices and her driving skills and her TERRIBLE PERSONALITY. In all honesty, it’s probably an opportunity for her to realize how much she does want Callie and the baby, and by the end of the hour, everyone will probably be siding with Arizona and not trying to send her off to bad driver’s rehab.

Will this episode be the perfect blend of poignancy, humor, and AWESOME TUNES MADE FAMOUS BY GREY’S that Shonda Rhimes is promising? I’m doubtful. But at least if it’s bad, we can laugh about how embarrassing it is.

"excuse me, am i reading this chart correctly? did you dimwits really buy a baby?" // abc promotional photo

Last night, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Benjamin Bratt will join the cast of Private Practice as a series regular starting in this year’s season finale.

Which begs the question … how many incredibly attractive people does it take to save a lagging series?

Private Practice is pretty much overflowing with sexiness. In fact, Addison Montgomery has so many choices for sex partners, it’s almost embarrassing. (Even more embarrassing is that she’s an emotionally-stunted nightmare who most often chooses “all of the above.”)

We should assume that it won’t take long for Bratt to get into someone’s scrubs … but whose?

Addison and Sam’s relationship appears to be headed for a breakup, considering Naomi’s selfish, screamy outburst last week (and the revelation that the once-married Sam and Naomi HAD A MOMENT, HOLY CRACKERS), so our leading lady might be free for sexytimes with the erstwhile Detective Curtis.

A more interesting take, I think, would be a new love interest for Caterina Scorsone’s Amelia Shephard. Even though this sex-crazed recovering drug addict is possibly the nuttiest character on this nutty nut show (and the one who gets the most insane lines), she’s also probably my favorite. And even though she really gets around, she hasn’t yet had a serious love interest. I’d love to see her get somebody who isn’t just someone else’s recycled goods, as this show is wont to do.

The other, less important question is what sort of doctor Bratt will be. Are we to guess that he’ll be taking over Naomi’s part of the practice (fertility), or that Shonda Rhimes is creating an entirely new specialty for him? My guess would be he’s bringing new skills to the table, as Addison can be the vessel for any pregnancy-related storylines they want to tell in the future.

The thing about Private Practice is that while the medical cases often bring ethically interesting components, the way the characters respond is usually incredibly unethical and unprofessional. (Case in point: last week, Amelia purposefully gave her patient the incorrect diagnosis after said patient vowed to kill herself if the results weren’t in her favor.) So I’m all about bringing in new blood, who might be able to steer these guys toward the up-and-up of their profession. In fact, can Bratt please be an Ethics Specialist, who comes in to audit Oceanside’s behavior and practices? Oh, gosh, now I NEED this to happen.

Well, it may have taken almost three years, but between Peter and Olivia’s tiny-hands-in-a-snowy-tulip-field introduction do-over and Anna Torv’s pitch-perfect performance in those final moments of “Os,” but my perspective has obviously changed completely.

But while I was going through all that old news, I was reminded that Joshua Jackson was actually supposed to do a long-term guest run on Grey’s Anatomy before the writers’ strike hit. The papers were all signed for Jackson’s first post-Creek commitment, but during the strike, he made plans for Fringe, and the Grey’s episodes never materialized.

At the time, I was DEVASTATED. See, I was hosting Pacey-Cons at my house long before Jackson got in on that action. And at the time, Grey’s was The Place to Be, so it was a pretty big deal in Allietown.

Obviously, things worked out the way they were supposed to. (And Jabrams HAS to be a way better boss than Shonda Rhimes.) But I can’t help but wonder … what would have happened?

For starters, let’s state the obvious. Jackson is immensely likable, and could have fit in well in the world of Seattle Grace. Rumor had it at the time that he would have been a love interest for Cristina, suggesting that his character was probably one that ended up being reimagined as Owen Hunt, who was introduced shortly after.

Personally, I would have imagined him as the only guy who could snap Izzie out of that whole George situation, if only so that Jackson and Katherine Heigl could’ve spent time together reminiscing about the old WB days. And while it would’ve been fun to see him as a trauma surgeon, I just don’t see him having a whole lot of chemistry with Sandra Oh.

Of course, that’s what I said about Josh & Anna three years ago…

weirdest duet ever, maybe? // abc promotional photo

In some ways, I’ve been waiting for Grey’s Anatomy to do a musical episode since season two. Shonda Rhimes has a long history now of hiring Broadway powerhouses for her series, and I’ve been hoping to see some of her characters put their pipes to work for a good long while. Between Taye Diggs, Audra McDonald, and the unbelievably talented Sara Ramirez, the Grey’s/Private Practice universe has a LOT of musical ability to mine from.

But a musical episode? Really?

I’m really not sure this is going to end well.

Plenty of shows have done musical episodes to great success. Scrubs’s “My Musical” is well-regarded, as are Fringe’s “Brown Betty” and Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s “Once More With Feeling.” But all of these shows have a certain element of fantasy inherent in their premise. Grey’s Anatomy … doesn’t. Rhimes promises, “Nobody is going to be dancing and singing down the halls; that’s not our show. Our show is known for its music. I very much wanted to do something that was musical without being a musical,” but I still don’t trust that the reason for the singing will be natural and diegetic.

Also curious about this choice is whether or not the singing will involve the whole cast or just the professionals. Rhimes specifically talked about Chandra Wilson and Sara Ramirez, but will we get any samplings of the musical stylings of Patrick Dempsey or Justin Chambers? I will say, I have the Ally McBeal Christmas album, which features a rather nice version of Joni Mitchell’s “River” sung by one Robert Downey, Jr., so I do kind of hope that they go all out with it and make everyone sing.

But back to the question of plot … I still just don’t see how this comes across naturally and without some weird set-up that hasn’t already been done. Scrubs’s musical episode involved a patient whose condition (aneurysm-related, I believe) caused her to hear everything in song. So that option is out for the Grey’s writers.

I’ll withhold judgment until I actually see this episode, but at this point, it just seems like a weird choice to me. I’m all for making Sara Ramirez sing, but why have a whole musical episode when you could just have her sing some incredible karaoke at a bar?

So for me, the news that Charlotte will be the victim of sexual assault isn’t as personally heartbreaking as it would be if she were a character I love or respect. It doesn’t mean I’m not shocked by this story concept, or that I’m immune to the agony this whole plotline is sure to introduce, just that the personal connection isn’t there. I will say that this is a truly unique concept from Shonda Rhimes, who seriously must have changed her vitamin regimen this year or something because she’s coming up with some juicy stuff.

This couldn’t come at a worse time in Charlotte’s life, since she’s finally (or for the forty-fourth time) gotten things settled with Cooper and agreed to marry him. The fallout from the assault will undoubtedly shake up their marriage plans. KaDee Strickland did some interviews about the storyline yesterday, and she talked about how the experience will change her character forever. Even though this is a terrible thing to happen to any person, even a fictional one who aggravates the becheesus out of me, I can’t help but wonder if this could end up being a catalyst for much-needed character development. Could she finally decide to put an end to the Cooper/Charlotte nonsense, once and for all? Could she end up changing so much that she becomes a character who isn’t so deplorable? Everyone involved seems to be (rightfully) looking at this plot point as a major change in Charlotte’s life, and one way or another, she needed a change. This one’s just going to be a lot harder to deal with (and a lot harder to watch) than a housefire or the forty-fifth breakup with Cooper or a suspicious mole whose biopsy comes back negative.

In his interview with KaDee, Ausiello noted, “Rape stories are a dime a dozen on TV these days,” but I don’t really think that’s true. Maybe on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, but as Shonda Rhimes says, “A lot of violence against women on television is from the point of view of law enforcement, as opposed to standing in the shoes of the actual victim and seeing how it is for them and the people around them.” I honestly can’t recall any series regular being a rape victim or a rape survivor ever. This has the potential to be groundbreaking, if done correctly–and from the sounds of it, the showrunners are taking care to make sure the storyline is handled appropriately.

Of course, this is Private Practice, so it could also be maudlin and moderately offensive.

Now, bear with me for this inaugural episode–the lighting isn’t great and I have no idea what was going on with that ponytail. Also, yes, those are nine pieces of white paper taped to the wall of my apartment. My budget for this project is, well, nonexistent.

In this “premiere,” I’m dissecting the romantic entanglements on the series Private Practice. They are myriad, and they are gross.

]]> http://epic-flail.com/2010/09/15/omg-its-an-epic-flail-video-post/feed/ 2 Allie http://epic-flail.com/2010/09/13/greys-anatomy-can-they-keep-this-momentum-going/ http://epic-flail.com/2010/09/13/greys-anatomy-can-they-keep-this-momentum-going/#comments Mon, 13 Sep 2010 19:05:26 +0000 Allie http://epic-flail.com/?p=775 ]]>

i'm skeptical/curious too, ladies. // abc promotional photo

I loved the Grey’s finale.

After time-slot-partner Fringe, it was my favorite finale of the spring. Suspenseful, romantic, tense, and featuring baby talk for Derek and Meredith, that last episode solidified the show’s place on my packed DVR schedule–sorry, The Office.

The question is–can the show keep up this forward movement, this fresh feeling, once it gets back into the swing of things this fall?

Maybe.

Unlike the last two seasons, where it felt like the same storylines kept repeating over and over again, there are a lot of things that feel new about Grey’s this season.

Spoilers and speculation after the jump.

Unless you’re super-spoiler-free, you probably know that in the premiere, Cristina and Owen get married. While I am fairly disinterested in the couple, marrying off Cristina for real is probably the most interesting thing they could do for her character at this point. Plus, it theoretically puts the final kibosh in any more love triangle BS for those two, which was just becoming kind of gross.

The new season can explore Cristina actually trying to figure out what being a wife means to her, which is interesting considering it seems like their marriage is basically a life-affirming spur-of-the-moment decision.

Lexie, Alex, Mark, Teddy, and all those new kids are officially unattached (right?), so there’s still room for “traditional” Grey’s hookup storylines.

Derek and Meredith–you just know the season’s gonna end with them finding out she’s pregnant and healthy. You just know it. Bonus points if they can tie it into the house-building plans (Shonda Rhimes says that storyline’s coming) and end the season with them actually standing in the room where their kids could play.

For good measure:

But I think what’s most interesting about this season’s potential is that the whole rampage thing gives the entire team something that unifies them. Ever since the original intern team fragmented, there hasn’t been much of an ensemble-y feeling on Grey’s Anatomy. I mean, what does Meredith really have to talk about with Teddy? Or Arizona? (Also, is it just me, or have the character names on this show gotten flat-out ridiculous?)

Anyway, now, everyone on the show has something in common, a shared experience. Not that we want the whole season to be dragged down by post-rampage emo drama, but it’s a good place to start from.

Agree? Not so much? Just ready for Derek and Meredith to start having babies? Comment below!

enjoy it while it lasts, lady. // abc promotional photo

Pete and Addison are kind of back together on Private Practice, which made me think for a moment that things were finally righting themselves in Shonda Rhimes’s world.  See, Pete and Addison totes made out in Practice‘s backdoor pilot, and then they had some more hot kissing in the first handful of episodes, but before long, the wheels came off the wagon.  Most recently, Addison’s been doing some kissing with Sam, and Pete’s still inexplicably obsessed with Violet, who really should be with Cooper, who’s AGAIN NOT AGAIN hooking up with the excruciating Charlotte.

When Pete and Addison most recently fell into bed together, they admitted they were just settling for each other.  But Sam’s officially put the kibosh on his flirtation with Addison, and Violet doesn’t seem to be coming around any time soon, so it’s possible that my personal pick for Private Practice OTP may actually have a shot at something here.

However, despite my appreciation for Pete/Addison, I’ve recently come to realize that it’s stupid to keep your fingers crossed for ANY couple on Private Practice or Grey’s Anatomy, when the absolute best you can hope for is a Post-It “wedding.”

See, Shonda doesn’t do relationships–she does hookups.  The characters can appear to make it work for a while (Callie and Arizona, Owen and Cristina), but there’s always someone lurking in the background (Mark, Teddy) to make one or both relationship participants behave like children.  And even though she’ll bring on new characters as “potential love interests” for established characters, I don’t believe for a second that she has any plan as to who’s supposed to end up with whom.  For instance, Alex.  At the end of the show’s run, will Shonda pull out all the stops to get Katherine Heigl to do a Clooney and reunite with Alex?  And what about Cooper?  Are we supposed to want him to figure things out with the unimaginably horrifying Charlotte, or are we to believe that he and BFF Violet may one day become more than friends?

I’m far more inclined to believe that the notion of who-ends-up-with-whom will boil down to which pairings are doing the dirty in the on-call room in the episode prior to the series finale.

Which isn’t really that big of a problem, except for that it (A) doesn’t exactly instill trust in the producer, (B) gets a little ridiculous as the characters grow up, and (C) makes fools out of the people who stupidly get excited about things like weddings.  (On the flip side, it makes break-ups almost humorous–consider how pain-free Mark/Lexie’s break-up was.)

So when Kevin McKidd goes out and says, “I’ve always thought it would be cool to see (Owen and Christina) have a baby together down the line,” I want to pat him on the head and say, “Dream on, little ginger one.”

did you even know they were capable of laughing? // abc promotional photo

Ausiello’s got the latest on Derek and Meredith’s ever-rocky relationship, complete with quotes from Shonda Rhimes herself:

They will face some relationship challenges, many of them work-oriented, in the second half of the season. I don’t know how many times [I] can say, ‘Derek and Meredith are together forever’ and have anybody hear it. I can only reassure so much. In order to [produce] a drama you need to have some drama. Whether or not two people are meant for one another doesn’t mean that things aren’t going to happen to challenge their relationship.

Thank you, Ms. Mogul, for explaining that to me.  I really appreciate it.

I think Shonda Rhimes would easily win the award for Most Narcissistic Showrunner. Do they give Emmys for that?

Anyway, producer self-importance aside, there’s really not much to say about this announcement.  She’s basically saying, “Derek and Meredith will have needless drama, but don’t worry, because I’m smart enough not to break them up for realsies.”

You know why Sydney and Vaughn’s relationship on Alias worked even when they were together?  Because they still had plenty of battles to fight as a team.  And even though their battles aren’t, well, literal battles, the same can be said of good, solid relationships like Coach and Mrs. Coach on Friday Night Lights.  Why does everyone always have to be fighting with each other for the drama to meet Shonda’s standards?

Anyway.

On the recent Private Practice/Grey’s Anatomy crossover special, it was revealed (I believe for the first time) that Sam (Taye Diggs) is something of a cardio god.  Snaps for Taye.

Now, the only reason why this is relevant at all is because on last week’s Grey’s Anatomy, Cristina freaking CRIED—she CRIED!—because she is dismayed at the lack of cardio opportunities at Seattle Grace.  Now, this could all definitely be a complete coincidence.  (Private Practice’s ep was written by Dana Baratta, while Grey’s was written by William Harper.)  But, as has been pointed out to me, that’s a pretty insane coincidence.

Some possibilities:

#1: Just a coincidence. It means nothing.

#2: Shonda realizes that Private Practice is a minefield of death and is planning for its inevitable demise by creating “outs” for her most valuable assets.  Let me tell you, the idea of Addison and Sam—arguably the two least hateable characters at Oceanside Wellness—leaving LA for Seattle is an appealing one for me.

#3: Realizing the value of these crossover opportunities, Shonda is merely drawing parallels between her two universes to create further potential for the two to collide.  Regardless of whether or not Sam actually ends up moving to Seattle eventually—which I find quite doubtful—they’ve just set up an interesting situation if they ever decide to introduce Cristina and Sam.  (They may have already met during that whole Archer Montgomery thing—I can’t remember.)

I think #3 is probably the most likely.  Private Practice isn’t failing, and there’s really no need yet for her to be plotting exit strategies for her contracted actors.  And let’s face it—Taye Diggs is one of the things that Private Practice really has going for it.  Were he to leave, the show would be severely crippled—it wouldn’t be a good move unless Private Practice was already in immediate danger, which I don’t think it is.