But apparently Kevin McKidd (Rome. And wasn't he the lead in Journeyman? Big doughy blonde Scandinavian-lookin' but really Scottish? oh yes, and he was in that horrific bridesmaid bullshit movie with Patrick Dempsey.) will be Christina's new love interest.
Really?
The strike is really too depressing to talk much about. Let's just say: a) the writers are completely in the right, I mean COME ON, they make 7 cents off a DVD and NOTHING off Internet? and b) all joy is gone until the big corps get off their butts and realize the # of people who will actually watch reality TV every stupid night is far smaller than the amount who appreciates well-written TV. Right? Fuck, I hope so.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles started last night / continues tonight. I loved it. A little backstory / some good fights. Everyone is beaten down and miserable and barely keeping it together. Good performances by the three leads. I'm looking forward to more, although if you read the article in the latest EW, I do have concerns given the actors all seem a bit lost without the writers there during the majority of the filming (9 eps written out of 13 pre-strike, but the writers not around to discuss even what was already written).
And as for a mid-season (but potentially end-of-season) review of everything else I'm watching:
Brothers & Sisters. I still enjoy the repartee, and still enjoy watching Justin and Kevin... but I think it's pretty lame that EVERY marriage has to wind up with infidelity on this show. Same old, same old. Watch out, Calista & Rob, you're next!
Heroes. First half of season sucked ass. Last four eps were fairly awesome, at least up to season 1 standards. Not thrilled to be getting sucked back in...just in time for the strike. But this is definitely one of the shows I enjoy more on DVD (as with LOST).
K-Ville. Predictable and overly melodramatic. But enjoy the two leads and their buddy/partner chemistry.
Bones. MY FAVORITE SHOW OF THIS SEASON (even over #2 FNL knocked out of the top spot and #s 3 Pushing Daisies/Office tie and #4 Life) Loving it. Loved every minute of this season. So sad not to be seeing new episodes right now.
Reaper. Up and down but for the most part I do enjoy each episode even when afterward I think "What was the point of that / or they forgot about this / or they dropped the ball on that". None of it has lived up to the Kevin Smith-directed premiere for me. Ep 3 was close but all else has been mediocre in comparison. Still laugh at it though, so find it worth watching.
Gossip Girl. At first I was only watching this on iTunes but since it's one of the few with new eps left, I've moved to watching it in real time. A guilty pleasure, indeed. It's like The OC but without the annoying attempt at seeing real life next to the rich kids. Even Dan and Jennie are not Ryan Atwood poor. There are no well-meaning, morally upstanding (despite being rich) parents (Sandy Cohen, I'm talking to you). It's all boys, bitches and bling. What's not to like.
Pushing Daisies. My #1 new show of the season. The sweetness and charm, and the retro rich colors of the filming. So much to love. (So much to miss.)
Life. My #2 new show of the season. Love the lead, love the partner chemistry with both his old & new partners, love the fight to lead a zen life vs. the fight to get revenge. Love the creepiness of the bad cops and the bad non-cop dudes. Love it all.
The Office. Continued to be brilliant. Funny and crass and yet sweet and kind, all at the same time. Nobody does that better.
30 Rock. As funny as the Office with a little less sweetness (there really is no situation comparable to Pam/Jim on this show, in my opinion). Comedic actors doing the type of brilliant work they would never get recognized for on the big screen.
Grey's. Sucks. Contrived. Ridiculous. Trying way too fucking hard.
Friday Night Lights. (STILL HAS AT LEAST ONE OR TWO NEW EPS LEFT) Still love some of it. Still has these just blindingly beautiful moments of true feelings / true situations / bitingly real scenarios. At the same time, so much of it has been very contrived this year (and not just the murder mystery). Some of the really good bits are starting to be overshadowed by the ridiculous bits. Peter Berg, would you please step back in and get control of these writers (when the strike ends, I guess) as almost none of the episodes have held a candle to last year's. It's like they actually didn't know which parts made them a success and have gone off in the wrong direction. (And p.s. let's have dinner, you and me.)
NUMB3RS. Still not what it once was. But last few episodes have had some nice tension and some nice scary-without-a-zillion-shoot-em-ups bits.
I think that's all I've been watching in real time. Isn't it? Man, can't even remember, now that most shows have gone dark. Still catching up with How I Met Your Mother on iTunes, I'm somewhere in the second season.
And looking forward to the beginning of Lost and Jericho, although I don't think there's a full season written of either one, is there? Didn't watch last season of The Wire because the schoolroom focus was just too painful to watch. Will probably try to watch it on DVD at some point so going to save the current season for then. I do love me some James McNulty though.
So, I know some of you are still watching Grey's. Even if you don't want to admit it. Well, I'm admitting it. I'm still watching. (And I'm also watching Private Practice... don't judge me! I love me some Addison, and it's getting better. Stop looking at me like that.)
But, let's talk about Grey's Anatomy. To me, this week's episode was the best of the season so far. Why did it work for me? A few reasons:
Not sure: Lexie and Alex? um, I don't know. What do you think?
Not working for me: Meredith and Derek. Same old crap. Not buying it. They are by far the least interesting storyline on the show.
Come on, confess! Who's watching?
Did this show jump the shark last year when Izzie and George slept together? And when they wrote Addison off the show about a half an episode after (finally) bringing her and Alex together?
At this point, that's how I'm leaning. They made a lot of bad decisions last season (and by "they" I mean the writers, producers, etc. not necessarily the characters, although those bad decisions became the characters' actions obviously) and unfortunately they had no choice but to refer to & deal with those decisions in the premiere. How many weeks are they going to drag out those already lame storylines?
Grey's: Horrible. Sucked. Everything that could go wrong, in every relationship, does go wrong. And frankly, gave me no reasons to want to watch next season at all.
The Office: Awesome. Rocked. Some things went so hilariously wrong, and some things went so wonderfully right. Yay!!! CanNOT WAIT until this Fall!!!
Verbose, aren't I. What did you think?
Your regular Grey’s commenter is suffering a profound revulsion of the soul after the past 5 or 6 episodes and I can’t blame her. When a good show goes bad, it is a heart breaker and this past very special episode (6 special episodes in a row?) continues the downward spiral.
What I have are impressions mostly. The biggest one being – I know you are struggling with off air personality problems but people, get a grip on your goals for this show. Do you have any anymore?
Alex and Amnesia Girl are worth watching – but the progress of his character is totally undermined - and stupidly undermined, which is worse -by the fuck-and-dump of Addison and I know it is all about the new show, but badly done. I guess I think I shouldn’t have to be so AWARE of the EXTERNAL demands on the writers. And it would have been really amazing if they let Addison walk away not because of another mistake with a man, but because she recognized that the environment she was in was hothouse and unhealthy.
Bailey is fantastic as always and it would be great to see her get to be more than acidic window dressing to the free-floating angst of the show. I wanted to marry her when she sent George and Burke to waste each other’s time instead of hers.
And that stupid resident – the fill in the chief called (was that this episode or the previous one) – even she use to have a character – remember the awesome put down she gave Christina/Burke during the flesh eating bacteria leg surgery? Now she's just a bouncy kiss-ass.
I could make a list of all the characters who USED to be something. Callie, George, Burke, Izzy…all thrown away.
Let's talk about Izzy – used to be tough and interesting as well as pink and sweet and now she’s just an idiot. In three weeks (approximately) she’s gone from mourning Denny in quite a moving way to Being In Love with George in this awful, unbelievable, destructive, selfish way. Which I could maybe see as a grief mechanism, but they aren't approaching it that way. And still treating Callie like dirt, which I never understood – you don’t make your friends choose when they have a bad girlfriend. Or a bad wife – which isn’t even a for sure yet. The Izzy that was knew this about people.
Callie and Izzy should be friends – the outsized sexiness and the way that they are not what other people expect ought to make them natural allies since they aren't alike enough to compete for the same oxygen – and wouldn’t that be an interesting storyline, unlike this stupid manufactured sex triangle?
Derek’s need to caretake could be interesting, if they took the time to look at it, relate it to the end of his marriage even, maybe why Addison cheated in the first place. Because he isn't a White Knight, he's a man trying to be a White Knight. Meredith and Derek learning to see each other as whole people could be really interesting, if they took the time to look at it. Meredith could be interesting if they stopped torturing her long enough to let her have a character instead of just an expression. Though she really is an oblivious person.
I cannot even speak about the new death in Meredith’s family. Stupid. Wasted dramatic arc. Ridiculous in every way.
I can’t believe I am saying this, but could this be about something OTHER than sex and love and marriage. Could we have some medicine please? Not disease of the week medicine, but bread-and-butter hospital work?
Remember when the show was structured around the lessons of medicine and surgery and the challenges these people were facing as they worked to become highly skilled professionals? Their competitiveness and insecurity and desire were fun to watch. And if that’s the focus, nobody has to have a new sex partner every week to keep things lively. Romantic woes and the death of loved ones are NOT the only ways to grow as people. Really cheesy. And not very interesting. Seriously.
So there was a) the three-episode waste of time pretending Meredith was going to die. and b) the what's-it-been-now-two-or-three-episode bullshit Izzy-George sleep together and ruin the entire show.
And then there was last week where NOTHING went right for ANYONE and at that point, why am I watching? Seriously.
Meredith & Derek: about to breakup because he's not sure he can "keep breathing for her." I'm sorry, you actually thought she was going to die? See, her character's name is in the title of the show... Oh right, you, Derek, don't know that. Loser.
Christina & Burke: choosing a wedding cake = so not saving this relationship no matter how fun the sexy ending looked.
Callie & George: honestly why did they bring her on the show and make her all hot and awesome just to DESTROY her and make her even more pathetic and whiny than she was when they first started dating. NOTHING has changed for them in the whole "you like your friends more than you like me" argument.
Izzie: so fucking annoying. maybe she should have killed herself after Denny died.
Addison & Alex: COME ON. the only stupid reason they had to have alex blow her off: oh right, because she's getting her own show. after they spend a year showing him becoming more and more and more human, they should have had him like a character who's actually staying on this show so they could actually follow up on that.
Mark Sloan = remains annoying. why is he still here? so he did the right thing. ONCE. whatever.
Chief = annoying.
Bailey = only reason to watch.
Having the hospital's top benefactor come in with a Penis Fish = lame exhibitionism.
Losing interest FAST.
From the L.A. Times, some deets on the Grey's Anatomy spin-off.
I don't know...I don't see Addison as the kind of person to start feelin' California. She's so New York!
Since I am STILL annoyed with the last two episodes of Grey's, I thought I'd get another dig in before a (presumably?) fresh episode tonight. Does everyone here read the Television Without Pity recaps? Sometimes they just have little bits of opinion as part of the recap, but their recapper is also so steamed at the show, that she's gone full out in this most recent one. Here are some comments I wholeheartedly agree with (linked back to their pages in the recap) [see extended area for these...]
SCRATCH PREVIOUS COMMENT: tonight is a repeat. So we have (at least) another week to stew. Damn it.
Second week in a row where Alex and Addison were the only characters I wasn't downright steamed at. Seriously? SERIOUSLY? Did anyone like this episode? I guess it was marginally better than the previous week's JOKE of a BULLSHIT situation. But basically this was the fifth episode in a row (Yes, FIFTH!!!! The three "does she die ones", then the previous horror show of stupidity, and then THIS) where I have wondered who is writing this crap and did they forget who these people are.
And to those strangers, I have to point out George was always in love with MEREDITH before Callie. Never Izzy. Ridiculous. Just one more reason that storyline makes no sense and is LAME as I have mentioned before. Bogus. Baloney. BAD.
Anyone?
