TV Review: Grey's Anatomy Spins Off And Spins Out
Published May 04, 2007
I’ll admit it. I started watching Grey’s Anatomy because everyone else was doing it. Call it peer pressure. Call it curiosity. Whatever. I became a McSheep like the rest the planet. The characters are likeable. The dialogue is snappy even if the plotlines are too drawn out at times. It’s highly addictive and I usually don’t like hospital shows. The music is some of the best on television. So I gave in and against my better judgment became like everyone else.
Season three at Seattle Grace, however, has left a bad taste in my mouth. The constant backstage drama, the poorly written Christina/Burke romance, and the constant “Meredith in peril” storylines have become grating. So I was suspect to say the least of last night’s two-hour event.
After all, this episode would the one to launch the much-hyped Kate Walsh spin-off. Spin-offs can be risky because, as we know, for every one Rhoda, there are a dozen Joeys.
Right out of the gate this “event” really wants you to like it. They’ve jammed the two hours with wacky wedding plans, steamy kisses, and weird medical cases. This is huge part of Grey’s problem this season. Instead of staying true to her characters' core, Shonda Rhimes and company seem so intent on blasting viewers with what they think we want to see instead of writing organic, smart episodes. The recent Izzie and George hook-up is a prime example of this. Why would you spend the time to develop a lovely, platonic friendship only to blow it to bits with a ratings stunt? Another victim of a sudden character makeover is Addison. This smart, bitchy scene-stealer has been morphed into a gushy, hapless, Grace Adler-like loser.
Speaking of Addison, she’s taken a leave of absence to find herself and coincidentally another hospital filled with more cartoonish, damaged doctors. Alias alum Merrin Dungey plays Naomi, a med school pal of Addison who now lives in Los Angeles. We viewers know that Addison’s arrived in LA because of the obligatory montage of the Hollywood sign, Santa Monica, and Beverly Hills. As an Angelino, I take particular offense to montages like this not only because it’s been done to death but the illusion is that these landmarks are all right around the corner from one another is totally inaccurate. Any German tourist who’s ever been here knows what I’m talking about.
- TV Review: Grey's Anatomy Spins Off And Spins Out
- Published: May 04, 2007
- Type: Review
- Section: Video
- Filed Under: Video: Drama, Video: Television
- Writer: Sean Paul Mahoney
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Comments on this articleComments
Thanks Brandon. I enjoyed your Grindhouse review.
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i have been a grey's faithful since the beginning when the show still aired on sundays. i was highly disapointed when it became "the thing to do" and was switched to the hot spot of thursday night. and now i'm even more disheartened at the "ratings stunts" you mentioned. i'm glad i'm not the only one who has noticed that grey's has plummeted from a quirky intelligent sit-com/drama to a cheesey played-out night soap opera. hopefully rhimes will get it together and remember why the show became a pop icon so much so, that the seriously mcGenious vocab infiltrated our daily conversations.
Yeah, Greys Anatomy is finished. The last episode was a handoff to the spinoffs.
Shonda denies this was a spinoff. She keeps treating her audience like they are as dumb as the females on her show are depicted. GA used to be humorous. It no longer is. That spinoff was horrendous.
I have never seen such a blatant attempt to con the public as last nights two parter. How dare they take advantage of the fans of the show, i mean why even bother call it greys anatomy,
There was like 20 mins of greys and an hour and a half of that pathetic addison mcbeal spinoff. Sorry guys Ally Mcbeal is gone, dont try and revive it with second rate characters and washed up actors.
I hate the writers for selling out their own show. I had to cringe when they started giving you insight into these seemingly random characters pasts, WHO CARES!!!! And my god how I hate that black guy, he absolutely loves himself, so unlikeable. GREYS ANATOMY SUCKS! I feel like an idiot who has just been conned into sitting through an hour and a half of a show i did'nt want to watch and never would watch in a million years. I hope the spinoff sinks.
The spinoffs are sinking. Good riddance. Meanwhile, the original GA seems to have recovered some of it's fun.
Grey's sucks ever since they made the gay guy the leading man. As if one woman would be in love with George, much less two? Two good looking women...not. It used to be a good show, now it's just a joke.
Aside from the George O'Malley silliness (which was probably introduced for it's very silliness) the program is much more entertaining this season than it was at the end of last season, when it was utterly unwatchable. I think they've even reduced the obnoxious Meredith narrative with it's mock serious proclamations and bonehead insights. we can only hope.
Meanwhile, I have yet to view the PVR of the new season opener of "Men In Trees" which suffered a similar decline last season. I hope for the best.
Cathy, T.R. Knight is gay; his character, George, is not.
If you have such trouble distinguishing fact from fiction, maybe you should give the gossip rags a miss.
"Grey's sucks ..."
When will people realize how trite the expression "sucks" sounds?!
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I couldn't agree more. Well put.