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: 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: All About George. Kidding!

Did you make it or was it too much to bear? Fans were close to rioting when Denny was reintroduced to Grey’s Anatomy, and I don’t blame them. Yet it seems the Izzie-Denny crazy saga has come to a close. And with that, Bailey fights to keep her little patient alive, Owen asks Christina for a second chance, and Meredith and Derek’s criminal bites the dust.

It was a busy day at Seattle Grace, as it seemed like everyone was experiencing their own personal hell. I knew it would be an interesting episode when I heard Denny’s voice as the narrator. We all know that Izzie has chosen Alex, so why doesn’t Denny, um, disappear? It’s clearly more than just Izzie’s inner demons battling to let go of her dead fiancé. On the other hand, this is a medical drama, and the answer can’t simply be that he’s a ghost. Every time Shonda introduces something like this, it’s always been accompanied by a coma or being under during surgery. Low and behold, Izzie realizes that Denny’s insistence that he’s “here for her,” has really meant that he is here to take her as death personified. Things get a little murky in the explanation of why him? and why he didn’t he tell her?  Is this his heaven her hell? I have no idea about all that, but at least now we know all this insanity has to do with a serious medical condition.

Meredith faced an extremely tough decision when she got sucked into Prisoner William’s mind games. After following her subtle hint that he basically break his skull, Meredith chose not only to let Bailey know that there was a potential donor for Jackson, but she also decided to ignore the fact that to save William’s life she should probably be calling in her brain surgeon boyfriend. Instead she chose to hold the phone which almost brought William the control over his passing he so desired. Or so we thought. When Christina pushed Meredith aside to actually use medecine on the man, he seems to have a change of heart when he asks her to help him because he doesn’t want to die.

When Bailey realizes that Jackson won’t be able to hold on for very much longer and that Derek is going to save a man who only has five days left to live, she holds the OR hostage, begging Derek to stop the surgery. When he points his scalpel at Bailey and asks her to choose if he’s an executioner or a doctor, Bailey snaps back to reality, realizing her feelings for the young patient has clouded her judgment so much that she was willing to throw the most important oath that she ever made out the window.

Luckily, Bailey didn’t need to compromise her heart or her head when the Chief convinces a grieving wife to become a widow since her brain dead husband is a perfect match for Jackson’s much needed transplant. He’s saved just in the nick of time. So often Chandra Wilson puts in Emmy and Globe worthy performances, and this week’s episode can’t be doubted. She’s vulnerable and grieving yet thankful and  all at the same time, and she doesn’t have to speak a word in her final scene by Jackson’s bedside.

If the most emotional scene goes to Bailey, the most heart warming scene goes to Meredith and Derek. With mama’s ring in tow, he presses Christina to make-up with Meredith because she’s going to need a friend when he proposes to her. Christina’s not quite ready to make that step yet. However when Meredith goes to William’s execution because William asks for a friendly face in the crowd, Derek is ill equip to handle Meredith’s endless leaky eye faucets. She  knows he doesn’t get her, but just the fact that he was there waiting outside the prison for her when we know how he felt about William proves how much he cares for her, and when he goes to Christina’s because he can’t console Meredith, it’s obviously that she cares for Meredith too. Have the friends made up? We’ll have to see next episode, but they’ve definitely taken a step in the right direction.

For some comic relief, Little Grey, who no longer allows Mark to call her that (Listen men, her name is Lexie, and she’s a woman. W-O-M-A-N!), gets a little too frisky and breaks his you know what down you know where. Now I always knew some dangerous things could happen when you weren’t too careful, but I couldn’t even imagine what an awful horror it must have been to see it all go down in real time. (I am sort of intrigued as to what it could have possible looked like. My imagination is struggling with that one too.) When all the interns find out a mysteriously flexible woman injured Mark’s manhood, Lexie can’t hide her discomfort at all of their speculation. Sweetly, Sadie comes to her rescue and claims herself to be the human pretzel so that Lexie can breath a little easier. I guess they are friends after all, and with the pressure of being off her back, she can be the woman Mark needs even if he’s too humiliated to look at her. She hops into that big ole hospital bed, cuddles and strokes his hair to make him feel all better.

This episode had every emotion known to man. There was happiness, sadness, laughter, reconciliation, death, mourning and rejoicing. And that’s everything you except from a Grey’s Anatomy episode. Now I want to know when and how Derek will propose.  And will Owen and Christina finally make something out of their obvious connection? What’s really wrong with Izzie, and will Alex be able to handle it now that Denny’s gone for (what seems like) good? George has about another three minutes of screen time, so why don’t they just write him off already? I guess we’ll have to wait to find out.

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

Wanna know more about this episode of Grey’s?  Check out Tanya Lane’s review, Hospital or House of Horrors? 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: Disaster

I realize that it’s a long television season, and for that reason I’ll allow for a few “throwaway” episodes of Grey’s Anatomy.  I know that the writers can’t knock it out of the park with every show.  I don’t think this week’s episode, “Here Comes the Flood” advanced any of the storylines in a major way, despite the well-written dialogue. There’s no such thing as a truly bad episode of Grey’s, but this one is not one of the better installments.

In this latest episode, the doctors of Seattle Grace must deal with their usual stream of terminal, quirky patients in the midst of a leaky ceiling, hence the title.  The Chief is continuing to emphasize raising the hospital in the rankings by improving its effectiveness as a “teaching” hospital. It’s unfortunate and ironic that while he attempts to bolster the hospital’s reputation, there is a fundamental flaw in the building’s very structure.  The place is literally falling apart. Meanwhile, Meredith continues to vent about Derek to anyone and everyone who will listen.  They are moving in together, but the only problem is that he wants her roomies out, pronto. This sends Alex and Izzie into a panic, though Alex tries to mask his anxiety.  He and Izzie harbor feelings for each other, but he goes out of his way to reject and hurt her, again.  Think of it like the third grade boy who hits his classmate because he likes her, and you have their relationship in a nutshell.  If Meredith is self-absorbed, her sister Lexie is the opposite.  She’s relatively drama-free, save for her unrequited feelings for George.  She is so enamored with him that she foregoes an opportunity to scrub in for a surgery with Dr. Sloan so that she can help him prepare to take his intern exam. It will be interesting to see how the emphasis on teaching plays out over the course of the season, as the hospital tries to improve its image.  If this latest episode is any indication, the staff is not off to a good start, considering that the leaky ceiling gave way in the middle of a surgery.  Ahhh, the magic of TV – where shards of plaster, tile, and spackle can come crashing down into a patient’s opened abdomen and he survives.

As I said, there wasn’t much substance in this episode, as it was merely an average chapter in a very good book.  Although I’m glad I avoided the tears this week, I’d like to see more beef and less filler when I tune in next week.

For another take on “Here Comes the Flood,” check out Hollie Overton’s review here.  For all reviews of Grey’s Anatomy, click 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