TV Supercouples: Who They Are and How They Work

Back in the seventies, a new term was coined – “supercouple.”  It began as a reference to soap opera pairings – those couples that no matter how many times they broke up and reunited – would always be “destined” for each other. The original supercouple was Luke and Laura from General Hospital, whose wedding gained the most viewership of any daytime TV program to date.

But what does “supercouple” mean outside of the soap opera? And do they still exist?

To the second question the answer is – totally.  But the first is a bit more complicated.

The main ingredient for a TV supercouple is audience devotion. The second most important component, plain and simple, is drama.  Supercouples are those romances that last for years and years, through marriage and divorce, breakups, betrayals, passionate reunions, and tragedy. They are couples the audience will root for no matter what happens between them, knowing without a shadow of a doubt that the two people involved are meant for each other.

Personally, I’m a huge fan of the supercouple. It’s a long-standing institution that continues to work today, just in different ways and through different forms of media. Supercouples are troubled, they don’t get a happily ever after until the end of the series – if then – and they tug at the viewers heartstrings.

Buffy and Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer are a great example of a supercouple. On another end of the spectrum, so are Ross and Rachel from Friends. Both couples dealt with many obstacles, separated multiple times, but ultimately still managed to convince a large audience that they were meant to be together.

There are a handful of supercouples on current TV shows as well.  Chuck and Blair from Gossip Girl come to mind automatically as a couple that, despite many breakups, still maintains audience love and support. Meredith and Derek from Grey’s Anatomy are in the same group, having been together, on and off, for the past several years of the show’s run.

Then there are would-be supercouples that just don’t work for one reason or another. Maybe it’s that the stakes aren’t high enough. Maybe it’s just a lack of chemistry. But no matter how many times they break up and reunite, these less-than-super combinations just fail. Finn and Rachel from Glee fall into this category. Don’t get me wrong, I love Glee, but it’s just hard to invest in Finn and Rachel as a couple and have that intense desire for them to be together.

So now that you know what a supercouple is, do you have any that you love? Any that you hate? Right now I’m digging Barney and Robin from How I Met Your Mother as my comedy supercouple and Chuck and Blair from Gossip Girl for drama.  So who are you cheering for? Who do you hope split up for good in the second half of the season? And who do you think will become a supercouple, given some time?  Tell us your thoughts in the comments!

Photos courtesy of ABC Photo Archive, The CW Network, CBS Corporation.

Grey’s Anatomy: It’s back!

Where did Grey’s Anatomy go and why?  I had to watch this week’s episode online since the show’s been gone so long, I forgot when it was coming back.

Luckily for me, there’s ABC.com because this week’s episode was the perfect mix of smiles, laughter, fighting, friendship, sadness, and good ole surgical expertise. Basically it was the perfect episode, and I welcome the show back with open arms.

The best part is that we got to see a little bit of everyone this week (even George!), yet I didn’t feel like the episode was being rushed. Callie faced her father who’s none to happy about her choice in a female lover, Izzie flung herself into wedding planning to avoid the pain of her illness, George and Karev confronted each other and Owen confronted his inner demons.

We all know that Meredith isn’t gushy, so Izzie’s request for Mere to try on white, lacy dresses was hilarious. Meredith conceded to Izzie’s request to keep her mind off her illness, while her co-workers variously gawked or agreed to wear a top hat with tails.

The best part was how damn cute Meredith and Derek were. Sure things got a little murky when Mark and Derek’s fight dragged on an on (don’t forget Derek duffed Mark in the face last time we saw the two), but these two are  in love, no matter how “unique” a pair they may be. (Speaking of unique pairs, Lexie and Mark were super sweet, and how cute was Lexie, stuffing her face because she’s caught in the middle of a premier attending and future brother-in-law and her now boyfriend.) Of course the boys make up, and it’s in the OR of all places.

Izzie, on the other hand, is going through some intense chemo, but acting like it’s a piece of cake. Her oncologist tells the Chief that Izzie needs to slow down and rest because she’ll want to feel like she was dead pretty soon. Strangely, she doesn’t seem to be portraying any of the normal symptoms which Karev is all nervous about, and she even seems to be joking more morbidly than normal which irritates Christina.

Of course she can’t pretend forever. After a few flatline tricks too many and some secret booting, she collapses. The truth is Izzie is scared and in pain, which is understandable, but she felt that if she could pretend to be the same person she was, all light-hearted and fun and cheery, that she’d remain that person. But she finally accepts that something has changed.

Our other boys have to deal with some serious issues when a man comes into the emergency room, after having been hit by a car. The driver happens to think that the man actually flung himself in front of his car like Superman. George thinks the guy needs a psych evaluation, but since Owen (with his newfound appreciation for Karev’s work) put Alex in charge, he takes the opportunity to put George down and go on a power trip.

Owen also has a breakthrough after a repeated visit to our fave Seattle Grace psychologist. Instead of feeling numb, he finally puts a name to the feelings he’s had bottled up inside of himself. He states that he feels shame for knowing that he wasn’t ready to be with Christina and that he was bad for her, but not being able to stay away which resulted in him hurting her. Pat on the back for Owen!

Unfortunately the breakthrough comes after George and Alex lose their patient in the hospital and after Owen realizes he’s had enough of Karev’s lax attitude towards his assignment. (What Karev doesn’t know is that Owen is also having his own internal struggle with what happened to him at war and how he hurt and lost Christina.) When the patient attempts suicide out of a second story hospital window and George steps in to take care of it, Owen switches his eye from Alex to George. He even goes so far as to tell George that his specialty should be trauma because he has a real knack and demeanor for it.

Since Alex ultimately failed this episode, we not only  see the old Alex who puts down George and who’s a bit of a douchebag, but also the sweet, caring Alex who’s so genuinely worried about Izzie, that his work is suffering. Though the two will never be friends, they bond at Joe’s with some honesty and a beer.

Bonding doesn’t go so well for Callie, Arizona, and her father. When he finds out his spoiled one is now a lesbian, he’s none too happy. It was easy when he could yell at George and Mark and slam them up against the wall for hurting/touching his daughter, but not so easy when it’s a chick. Callie, because of money sadly, has always felt indebted to her father. He paid for everything and made her life as easy as possible so she could focus on her own personal success. Of course Mark is right when he says that respecting someone is not the same as supporting them.

When he tries to drag her home, even going so far as to try and bribe the Chief to get her transferred to a hospital closer to her parents, she realizes that she has to stand up for herself or lose the one thing that has made her extremely and very really happy. He threatens to cut her off, but instead she does it to him first.

And Bailey deals with some hard family issues when Arizona finds out that Bailey still has yet to tell her husband that she’s specializing in Pedes, which also means that she’ll have less time at home. Things get intense when a terminal child is close to dying and her father can’t let go enough to just hold his daughter and spend time with her. Instead he chooses to chase harebrained possibilities that will likely never pan out, missing precious time with his girl. Being so alone, the young girl grows an attachment to the maternal Bailey, who stays with her and forces her father to understand the situation.

Though you’d think Bailey would leave happy that she achieved something for this dying girl, she realizes that she passed up medical opportunities to hold a child who’s not hers, and in that case, she could have been home with her own son. However Arizona assures her that there’s more to the job than coddling and that what she did was great. She also convinces her that its time to clue Tucker in.

Overall a lot happened emotionally, though storylines weren’t moved very far. I felt like I was watching an old Grey episode, and I giggled out loud repeatedly which hasn’t happened as often as it used to recently. Hopefully they’ll end as strongly as this.

Season 5, Episode 20: Sweet Surrender (originally aired April 23, 2009)

For another take on this episode, read Tanya Lane’s review here.

For more Grey’s Anatomy, click here.

Thursdays 9/8c on ABC
Photographs courtesy of ABC

Grey’s Anatomy: Crossing Over

This week we were treated to the first crossover episode of Grey’s Anatomy. I don’t know how much of a treat it was since the crossover involved Private Practice, but at least I had the choice to skip the later half. (Come on! Private Practice over CSI? Never!) Only a small amount of time has passed since we last saw our doctors. Addison’s brother Archer is admitted into the hospital with neurocysticerocosis, otherwise known as brain worms. (The strange thing is there was a recent news story about a sharp increase in patients being admitted with a worm in their brain!) Unfortunately for Archer, he has eight cysts and is pretty much a dead man. Addison pleads with Derek to be a hero and save her brother. Can he?

The major focus for tonight was if Derek could do the impossible. This didn’t fair well with the patient Derek was supposed to operate on before Archer cut the scalpel line. A husband and wife were basically babysat for the entire episode because the pregnant woman couldn’t settle down with an aneurism in her head that could bust at any moment.

Izzie set up a scavenger hunt game to prove that the interns had the knowledge and skills to be great doctors. They just need to feel passionate again, and she knew her cheesy, silly game would do just the trick. Alex isn’t too happy that crazy Izzie is seemingly getting crazier, especially since she’s not even seeing dead Denny anymore, but it’s clear he’s starting to realize that maybe something serious is going on.

As the winner of the contest, Lexie get the chance to scrub in on a surgery even if it was barely a scrub. I don’t know if it was the sneaky flirting with Mark or running across the finish line that got her fired up, but I knew Lexie was starting to step into herself which I like. Shonda is defining her character steadily but realistically, and I believe it.

Along for this long hard night is Sam and Naomi from Private Practice. I’m okay with these two, seeing as it’s logical Addison would bring her best friend (who also happens to be Archer’s girlfriend) and one of Derek’s old friends (who also happens to be Naomi’s ex-husband). Plus the camaraderie of the group, including Mark, was warm, fun and genuine. (Cancel Private Practice and move Taye Diggs to Grey’s Anatomy please! Bring back the Addison that I love and not that pod person who comes on an hour later.)

Apparently, Derek used to play guitar, even penning an awful wedding song for his first bride. It’s like Opposite Day for Meredith, who straight on the heels of finding that lone rose petal, realizes Derek had a whole life and friends that she will never truly know. (We knew it would be a bumpy ride to that alter.) Can Meredith handle this new revelation? Can Addison handle Derek’s potential proposal to Meredith since we all know he’s always been her only love?

But Meredith isn’t the only one who gets slapped in the face with the return of the dreaded ex. Christina realized she didn’t know Owen either when Beth, his ex-fiancee, brought her dad into the hospital. It turns out that Owen dumped his fiancé via a two-line e-mail and never told her that he returned from Iraq. (Or his mother. The shame!) If I found out that about MY boyfriend, he wouldn’t look so good to me, and Christina and I think alike. Not only didn’t she get it but she felt it was cruel.  Owen pleaded his case, namely that he was changed and she was the only one who saw the real him, and Christina let down her guard again.

But the big question is did Archer make it. Of course he did! They had to make it look like he wouldn’t because it wouldn’t be a drama if they didn’t. Derek retrieved seven wormy cysts, but the final one ruptured sending the worm squiggling away. There was a horror moment where Archer lay on the table without a heartbeat while Derek searched franticly for the worm, but he got that sucker.

In other news. . .

Sadie quits the program when it’s evident that she doesn’t know enough and could seriously KILL someone.

Bailey and Sam have some cute banter when he realizes the woman who never smiles is applying for a pediatric surgery fellowship.

Addison picks on Mark for having a thing for Lexie, calling her an infant.

Callie confesses to Addison through prayer and in a hospital church that she has the hots for a perky pediatric doc.

Season 5, Episode 15:  Before and After (originally aired February 12, 2009)

For an alternative opinion of this episode,  check out Tanya Lane’s review, Insane in the Brain, here.

For more Grey’s Anatomy reviews, click here.

Thursdays 9/8c on ABC
Photographs courtesy of ABC

Grey’s Anatomy: Hug It Out

Everything is back to normal at Seattle Grace. Secrets are spilling out, romance is in the air, and our docs are saving lives like the best of ‘em. I’m lovin’ it!

Lexie proves she could never be a double agent since keeping secrets is not her forte. No matter how hard he tried, Derek couldn’t keep a lid on his potential engagement. The world seemed to stop whenever Christina and Owen were near each other, and Miranda battled with one pediatric surgery to many.

Meredith and Christina are back to being butt buddies, and I’m happy with that. It reminds me of fights with some of my closest friends where the next thing you know we’re cracking up and rolling on the floor. It’s a little different for Meredith and Christina since their fun is thumbing through mom’s final journal. Mer passes it off to her BFF because she’s reached the part where her mother and the Chief start getting hot and heavy. Not the best bedtime story!

And speaking of all things steamy, Christina and Owen haven’t defined their relationship, but they way things are going, I don’t care either way. Their eyes sparkle when they look at each other. Their subtle flirting and teasing is HOT, and all the tension will most definitely make for an explosive love scene. (Could they make Grey’s history?!) A surprise visitor from Owen’s past puts a slight damper on things, but Christina is there for him even when he tries to push her away. Will this sudden appearance extinguish their flame before it’s really burned?

Mark and Lexie weren’t exactly reveling in their secret affair like some other lovers. Lexie has never been good at keeping a secret, so the idea of holding this in is tandem to killing herself. Little Grey acts a lot bigger this week, when she gives Mark an ultimatum, either their out or she’s gone. The cute thing is, you could see on Mark’s face how much he really likes her, but when he tries to confess to Derek, Derek at the mere idea of Mark in a monogamous relationship. It looks like our new lovebirds may end up very alone.

When another child comes in with a weak heart, Bailey wants off the case. However, she sucks it up, hoping that the case will be simple. When the girl’s surgery doesn’t go so well, Bailey can’t take it, actually walking out. The Chief told her that, pending Board approval, she will be promoted to a general surgery attending. (About time!) So you could say that Bailey is trying to hang in there, but she’s hanging by a thread. The best thing about Chandra Wilson playing this character is she’s so real and natural. She goes from strong doctor, to emotional mother who remembers losing her son, to supportive friend of a scared child, and she even deals with freaked out Virginia. (One of the best scenes of the episode involves Christina and Bailey hugging . It’s supposed to bring her heart rate back to normal.)

Izzie freaked out this week as well, when she starts melding teaching first-years with secretly conducting tests on herself. Her obsession with finding out what is wrong with her is comical, but still kind of crazy. (Izzie could have been deemed clinically insane for the past three seasons! First George and then dead Denny.) She doesn’t find anything wrong with herself, but, of course, we know there’s something much bigger going on. We’ll just have to wait to find out, and so will Izzie.

However, I would say the award for the doctors driven most bonkers goes to Derek and Meredith. Derek desperately triedsto decide when and how to propose to Meredith. Most of all, he wonders if she is even ready. When she tells him that their kids will be cuter than the kids of their two patients, he knows it’s time. Too bad, by this time, everyone in the hospital knows, even his patient who almost spills the beans. Meredith, on the other hand, keeps getting the “somethings fishy” vibe every time she steps in the vicinity of Derek and another doctor, making her think that her baby comments freaked him out. (It’s cute that she worries he wouldn’t want to make babies with someone as messed up as her.)

With the help of Mark, he decks the room out in rose petals and candles, but he gets a phone call from that fabulous, west coast ex-wife of his and dashes off. Meredith gets home, and I expected the surprise to be spoiled, but not only was he not there, but the whole room is empty. The only trace of evidence for Meredith to find is a lone petal, and when your boyfriend tells you he’s working, a rose petal looks a lot like cheating. (Potentially the worst preface to an engagement.)

I loved watching tonight. The only thing that really bothered me is how they are using Mary McDonnell. Having Arizona pop in is okay with me. When there’s a pediatric surgery, I can expect to see her so when she appears it isn’t a shock to my viewing system. The same doesn’t go for Virginia. It’s all so random, almost as random as George appearing on the screen.

Other Must See Moments:

• A man is brought in (to be “unplugged”) after trying a very adventurous sexual position with toys that he and his wife found in a magazine.
• Callie gets propositioned by Arizona in Joe’s ladies’ room. (No worries, there was nothing sleazy about it.)
• The entire cafeteria scene where our favorite residents check out the infamous magazine article.
• Bailey giving the child with the sick heart a backpack so that she wouldn’t spend her days stuck in a hospital. (She even bedazzles it for her!)

So, what’s wrong with Izzie? And will Mark be able to forget Derek’s chuckle and man up to how he feels? Will Bailey end up a general surgeon or a pediatric surgeon? When will Derek get down on one knee, and what’s going on with Addison? (Maybe if I kept up with this season of Private Practice, I’d actually know.) EIther way, I smell a crossover!

Season 5, Episode 14: Beat Your Heart Out (originally aired February 5, 2009)

For more Grey’s Anatomy reviews, click here.

Thursdays 9/8c on ABC
Photographs courtesy of ABC

Grey’s Anatomy: Hospital or House of Horrors?

This last episode of Grey’s Anatomy was both gory and touching, if that makes any sense.

When we last left Seattle Grace, Shepherd’s death row patient was pounding his head against a steel bar, trying to kill himself so that Bailey’s pediatric patient Jackson could be a donor recipient of his organs.  Meredith allows the man to injure himself, rather than calling Derek to save him – a clear breach of medical ethics.  When Bailey finds out, rather than accept the situation and the organs, she tells Meredith to fulfill her duty to the patient and give him the best medical care, saying that they are not executioners.  However, as Jackson’s condition becomes bleaker with each passing moment, Bailey reconsiders her stance.  In another moment of discarded ethics, she implores Derek, who is in the middle of operating on the man’s brain, to stop trying to save his life so that she can get the organs for Jackson.  Derek appears willing to let Bailey make a most barbaric judgment call, but at the last minute her sanity returns and she allows the surgery to continue.  Jackson’s death seems imminent, but at the eleventh hour another set of organs becomes available.  So all’s well that ends well with him, but Meredith and Derek clash over what would’ve been the appropriate course of action.  Meredith, as Izzie so frequently does, allowed herself to become too close to a patient.  She goes so far as to promise the man that she will attend his execution, so that when he gazes out into the gallery he will see at least one friendly face.  Talk about inappropriate.  She keeps her promise and is devastated after witnessing his lethal injection. She and Cristina are still on the outs, but after Derek explains the situation to her, she goes to Meredith and it seems as if they will be able to reconcile.

Back at the hospital, Bailey acknowledges that after a long, emotionally-draining day, she crossed the line.  All in a day’s work at Seattle Grace, where there is never a dull moment.  The show continues to push the envelope with risqué storylines, and this episode was no exception.  Little Lexie and Mark continue their affair, but things come to a screeching halt when he suffers a most unfortunate coital injury.  Lexie has broken his bone. Callie will probably be able to fix it, but in the meantime word circulates around the hospital that the old sword was bent in the act.  Lexie tries to keep their tryst under wraps, and Sadie confesses to being the one who injured Mark.

Cristina and Dr. Hunt continue their awkward foray into dating. He showed up hammered for their first date and ended up passing out in her bed. She accepts his apology but is reluctant to proceed because he clearly has issues.  I think they’re perfect for one another.  So are Alex and Izzie, who has finally given Denny the boot.  I’m glad that this absurd storyline appears to be at its conclusion, and it was strange to watch their blow-up at the end of the episode. I just didn’t “get it.”  One character who has been woefully short on lines lately is O’Malley.  I’m not sure what the writers are doing with his character, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find that he’s no longer at Seattle Grace next season.  It will be interesting to see how the show continues to sustain itself, and I look forward to it. I hope the writers still have something left in the tank.

Season 5, Episode 13: Stairway to Heaven (originally aired January 22, 2009)

Wanna know more about this episode of Grey’s?  Check out Inisia Lewis’s review, All About George. Kidding! here.

For more Grey’s Anatomy reviews, click here.

Thursdays 9/8c on ABC
Photographs courtesy of ABC

Grey’s Anatomy: Sweeter Notes

Only dark and twisty Meredith could hang with a serial killer and not show signs of being freaked out. How would I react if I came face-to-face with a cold blooded lady murderer? I’m pretty sure I would be creeped out and run in the opposite direction.  Then again, I also wouldn’t be caught dead in an OR. My scare-o-meter has a pretty low threshold no matter how much I like to push it.

We pick up where we left off last week, except this time there is someone who actually does scare the bejesus out of Meredith. Mrs. Momma Shepherd stops over in Seattle Grace to see her hunky, thick-haired son Derek. Raising a whole family of doctors, you know that this woman is one tough cookie. She wastes no time becoming the mama of the hospital, grilling Meredith on her life, questioning Lexie on her sex life but giving her the thumbs up, fussing over Owen’s sleep patterns, and chastising Mark for having such low expectations for himself when it comes to real romantic relationships.

Speaking of Mark, he and Callie have been working together a lot lately. It seems that no matter how many women they throw at this chick, they realize they can never replicate the chemistry between these Mark and Callie. A man who tried a leg lengthening surgery through the use of some wicked-looking rods ends up with those rods removed and the loss of an additional half inch. To a man who’s 5”3’, that’s no small thing. He complains and complains (obviously something he’s done all his life), until his brother breaks, recounting all the things he never confides in his own brother about because all he cares about is how short he is. It takes this outburst for him to realize that maybe size isn’t all that matters.

Bailey’s still trying to figure out how to help the cute little boy who’s grown up before her eyes. Bailey wants to be proactive while Arizona says they have to believe in the process. Like a fairy godmother granting both of their wishes, Karev has news that they’ve got organs! Unfortunately once the surgery is underway, Sadie realizes there is something wrong with them and there’s only 24 hours to find donors.

Patient numero uno is getting under Derek’s skin and sidling closer to Meredith. He says he doesn’t want to die strapped to a chair like an animal, choosing to die in the hospital instead. He even offers to donate his organs to Bailey’s patient. While Meredith wavers on resuscitating him when he flatlines, Derek adamantly won’t allow him to die. The patient prods Derek, comparing Derek’s job as a doctor to his choice to kill women which doesn’t bode well with McDreamy.  Meredith, on the other hand, gives him the out he wants. She tells him that if he were to damage his already sensitive brain, he probably wouldn’t live. He waits, oh five seconds, before slamming his head against the metal bar of his bed.

On a side note, Owen asks Christina out on a date but after thinking about the bad times overseas, he gets drunk and shows up late. Meredith also confesses to Momma Shepherd that she’s not the type of person mothers like because she feels bad for serial killers. Sloan tells Callie to walk tall even though she loved and lost before he goes after Lexie, and Izzie breaks up with her ghost because she wants a real world relationship.

On a happy note, Momma Shepherd tells Derek that Meredith’s the one, the type of person who can help him cope with his feelings surrounding his father’s death with her compassion and understanding. She even gives him the family ring to prove it.

On a sweet note, Christina is there for Owen when he opens up about the horrors of Iraq through a story of his best surgery. Plus she hops in the shower with him. (Simmer down. They’re both clothed.)

On a EVEN sweeter note, Alex asks Izzie to road trip to Iowa with him to meet his mom.

All this drama has set up Grey’s Anatomy for what seems like a season finale with the “duh, duh, DUUUUH!” to go with it.  But thankfully, it’s SOOOO not! I have nothing but giddy excitement for next week. Will Derek propose? Will Bailey save her “kid?” Will the best neuro-surgeon in the land try to fix the man who doesn’t want to live and could save another’s life? Will Izzie really let go of Denny? Or is it the other way around? Did tonight bring Christina and Eric closer? Is George being slowly phased out? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Season 5, Episode 12: Sympathy for the Devil (originally aired January 15, 2009)

For another take on this episode, check out Tanya Lane’s review, Mommy McDreamy here.

For more Grey’s Anatomy reviews, click here.

Thursdays 9/8c on ABC
Photographs courtesy of ABC

Grey’s Anatomy: Wish I wasn’t.

*Yawn* This episode of Grey’s Anatomy, “Wish You Were Here,” picks up with the still-feuding Cristina and Meredith. Now everyone is taking notice of their awkward silences and thinly-veiled animosity.  When a death row patient arrives, the two are at odds in the level of compassion and treatment they are willing to provide.  Cristina and Derek have little sympathy for the patient, who has a shank lodged in his spine.  Meredith attempts to ease his pain and form a rapport, but she’s in the minority.  They finally learn of the crime for which he’ll be executed, and he’s every bit the monster Cristina and Derek assumed him to be. Meanwhile, resident horndogs Callie and Sloan continue to lust after Lexie and Sadie.  Izzie continues to talk to her imaginary friend, Denny – and confides in Alex that she’s been “interacting” with a now deceased old flame.  Surprisingly, Alex is supportive and understanding. He has really turned over a new leaf with Izzie and seems to genuinely love her.  Hopefully she’ll tell Denny to beat it before she blows a good thing.  Meredith and Derek are going strong, as he sweetly tries to fill the void left by Cristina, while Cristina shuts out Dr. Hunt when he tries to cheer her up.  Cristina is emotional and needy, so I thought it was odd that she shot him down after recently pining for him.

This was a pretty uneventful episode, and I was a little disappointed with it.  One would think the writers would have come up with better material after making viewers endure a lengthy hiatus between new episodes.  Perhaps next week’s episode will fare better. I’d rather have moist eyelids than heavy ones, so bring back a storyline good enough to inspire some emotion!
Season 5, Episode 11:  Wish You Were Here (originally aired January 8, 2009)

For different take on this episode, check out Wish Granted by Inisia Lewis here.

For more Grey’s Anatomy reviews, click here.

Thursdays 9/8c on ABC
Photographs courtesy of ABC

Grey’s Anatomy: Solo Torture

It’s back! And by back, I mean the soapy, charming drama I loved that tackled issues like Meredith’s mother’s degenerating condition, mixing work and play, friendships on the rocks and striving for excellence in the workplace. You may be wondering, is Izzie still seeing dead people? Yes, she is, but I’ve chosen to ignore that inane storyline and enjoy the new ones developing.

As I’ve commented in earlier recaps, the first solo surgery has become a major plot point of this season, and the Chief has decided to unveil the big decision. In a great opener, the interns practice reading lips (extremely poorly at that) and relay the results to their respective residents. However, the choice isn’t what anyone could have expected. Christina is voted the winner hands down but because she’s sidelined she gets the pleasure (torture) of nominating the person she deems worthy to take her place. What ensues next are many feeble attempts at sucking up and bragging as her friends plead their cases. (Even a doctor I’ve never seen before in my life gets some lines. I think we all knew she wouldn’t be getting the surgery, though that would have been true comedy if she did.) On top of all this pressure, Christina also has to baby Dr. Virginia Dixon whom the Chief wants on his crew ASAP. (Poor Yang, who definitely does deserves the first solo surgery out of everyone.)

Though most of the focus this week is on the doctors, the patients had strong storylines too. They didn’t get much screen time, but there was humor and sadness and pain all wrapped together, something I’ve missed dearly these past weeks. One pair of siblings is brought in battered and bruised due to a “texting behind the wheel” accident. Holly and Emma are, obviously, polar opposites and get on each other’s nerves to no end, throwing “I hate you”s at each other like pitchers throw balls. Emma even tells her sister, “I hope you die” before she’s wheeled away. And Mark takes on a woman who lost her voice to cancer and depended on post-its and a computer to communicate with the world. Her husband is over the distance that has grown between he and his wife due to her condition, and it’s clear their intimacy has suffered. Each of these two stories deal with close personal relationships that are marred and complicated and that’s what Grey’s Anatomy does best.

Big and little Grey take on supportive roles for these patients. Meredith, who can’t always be forthcoming and supportive in her own relationships, gives Emma the strength to not only say goodbye to her sister but to forgive herself for her harsh words when she passes away. (It’s obvious Meredith’s relationship with her mother mirrored this relationship closely.) Lexie, on the other hand, helps the woman without words overcome her fears of the surgery’s possible failure and find her voice. When the woman finally says “hi” to her husband, the look on his face and his simple “hi” back is so emotional in its simplicity, how can you not tear up a bit?

The writers also gave Christina her moment to shine this episode when she looks critically at her sense of loyalty, her friends’ medical skills, and her friendship with Meredith. Though Meredith tells her to make an unbiased choice, you know she believes she’s still the best choice and that Christina will see it her way, especially since they’re best friends. However, when Christina picks Karev, Meredith’s none too happy. She tells Christina that she wished she wouldn’t have made a personal decision because of their fallout last week, but Christina spits that it was Meredith who made it personal, and that she chose Karev because he made the best points. (I do like how the writers are testing their friendship and keeping Meredith’s relationship with Derek on stable ground.) Christina also stands up for herself in front of the other doctors, saying she truly deserved this surgery, and the interns’ screw-up was all of their faults, not solely hers.

The best part of the episode, though, was the emerging relationships at Seattle Grace. Mark fought strongly to keep Lexie far away from him emotionally, but when she shows up at his door, undressing and asking to teach her, you know she’s not talking about successful surgeries and you know he can’t resist anymore. His new BFF Callie starts to see the hot, new intern Sadie as a potential flirtmate. (Though I don’t trust Sadie as far as I can throw her.) And when Owen brings Christina to his secret place in the hospital (a huge, liberating vent), they give in to the mind-blowing kiss we always knew would come. Luckily, this time it’s without booze or without injuries so I’d say this time is for real.

Like I said earlier, I chose to ignore the Denny storyline, but I can’t keep you completely in the dark. Izzie and Denny are now work buddies who are still getting it on, though now it’s at work as well. Intuitive George gets some airtime when he begins to realize that Izzie is acting really strange. (Getting caught talking to an imaginary friend will look this way!) And although she came through for Karev and assisted him in his first solo surgery, he still can’t see that the girl he’s in love with is not the same Izzie at all.

I finally feel Grey’s is back to the level of excellence that I expect from week to week, and I hope the show sticks in this stride. Now, if only Shonda would bump Izzie off to go star in movies and join Denny in the afterlife sooner rather than later.

Season 5, Episode 10: All By Myself (originally aired December 4, 2008)

For another take on this episode, read Tanya Lane’s review, I’m Befuddled.

For more Grey’s Anatomy reviews, click here.

Thursdays 9/8c on ABC
Photographs courtesy of ABC

Grey’s Anatomy: There’s no “I” in Team

It’s easy to get lost in medical jargon when watching a show set in a hospital, but I always feel like I get the gist of what’s going on with Grey’s Anatomy, even if I don’t completely understand the lingo.  This is due in part to the writers’ incorporation of real medical events, from Buffalo Bills’ player Kevin Everett and the medical approach to his potential paralysis, to the storyline which served as the crux of the latest episode.

Seattle Grace continues to regain its standing in the medical community, first with recognition of one of Derek’s clinical trials in a national medical journal, and then with the opportunity to make medical history.  Dr. Bailey will be leading a team of surgeons in a six person kidney transplant known as a “domino surgery.”  This mirrors a procedure I saw featured on an episode of Good Morning America last year.  When patients require organ transplants, the obvious thing to do is test relatives to see if they are a match.  Sometimes they are not a match for their loved ones, but they are a match for another patient on the donor list.  In this episode of Grey’s, aptly titled “There’s No ‘I’ in Team,” the hospital has six patients in need of kidneys, and six willing donors who originally intended to donate one healthy kidney to their loved one.  Because the willing donors are not matches for their relatives, but are matches for other patients, they will donate to a stranger, while their loved one receives a healthy kidney from another stranger.  Twelve happy people, right? More like 10.5 happy people.  As Bailey states, the whole procedure is a “deck of cards,” and if one person gets cold feet, no one gets a kidney.  One young donor initially seems like a Good Samaritan, because she is not related to any of the other patients.  When it’s revealed that she’s sleeping with one of them, his wife (who wasn’t a match for him but for another woman whose sister wasn’t a match for her) finds out and doesn’t want to go forward with the procedure.  Eventually Bailey craftily makes the woman realize that her participation would serve the greater good, and the surgery goes forward.

The whole episode wasn’t this intense.  It wouldn’t be Grey’s if there wasn’t comic relief of some sort, and this is provided (still) by Callie and Erica’s burgeoning relationship.  Callie is ready to call it quits based on her discomfort with her intimate “performance” on their first date.  After a tutorial from Mark, she’s back on the love boat, headed for the island of Lesbos.  Hey, it’s a real place.  Check your Greek mythology.  Callie and Eric aren’t the only ones making a romantic breakthrough.  Alex and Izzie end the episode with a long-overdue smooch.  Unfortunately it still appears that Lexie has no chance with George, but at least he knows her feelings now.  After he expresses no desire to choose her as his intern, she justifiably flips out on the perennially cute and clueless doctor.  This was another good episode, and I barely cried, so that’s progress.

Season 5, Episode 5: There’s no “I” in Team (originally aired October 23, 2008)

For another take on this episode, check out Five Second Rule by Inisia Lewis.

For more on Grey’s Anatomy, click here.

Thursdays 9/8c on ABC

Photographs courtesy of ABC

Grey’s Anatomy: Happiness and the Flood

This week on Grey’s, Derek took a stand and asked Mer to give her roomies, Izzie and Alex, the old heave-ho. While news of this rattled her roommates, Meredith kept saying how happy she was, even quitting therapy.  Yet of course she continued to act anything but.

The chief laid down the law big time. He wanted the docs to know that play time was over.  No more specializing in surgeries, playing favorites with interns or getting emotionally invested in patients. While the chief was so busy setting the rules, he failed to realize the ceiling was falling…literally.

As plumbing problems struck the hospital, the crisis interrupted George and his long awaited intern exam. George, always willing to take one for the team, puts aside his exam to help out.  Despite Bailey’s incessant warnings, the chief ignored the plumbing issue until the hospital flooded and the ceiling caved in on a patient.

Meredith is assigned a cancer patient who in an effort to distract herself from her disease,  wants to know all the details of Meredith’s love life.  “You didn’t tell me about the hair,” the patient teases after seeing Derek’s locks in person. Meredith replies that it’s one of the things that make some people happy.

Lexie’s photographic memory leads to a great diagnosis when she discovers the cause of a patient’s seven-year headache.  When Derek and Christina won’t listen, she tells Mark.  Mark offers to let her scrub in, but she’s deemed “pathetic” when she passes it up to help George study.

When Derek tells Mer that Christina thinks the roomies should go, Christina tells him what she thinks, then gives Meredith’s shrink a piece of her mind.  “It’s never going to work out,” she informs the doc.  The therapist replies, “it kills you that you might lose her to him.”  Christina is amused, lobbing back “You’re a terrible shrink.”

When Izzie finds a great apartment and tells Christina, Christina thinks it’s meant for her and Dr. Hahn. Pissed off,  Izzie is waiting for Meredith at home, and she tells her flat out that she’s alone and that she doesn’t have anyone but Meredith. Of course, Alex shows up just then and we see that someday they’ll have each other but for now it’s all lingering glances and withering quips.

When Derek arrives home, Meredith stands up for herself and also proves that she’s still not all that happy. “They are my family. And you can’t ask me to give up my family.”  And in the annuals of wonderful yet fictional men, Derek says its fine and for now at least, Meredith at last, seems truly happy.

For another take on “Here comes the Flood,” check out Tanya Lane’s review here.

Grey’s Anatomy, Episode  5.3  “Here Comes the Flood”  (originally aired 10/9/2008)

Thursdays at 9PM/8C, ABC
Photographs courtesy of abc.go.com