| | 11:07 PM - Grey's Anatomy--bet you can't eat just one. How is it possible that this show is so well-written and so clever and so heartbreaking?
Brookie & I were once on the phone on a fall Sunday evening when she abruptly said, "I have to go--my show's on." And just like that, she had hung up and had disappeared. As Brookie is one of the most clever girls I know, I had to see what it was that had suited her fancy so very well. I watched one episode of Grey's Anatomy and liked it. The next week, I watched my second episode and was immediately, officially, undeniably addicted.
For those of you who are now resisting because the show is so popular, let me start by saying that I understand your point of view. Once "everybody" has decided to obsess over something, it's far cooler to remain detatched and critical of it, choosing never to watch it (or watch it once and scoff) instead of giving it a fair chance. We all do that: with music, with movies, with books. Hell knows I'm still avoiding The DaVinci Code due in part to the immense hype that has been surrounding it since before I was a flicker in my papa's eye (or at least it feels that it's been that long). But let me plea with you: give this show a chance.
First things first: it's perfectly cast. The characters are realistic and usually self-centered and stubborn and unapologetic, but they love each other unconditionally. There aren't those Dawson's-Creek-esque moments when the dialogue is so eloquent and creepy that you are snapped out of your revery and know that you're being had. The cast is refreshingly multi-ethnic, but there's never (at least to my knowledge) any big deal made about the fact that the surgery chief is black and had an affair with a successful white surgeon long ago; there's never any comment made about a black doctor who's in love with an Asian intern; there's no mention of color or background when patients come into the hospital looking for assistance. I'm not saying that the producers ignore race as we 20-somethings were encouraged to do during our elementary years in an attempt to have a happy-go-lucky, peaceful world; instead, it's realistic in that it's no big deal what people's backgrounds are because, in real life, it is often no big deal.
The dialogue, as I've hinted, is surprisingly and charmingly real. Tonight's episode was a repeat (though one I've never seen, thankfully), and let me just give you a snippet of what transpired.
One character gets kissed by the guy she's been after off and on for awhile--he has been doing the proverbial game-playing but finally comes around and lands a huge, hot hot hot kiss on her before walking out the door. The girl's friend says, "Wow."
The girl's only reply before smilingly taking another gulp of wine? "Seriously."
This is how we ladies talk, folks. I love it, love it, love it.
The parallel plots are what's heartbreaking (or heart-burning, as it were, for you with tonight's inside scoop); the metaphors I find lacking only in the sense that they're often over-exagerrated. I would rather them remain subtle, but perhaps viewing audiences wouldn't get the comparisons as easily...?
In any case, watch it. My mom, an obnoxiously harsh "critical consumer," dissed it after two out-of-sequence episodes, but after I mailed her the Season 1 DVDs last week, she fell in love with the rhythm of the show, the characters, the dialogue, the situations.
You're only cheating yourself if you don't at least give it a fair chance. If you come to the conclusion that you're too cool for it, fine. But at least come to that conclusion based on some evidence and not out of wanting to go against the grain.
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