I had such good intentions last week to get this review out, then I fell ill and wanted the world to end for a few days. But here it is, just in time.
Once upon a time Grey’s Anatomy used to be
all about sex and scalpels; full of spicy surgeries and on call room liaisons.
Where the Sloan method was trademarked and Bailey was a prude. Then it got
serious; couples got complicated, started unconventional, creative families,
residents took exams, became real doctors. Surgeries became secondary to the
plot and clothes remained in tact, no ripped off scrub pants in sight. Though
Bailey remained kind of a prude. And then season 9 happened. And as if Shonda
has slipped the writers oysters and jungle juice, the sex and scalpels are back.
Big time. Though it turns out Bailey’s no longer a prude.
I want to believe that the writers room wasn’t
filled with creatives giggling like school boys at “who can write the best hot
smutty scene” or “who can make the best ‘balls’ gag” but I can’t help feeling
that it was when the time came to write 904. Shonda allowed them to let rip
with their characters’ frustrated libidos and return Grey’s Anatomy to it’s
horny home. Every one’s doing it. Well not quite everyone. But let’s be honest
the only ones not doing it so far are in the tiny minority; they being the
legless couple and Dr McGrumpy. Other than that Seattle Grace Mercy West, as
well as Cristina, over there in the snow, are humping and pumping all over the
place.
And I enjoyed it. Kind of. I love that
Grey’s is keeping the faith with dark comedy layered over tragedy. But 904 “I
Saw Her Standing There” was just a bit too much innuendo and smut for me. When
the comedy and sexual suggestion drown out the story then the levee’s been
breached. And there is some heavy story going on, if you can find it. In the
end I enjoyed the sexy times but tired easily of the constant ‘balls’ gags.
Arizona and Callie are damaged through more
than a missing leg. This is my favourite story arc at the moment. In sharp
contrast to the happy fluffy peds surgeon of season 8 we continue to witness a
stellar understated performance from Jessica Capshaw as the thoroughly scarred
and angry wife.
I am relieved to see Arizona’s own heart has softened slightly towards
Callie, thanks to some wise words from her peds protégée. At last, finally,
before I lost all faith in the guy Karev uttered his most mature sentence to
another adult – “you know Callie’s trying too”. My faith and hope in Alex is
restored. To me, this was a milestone because it wasn’t the serious Alex who
advocates for his kiddie patients nor was it the sullen sarcasm of his usual
spats with adults. It was the Alex who was the only comfort to her during the
musical crash, who calmly and reasonably, using adult words offered much needed
lonely support. And here he is doing it again. We know why Arizona is angry as
much as we know that when we hurt the most we punish the ones we love the most,
knowing they will be there the next day. It does remain to be seen if Callie
will be there the next day (though it does look hopeful) but I hope they
continue this story at this pace, not moving too quickly and slowly bringing us
along too.
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| Alex doing good at at last |
We’ve seen very little of Owen this season
so far. He’s moping around like a lost puppy , struggling to understand how his
life has become what it is. And it takes a lovely moment with Callie in the bar
for us to understand it. I conceded to a friend this week that whilst I am not
a friend of Owen I do think that Sara Ramirez and Kevin McKidd have excellent
on screen chemistry. I’d almost rather Callie struck up a friendship with him
over Derek. Callie would be a great help to getting Owen back to a likeable
character. (Hey Shonda! You reading this?)
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| Yes Owen, I'll sort you out. |
Our baby doctors are now the mummy and daddy doctors and oh my goodness Meredith rocks at it! She’s the main man in that house in the woods. No longer is Derek the mega star of the Shepherd bedroom (even with the size of that pay check), that accolade now belongs to Meredith and her rare and dangerous tumours. She’s worried that Derek will morph into the bear in the woods – you remember the one, scared the bejesus out of Alex and Izzie. She doesn’t need to. He’s now seemingly content with, easy hours, doting fatherhood and spending time in their abnormally large bed. Ooohhh errrrr how things have changed.
Over in the cold fringes of Minnesota it
seems Cristina is enjoying her own down time with her ‘slightly reptilian
slightly chatty’ boss on the sofa and ‘ancient guy’ bff in the bar. And in a
moment when great writing and great acting mesh together we see a parallel
story to Margaret Campbell. Do you remember? The old ‘past it’ doctor played by
Faye Dunnaway some years ago. This relationship with Dr Thomas is the karma to Campbell. Finally we see the brilliant young, yet cold, surgeon demonstrate
the compassionate doctor that she is, as she tries hard to find her way and her
surgical wings in the hospital politics. I’d like to think that Teddy would be
very proud from her military hospital in the sky. Wait she didn’t die did she?
Forgot. Still, she’s very proud.
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| You're a bit older than Meredith, but you'll do... |
The giant ball(s) of this episode showed
themselves in the form of some poor sod who’s left (or right, I don’t know)
scrotum swollen to the size of a balloon. If
you missed the episode boys, I do not exaggerate, catch-up with caution. Of
course the metaphor that the writers were trying to elaborate on was not lost
on me. Showing giant balls was the real theme for almost all, whether it was
Arizona standing up, Meredith taking on her rare tumour, Owen moving out, Derek
realizing he’s done as a surgeon or Jackson fronting up to Richard the message
was delivered by the poor scrotum guy and his ‘would be’ girlfriend. JFDI.
The most brilliant ‘scrotum’ scene took
place at the expense of Alex and Jackson, who were brought in to witness the
size of the ‘man’s parts’ that April would later have her hands on. Perhaps
this was the other beauty of the episode – a moment when April could turn the
tables on these young pups and stick the knife in a little. But after this it
all got a little silly.
We were treated to “The further adventures
of Catherine and Richard” loaded with innuendo where Catherine is rather sadly
trying to get April laid having suddenly felt somewhat coy at the sight of
large balls herself. The writing became unstuck here as the Catherine of Season
8, you remember - penis transplant Catherine - would not have balked at all at
this balloon surgery in the way she did and would also probably have guessed
that April has that post coital glow. And the Richard of this episode became a
rather sad version of himself in that ‘high school’ moment. And then, to cap it
all off I cringed behind the sofa when Avery went all “hurt my mom and I’ll cut
you” on him. Okay, he didn’t go that far but really...?
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| ...so many captions for this...none of them clean enough... |
The balls story was rescued by the lovely Bailey
whose one liners and blunt talking whilst trolling for surgeries provided the
more usual Grey’s humour. I preferred this to the Benny Hill show.
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| Everyone's humping around Grey, and my Ben is no where to be seen... |
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| David Moore - hubba hubba |
Innuendo leads to great one liners...
“...and we’re done here” Jackson
“white wine” “which kind” “the big kind”
“oh for petes sake it’s just a little
testicle, somebody just get up in there”
“...a little reptilian, a little chatty...”
Worst line to ever come out of the mouth of
Richard Webber
“you don’t want a piece of this, not today”
