Surely, reviews about the musical episode of ABC's Grey's Anatomy will be mixed, as they often are for any type of big risk that isn't hands down brilliant. Grey's did a lot of things right. They stuck to the style of music their fans are accustomed to, indeed, using many of the songs made famous by Grey's promos. They also let their strongly gifted actors sing, while not forcing the entire cast to participate musically. As for complaints, I could see some saying there is too much music. Ten songs are used in the hour, compared to four to six for a normal episode of Glee. But overall, I'm pretty pleased.
The best songs are the crowd pleasers, of course. Big ensemble performances of Jesus Jackson's "Running on Sunshine" and THE Grey's anthem, The Fray's "How to Save a Life", are a visual and auditory delight. The weakest point, in my opinion, is the very first. I have complained lately of shows jettisoning their theme songs. Grey's theme, "Cosy In the Rocket", was abandoned long ago. But the series only teased by letting a few lines of the song be sung just before the title card. This is the perfect opportunity to bring it back, at least for one episode, and instead, they only allow a small taste.
Sara Ramirez, who plays Dr. Callie Torres, is at the center of the episode, as she is badly injured in a car wreck, and the one hallucinating the singing as the staff tries to save the life of her and her unborn child. Ramirez won a Tony for her performance in Spamalot on Broadway, so it is no surprise that she sings in seven of the ten numbers. Her biggest highlight is probably The Story, made famous by Brandi Carlile, where Sara shows her true range and belting capabilities. Plus, the cut shots throughout the song made it look neat.
Other featured players are Kevin McKidd as Dr. Owen Hunt and Chyler Leigh as Dr. Lexie Grey, who both have their own solos, as well as participating in group numbers. Chandra Wilson's Miranda Bailey and Jessica Capshaw's Arizona sang in multiple songs, but didn't have their own. Other actors, like Justin Chambers (Alex Karev), Eric Dane (Mark Sloan), Scott Foley (Henry), and Daniel Sunjata (Eli) only get the briefest of moments, which is more than Sandra Oh or James Pickens Jr. did. Sarah Drew's April is somewhere in the middle ground, getting to sing in several songs, but never really being featured. But it works out, because if they are bad singers, we don't want to hear them anyway (I'm looking at you, Alyson Hanigan, whom I adore, but whose "This line's mostly filler" may have been the most out of tune moment in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical episode.)
Article comments
1 - Harry
Who dreamed up this horrible "Glee" version.
I switched channels.
2 - Jerome Wetzel
Harry - It wasn't anything like Glee. I could write pages on the differences, starting first and foremost with the lack of much dancing, as well as the musical style.
3 - B
im watching this now. usually a season final is the best. this is horrible. horrible
4 - choleh
Yeah was pretty bad. Although some of them sung nicely but still...
5 - Jenny
I adored this episode. Sorry. And no, I am not a Glee fan.
6 - ellie3
Really too bad that the haters couldn't get into the music and really listen to lyrics among the dialogue. It was really quite brilliant how it all really meshed together and related to the storyline along with the camera cues. Just requires that the viewer have some depth and I wish more folks had a little depth. People that fast forwarded through the music missed A LOT of what was punctuating the story. I thought it was great. Whether you loved it or hated it, it jump-started the show and at the very least created some new opportunities for some new rising stars. Kudos! Had the same story been told without the music, it would not have had the same emotional impact and folks would have thought the creators were just recycling old, dramatic storyline...a beloved character is going down hard and it's all hands on deck to save him/her. It's been done to death. This was the twist it needed and I applaud the creators for going for it. It was really great.
7 - Jerome Wetzel
I am confused by the negative reactions. It's not like Grey's brought in songs that were different from what you hear every week on the show. They stuck to their very specific genre. Some people just don't like singing in their shows, I guess. Personally, I love it, and while this is not the best musical episode of a show ever made (see: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Scrubs), it was highly enjoyable.
8 - tim b
Shonda Rhimes, you must be to busy with all the spin off and new show but get ur mothership back in order please!!! this show is not what it was as much as i love it, get it together... what is this crap??
One of the Writers along with one of the Producers and One of the Studio and Network Exec need to be fired for that B.S yall put out on thrus...
Grey's used to be a Great show and what you all have been doing to it over the years, minus that Great ending last year has been horrible..
9 - Sam
Awful. Truly Awful.
Nice Songs though.
10 - adam k
I am so unbelievable disappointed with whoever chose to create a musical type of feel on the normally well written and well acted show. Absolutely awful idea, in my opinion things like that should be left with Glee. Considering the immense success of Grey's Anatomy I struggle to understand why they feel the need to create episodes like this one and the documentary-style episode earlier on in the season. I could not even finish the episode as it is just truly awful!
11 - Erin
I think it would have been better if they just finished up the ending (when she woke up) with a song, instead of having the songs throughout. It was a bit too much for my taste, but I do like that they stuck with the genre.
12 - Querent
This show was a pure triumph for Shondra Rimes vision of what drama is. Shondra knows that the music IS the drama. She has used this understanding brilliantly in the past to reach the viewers' emotions by allowing music to control the pacing and the emphasis of Grey's, but this time she actually allowed the actors in the show to do the singing, and they did it extremely well. I am greatly impressed by the artistic achievement of the producers and the actors of Grey's, one of the all time best TV series, and my personal favorite. Great work!
13 - Cindy
I loved this episode! It is really neat seeing another side of actors' and actresses' talents. Sara Ramirez really can belt it out! I thoroughly enjoyed it. And I still managed to feel the emotions being portrayed. I also liked this article, and agreed with many of the mentioned ideas (Callie dying, leaving Arizona and Mark to pick up the pieces) but I am glad that did not happen; Callie is one of my favorite characters. Can't wait to see what happens next!
14 - Jerome Wetzel
Thank you all for the excellent comments. I think what I liked best about this episode is that it took a big risk. Obviously, not all of you agree that the risk paid off, but at least the show tried something new. House is another series that does different things every so often. I applaud them for any attempt at new ideas, because it helps the show stay fresh, and sets it apart from many other dramas.
15 - Salome
I'm a massive fan of Grey's.
Now I'm also a huge fan of Buffy and Scrubs. All series which have had a musical episode.
Now the buffy episode was amazing, the music worked throughout and it didnt detract from the drama of the episode. It was simply one of the best episodes in the whole 7 seasons of buffy. It made perfect sense within the confines of the plot and it carried the audience along the narrative of the plot.
Scrubs too did a musical episode (based again on a brain trauma to one of the patients), so once again Grey's ripped off a Scrubs idea, but I don't mind that as I love both series for what they offer individually. The music worked in scrubs because it makes ample use of flight of fancy flashes, thus the audience simply wasn't surprised by the surreal element of it and could happily enjoy the songs.
Now Grey's unfortunately is a whole different kettle of fish. First may I say the songs were excellent (well except for meredith who couldn't hit a note if it was 4 stories tall and had a painted target on it). Callie really showed off her singing skills and alot of the songs I would have happily downloaded.
However the whole episode simply didn't work. Sure the songs were good, but the singing drew away from the drama. Grey's works upon the premise of it being faux-sciency with a compelling dialogue and sassy humour. All of a sudden putting singing into the story, distances people from what they expect from greys and breaks the drama. I wouldn't want people in ER to all of a sudden start singing or NYPD Blue either. It just simply makes no sense within the confines of this kind of drama. Further to that the way the songs were done detracted from a plot which would have been very interesting and compelling. I would have loved the episode if the cast songs were just played as a backing soundtrack, like they normally are. However having everyone singing behind face masks was awful looking. The whole premise killed the drama and I really hope grey's stops attempting to be "experimental".
I didn't like the 1 hour news report episode and I don't like this one either, it simply isn't what I loved about grey's.
To be honest grey's used to have compelling storylines and great humour throughout. I've noticed over the past few seasons that their are much less "laugh out loud" moments than their used to be. Also the personal relationships of the doctors have vastly taken over from the ongoing drama's of the patients, which used to be more evenly split.
Please Shonda, reclaim the humour that made grey's what it was and start including more focus on patients again (as i need some balance to the stories about who's jumping on who)!!!
16 - CraigW
I was surprised, I had not idea that Sara Ramirez was so amazing with her voice. The episode was progressive and I enjoyed it so very much!
17 - Love this show
Love this episode..................
18 - oscar
oh man ! she's dying and everybody's singing? what the f*** is this?
19 - Brandon Yates
absolutley couldnt watch this crap. truly truly awful. loved every other episode but this is pure crap.
20 - Tristan
it will be interesting how the show will deal with no mcdreamy,
here is a funny joke I saw about Grey's Anatomy.
21 - andrea mullen
I LOVED this episode. After the shooting episode, the miscarrige, the Yang drama, it was nice to see a new type of drama. You still got the same old Grey's drama, just in a new way that made me want to watch again. Ive now seen it 5 times in a row, and i love it. It just makes you see a new side of the drama you come to expect from Greys, without getting repetetive. Those who didnt enjoy have a right, but it was nice to see something different, yet not really different. Hope they do another musical episode in the future.
22 - adam
This was interesting and a little weird but in the artist sense. the show,shonda rhimes,being the artist. Thats cool to take a chance like that. Forget about glee already people. haha. This is a better show. And worthy of taking a chance. the beatles, Bowie etc all chance takers and contraversial. Need i say more?