Grey’s Anatomy
Musical Event Episode Recap
Say it ain’t so! NO NO NO! Why would Grey’s Creator Shonda Rhimes jump on the “Glee” band wagon by having the cast sing their way through last night’s episode? It’s the “hip” thing to do today, For a Comedy, Maybe, but not for one of my favorite TV dramas. I am a big fan of Grey’s and have been since its 2005 debut. I watched through Izzie’s (played by Katherine Heigl) brain tumor which made her have sex with a dead man, I cried like a baby when they killed off my favorite loveable character George (played by T.R. Knight). Last night I watched because like witnessing a train wreck I could not look away.
Lucky for us, Shonda was smart enough to base it on a car wreck so that the loyal Grey’s fans, like me, would feel compelled to watch it too. The Episode begins with Dr. Callie Torres (played by Sara Ramirez) lying on the hood of the car, because she took her seat belt off during a heated debate with her partner Dr. Arizona Robbins (played by Jessica Capshaw), of course Arizona hits a truck right after asking Callie to Marry her, which puts them back at Seattle Grace Hospital with every single cast member working on nothing but saving the life of their beloved friend and colleague. The rest is TV history.
***Spoiler Alert***
It was not all horrible. The story line was great and I think the actors (who must have known this was a bad idea) really kicked up the acting in order to make it not completely suck. In the end no one dies, Dr. Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh) flies in and at the last moment she and Arizona work their magic on the premature, traumatized baby to save her life. It looks to me like Callie will be completely fine by next week’s episode, which is complete fantasy, but when has Grey’s ever dabbled in reality where modern medicine is concerned? Basically, the entire story was fabricated so that Callie would have a reason to envision all the singing going on. Remember the scene from the Sound of Music where the children are heading off to bed and they sing So Long, Farewell to the guests of the ball? Then the guest all sing in perfect harmony back to them “Good Bye” (That was also the moment when everyone’s dad mumbled an explicit curse word and left the room, or at least that’s how it went down in my house)? That may have been okay to do in a musical 40 years ago, not so much on a popular TV drama today.
The writers where smart in giving the majority of the musical solos to the actors who actually could sing. No surprise that Callie (Ramirez) had 80% of the musical numbers seeing as she came from Broadway and has a Tony Award under her belt. Then there was Dr. Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd) who has dabbled in musicals in the past (De-Lovely), Dr. Bailey (Chandra Wilson), Dr. Lexie Grey (Chyler Leigh). These where the key singers for this “special” episode, they each held their own, however, that didn’t make it any less painful to watch. What I loved was watching the actors who where obviously not musically inclined struggling to stay on key for the 1 or 2 bars of music assigned to them. Who didn’t participate was Mc Dreamy (Patrick Dempsey), Dr. Webber (James Pickens Jr.) and Dr. Yang (Sandra Oh), obviously because these actors are either really smart and didn’t want to be known forever for participating in the jumping of the shark, or they are simply tone deaf. Either way, bravo!
I’m extremely hopeful that this musical episode was simply an exercise in poor judgment. I have to hope that this is not the beginning of the end for Grey’s. I have to hope that next week I won’t have to suffer through a very special ball room dancing episode. Shonda, please, the fans beg of you, stick to what makes Grey’s great, slutty doctors, heart wrenching stories about illness and blood and guts. Next time you want to get your actors to sing in an episode, have them do it in the shower with one of the nurses who’s married to a hit man!
*Jackie Pletsch can be found writing full time at http://www.mysentimentexactlee.com
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