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Post by kaz on Feb 4, 2011 0:29:26 GMT -5
So as we discovered last week, “Grey’s Anatomy” is having a baby. It just isn’t Dr. Grey’s. It’s Callie’s — and Mark’s. Tonight, in an episode directed by Kevin McKidd (who plays Owen, and whom Speakeasy caught up with earlier), we find out that both are excited, but there’s just one problem: they have significant others. Callie’s already told Arizona, thus flipping last week’s script — Arizona was begging Callie to take her back, but now she’s the one who’s peeved. Mark is having trouble being as brave — he hasn’t told Lexie yet. Callie’s advice: “Do not wait until this kid comes out looking all Sloan-y.” But she’s not so zen a few hours later, when she starts to freak out about the baby’s well-being. Callie quickly falls prey to a classic pregnant-hospital-employee hazard: she wants constant ultrasounds and, though it’s early in the pregnancy, freaks out when the tech can’t find a heartbeat. Bailey, who’s getting hipper by the day, is now live-tweeting her surgeries, much to the Chief’s chagrin. Even after he tells her to stop, she continues, egged on by the Lexie, who’s tapping in all the tweets and swears the computer-challenged Chief will never know. Meanwhile, Cristina and Jackson are competing for Teddy’s approval, hoping to get in on a grafting surgery. Cristina’s really going all out — she even holds a patient’s hand. Shepherd and Karev are dealing with an Alzheimer’s patient who, in delirium, continually calls for his mistress — while his wife is in the room. The other woman is a dementia patient he met in their assistant living facility. The man is part of a clinical trial, and his wife begs Karev to insure that he actually gets the drug. But the computer designates the man as a placebo participant — so when he comes out of surgery exactly the same, Karev is forced to pretend to the wife that he may get better. The stress is too much for Karev, and he quits the trial. Maybe it was all the hand-holding: Cristina seems to get invested quickly in the elderly patient she wants to help operate on. When the woman gets cold feet, Cristina convinces her to take a chance on the surgery and spend another couple decades with her grandchildren. But Jackson sees all this as just a ploy — and the competition gets personal when Jackson snaps that Cristina hasn’t spent a ton of time in the OR lately. Cristina is stunned for the moment — but, true to her canny self, she finds a way to spin Jackson’s mistake against him. After faking a crying jag and sending Jackson on a search for Owen, Yang springs up and slips into the surgery. With a little tech help from Owen, the Chief does find the tweets — and just as he confronts her, the patient on the table starts hemorrhaging. But tweeting saves the day when another hospital writes that they have some plasma Seattle Grace doesn’t — and the Chief softens further when an old friend gives him a shout-out. Looks like we got ourselves another Twitter convert. And Mark finally musters the courage to tell Lexie about the baby as she’s cooking him dinner. It doesn’t go well. Long story short: she can’t take the heat and gets out of the kitchen — and his apartment. blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2011/02/03/greys-anatomy-season-7-episode-13-dont-deceive-me-please-dont-go-tv-recap/
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Post by betinad on Feb 4, 2011 1:05:55 GMT -5
Mark Wilding on "Don't Deceive Me (Please Don't Go)"...Original Airdate: 2-3-11 I've tried acting once in my life. I managed to snag the lead role in my high school's production of "The Admirable Crichton." I played an English butler who's treated very poorly by the upper class British family who employs him -- particularly by the family's three daughters. Eventually the family gets stranded on a desert island. The three daughters all fall in love with Crichton on the island because he's very take charge and very handy and saves everyone's lives (he's also VERY good-looking). In the end Crichton has to decide whether or not to signal to a passing ship that the family is stranded. The daughters beg him not to -- they love their new life AND him -- but Crichton does the right and proper thing and sends up the signal flares even though it means returning to his life as the family's dutiful butler. It's a great play and I got the role because I could do a passable English accent and I was tall. It wasn't because I could actually ACT. Because I couldn't. I SUCKED. I could never get over a case of stage fright. My performance was wooden. And I squinted the whole time because my drama teacher didn't want me to wear my glasses. If I'd been in the audience I would've booed me off the stage. Or at least asked for my money back. Which is probably why, today, I really admire actors. Acting is NOT easy. It is hard. We have a dozen wonderful actors on the show -- our regulars. Week in and week out they bring Grey's to life in fun, surprising ways. But a lot of times a story line will succeed or fail depending on our guest stars. I was lucky enough to get FANTASTIC guest stars for this episode and I want to acknowledge each of them. The first great acting performance for my episode was turned in by Angela Paton. She played Martha, the woman who came in to get a quadruple bypass. She also played the hotel proprietor in "Groundhog Day". She was wonderful in the episode, a perfect foil in the battle between Cristina and Jackson to do her heart grafts. She went from funny in the first scene to heartbreaking in the pre-op scene where she wonders if she should go through with the heart surgery. I love it when she got ANGRY at the thought of being a possible burden to her kids. That wasn't written. That was the actor really, truly bringing the words to life in a surprising, believable way. As for the story itself -- when Cristina convinces Martha to have the operation, I think she's doing it from a place of real compassion. She's not just doing it so she can perform a surgery she hasn't performed before. In that sense, I think Cristina has grown since the shooting at the hospital. She's a little more empathetic. After all, she knows what it is to be really and truly scared now. Three more guest actors who were just plain excellent were L. Scott Caldwell, Harrison Page and Hugh Holub. They played, respectively, Daniel's wife, Daniel, and Victoria's husband. The scene where a confused, frightened Daniel is demanding to see Victoria required pitch perfect acting and Harrison delivered and then some. All of the actors' performances combined to create an underlying sadness to the story that I was seeking from the first moment we started discussions about it in the writers' room. I'm glad that the show is once again tackling Alzheimer's. It's a theme that we always come back to. The reason, of course, is that early onset Alzheimer's led to the premature death of Meredith's mother. The question is will that genetic craps roll be passed on to Meredith? Will she end up like Ellis? It's what drives Meredith to get on the trial and, as Alex tells Derek in his very Alex way -- "Your wife is the only person twisted enough to handle this crap." The truth is -- in that annoyingly inconvenient thing called real life -- no cure has been found for Alzheimer's. And as much as we'd like to find one in our show, that's not going to happen. We're very strict about that on Grey's. The show never outraces the real world when it comes to medical breakthroughs. We report what's out there. We turn medical cases and medical research into stories. But if it hasn't happened in real life, if a cure hasn't been found, we don't say that it has. That would be a huge disservice to our audience. That said, the cool thing is that now Meredith and Derek are back working together on a trial. And whether they find a cure or not, they're always great to watch. The main story line, of course, introduced a guest star who'll be coming back for future episodes. Rachael Taylor plays Dr. Lucy Fields, who has to handle the "hormone casserole" that Callie's turned in to. Lucy also has to navigate the treacherous waters of three doctors who think they know it all. Rachael did a great job with the role. She was equal parts tough, ironic and empathetic -- just what we pictured for the character. As for our three doctors and a baby -- that story is huge. It's tough enough to raise a kid when there are only one or two parents in the picture. But three parents? With everyone having different opinions?? Not fun. These days we always hear that it takes a village. But what if the folks in that village have never really liked each other? Arizona is NOT Mark's biggest fan. She's not going to suddenly think he's a great addition to the family. Obviously the situation's going to involve a lot of sacrifices for all three of our doctors. Sadly for Mark, the first thing he has to sacrifice is his relationship with Lexie. Which makes it twice now that he's dropped the baby bombshell on her -- first with the granddaughter he wanted to raise and now with baby number two. If any relationship were toast, it would definitely be Mark and Lexie's. As much as we, the writers, would like to rescue it (they're SO good together) it may be beyond our powers. My final story line didn't involve guest stars. The Chief's struggle with Twitter pretty much encapsulates how I approach technology. I fear it. And once you fear something, be it your neighbor's dog or your iMac or, yes, getting up on stage for the school play, the object of your fear knows it and it acts accordingly. Which is to say, it comes after you. It grabs you and shakes you and tries to maul you to death. Thank God I have two teenage sons. I constantly call them in to my office at home if I want to, say, forward an email or copy and paste a document. They mutter to themselves, clearly disappointed in my techno-idiocy, then they click the mouse a couple of times and the impossible task is done. For me, the cool thing about the story is that it launches Richard into the future. But to do so, he has to, via Ellis's journals, go back to the past. In a sense, the journals are his flares, alerting the medical community that they haven't heard the last of Richard Webber. And believe me, as that story line heats up during the last half of our season, none of you will be wanting your money back... www.greyswriters.com/
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Post by betinad on Feb 4, 2011 10:34:17 GMT -5
Oh, so glad "Grey’s" is back, and still good. So far, this year is turning out to be promising. After the cliffhanger bombshell Callie dropped three weeks ago, we were curious to see how that storyline would pick up. This episode saw the beginning of the surprisingly not-awkward co-parenting team of Arizona and Mark, who calm a freaked out Callie, who needs more reassurance than the fetching new ob/gyn can give her. Callie makes quick work of the trio’s dynamics to their new doc: lesbian lover, baby daddy, hormone casserole. But all three share the moment of seeing the baby’s heartbeat for the first time, and at least for now, they’re bound by a common, powerful love. In fact, Mark is ecstatic. The unusually fertile Sloans grow like mighty oaks! He doesn’t want to be the “cool uncle,” he’s ready to be the dad. And he means it. Arizona is mad at Callie for sleeping with someone else, but she’s processing and by episode’s end, they’ve made up. On the other hand, Lexie doesn’t take the good news so well. “How the hell did you get me in this position TWICE? Unbelievable!” And then she storms off. Poor Mark. The episode’s title, “Don’t Deceive Me (Please Don’t Go),” alludes to some of the other storylines, which have to do with Yang psyching out Avery to reclaim her power position in the race for chief resident (and showing that she actually has improved dramatically in her bedside manner), and Derek and Alex putting on happy, hopeful faces to Alzheimer’s patients who receive the placebo in their clinical trials. Like Meredith’s voiceover says, “Doctors practice deception all the time. We give vague answers to hard questions," i.e. If the surgery doesn’t kill them = it went well. There’s a particularly sad storyline with an Alzheimer’s patient whose long suffering wife has to watch her husband openly love another woman, who is also suffering from dementia. Both spouses allow it for the comfort it gives their sick spouses, who have no idea they’re married when they have these episodes. But the very happily married Shepherds work out the clinical trials that have cast a bit of a trial on their marriage. If you’ll recall, Derek didn’t think he could handle having Meredith work with him on this, because he’d constantly think about her inheriting her mother’s disease. But Alex makes him realize that his wife is probably the only person twisted enough to deal with the depressing drag of such research. So Derek brings Meredith on board. Finally. The Chief discovers this thing called Twitter, or as he calls it at first, Tweeter. (Next thing you know, he’ll be sharing his Facebook page with the residents!) But he gets all knotted up about it, like some kind of stereotypical techno-phobic geezer (no offense to the technologically fearless older generations out there! We did say it was a stereotype!), worrying Bailey’s live tweeting of surgeries in progress (via the fast fingers of Little Grey) might land the hospital in a lawsuit. Bailey gives him the Bailey Eyes and tells him everyone signs a release for it. advertisementadvertisement advertisement Still skittish, the Chief forbids Bailey from tweeting. But Lexie persuades Bailey to countermand the Chief’s orders. “Everyone wants to know how it comes out ... It’s like turning off the TV when Clarice is at the house. The lambs want to scream, Dr. Bailey.” But it’s not long before the digital divide closes and the Chief sees how helpful instant communication can be as a teaching tool, especially with thousands of residents around the country following their Twitter feed. Have we told you enough how much we love the return of Cristina? Well, we’re going to tell you again. We love the competitive fire, the sneaky fake-out with Avery, who skulked like a surly teenager (nice one, Teddy!) and the VIP patient care. Not only has she got her chops back in the OR, she’s also showing a much calmer, mature approach in her empathy with patients. We like this new not-so dark and twisty "Grey’s." Keep it coming! theclicker.todayshow.com/_news/2011/02/04/5986849-bound-by-love-and-deception-on-greys-anatomy
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Post by Leanne on Feb 4, 2011 10:56:05 GMT -5
Ratings -Yesterday’s Winners: American Idol (Fox), The Big Bang Theory (CBS), CSI (CBS), Grey’s Anatomy (ABC), The Office (NBC), The Mentalist (CBS) -Yesterday’s Losers (excluding repeats): Community (NBC), Perfect Couples (NBC), Outsourced (NBC) ---------- -Ratings Breakdown: American Idol led Fox to more overnight Thursday victory, with a 1.5 rating point advantage over second-place CBS and growth of 66 percent from the comparable year-ago evening. Third overall was ABC, followed by NBC and The CW. Idol scored a 13.8 rating/21 share in the 8 p.m. hour, building over year-ago occupant Bones (7.6/12 on Feb. 4, 2010) by a hefty 82 percent. But Bones in its new Thursday 9 p.m. time period was not as strong as it was as the former Thursday anchor, with a third-place 6.5/10 in the overnights at 9 p.m. Comparably, retention out of the 8:30 p.m. portion of Idol (14.5/22) was only 45 percent. Yes…that is disappointing. Despite facing American Idol, CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory was on the map with a second-place 9.0/14 at 8 p.m. Lead-out $#*! My Dad Says, which exits for the season (or series) on February 17, followed with a 6.5/10 (#2) at 8:30 p.m. Comparably, retention out of The Big Bang Theory was a so-so 72 percent. And that’s a real shame because $#*! My Dad Says with Jean Smart as William Shatner’s love interest is a much better sitcom. Next on CBS was veteran CSI, which won the 9 p.m. hour in the overnights with an 8.7/13, followed by The Mentalist at a dominant 9.3/15 at 10 p.m. Elsewhere, ABC had nothing unusual to report with its combination of Wipeout (#3: 4.5/ 7), Grey’s Anatomy (#2: 8.3/12) and spin-off Private Practice (#2: 5.5/ 9). The standout on NBC, as always, was demo friendly The Office, with the Peacock net’s revamped three-hour sitcom block performing as follows in the overnights: pifeedback.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/200104911/m/478104053
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Post by betinad on Feb 4, 2011 15:48:26 GMT -5
This week on "Grey's Anatomy" was really an exercise in balancing the depressing with the absurd, so let's get the depressing out of the way first. Derek starts his clinical trial and as promised, he doesn't let Meredith assist since he thinks it will make things too personal. Even though she knew this would be the case, she's miffed, all the more so when she finds out Alex won the job instead. The boys quickly realize, however, that this isn't just a matter of compiling data for research; Alzheimer's tends to rip families apart, and they're going to have a hard time not getting emotional during this study. Case in point: Rose from "Lost" is the wife of one of the patients who, when he's lucid, loves her dearly as he has for 40 years, but at other times he doesn't recognize her and instead is in love with another patient he met at his nursing home. Meredith happens to be walking by the room as he's yelling for the other woman, and because she's way better at dealing with these situations than Alex she manages to diffuse things somewhat. At the end of the day Alex tells Derek he's decided to leave the trial and advises him to pick Meredith to assist and forget all of his excuses that he can't work with his wife on something this personal. Derek realizes he's right, so Meredith gets the job from here on out. It turns out to be a pretty good day for her all around because she also realizes that Cristina is not just back, she's back. Cristina and Jackson spend the day competing to assist Teddy on a bypass surgery, and their one-upping and arguing gets more and more heated until Jackson swings below the belt and points that Cristina hasn't gotten a lot of practice these past couple of months, has she? Cristina runs off, so a freaked-out Jackson finds Meredith to console her. Once the girls are alone, though, Cristina reveals that she's completely fine but knows this will totally win her the job. Meredith is slightly appalled but mostly delighted to see that Cristina seems totally back to her old self, underhanded tricks and all. Bailey has become a Twitter fanatic, and she's been live-tweeting surgeries to the delight of Lexie, April, the other assembled residents, and apparently doctors all over the world. When Richard finds out, he of course hits the roof though he obviously has no real idea of what this "Tweetter" entails, and there's a lot of comic relief in the form of him trying to use the correct lingo and failing spectacularly. When he realizes she's tweeting against his specific order to stop, he runs into the OR to yell at her but his lecture is put on hold when something goes wrong. Lexie surreptitiously keeps tweeting as he and Bailey work; when Richard realizes it he hollers at her to stop but of course she's just gotten a suggestion from another doctor as to how they can fix whatever complication is happening in this poor patient's innards. Another hospital nearby tweets that they have what Bailey needs to successfully complete the surgery, so she takes off for a short helicopter ride to go pick it up. This conveniently leaves the others all with nothing to do in the OR, so Lexie finally starts asking Richard some questions coming in from other docs. His desire to teach (and, let's be honest, to show off his surgical brilliance) finally overcomes his distrust of this newfangled technology and he of course winds up getting really into it. After the surgery he even starts combing all of Ellis' old journals to find more information for Bailey to tweet. It remains to be seen if he'll go so far as to figure out how to work the mystifying Twitter himself one of these days. Arizona is having a hard time with the fact that Callie slept with Mark while they were broken up, but assures Callie that she wants to be involved with having the baby. Mark also assures Callie that he wants to be the dad and not just the "cool uncle," though he realizes this could royally screw things up with Lexie and spends most of the episode putting off telling her about the sticky little situation. In the meantime, Callie goes for her first doctor's appointment (with both Mark and Arizona there for support) but once it's over and the two of them leave, she freaks out that something might be wrong with the baby. Her doctor isn't terribly amused at first since she's being bombarded by suggestions from all three doctors about how to do her job, but then she finally seems to come around when she sees Callie sobbing to Mark about how she doesn't want to screw up the kid. She brings in some extra-fancy machine that enables them all to hear the heartbeat even though Callie is only a few weeks along, and all three of them are over the moon. That night, Mark finally works up the courage to tell Lexie, who is not nearly as pleased with the news as the rest of them are, and she storms out after asking how he could do this to her a second time now. Seriously, it's some pretty spectacularly bad timing that when things start to go really well between these two, some Sloan offspring appears out of the blue to crash the party. blog.zap2it.com/ithappenedlastnight/2011/02/greys-anatomy-recap-threes-a-crowd.html
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Post by betinad on Feb 4, 2011 15:50:40 GMT -5
This week's episode of Grey's Anatomy marks Kevin McKidd's directorial debut. The hour will feature the launch of Derek's Alzheimer's clinical trial, Bailey tweeting from the operating room, and the beginning of parenthood for Mark, Arizona and Callie, whose obstetrician will be played by Rachael Taylor. Meredith wakes to an empty bed. Derek is already at the hospital working on his first Alzheimer's clinical trial. Unfortunately, his first patient is receiving the placebo. Bad luck of the draw. Meredith looks on from the gallery, disappointed, I'm sure, that she's not in the OR. Meanwhile, Callie reveals her pregnancy news to Mark. He's very excited about them becoming parents. He offers to marry her. "I'm all about raising a baby with you, but there's a line," she says. Mark then remembers how much Lexie is anti-baby. Oops. While Mark is excited, Arizona is the exact opposite. Not only is she mad that Callie slept with someone else, she slept with a man. "I didn't plan any of this," Callie explains. There's a baby coming, and Callie needs to start getting prepared for that, so Arizona is either in or out. "I'm in," Arizona says begrudgingly. She's still upset, but she'll thaw eventually, right? Right? While the Chief and Lexie are in surgery, the rest of the doctors in the OR are reading the tweets coming out of Bailey's OR. "What the hell's a Twitter?" the Chief asks. The Chief later finds Bailey and attempts to shut the tweeting down, worrying that it's a lawsuit waiting to happen, but he softens when she accuses him of being inept with technology. Elsewhere, Jackson and Cristina find themselves fighting over one of Teddy's cases, hoping this will give them a leg up in the race for Chief Resident. Later, they both try to one-up each other by having supreme bedside manner. It's quite hilarious to watch. Callie decides to give Mark an out, but he's determined to be a father to this child. He just has to tell Lexie first. The real hilarity comes when Arizona reveals the news to Teddy. "I might be having Mark Sloane's baby," she says. "Oh good Lord, he got to you too?" Teddy replies. Arizona weighs the pros and cons and hopes Teddy will convince her to go ahead with the multi-parenting plan. As Derek prepares for his next patient, Meredith is not happy that Alex is the resident working on the clinical trial. As Derek said before, Meredith clouds his judgment on this matter, so he won't let her work on the trial. Derek's second patient has a wife (portrayed by Lost's L. Scott Caldwell) who is full of questions. Alex isn't as positive in his responses about the trial, which irks Derek. When Callie thinks she may be having a miscarriage (oh no, not that again), she goes to see the new obstetrician, Lucy Fields. Mark questions her credentials, and in turn Lucy questions who the hell they all are. "Lesbian lover, baby daddy," Callie says, pointing at the two. The family threesome gets a first glimpse at the baby, and Lucy says their kid is fine. When Derek and Alex's patient starts freaking out and screaming for his wife, Alex points her out, but Daniel says that it's not her. Meredith, quick on her feet when it comes to Alzheimer's patients, calms him down. Victoria, who Daniel was screaming for, is another patient in the home he lives in. The pair is reunited as their respective loved ones detail the relationship to the doctors. When each is lucid, they know who their real lovers are. When Bailey breaks the news that they can't tweet, Lexie stands up for their followers, saying they can't hold back all this information now. Bailey caves, knowing that the Chief will probably never find out. Teddy's patient also has a freak out, not wanting to have the surgery because of the five percent chance of dying. She doesn't want to end up in a home or be a burden on her family, but Cristina convinces her to do the surgery. While Teddy is deciding who will be in the OR, Jackson uses Cristina's past OR breakdown as an insult. Meredith tracks Cristina down to comfort her, but Cris was just fake crying so she could send Jackson on a wild goose chase to find Owen, who is actually at the dentist. Two hours later, Callie is still in the patient room. She won't leave, fearing for the baby's safety. Following more tests, Callie sends Mark a 911 page. He, too, has a freak out since she just paged him because she's scared and full of hormones. Callie feels like it will all turn into a disaster, that if she even moves the wrong way, she'll lose the baby. Lucy runs some super-specific tests on the baby just to find the heartbeat, which she knows will calm Callie down. In the one scene that Kevin McKidd actually appears in, he helps the Chief figure out Twitter, which means Bailey is busted. He storms in the OR, and Bailey plays dumb. When the patient starts to bleed out, Lexie continues to furiously tweet. Using some of the "@ replies" that come back, the Chief and Bailey are able to figure out how to save the patient. While Bailey is off at a different hospital, the Chief finally gets into the Twitter business with April and Lexie, who is tweeting out different medical facts and stories from the Chief. Sadly, Derek and Alex's patient receives the placebo, meaning his wife will most likely lose her husband. Alex is gutted, especially when Daniel asks for Victoria immediately following the surgery. He encourages the wife to stand by Daniel's side because he'll need all the help he can get in the coming months. Derek is pleased with how Alex handled that, but Alex decides to leave the trial. He suggests Derek let Meredith in on the trial, but also that Derek should put in a good word for Alex in the Chief Resident race. At the end of the day, Arizona starts moving Callie's stuff back in the apartment. Callie initially protests, but Arizona finally stands up and says they're back together and they're going to raise this baby together. Love it. Across the hall, Lexie cooks dinner for Mark, and he blurts out that Callie is pregnant. Lexie quickly figures out that Callie and Mark slept together. He pleads for her to understand that he wants to raise this child, but she decides to storm out amidst yelling: "How the hell did you get me in this position twice?" The episode closes on Derek telling Meredith to put her name on the OR board for the clinical trial. Aw, husband and wife together again. What did you think of the Kevin McKidd-directed episode? Do you think Callie, Mark and Arizona can make this parenting thing work? Will Derek's trial be successful? How long before the Chief gets his own Twitter handle? And what should it be called? Discuss all that and more in the comments below! www.tvguide.com/tvshows/greys-anatomy-2011/episode-13-season-7/dont-deceive-dont/191535#recap
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Post by betinad on Feb 4, 2011 20:58:44 GMT -5
The latest Grey's Anatomy hiatus is over and we got a new episode last night. Hoorah! Let me begin by giving a shout-out to one of my favorite guys, Kevin McKidd (Owen Hunt) who made his directorial debut with this installment, "Don't Deceive Me (Please Don't Go)." He did a great job, because I wasn't thinking about him in the least. I saw no traces as a viewer that he'd never done this before ... so YAY, Kevin! This was a solid outing, and although I missed Owen and Owen/Cristina (who shared not a single moment onscreen...waaah!), I was thoroughly engrossed in what was going on with everyone else. Derek's Clinical Trial The Alzheimer's study is finally underway and, man, this one is going to be brutal. It's heartbreaking to see the agony of all involved. We met patients who, in lucid moments, know they are literally losing their minds. We met spouses who are devastated as loved ones slip further and further away sometimes into the arms of a new "love." We even got a glimpse of what the doctors go through doing this essential but, as Karev said so bluntly, depressing work. I give Derek credit for following through with this, despite his own personal terror that he will someday lose Meredith to early onset Alzheimer's disease. I give Alex credit for being man enough to tell Derek that Meredith deserves to be the number two on the trial. She's got both the chops and the interest. Derek needs to put his personal issues aside ... so he does. I also love that Alex is self-aware enough to know that pediatrics is truly his calling, and he shouldn't be spending the next two years on this trial. Besides, if I get my wish, he may be chief resident soon, which will give him lots to do. Callie's Pregnancy In developments that shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, the aftershocks of Callie being pregnant with Mark's child reverberated in a million directions. Arizona is very angry, but she's sticking. Lexie is also very angry, but she's bolting. Mark is manning up and being a father rather than a "favorite uncle," despite the fact that it may cost him Lexie. Callie is trying to believe that, for once in her life, things will go right and turn out OK. Say what you will about this storyline, it's certainly made life complicated for lots of people, and there are other consequences as well. I was a little surprised when Derek wasn't happier for Mark, knowing that his friend is finally getting the baby he's dreamed of for so long. Having said that, it's a very realistic turn of events for Derek to be more than a little frustrated and envious that Mark and Callie made a baby accidentally, while he and Meredith are getting nowhere after months of trying. Unfortunately, that's how things often go in the real world. Bailey's Tweets In one of the episode's funniest moments, Owen kindly but firmly tells Richard, "Not whatever. It's important you get that one right." If you saw the episode, you know to what I'm referring ... ha! Anyway, Bailey is tweeting during her surgeries, and Richard is none too happy about it -- until he truly understands the technology, the process, and the benefits to both patients and students after which he does a complete 180 and supports the project enthusiastically. This may have been my favorite story of the night. I always love the interaction between Miranda and Richard ("Don't give me Bailey Eyes"), and it was great to see Richard have an open mind even though he is of a generation for whom things like Twitter might take some time to accept. At the end of the day, however, Richard is an excellent surgeon and a dedicated teacher. When he saw the value in Bailey's tweets, he was a convert. Good for him. Oh. And can I just say that the little scene between Richard and Owen was hilarious? Really cute. It almost made me forget that Owen Hunt was only on my screen for 50 seconds last night. Almost. Cristina's Sleight of Hand Admit it. She had you going. She had ME going. In the opening scenes with Cristina and Avery jockeying for the heart surgery du jour I was very concerned that all of the personal growth Cristina has experienced since the hospital shooting had gone right out the window. How glad I was to have been sorely mistaken. Turns out that Cristina 2.0 is still snarky and sassy and sneaky, but she has also found a more compassionate side, as illustrated when she gave sincere, caring support to the heart patient even though there was nothing to be gained in that moment. Teddy wasn't there to be impressed and Cristina didn't find out until she turned to leave that Avery was watching. Did you enjoy the fireworks as much as I did? I honestly didn't know if Yang stalking off in the wake of Avery's insensitive comments was legit, but I guessed immediately that the "sobbing" in the locker room was a ploy. Avery was being played big time and "I need Owen!" was the master stroke. Nice work, Cristina. Glad to have you back and better than ever. Wrapping Thing Up OK, kids. I was going to say, "That's it!" But it turns out that a lot happened in this episode. I'll be interested to read your thoughts, so please offer your comments. In the meantime, I look forward to next week's all-new episode of Grey's Anatomy, "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)," airing Thursday, Feb. 10 on ABC. www.buddytv.com/articles/greys-anatomy/greys-anatomy-fan-columnist-sh-39284.aspx
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betinad
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Post by betinad on Feb 4, 2011 20:59:47 GMT -5
ABC Finishes No. 2 on the Opening Night of the February Sweep in Young Adults Opposite Increased Competition, ABC's "Wipeout" Builds Week to Week and Improves its Hour Year to Year by 55% in Viewers and 92% in Adults 18-49 On its Return to Original, ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" Dominates its Slot In Adults 18-49, Marking its 2nd-Highest Number Since Mid-October ABC's "Private Practice" Defeats NBC's 10pm Comedies by Wide Margins Thursday Night (8:00-11:00 p.m.) ABC ranked No. 2 to an "Idol"-led Fox on the opening night of the February Sweep in Adults 18-49, Adults 18-34 and across all key Women demos (W18-34/W18-49/W25-54). * In viewers (8.7 million) and young adults (3.1/8), ABC posted its strongest Thursday in 3 weeks. "Wipeout" (8:00-9:00 p.m.) At 8:00 p.m., despite going up against Fox's "American Idol" and CBS' original comedies ("The Big Bang Theory"/"$#*! My Dad Says"), ABC's Winter "Wipeout" grew week to week in Total Viewers (+4% - 7.9 million vs. 7.6 million) and Adults 18-49 (+4% - 2.5/7 vs. 2.4/7). The ABC unscripted series dominated NBC's original comedies ("Community"/"Perfect Couples" = 3.7 million and 1.7/5) in the hour, leading by 4.2 million viewers and by 47% in Adults 18-49. Building audience throughout its telecast, "Wipeout" ranked No. 2 to "Idol" at 8:30pm with Adults 18-34, Women 18-34, Teens 12-17 and Kids 2-11. * Although facing increased competition year to year, "Wipeout" improved the hour for ABC over the year-ago night by wide margins in viewers (+55%) and young adults (+92%). "Grey's Anatomy" (9:00-10:00 p.m.) On its first original telecast in 3 weeks, ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" turned in a dominant victory in Thursday's 9 o'clock hour among Adults 18-49, qualifying as the No. 1 series in the slot for its 13th consecutive original telecast this season. In its time period, "Grey's" (4.2/11) beat out Fox's "Idol"-fueled "Bones" by 27% (3.3/9), NBC's comedies ("The Office"/"Parks and Recreation") by 35% (3.3/8) and CBS' "CSI" by 40% (3.0/8). * On its return to first-run, ABC's "Grey's" matched its 2nd-highest Adult 18-49 number since mid-October - since 10/14/10. "Private Practice" (10:00-11:00 p.m.) Returning to original for the first time in 4 weeks, ABC's "Private Practice" (7.1 million and 2.6/7) beat out NBC's comedies ("30 Rock"/"Outsourced" = 4.3 million and 2.1/6) in the 10:00 p.m. hour by 2.8 million viewers and by 24% in Adults 18-49. In addition, for its 12th straight original telecast this season, the ABC drama stood as the No. 1 scripted TV show in the 10 o'clock hour with key Women (W18-34/W18-49). A note about increasing DVR penetration and year-to-year rating comparisons: Year-to-year rating comparisons based on the Live + Same Day data stream are distorted by the level of DVR penetration in the Nielsen sample, which has jumped up to 39% currently, from 35% at the same point in 2010. More viewers are watching shows on their own timetables, which may not be reflected in the overnight next day numbers. The only truly valid year-to-year comparison would be one based on the Live + 7 Day metric, once those stats are released by Nielsen. Source: The Nielsen Company (Fast Affiliate, Live + Same Day Ratings), 2/3/11. abcmedianet.com/web/dnr/dispDNR.aspx?id=020411_04
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betinad
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Post by betinad on Feb 5, 2011 0:09:40 GMT -5
'Grey's Anatomy' Wants to Put Your Surgery on Twitter Grey's Anatomy has joined the social networking age. Dr. Bailey has teets, er, tweets (more on that later). And she knows how to use them. In an episode that Meredith Grey's voice-over warned would be all about "deception" and "placebos," the real issue turned out to be communication, and how the doctors of Seattle Grace/Mercy West suck at it. Sorry, but there it is. And as always, if you just DVR'd the episode, beware the spoilers to come. A few biggies to get out of the way: * Dr. McDreamy finally has his Alzheimer's trial under way, and he's signed Karev up to assist him on it ... without telling Dr. Grey. Aka his wife. Aka the woman most at risk of developing Alzheimer's. Turns out he feels bad knowing he can't stick her in the trial and ward off the risk of Alzheimer's. * Callie is pregnant. With Sloane's baby. And Sloane doesn't want to just be "the cool uncle." But if he's going to be a dad to two lesbians' baby, he needs to tell his girlfriend, Little Grey, the whole story. And it isn't going to be easy. OK, so we see there's bad communication going on. Now back to Bailey. Aka the only Seattle Grace doc who has mastered communication. She's using Twitter as a means to teach her interns even when they aren't in the actual room with her. But when Chief Webber finds out, he's worried about liability issues, prompting the old geezer to get Owen Hunt to show him how it works, giving us the silly moment of the night: Chief to Owen: I’m trying to look at Bailey’s teets on the Internet. Owen to Chief: It’s tweets .... It’s important you get that one right. And it's important they get Twitter right, frankly. In the news, social networking and health care are not mixing well. Take the case of the nursing students kicked out of their program for posting photos of an unidentified woman's placenta on their Facebook pages. They claimed they were "sharing their educational experience" with their friends. Then there are the ER doctors who posted photos of a dying man on Facebook and were fired for their bad judgment. The Chief's silly malapropism aside, there are clear liability issues for hospitals when staff hops on the Internet. The federal government has made great strides in protecting our rights as patients via HIPAA, which requires health care workers to put our privacy first. But we can look as far back as last month, when the Egyptian government pulled the plug on the Internet, to remind us just how potent social networking can be. Information is power. And in a hospital, where medical miracles depend on the best information and innovations, knowledge is quite literally a lifesaver. Which Grey's showed successfully last night in a (admittedly contrived) surgery scene. Someone from another hospital was on Twitter at the exact moment that things went bad in the Seattle Grace OR, and suddenly help was on the way! The immediacy of Twitter saved a life. The job of a doctor is to first do no harm. But in the social networking age, that means balancing what does more harm: to possibly give out too much information about a patient or to lose their battle for life because you haven't given enough. I don't want my doctor tweeting that I snore during surgery. I don't want to see my cottage cheese thighs on some nurse's Facebook page. But if it's Twitter that gets my kid a new set of lungs, I'm all for it. What do you think: did Grey's make a case for social networking's place in a hospital setting? thestir.cafemom.com/healthy_living/115845/greys_anatomy_wants_to_put
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Post by betinad on Feb 5, 2011 0:11:43 GMT -5
We all engage in forms of deception, sometimes for self-preservation and other times to shield our loved ones. But as a wise man once said, "It takes two to lie -- one to lie and one to listen." And last night's 'Grey's Anatomy' proved that deception is truly a group activity. We deceive, we help others deceive, we allow others to deceive us, we even deceive ourselves. The previous episode left us with quite the bombshell: Callie's preggers! With Sloan's baby! To that we can add: Arizona's mad! And Lexie doesn't know! And Bailey is Tweeting! We'll get to Bieber Bailey in a second. Sloan's spawn (part deux) is growing in Callie's uterus, and both of them couldn't be happier. Of course, there are complications -- namely, their significant others. Sloan floated the idea of getting married, to which Callie responded, "I'm all for raising a baby with you, but there's a line." But Mark doesn't just want to be the "cool uncle"; he wants to be an active and involved father. So he went a-running every time a panicked Callie paged him to her pre-natal exam room. Of course, there wasn't even a heartbeat yet, but their new OGYN, Dr. Lucy Fields, counciled them to be calm and normal. (Uh, she must be new to Seattle Grace. Nobody in this hospital can be calm and normal.) In the end, the capable and refreshingly-not quirky Dr. Fields wrangled a device that could detect an early heartbeat in their hardly-formed fetus. Callie, Sloan and Arizona heard a tiny thump-thump and (ahhh) a non-traditional family was formed. No doubt this pregnancy won't be easy on the three of them, but for now, they'll deceive each other into thinking this is all going to work out. And I did say three of them, because Lexie said buh-bye. Oh yeah, Sloan told her (again) he'd fathered a child and she bailed (again). Mark may have convinced himself their love was epic enough to overcome this (again), but who was he kidding? The patient o' the week storyine revolved around Derek's Alzheimer's trial, for which he chose Karev and not Meredith as his assistant. The most difficult component of the trial proved to be giving some patients the test drug and some others a placebo. When Allison Cobb (L. Scott Caldwell) begged Karev to give her husband Daniel the drug, there was nothing he could do about it. And Daniel woke up, still asking for the woman he loved ... who wasn't Allison. Karev did what he could to make Allison think her husband might get better and always remember who she is, but I think even she knew it wasn't true. And perhaps Meredith will end up assisting the trial, since as Karev put it, she's "the only one twisted enough to handle the crap." So true. Other notes: - Rose!! - (In case you didn't know, L. Scott Caldwell played Rose on 'Lost.' Man, I miss 'Lost.') - Bailey ... Twitter guru? A bit out of character, but easier to believe when they showed how real-time updates could prove useful during an operation. Hey, @aplusk better watch out! - Still, who wants to read the minute details of their surgery online? Blech. - The lovely Dr. Fields was played by Rachael Taylor, who has been cast in the new 'Charlie's Angels' - OK, it's time to stop picking on Avery. He's being made to look like a complete dunce! It's not fair to McPrettyEyes. And shouldn't Cristina have some real competition during her relentless drive to be Chief Resident? - Milkshake Time should be instituted by law. - That wise man from the quote at the top of this recap? One Homer J. Simpson. www.tvsquad.com/2011/02/04/greys-anatomy-season-7-episode-13/
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Post by betinad on Feb 6, 2011 14:39:35 GMT -5
TV Review: Grey's Anatomy Gets Trendy It was a publicity stunt meant to connect the show with the times. Dr. Bailey, (Chandra Wilson) the character, tweeted during her surgeries, and internet-savy viewers could follow the tweets on a real twitter account. I signed up for a bit, but getting mostly medical jargon delivered to my phone, especially when the episode, "Don't Deceive Me (Please Don't Go)", was on (I didn't watch it live, as I don't anything - thank you TiVo!) and the tweets were coming rapidly, got annoying very quickly. I unsubscribed about ten minutes after the episode began. As for the story playing out on screen, it was not nearly as bad. Dr. Bailey tried to convince a skeptical Chief Webber (James Pickens Jr.) that tweeting to residents and interested parties all around the world was beneficial for everyone involved.Webber demanded she stop until, after defying his orders at the pleading of Drs. Kepner (Sarah Drew) and Lexie Grey (Chyler Leigh), he caught her, the surgery went wrong, and helpful tweets allowed a saved life. Yeah, it was a bit of a stretch. I don't understand how all those doctors had time to follow someone's tweets when the ones portrayed on ABC's Grey's Anatomy are always running around so harried. Certainly, it was a big distraction from their jobs. But I could see med students possibly getting interested, and I could easily imagine a plot where one of the regular interns or residents on the show got obsessed with some doctor's tweets far away, so it didn't seem all that unlikely. Though, yes, it was pure pandering. Meanwhile, it seems that Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh) is fully back to work. While trying to score points with Teddy (Kim Raver) towards the chief resident title that one of our beloved characters will soon earn (because, of course, only the main characters in the show achieve anything at Seattle Grace-Mercy West), Avery (Jesse Williams) tossed her recent leave in her face. It appeared Cristina was having a break down after that, making Avery feel incredibly guilty. After all, he had been there to witness her trauma. But, as it turned out, she's fine, and was just faking it to gain an edge over him. That is classic Yang. She can let things roll off her back and play on others' feelings because she is highly competitive and cares about the job over anything else. Yes, Cristina went through a lot, and I think there will be lasting changes to her personality. But there is no reason to throw out a whole character, having been built up over the past six and a half seasons, and so I was delighted to see the first old-Cristina story this season. Very good. Now that Cristina is fixed, there are still a number of ongoing problems that need screen time to work themselves out. Perhaps the one most fans are passionate about is the broken relationship of Callie (Sara Ramirez) and Arizona (Jessica Capshaw). That arc got a huge leap forward this week, as Callie parked herself on the examining table of her new baby doctor, Lucy Fields (Rachael Taylor, making her debut in a multi-episode arc), and she turned her stress and worry about Arizona's future commitment onto worrying if her barely developed fetus was OK. Of course, it was; Grey's has suffered too much tragedy lately to add another to the heap just yet. But the tantrum gave Arizona the boost to really prove she was in this for the long haul. The duo are not completely good, but they are well on their way. Plus, the coming three-way parenting with Mark (Eric Dane) is going to be comedy gold! Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Mark and Lexie. The baby is biologically Sloan's, conceived while both couples were broken up, but Lexie stormed out angrily after learning the 'good news'. I can see why she'd be upset, but her comparing it to the story last year, when Mark's practically adult daughter showed up, was unfair. A baby and a young adult are two totally different situations. Plus, Mark and Lexie are perfect for each other. Perhaps Lexie doesn't want or isn't ready for kids, but she can have plenty of life with Mark, too. Let's hope Little Grey comes around, because I can't take much more of Mark pining for her, and I don't see him moving on anytime soon. Derek (Patrick Dempsey) has begun his clinical trials on Alzheimer's patients, and as we'd seen discussed before, not brought his wife, Meredith (Ellen Pompeo), along for the ride. That is a crying shame, considering her family history. Luckily, Alex (Justin Chambers) pointed that out to him, so it looks like Meredith will soon be by Derek's side once again, professionally as well as personally. Does having a mother who suffered from Alzheimer's put Meredith too close to the situation? I understand why her history would distract Derek, who would be concerned about his wife instead of totally focusing on the patients. But Meredith has more than proven herself a great doctor, and so it makes sense, too, to include her, especially when she will have such strong motivation to solve the problem. Some wonderful breakthroughs have occurred in science when the researcher had family or friends giving him or her a personal stake. I think a Derek-Meredith partnership on this project will not only solidify their power couple status in the medical world, but is bound to be successful. At least, from a TV writing stand point, that seems the path to take. Let's just hope Meredith's problems getting pregnant don't screw it all up. Alex, one of the best characters in the series, removed himself from Derek's study after discovering that he couldn't handle lying to the patients and their families, giving them the false hope needed to make the study work. This is just one of a recent string of areas where Alex has tried his hand at something new, and found he didn't like it nearly as much as pediatrics. It always comes down to perference, never a lack of skill. I understand he is still somewhat in his student phase, but it's time to commit Alex totally to Arizona's tutelage. He is awesome in peds, and that's where he belongs. If you thought Owen (Kevin McKidd) seemed mysteriously absent from this week's episode, there was good reason for that. McKidd directed it, though only found out he would do so four days before the story began shooting. Add to that, this was McKidd's first directing experience, though he'd been working in preparation for awhile, he was really far too busy to be a central part of the story. I think it is a credit to him that I didn't pick out an odd directing style, but instead a great, consistent episode in a fantastic season. Though I miss Owen, I hope McKidd gets more opportunities to hone his other skill. He did a fine job, as far as I can tell.Grey's Anatomy airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on ABC. If you've drifted away because of substandard plots the past couple of years, come back. The show has not only fixed its bugs, but is currently soaring. blogcritics.org/video/article/tv-review-greys-anatomy-gets-trendy/
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Post by betinad on Feb 7, 2011 21:17:47 GMT -5
Grey’s Anatomy Review: It Takes A Village to Raise a SloanI haven’t needed to break out the tissue in two weeks, but now Grey’s Anatomy is back after a short break, and the waterworks are in full effect. We were left with a mini-cliffhanger as Callie dropped the bombshell that she was pregnant with Mark’s baby. Just as Arizona was in the midst of trying to regain her trust and affection, a huge monkey wrench was thrown into the situation. Will Arizona stay or will she go? Recall that when they were a happy couple and Callie raised the topic of children, Arizona wasn’t exactly keen on the idea. Now that she has been apprised of her shortcomings, Arizona is re-dedicated to making it work with Callie. In that same vein, she not only accepts Callie’s pregnancy, she welcomes the opportunity to raise a child with Callie. This is a weird situation, because Mark has embraced his role as well. Callie gave him an “out,” telling him that he doesn’t have to raise the kid or play a role in its life. Mark wants no parts of that scenario. She tells him that he can be “Uncle Mark,” and that he doesn’t have to be a fixture in the baby’s life. Finally he tells her to stop saying that; he doesn’t want to be the cool uncle, he’s the Dad. Remember that his relationship with the daughter he recently discovered didn’t turn out too well. This is a chance for Mark to be a father, and his heart is in the right place. The only down side to this scenario is that Lexie isn’t exactly on board. She may come around later, but right now I think she feels duped by Mark, again. They were just starting to reconnect, and now this happens. I think she should give Mark a chance. Everyone knows Mark and Callie are just friends; there is nothing more to it than that. Even Arizona understands that. It’s not like Mark cheated on Lexie when he slept with Callie, so maybe after she cools down she can see it from a different perspective. Speaking of perspective, Derek is having a hard time separating Meredith the wife from Meredith the surgeon. She would’ve loved the chance to work with him on his Alzheimer’s trial, but he selected Alex instead. Sure, Meredith is close to the disease, from a personal standpoint. That doesn’t mean that she wouldn’t be an asset to him in the trial. One of the trial participants is a middle-aged man named Daniel who has been married for over 20 years. Unfortunately the disease has taken a painful toll on the man’s wife, who is forgotten when he is not lucid. It was during one of these extended mental states that he fell in love with another woman named Victoria, while in a nursing facility – and she is the person he calls out for, post-surgery. Get a load of this, Victoria is also married! So, essentially there are two scorned spouses who watch helplessly as their mates fall in love with other people. Daniel’s wife begs Alex to ensure that her husband get the test drug rather than the placebo, which would be an obvious ethical violation. She makes a compelling case, and it is clear that she’s the martyr in the relationship. In the end, Alex doesn’t bend the rules, and Daniel regrettably receives the placebo. Cristina continues to rebound nicely and return to her former self. Everyone is up for Chief Resident, and she and Avery both try to get on Teddy’s surgical rotation for the day. She is treating an elderly patient, and Avery and Cristina try their best to worm their way into the woman’s heart. To her credit, Cristina seems to have made a sincere connection. Avery, it seems has sunk to a new low, and he callously reminds Christina that her recent mental state has kept her out of surgeries for a while. But Cristina plays the victim just long enough to have Avery spinning his wheels while she swoops in and grabs the surgical spot. Overall, Best of the episode: Cristina’s deft maneuvering to out-hustle Avery and land a spot on Teddy’s surgery. Worst of the episode: Lexie freaking out on Mark when she hears about Baby Sloan. What to watch: Callie’s OB-GYN was pretty cute. Look for Alex to make a move on her next week. Season 7 Episode 13, Don’t Deceive Me (Please Don’t Go) (originally aired February 3, 2011). poptimal.com/2011/02/greys-anatomy-review-it-takes-a-village-to-raise-a-sloan/
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COForever
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Post by COForever on Feb 22, 2011 17:37:41 GMT -5
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