Grey's Anatomy Documentary Style Episode

“These Arms of Mine”

I went into this documentary style Grey’s Anatomy episode completely doubting their ability to pull it off and pissed at them for copying ER yet again (ER did not one, but two documentary themed episodes, one of which was live). I was happily proven wrong when I watched the episode and am ashamed at myself for doubting the brilliance of Grey’s Anatomy (I won’t say Shonda Rhimes since I can’t wrap my head around her reasoning for Private Practice). The documentary style made the storylines move more rapidly and they had double the amount of scenes they usually do. There were no long speeches, no dramatic pauses, just pure action, dialogue and ‘raw’ emotion.

The documentary crew was out to discover how this hospital that had undergone a major trauma (a mass shooting) was healing. Clearly Cristina isn’t and I love that this storyline is continuing for this long instead of being resolved in two episodes like most series would try to do. I loved the dynamic between her and Meredith because it is reminding us once again that they are the main relationship of the show. Meredith is trying to cover for her, steps in for her in traumas, and takes care of her in the interview which leads to Cristina shutting down completely and is only speaks to the cameras again 4 weeks later when she has formulated exactly what she wants to say and nothing more.

It was beautiful, sad, and moving. The doctors actually explained medical procedures and they seemed legitimate; something that has been severely lacking as of late.

I am loving Alex as the new Peds rockstar and he is adorable interacting with the kids and pretending he doesn’t like them.

I’m pretty upset that Arizona and Callie are going to Africa and hope we don’t have to watch them there (ER couldn’t even pull of their Africa storylines). I’m sure this was just done because Jessica Capshaw (Arizona) is clearly pregnant and they needed to give her time off for maternity leave, but don’t take Callie too!!

I also love how theme oriented this series always. The title “These Arms of Mine” not only reflected the physical surgery they were performing (a double arm transplant), but also Meredith caring for Cristina, the chief caring for his hospital, Alex caring for and about his children patients, and Bailey actually hugging her long time patient who was in the shooting with her (Mandy Moore). Finally, while Mandy Moore’s death was tragic and sad it really brought everything full circle considering that the shooting was brought about by a patient being taken off of life support. Pretty brilliant.

My Love/Hate Relationship with Private Practice

Good episodes of Private Practice (of which there are probably 2 total) and every episode of Grey’s Anatomy just make this show look even worse, if that’s possible.

However, judging from the sneak peak and preview of next weeks episode dealing with a brutal attack against one of the main characters, Charlotte King, one more episode may be added to the ‘good’ list, if only for the directing and KaDee Strickland’s performance judging by what I’ve seen so far (link at the bottom).

The constant ridiculousness of this series makes me cringe at the thought of them attempting a serious storyline, but I will give it a fair shot.

I recently read an interview with Shonda Rhimes in which she explained what she thinks is the main difference between Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice. According to her, Grey’s Anatomy is about teenagers and Private Practice is about adults. This is crap. Sure Grey’s Anatomy can definitely draw a parallel to high school but Private Practice is about sex. Period.

My main issue with Private Practice is that they clearly don’t have separate producers/writers for each series. They are far too alike in content and cross over way too much. What was the point of branching off if you’re going to constantly reference the mother ship and float characters back and forth across series?

My other issue is that Private Practice is a blatant nighttime soap opera with the most ridiculous melodramatic medical storylines imaginable (who knew that was possible after Grey’s Anatomy?) I mean really, parents having to choose which of their terminally ill twin daughters to save? The husband of a comatose patient having sex with her to produce a child? The young orphaned daughter of their recently deceased co-worker is dropped off at their doorstep and they ship her off to social services?

But on a positive note I love Kate Walsh, I think she's very talented and if they played to her dramatic strengths more or had episodes that solely centered on her the show could be much better. KaDee Strickland is also growing on me. The rest of the cast is a motley crew of assorted failed television actors who don't really fit together and who's names I still can't keep straight.

I have a pretty serious love/hate relationship with this series. Its’ horrible. I know it’s horrible, and I watch it to see just how bad the horrible-ness gets and yet I still get angry at it for being horrible. I have a problem.

Sneak Peak of Next Week's Private Practice: Did You Hear What Happened to Charlotte King?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWxa5Qw9AT8

The Whole Truth

Oh The Whole Truth, we barely knew you. I don’t blame you, you were well written, well acted, and a solid show overall. I blame the networks for piling Wednesday night with 3 legal dramas in the same 10pm time slot. Of course at least one was going to fail. What was the logic behind that? Of course the dull and moronic Law & Order: LA was going to get picked up no matter what with SVU as a lead in. The Defenders is a surprising ringer in this category, I have yet to watch it so I can’t really comment on it except to say that I don’t think I could buy Jerry O’Connell as a deceitful lawyer. And then we get back to The Whole Truth left out in the cold.

The one mistake I believe the show made was not having enough character development right up front. If you’re not Law & Order, and sometimes even if you are, you HAVE to have character development, that’s what the audience initially attaches to unless your procedural is SO fresh and new (like CSI back in the day) that the format trumps everything else. Rob Morrow’s “Jimmy” was a bit smarmy and frat boy like for my taste and was the polar opposite of Maura Tierney’s subtly played tough as nails prosecutor “Kathryn.”

The other major flaw, at least in the marketing of the show, was hailing it as a totally new type of legal drama. Let’s face it, it was trying to revive the very successful David E. Kelley legal drama The Practice. And there’s nothing wrong with that. It was a great, successful, dramatic show, but if you’re going to try what they did you HAVE to develop the characters as they did. That’s what made it successful.

Of course I wish that Maura Tierney’s return to television had been a spectacular hit, but she’ll be fine. She was carrying the show and deserves to be on a series that can challenge her and make her better, not bring her down.

Law & Order: SVU

Perhaps this Law & Order should consider a name change this season to “Law & Order: PSA” since the majority of their episodes this season have veered off in wildly unrelated, and sex-less, directions such as childhood obesity caused by soda and toxic mushrooms as murder weapons. This leaves the viewers wondering if the once hard-hitting, gritty, and oftentimes emotionally brutal series has, dare I say it, run out of pervasive sexual storylines? And even when the episode is sex related they are spouting statistics in their dialogue like they’re testifying in front of congress (pun intended). Markisa, you are a champion for the cause of domestic violence and sexual assault, but you have been for years without inserting blatant statistics and calls to action IN a particular episode. Television is an escape from reality and SVU has been skilled at shedding light on current issues without hitting the viewers over the head with them. Dial it back a notch.

Not to disparage the longest running drama on television, and one of my top favorites, but maybe its time to throw in the towel before it completely crashes and burns. Of course I never want to see one of my favorite shows come to a close but at the same time I want to remember them fondly. If they go out on a low note that’s all anyone will remember and there are PLENTY of episodes to watch over and over again to remember them by. All the fans really want is for Benson and Stabler to get together, which we know, or at least the realistic ones do, won’t happen. So all I’m asking for is this: CLOSURE. Give Olivia the family she’s always wanted whether its through her adopting a child as a single parent, in vitro fertilization which leads to her finally overcoming her fears of passing on her violent and drunk genes, or even meeting someone and getting married. Maybe she takes a desk job to achieve her parental goals, or transfers to a less emotionally and physically draining unit. Or maybe she, or Elliot, become captain and Cragen retires. The series cannot end with the current status quo because then what was the point? It also cannot end with Olivia jetting off to LA to be on LO:LA (as Mariska Hargitay as said she’d be ‘up for’ and Dick Wolf is surely thinking about to retain his most popular and fan attached character). She would never leave Elliot, and if that happened she would waste away for another ten years on that show and fade off into the distance when she retires with no closure whatsoever.

SVU revolutionized the procedural drama format by actually giving their main characters continuing storylines so it would be a shame to rob these characters that we’ve grown to love from completing their arc.