Grey's Anatomy 10.01 and 10.02 Review: Surviving the Storm

For all those that have yet to watch two-hour season ten premiere of Grey’s Anatomy, entitled ‘Seal Our Fate’ and ‘I Want You with Me’, now would be the appropriate time to turn away from this blog. THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS! You’ve been warned.

What can I say about these two episodes? It wasn’t the worst series opening, it made me feel along with all these characters lives, but at the same time it wasn’t the strongest this series has produced. We pick right back up shortly after the storm, basically right where last season left off. I get that this series likes to do two-hour season premieres, and I do like that I got more to watch, but there wasn’t that much necessary about these two episodes that couldn’t be thrown into one. If it gets me one more episode this season, that’s all fine, but if I have to lose one week of this show just so we could watch two hours one night, I don’t think I’ll be all that happy.

There wasn’t that much different about these two episodes that this series hasn’t done before. The fact that I made no notes off this episode for the first half hour, whereas with Revolution I was making notes within the first two minutes, was not a great sign. I didn’t really feel that it was necessary to remember a lot of this stuff. This show has basically become a sort of soap opera, where things aren’t done out of necessity towards creativity, they’re done to keep us on our toes. I’ve been watching this show for a fair length of time, and I have grown to love some of these characters, but the way it’s progressed makes me feel like it’s time to put it down. There’s a reason I don’t watch shows like One Life to Live, and other such soaps, I don’t want to feel stuck in a show that never ends, with no feeling of finality, where actors want to leave before the series ends, and where they could’ve left easily before when it would suit creative levels of the show. By now there’s not much progression that hasn’t already come to be.

The fact that this show keeps trying to shove these new interns down our throat doesn’t help. Wilson and Brooks are about the only two I can stand, and now one of them is dead. And can I just say that everyone saw that coming. When I learned Tina Majorino got booked on another series, I knew that she’d end up dead in this series. Why couldn’t they just leave it open for her to return? It’s not like she had a child on this series that would be uncharacteristically abandoned if she left. If she’d just had to leave to recuperate, she could’ve come back at some point, and this far too obvious storyline wouldn’t have had to been used and abused. Now they’re just shoving these other interns into the forefront, and I’m sorry, but I still can’t stand the other three. They have no charisma to them, and no dramatic intrigue that make them necessary to watch like Meredith, Christina, Izzie, George, and Alex had in the beginning. These people are not a family, they are simply terrible characters because Rhimes is starting to produce too many characters that she can’t keep new ones straight and having concrete personalities.

Now, back around to the surviving three of the interns this show began with. I love how their friendship has grown. Yang and Grey have always been each others people, but as these characters have progressed and developed, Alex has been enveloped into the group, no matter how much he didn’t want to be in the beginning. They’ve become this weird little family unit that I love, and will be so sad to see gone when Sandra Oh leaves next year, something that desperately makes me hope they’ll finally decide to end this series, although the way they’re pushing the new interns, I doubt it.

Aside from the new interns, I’m really glad to see these people we follow along in this surgical wing of the hospital have really become apart of each other’s lives, though somewhat unrealistically. The way Callie (who just has terrible luck when it comes to spouses) and Arizona (despite her cheating scandal) are welcomed in by Meredith and Christina is wonderful. Especially how close all of them have become. And despite not liking April, the way she is already developing this season is something I can get behind a great deal more. She’s finally becoming a less annoying, stronger, more harrowing character. Though when it comes to Jackson, who I use to find more interesting before they slept together and were just best friends, I find him a little tedious and boring. I don’t like him having all this power.

Overall this two hour episode was interesting, but not overly so. I did like a few of the music choices spattered throughout the two episodes, but nothing groundbreaking like earlier seasons were a bit. As someone who favours Meredith’s screen time, I would’ve liked to have seen her more active – no not literally – in this episode (okay maybe a little literally). I get that she just gave birth and had an operation, which I’ve already lost details on from last season so maybe there should’ve been a recap, but getting her out of her hospital gown would’ve been a little bit nicer. The way they ended it with Richard’s eyes opening up and the first thing he’s hearing is Meredith basically saying they’re family was nice.

My rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Best Lines:

“Why would he do that?” – Meredith, wondering about why Richard chose her as the person they had to go to about extreme care. Not the most interesting of lines, but it was the way she said it that made it so good.

“Is ‘I told you so’ inappropriate?” – Christina to Meredith.

“I’m the family.” – Meredith, the first thing she says that Richard hears.

Stay tuned for my weekly edition of Best Performances, coming shortly. Then check back in tomorrow night for my review of Haven’s third season four episode.