betinad
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Post by betinad on Apr 28, 2011 23:18:07 GMT -5
Grey's Anatomy Redux: Corruption, Lies and Time Travel! When last we were together, we went on a magic mushroom carpet ride of emotion through Callie's traumatic brain injury. And let us tell you, that girl likes her coworkers hooking up. Tonight's journey on Grey's Anatomy was a little less musical, but still a warp speed time machine ride through lies and recovery. Who lived, who lied and which doctor got a huge payday? Get your flux capacitor up to 88 miles per hour, or even better, just keep reading… WHAT WE LEARNED Dr. Torres, Medicine Ball Woman: Remember that time when Callie (Sara Ramirez) went head first through a windshield and it seriously messed her up? Well so did the continuity fairy. It's nice to see that Callie hasn't had a completely miraculous healing and we get to see some of her struggle to walk, get function back in her hands and hold the teeny tiny baby. Let's Do the Time Warp Again: Maybe we spoke too soon about the miraculous recover. We like a good flashforward as much as the next person, but boy, was that a lot of story told in 42 minutes. Callie and baby recover, Alex (Justin Chambers) creates and executes an African baby journey, Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) single handedly compromises the Alzheimer's trial and that's not even the half of it. In this episode we got the set up and the pay off, but it seems like we missed most of the hard work in between. Some Guys Have All the Luck: Alex learned a valuable lesson, being mean and a grifter (as Lexie put it) pays off big in the end. Good thing too because I'm not sure Alex Karev would look good in an orange jumpsuit. Due to the power of the flash forward, just when the mean old lady flatlined and all hope was lost, we get credit card fraud and African orphan lifesaving check for 200 grand. Not too shabby. Really the African orphans were the big winners, but this won't hurt Alex's chances for Chief Resident. Dr. Stark hates African Orphans: OK, Dr. Stark (Peter MacNichol) doesn't hate African orphans, but he is really mad at April (Sarah Drew). Even though she was his friend, and said the sweetest things about him, he shoots her down with an "It's Dr. Stark to you." And a mean sneer maybe an evil cackle too. Ouch, buddy, completely unnecessary. April you should save your kindness for someone who'd appreciate it, like maybe that grifter Karev. Secrets and Lies: Oh, Meredith, how are you going to keep this giant mammoth of a secret from your post-it husband? Post-its must emotionally affect Meredith because as soon as she saw Adele (Loretta Devine) Post-it reminder of her husband we just knew it cut her to the core. And when Meredith switched Adele's top-secret medicine or placebo paper we were screaming for her to stop fumbling and get out of there pronto. It's pretty much a given that this will come back to bite them. But we're pretty proud of Meredith for doing that. WHAT'S TO COME Take Me Home Tonight: Read our interview (do it!) with James Tupper to find out if Dr. Trauma will whisk Teddy away or will she choose her sweet devoted husband? She's not teaching Cristina and she's not choosing Noel, so maybe it's time to hit the road? Nice Day for a White Wedding: A Callie-Arizona white wedding to be exact. These ladies deserve something good in their lives but we can't imagine a Shonda Rhimes written wedding will go off without at least a little hitch. Can you say "in-laws?" Well, can you? We can't hear you... We Are the Champions: Dr. Pretty Eyes is bringing his big guns to this chief resident fight, and a little Harper Avery name dropping never hurt anyone. Who will be the victor? We'll find out in the season finale. Let's Adopt: It's a little convenient a few children show up at the hospital just when Meredith and Derek want a baby. But we are all for it! We so want them to adopt an adorable African orphan. And from the looks of next week's promo Derek is for it it. Please, Shonda, pretty please. So what'd you think about tonight's episode? Did you love the Callie-Arizona-Mark fam finally leaving the hospital with the baby? Did Meredith do the right thing for Adele? Are you confused by our bevy of '80s music or Back to the Future references? Hit the comments and let us know! www.eonline.com/uberblog/watch_with_kristin/b239138_greys_anatomy_redux_corruption_lies.html?cmpid=sn-000000-twitterfeed-365-kristin&utm_source=eonline&utm_medium=twitterfeed&utm_campaign=twitterfeed_kristin&dlvrit=51396
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Post by Leanne on Apr 29, 2011 3:52:10 GMT -5
William Harper on "It's a Long Way Back"... by greysanatomy
Original Airdate: 4-28-11
This episode spanned almost three months. From the time Shonda conceived the Musical Event (and the car crash that set it in motion), we knew we wanted the episode that followed to cover a long period of time, so we could realistically show Callie’s journey from the awful image of her bleeding on the hood of that car, to her triumphant exit from the hospital with her new family. Also, to let tiny, tiny, tiny Sofia grow to a healthy weight. So three months it was.
I was excited and a little daunted. Episodes that span long periods of time are tricky, it’s harder to sustain suspense across a commercial break, harder to keep track of time, harder to keep momentum going… On the other hand, a long time span allows you to tell a character’s story in a different way, play characters’ changes more gradually -- you get to watch them grow. (Especially if you’re watching a fragile little premature baby – micropreemies, they’re called -- grow into a crazy-adorable, healthy 12-week-old.) And though this episode was about recovery, as Meredith points out, “recovery” is a misnomer. Instead of “coming back” from a trauma, more often than not, you find it has changed you forever.
So this episode was about change and growth as much as anything. And, honestly, after I wrote it and we shot it, as I watched it, what I couldn’t stop thinking about was how much these Seattle Grace doctors have changed and grown in the seven years we’ve known them. They’ve come a long, long way.
First of all, Callie. Doctors do make the worst patients, in my experience, that’s true. They take shortcuts, they cut time off their recovery, they don’t take the advice – or the meds -- they prescribe for others. So Callie’s pushing herself too far too fast. I would expect nothing less from Callie when we first met her. The Callie who first flirted with George, the bone-busting, badass orthopod of season two, would not have had the time nor the patience for these injuries. But, the Callie we know now has a different drive to get well. She’s known love and loss, been married and divorced, acknowledged a whole new part of herself and fought for it to be recognized by her family, and she’s found true love. She’s grown up. Responsible. And she’s a mother now. She’s not trying to rush her own recovery -- she’s rushing to be there for her little girl. I maintain she is still and will always be a badass, but now that she has a child, her motivations have changed in ways she’s not even aware of yet.
The idea of being pregnant and happy one second, then waking up, being told you’d delivered your baby, that she’s clinging to life, and not be able to see, to touch, smell, or talk to that baby for days on end, is an agonizing prospect. Sara played that desperation beautifully. Her selflessness fuels everything she does in the episode.
And Alex. “Evil Spawn is now Mother Theresa,” Cristina says. I don’t think he’s all the way there yet, but yeah, Alex does make maybe the biggest transformation in the episode. And it’s part of a slow, slow transformation he’s been making over seven seasons. One thing I always liked about Alex – and I mean as a fan, watching the show -- was how gradually we’ve learned about him over the years. His history came out in a hint here and a half a line there… until finally, we know his drug addict father, his crazy mother, that there’s a whole litany of crap that made him angry and guarded and… evil. And that armor has been slowly chipped away at. Here, his motivation for starting this African Surgery program is vintage Karev: it’s an act of desperate self-preservation. Stark doesn’t believe he can do it. His fellow residents don’t either. Really, even Alex doesn’t believe he can do it. Weeks later, when we find him putting the plan together, we know he’s just trying to position himself to become Chief Resident. It’s only in the final “chapter” of this three-month story that we realize something inside him, something he won’t even admit to himself, is driving him to make this happen for these kids. Even if it means his own financial ruin. What Alex has revealed so slowly over all these seasons is that there’s a good guy in there, rising up through a lifetime of brutal crap and getting closer and closer to the surface. For me, it’s there in that smile on his face as he helps those little kids into off the medical transport at the end. It’s surprisingly open, fulfilled…happy. And it’s a long way from the perpetual scowl he wore in season one.
And Meredith. When I watch the scene where Adele mistakes Mer for her mother, (And Loretta Devine’s perfectly heartbreaking performance in it) and we see on Meredith’s face as she realizes the damage her mother did to this woman and her marriage, the scene I kept remembering was when Mer found the Chief at Ellis’s nursing home in Season Two. From that moment she and Richard have shared this uneasy connection – one she has fought so stubbornly against. Now, she seems ready to put the past behind her and to acknowledge that she is tied to Richard, tied to what happens to him, and Adele as well. She takes responsibility for her mother, and performs an act of generosity that has the strong possibility of blowing up in her face. She acts rashly, but she’s always had this impulse. She’s the girl who sticks her hand in a bomb-filled chest cavity before thinking. But where she and the Chief are concerned, I think it’s a sign of serious growth.
When Shonda promotes an assistant to writer, she often says proudly, “Look, the babies are all growing up now.” Looking at this episode, I realized how much her Seattle babies are growing up, too. Growing up, taking responsibility, making adult decisions, using their educations. The interns who struggled to figure out how to tube a patient are now sure-handedly performing surgeries, helping rewrite medical history with clinical trials. And Shonda raised them right -- no matter how dark and twisty they’re lives have been, they seem to be coming through it. They’re growing into good people. Flawed, and rash, maybe…but good.
And don’t get me wrong, they’re not done growing, not by a long shot. They’ve still got a lot of choices to make, a lot to learn, for a long while to come. And especially for the rest of this season: Callie and Arizona have mentioned wedding bells and you won’t be disappointed. And as for Meredith, well, rash actions have consequences, no matter what the intentions behind them. So as we move toward the end of season seven, I hope you like roller coasters. It’s going to be a wild ride.
Grey Matter
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betinad
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Post by betinad on Apr 29, 2011 21:42:20 GMT -5
ABC Turns in its Strongest Thursday in Total Viewers and Adults 18-49 in 4 Weeks ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” Takes Second at 9pm in Adults 18-49, Beating Fox’s “Idol”-fueled “Bones” by 25% and CBS’s Original “C.S.I.” by 52% Thursday Night (8:00-11:00 p.m.) On the first night of the May 2011 Sweep, ABC drew its largest audience (8.0 million) and best Adults 18-49 performance (2.3/6) on the night in 4 weeks – since 3/31/11. ABC earned second place to an “Idol”-driven Fox on Thursday across all key Women demos: W18-34/W18-49/W25-54. “Grey’s Anatomy” (9:00-10:00 p.m.) ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” finished second in Thursday’s 9 o’clock hour in Total Viewers (10.3 million) and Adults 18-49 (3.5/9), topping Fox’s “Idol”-fueled “Bones” by 25% (2.8/7) and CBS’ original “C.S.I.” by 52% (2.3/6) in the key young adult sales demo. Additionally, “Grey’s” won its time period and qualified as the No. 1 scripted series on the night across each of the key Women demos: W18-34/W18-49/W25-54. tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2011/04/29/abc%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Cgrey%E2%80%99s-anatomy%E2%80%9D-takes-second-at-9pm-in-adults-18-49-beating-fox%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Cidol%E2%80%9D-fueled-%E2%80%9Cbones%E2%80%9D-by-25-and-cbs%E2%80%99s-origina/91005
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Post by betinad on Apr 29, 2011 21:44:33 GMT -5
'Grey's Anatomy' recap: 'It's a Long Way Back' 4/29/2011 Karen M. Eazell You've come a long way baby. It's been a few weeks since Callie's devastating accident, and the premature birth of her baby, Sophia. They both were in serious condition and have a long road to recovery. Callie is trying hard to get better, pushing herself to the limits. Her main inspiration? She still hasn't gotten to see her little baby girl. It comes to a head when April drops by to tell Callie that Sophia had opened her eyes. Callie breaks down, and her desperate and increasingly depressed state gets her friends and cohorts to thinking about staging a mother and child reunion. Cristina is Callie's attending and is trying to be supportive, but you have to wonder how weak her mommie instincts are when she describes Sophia to Callie, "She looks more like a chicken than a baby...like a featherless, beakless chicken," her way of telling Callie she isn't missing much. Later on, Owen notices this trait in Cristina too, with a little wistful look. Due to an unforeseen death of another trial patient, Adele gets into Derek and Meredith's Alzheimer trials. That lifts the Chief's spirits so much he profusely thanks Meredith. The strength of his feelings spurs Meredith to break into the records room to check and see if Adele was lucky enough to be one of the patients who gets to have the experimental medicine or will she only get the placebo. Not to worry though, Meredith does something she knows is wrong, and she switches the files around to insure Adele gets the medication...but she doesn't tell Derek of course. After Callie's breakdown, her friends stage a covert run to the Pediatric ICU to reunite her with Sophia. They push her bed up to the nursery window where she lays eyes on Sophia for the first time. And it's a tender moment. She whispers lovingly to her, “Don’t worry. See, I’m a little messed up, too. But we’re gonna be fine." That little moment makes Callie even more determined to actually hold Sophia, and she pushes herself even harder with her therapy. She goes a little too far, however, and ruptures her abdominal wound, collapsing into Arizona's arms. Even worse, just as Callie takes a downward turn, so does Sophia. She needs immediate surgery to repair her heart. Thankfully, both mother and child heal and get back on that long road to recovery together. Elsewhere there is a dragon lady, Gladys, in the hospital wreaking havoc. She is an angry and nasty terminal patient (played by Doris Roberts). She is Alex's patient, and she is chewing up caregivers like peanuts. Alex is perturbed by her but gives her as good as she gives. He is actually more concerned with how he is going to get a bunch of sick African kids, that Arizona told him about, to Seattle-Grace for treatment - because we all know what a softie he is. He has an epiphany when Gladys, out of options for caregivers, demands Alex come back and help her. He demands money from the rich, dying woman in exchange for his services. He had previously asked for her help, but she dismissed him, saying, "Get out of here Sally Struthers!" Now she grudgingly likes Alex and wants him back, but it's going to cost her. They have a shocking but hilarious exchange but she agrees to give him $100,000. Unfortunately, Gladys dies before Alex gets the funds. Teddy and Henry are still officially married, but Teddy is not so successfully dating. She seems drawn to Henry, dropping by after every failed date, bearing pasta and cannoli to boot. This gives Henry hope that he can make their relationship real and official. He is in love with Teddy. However, his hopes are dashed when Teddy comes by with the pasta, but declines to stay because she tells him she has rekindled a past romance. Henry, who had set up his apartment with candles and was ready to declare his love for her, doesn't let on his disappointment. In other romantic fronts, April is impressed with a kinder, gentler side to Dr. Stark and tells him so, but he hasn't forgiven her rejection of his advances and shuts her of coldly. Yeah, whatever. Weeks have passed and both Callie and baby Sofia have healed enough, and it's time for them to finally go home. Everyone is excited and happy, and all they have to do is see if Sophia can sit in a car seat for one hour without a problem. Meanwhile, Alex, is frantic. Not only is his debt piling up, the African kids are coming and he is trying to coordinate their care. He is also now homeless as his trailer was towed. All his plans to look like a hero and snag the Chief Resident position are going up in smoke when he gets a letter from a lawyer. He assumes it's a demand for money and almost rips it up. Luckily, he opens it and it is a check for $200,000! Gladys came through! It's a go! Sophia passed the car carrier test and she is released to go home! But all the happiness and joy is overshadowed when Callie breaks down in a panic. She is afraid that Sophia isn't ready to go home. When it's actually she who is insecure about Sophia's safety. But Bailey gently steps in and calms Callie, telling her her feelings are normal and that she is a parent now and you will always be worried. thecelebritycafe.com/feature/greys-anatomy-recap-its-long-way-back-04-29-2011
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Post by betinad on Apr 29, 2011 21:45:46 GMT -5
After a month-long hiatus, Grey's Anatomy returns this week with the first of four episodes remaining in season 7. Creator Shonda Rhimes has confirmed that this year's season finale will center heavily on the remaining three original interns -- Meredith, Cristina, and Alex -- and this new installment, "It's a Long Way Back," serves as the catalyst for this shift in focus. Coupled with Callie's struggle to recover from the accident, the latest trials and tribulations of the Big Three serve as the foundation of a strong episode, written by one of my favorite GA scribes, William Harper. I love his work, because he deftly combines vintage qualities of Grey's (snarky humor, sparkling ensemble scenes, clever twists) with characterization that rings true. Let's take a look at these characters we've known for so long and assess their current situations. Meredith Wow. Where to begin? Sometimes we do something with the best of intentions only to have it blow up in our faces. You just know that trouble in on the horizon for Meredith Grey. Fueled, I think, by both compassion and guilt in her encounters with Richard and Adele (who, in her unstable mental condition, mistakes Meredith for Ellis), Meredith secretly intervenes in the Alzheimer's Trial, making sure Mrs. Webber gets the active agent rather than the placebo. The problem is that there is no guarantee that the drug will do any good, while it's almost certain that Meredith's transgression will come to light, jeopardizing her career, Derek's career, the trial and their marriage. Yikes! Oh, Meredith! What have you done? Cristina Meanwhile, Cristina has been ostracized by Teddy (for no rational reason, I might add -- only Dr. Altman's wounded pride), but she's taking it in stride, caring for Callie with a prickly tenderness that illustrates just how far Cristina has come as both a doctor and a person. I love the Cristina/Callie friendship and their dynamic here is perfection, alternately hilarious and heartbreaking. Questions remain, though. Is Cristina "in the game" for Chief Resident? Is she really suited for the position, regardless of her surgical prowess? Can and should she make amends with her mentor? Has she equaled or surpassed that mentor as a surgeon? And what about those baby "anvils" that were falling from the sky like so many rocks? Dr. Yang is at a crossroads. What will she do? Alex I love this subplot, because it's classic Karev. Owen puts him on the spot regarding his "plan" in the quest for Chief Resident. Improvising quickly, Alex proposes bringing children from Africa to Seattle for life-changing surgeries. He pesters a cranky, wealthy patient for money. He arranges for pro bono medical care and ground transportation. He gets himself into a heap of potential legal and financial trouble and then manages to, through the generosity of the aforementioned patient and some dumb luck, emerge unscathed. Best of all, as it often happens in such cases, somewhere along the way, Alex begins to actually care about these kids. What a pleasure it's been to see his growth over seven seasons. What an ironically delicious turn of events that Pediatrics is his calling. He's still far-from-perfect, but he's got a good heart. Way to go, Karev! Look at what you did! Callie, et al. I feel like the show has been Callie/Arizona/Mark heavy for about seven episodes now, but it's impossible to talk about this episode without including the resilient Dr. Torres. As we witness her recovery (and that of Baby Sophia, who went from "featherless, beakless chicken" to super-duper cute in record time), a family is formed. Callie finds wells of strength and a will of iron because she wants so desperately to be a mother to her daughter. Arizona and Mark find a way to get along because that's what Callie and Sophia need them to do. Even Grinch-like Dr. Stark is transformed as his heart grew two sizes over the course of three months. And I found myself moved by Bailey's words: "You're right. You are absolutely right. Cars are not safe for children. OK, neither are bookcases or squirrels, strong winds, people who sneeze. They're all going to get your baby. But honey, you don't feel this was because you were in an accident. You feel this way because you are a parent." Anyone who has ever been the terrified new parent bringing a baby home for the first time knows how true those words are and that it does go away in time. Well, most of it. Some of it never does. Sprint to the Finish One episode down, three to go. Will there be repercussions for Meredith? Where will Cristina find herself professionally and personally? Will Alex actually get Chief Resident? And how will Sophia Robbin Sloan Torres fare in her new home with her three parents? Voice your opinion and vote in the poll! The next all-new episode of Grey's Anatomy, "White Wedding," airs May 5 on ABC. www.buddytv.com/articles/greys-anatomy/greys-anatomy-fan-columist-the-40140.aspx
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