Deanie87

I have a feeling that Camilla is done for the season and we won't see her again until next season. There may be a small DeLuca scene or maybe one with Steph, but I think that whatever may have been planned for her was postponed. Yet again. I just hope that they explain her absence, but it won't surprise me if they don't.

And neither did Izzie, neither does Meredith, neither does Bailey, neither does Richard...and on and on it goes.

Which is just about as low as the bar has ever been set. There were just as many characters back in season 9-10 and yet they managed to give most characters something. I don't expect 24 episodes, at this point, I don't even expect 6 episodes of focus, but I do expect a reasonable storyline with continuity and progress. If that only takes 2 episodes to do, then that's fine, but that's just never the case with his character. Alex seems to be popular mainly as he is useful to Meredith, and everybody hates Jo, and yet they only seemed to be featured in cliffhangers that never get resolved. I don't even think that its fair to say that Alex and Jo got a ton of stuff from episodes 1-9. Alex got a lot in the first 2-3 episodes for sure, and Jo was a minor part in that. Then he was ignored for a bit, got one episode in the clinic and then the cliffhanger mid-season finale. Jo got a side part in Alex's storyline, but it was mostly Meredith who was with him. Then Alex was missing almost entirely from the first two episodes back after the cliffhanger finale. Jo got the bottle episode and the one about the abusive patient and those actually focused on her, not Alex, but we still didn't really learn anything we didn't already know. I'm sure that Alex will figure in the last couple of episodes of the season as he usually does and that will end with yet another cliffhanger that will still relate to issues that have been going on for 2+ seasons now. So I personally don't think that he got a ton of stuff this season and neither did Jo, and what they did get did nothing to further their storyline in any way. The last real conversation the two of them had was in NOVEMBER in episode 13-9. That's just ridiculous to me. I would take only 3-4 episodes of focus a season if they ever progressed anything or if any of these storylines had a beginning, middle and end that make sense, but they don't. Or even if they ever had Meredith (or Maggie, or Arizona or Amelia or anyone) ask Alex about what is going on with Jo just to get a sense of where they are. It would take 20 seconds, but it never, ever happens. Instead he staples papers or stares at Maggie's mom's boobs and listens to THEIR problems. Alex told Mer that Jo was married back in episode 9 and Meredith has never followed up one time. And yet, Maggie just got a 2-3 episode arc that revealed a lot about her and it had a beginning, a middle and an end. So apparently, the writers are capable of it, they just only choose to do it for a handful of characters. It pisses me off.

None of the excuses work for me anymore, at least as far as what I want to see, which is mainly Alex and Jo. Some of the storylines have been going on for years now, years if you consider that Alex first proposed to Jo in season 10. Every new season brings a flurry of articles and interviews about how this is finally the season that we explore Jo both personally and as a doctor, and this will finally be the season that Alex becomes a grown up, etc. And yet, it never happens. Shonda claims that season 11 was going to have a huge storyline for them but it got scrapped because of Dempsey, Season 12 comes along, and same thing, lots and lots of promotion, then...I don't know SaRa leaves and Penny has to become the greatest resident known to man I guess. Then this season they can conveniently use Camilla's pregnancy, even though they start filming in July and they seem to be able to work around most other pregnancies. Here we are and Jo's marriage and identity still haven't been addressed, and Alex has gone from homeowner twice over and seemingly stable, to beating people have to death and yet fucking again, crashing at Meredith's and playing nursemaid to her and the sisters. To be fair, Camilla did get more to do than she usually does at the beginning of the season, but I don't understand why Minnick dominated the middle part of the season when the Alex and Jo story stalled completely. Also, as far as I'm aware, Justin Chambers isn't pregnant, yet he has had mere minutes of screen time in the last 5 or so episodes and those minutes have pretty much only been about Riggs and Meredith. So once again, the big story that has been promised (and the main reason why I still tune in) has been stalled and pushed back to the next season. And come the premiere of season 14, I'm sure we will get all kinds of platitudes about domestic violence, etc. and then something else will come up and the storyline will either get stalled again, or drawn out to the mid=season finale only to be ended in 3 minutes. And the the worst part is, there are plenty of promo photos, interviews and behind the scenes shots/videos that suggest that stuff is getting written for Jo and Alex, and filmed, but then it gets cut. So apparently Camilla isn't too pregnant to actually haul her ass to the studio to film, but she is too pregnant to have any of it actually make it to the episode. So their absence on screen doesn't seem to be the case of them accommodating the actors. And I'm sure that this may be the case for other actors on the show as well, but it doesn't seem to happen so consistently to anyone other than Alex (and then by extension Jo), which doesn't make sense because they ARE actually in the middle of story. So what it boils down to, as always, is that those in charge have favorites and those favorites' storylines never seem to be on the losing end of any kind of backstage issues, they get plenty of character development and plenty of screentime. Any other explanations, to me, are just hollow excuses. The solution is to quit this whole show, but apparently I am unable to do that and I guess I'll stick with it to the bitter (and boy do I mean bitter) end.

They've done nothing but plant seeds for the last two seasons. How about finally getting all of these seeds to blossom for god sake! I find it actually insulting that the are now talking up season 14 while we have yet to see the shit that started in season 12 wrapped up. I don't know whose job it is to map out these seasons and storylines, Debbie Allen, Stacy McKee or William Harper or a combo of all three, but they really suck at it.

Same here and it happens all the time. It's bad enough they air it on the most competitive night of the week, now they don't even air it at all.

I thought that the person Dar was referring to might be a romantic partner of some kind. The photos were of Quinn's kid. When he was originally introduced he had that Polaroid of the mother and baby. They did a good job with the the oldest photo, he looked just like Quinn. I wish they had explored some of that while he was alive. I would have traded a few Franny scenes for a little more Quinn backstory. The writers were incredibly prescient this season but it ended up leaving a bad taste in my mouth. I guess they thought Hillary would win and then the 1st female president turns out to be both "soft" on foreign enemies but also perhaps dishonest and retaliatory, with Authoritarian overtones at the end. Meh, real life is fraught enough these days without trying to figure out whether or not Homeland has an agenda.

Godammit. I know that Quinn was on borrowed time, but a lot of my interest in the show died along with him.

I don't begrudge Yara her chance at a spinoff, but A Different World was a lightening in a bottle type situation. Then again, it might just be that I was in college during that time and it holds such a special place for me that I'm nervous of anyone trying to duplicate it. And I'm white, for whatever that's worth in this situation. Maybe they should just stop comparing it to A Different World. Honestly I don't think about The Cosby Show when I watch Black-ish at all, so I hope that whatever this spin-off is, it's allowed to be it's own thing.

Yay for Cross, he was the only thing I liked in this episode. At this point, I"m hoping that Megan comes back just for Riggs sake. There is no way in hell a guy would still be chasing after a woman with 3 small kids who forces him to keep their "relationship" secret from her sister (who is also a mutual co-worker and maybe even Riggs' boss?), who tells him that he ain't gonna get with her unless he is best friend's with Alex, and who treats him with complete contempt 90% of the time. There is just no way. Thank god Alex didn't go to prison. Who else would collate and staple training packets if not the Head of Pediatrics? That was a nice addition to his usual role of listening to one of the many sisters' Tales of Love Woe. I can't imagine why he is grumpy. Maybe because the woman he wants to marry is already married and was almost beaten to death yet he hasn't quite had the time to talk to her about it since....I don't know...NOVEMBER? (That would be exactly 10 episodes ago, and with a centric next week, it could be at least a half of a season since Alex and Jo have had a real conversation, and yes I am bitter enough to keep track.) Maybe he got a paper cut and had to go home for the rest of the day. Again. Also, LOL to Meredith having the nerve to call anyone else grumpy. L.O.L.

I loved this episode! Junior may be my absolute favorite tv character right now, he is definitely my favorite tv kid. "Mom, I'm a user!" I just love how comfortable he is in his own skin and the actor who plays him is just so great. His moral indignation at the partiers and then him being all high had me laughing out loud the entire episode. I also really like his relationship with Bow and their mutual nerdiness. The parallels between Dre and Ruby and Junior and Bow and interesting, but where Dre idealizes his mother (and given everything with Pops it makes sense I guess), Bow and Junior really have a lot in common and seem to enjoy each other's company. Funny how the parental units in the Johnson family seem to go along gender lines: Dre/Zoe, Bow/Junior, Ruby/Dre, Pops/Rhonda. I think that Bow's reaction to Zoe was understandable, even if it was a bit unreasonable. I have seen plenty of parents coming down a little harder on the "good" kids out of the blue, like they only have a few more years to get out of the "danger zone" and they don't want to see anything wreck it. As a "good" teenager, it really sucked, but as a parent, I totally get it. I loved the twins as the Forgotten Children as well. I like it when Diane is age appropriately mischevious, but not out and out and evil mastermind.

Y'all are killing me with this Alex speculation, you know that right? I just don't think that Maggie and Alex would work, and these writers aren't good enough to change my mind. Alex would have no patience for Maggie's emotional immaturity and I don't think Maggie could handle (or want any part of) Alex's darker tendencies. He has talked to Amelia literally one time as far as I'm aware, which is all it really takes on this show, so why not? The only other person on the show that I think he would be compatible with is Meredith, but I have less than zero interest in that, so I hope they finally resume the story that they started with Jo, you know, LAST season, and which seems like it will slowly crawl into next season as well. If they have to pair everyone up, and we all know that they do, the easiest thing for them to do is to go with Riggs/Maggie, Jo/DeLuca and *sigh* Alex/Mer. But Riggs has shown no interest in Maggie and that would be two sisters sharing a man, Jo has shown no interest in DeLuca and Mer/Alex is just so not an option for me. So unless they somehow work their way back to Maggie/DeLuca, they are going to have to bring in another guy or give Minnick the boot and make Maggie bisexual.

I don't know what it is about Maggie and that swing, but I remember all the Alex/Maggie speculation when they had a scene together on the swing.

Entertainment Weekly did an interview with Lange and Sarandon before the premiere and Lange was kind of dismissive of Joan Crawford, which really bugged me. She basically said that she never had any interest in her and mostly knew her from MD and so was surprised to find out about the plastic on the furniture, and her horrible childhood. The interview (which of course I can't find now) really rubbed me the wrong way and, while I don't think that Lange's portrayal is unsympathetic, I sort of feel that it is more informed by the negative aspects of Joan, rather than any of the positive ones (such as how hard working she was in everything, and the absolute star charisma that she had even as an aging woman). And while I don't need Lange to gush over the Old Hollywood stars, a little more respect would have been nice. I realize that she was a part of the 70s movement that preferred more realistic and gritty acting, but these women were around nearly at the beginning of film medium that Lange and Sarandon made their living from, and they put up with studio system, and in some cases fought for more money and power, and that is worth a little respect, I think, even if Joan was more of a "moviestar" than actress. Anyway, its a little ridiculous I know, but I am always suspicious of actors and actresses who know so little about all of the stuff that came before them. If I can know it, they can know it :) All that said, yeah, it was really difficult to sympathize with Joan in this episode. I'm sure that it must have been humiliating to not be nominated for an Oscar when Bette was, but still. In the end, that tiny moment in the spotlight only made her look worse in the long run. I did like how sincerely sympathetic and deferential Page and Bancroft seemed to be toward her, and I really got a kick out of Joan's little "lessons" to the younger women. ETA - Ha, psychoticstate, I see that we were both posting similar things about Lange's portrayal! Glad I"m not the only one who sees it that way!

That pretty much describes the whole season to me, mostly minus the compelling part.

This is my problem with the way the last couple of seasons have been written. Owen and Amelia apparently went for months without talking, Jackson and April just slept together and it has not been addressed, Jo told Alex she was MARRIED and he offered to go to jail, in part for her, and they have not had ONE conversation about any of it. And months have gone by. Its just stupid. The next episode looks vaguely Maggie centric and the one after that is Mer and Nathan centric on a plane. So when (if) we finally get around to any of these long running and stalled threads, either they are going act as if no time has passed and things will pick up exactly where they left off months ago OR they will not get addressed at all and the whole slate will be wiped clean as if none of these plot points happened. Like with Arizona and Richard. I admit that I haven't been paying too much attention, but wasn't their last interaction the big betrayal of him seeing her waking up next to Minnick? Did they have a conversation that I can't remember or did they just show up at the party all friends again, with absolutely no indication that any of that happened?

Far be it from me to promote behind the scenes gossip (insert winking emoji here), but Jerrika seems to be glad to have Grey's behind her, and I have to say I don't blame her. According to Twitter, she has unfollowed half the cast and has liked a couple of tweets that were complaining about the fact that Ellen Pompeo is getting such attention and accolades for directing when Chandra Wilson has been doing it for years. After reading about that, I checked a few of her tweets and she has a couple of not so complimentary tweets about her workplace. Its very possible it isn't Shondaland, but you never know. As I said, far be it from me to speculate, but maybe we have found the author of the first Grey's Anatomy tell all LOL! More on topic, if they are going to send Stephanie off as a disgraced, unconfident surgeon, I am going to call foul. Stephanie may not have gotten all that much screentime or storyline, but she has been portrayed as a confident, ambitious and good surgical intern and resident. I hope this isn't the way that they go. I am vaguely interested to see who the Grey's doctor is that's hurt.

I just finished episode 5 and Of course, I still have one more episode to go, and I seem to change my mind about everything after every new episode, so we'll see!

Ugh, I will never not tear up when Cristina tells George's dad that he is the best intern. Never. I did. Not in and of themselves, but because nearly all of those characters listed (with the exception of Ben, Steph and Leah) have had storylines started and then stalled. As good as the acting was in this episode and as much as it was moving on its own, I just can't enjoy these stand alone/centric episodes as much as I might, because they halt the progression of storylines that were started LAST season. The pacing of this show is just excruciating. Its like they have too many episodes and not enough at the same time.

I am on episode 5 right now and I am loving it! It has moved me to tears a couple of times. I"m from Maryland, but so many of these people are familiar to me as well, some in my own family. So far I really like the narrator/reporter. He isn't at all condescending and you can feel his empathy and his affection for the people of this town, but also his frustration with many of their actions. Lord, can I relate to that. Since it is kind of a separate entity from Serial, I wonder if its possible to get its own forum. I will contact the mods.

I didn't mean the relationship between Jo and the husband, as much I did how good the characterization for the abusive husband is on BLL and how well the actor plays him. I don't expect anything even close to this from Grey's, but I am hoping that they can do something a little better than they have been. This is a serious subject and one that affects millions of people, and so far it has been framed as either how it affects the men in Jo's life or as just another minor sob story that Jo trots out because she has nothing else to do. That is the situation at best. At worst, it frames the story with Alex as the victim, with poor DeLuca and even Meredith getting caught up in Jo's evil, lying, bitchy web, and even that somehow Jo deserves it for any number of reasons. I want better than that from a domestic violence story, even one on Grey's. I don't really think I"m going to get it, but I hope that if this is the introduction to Jo's husband that we finally get around to it being Jo's story and that the husband is written in a way that improves on how they have presented (or not presented) this issue so far.

I never watched Glee, so I have never seen him anything, but I think that a charming, nice guy veneer is absolutely essential to who this guy is and why Jo finds him so dangerous. The only thing that seems off for me is his age. I don't know the actor's age, but he seems younger than Justin Chambers and I always pictured the guy being 15-20 years older than Jo and powerful/influential in some respect. I don't get that from this actor in the very, very brief instances that I have seen him. If anyone is watching Big Little Lies on HBO, Alexander Skarsgaard is doing an incredible job of playing the "handsome and charming, almost too good to be true husband who has a VERY dark side." I have absolutely no illusions that the Grey's writers are interested, much less capable, of such a nuanced, powerful character, but I hope that they are watching at the very least to see how it could be done. Its about power and control, and there are a lot of grey areas. As far as the utilization, or lack thereof, of the different actors, I think that it has always been pretty obvious that Shonda has her favorites, and that more than anything has determined screentime (sadly, Shonda's favorites and mine have never overlapped.) Sometimes the favorite was a POC (Yang, Callie) and sometimes it wasn't (Izzie). In the earlier seasons, things seemed to be a bit more equal, but now, no one gets much decent screentime and no one gets very good storylines, regardless of color. Maggie is going on her second semi-centric episode and she has been here a lot less than most. But the more screentime she gets, the worse the writers make her look, so is that a win? Stephanie gets almost no love interest and not much backstory, but she has been shown to be a better friend and surgeon than Jo, who gets nothing but romantic partners and backstory. So who is better off? DearEvette is right that many/most of the recurring characters lately have been white, and the ones who aren't actually really couldn't be due to who they are related to (such as Maggie's mom), but I would be very surprised if that were any conscious choice. As an example, Minnick was most likely cast because she is Scott Foley's wife (and Shonda clearly LOVES Scott Foley.) The other Arizona hookup was Denny's wife (and the less said about Shonda's feelings for Denny the better for me.) Shondaland has a habit of casting the same actors for all of their shows. Since the people with the most control over the show these days are black women (Shonda, Debbie Allen and the woman who is now the head of ABC), it seems as though its who you know more than anything else. But, at the same time, if there is a public perception that most of the opportunities are going to white people, then I'm not sure it really matters why.

I'm not convinced that it will be a full on, real triangle. We have seen DeLuca's feelings but Jo has never, ever shown any romantic interest in him at all. Not that it necessarily matters on this show. Also (and clearly the writers don't care about this either), a triangle will make all 3 look completely horrible. DeLuca knows that Jo is MARRIED to a violent man (not to mention the other violent man in her life), so he will look like a fool if he pursues this. If Alex is again on the wrong side of a triangle, he will also look like a fool and I don't think that his character can take another bout of intense jealousy. And if Jo gets involved with yet another man before she ever deals with the issue of her husband, then she deserves the accusations of drama queen and bitch that often get thrown her way. I hope that I am right and they won't really go there. Justin Chambers gave an interview

Everyone has pretty much covered how bad the show is now, between the horrible writing and how childish and embarrassing nearly every single character is, so beyond noting that I see that Alex is back to his former role as "minor supporting character who appears briefly to tell one of the sisters how awesome they are," all I really have to contribute is my encounter with Hal Holbrook: I was walking down the street in downtown Baltimore when I saw a man coming toward me wearing an ascot. Since this isn't the sort of thing that you normally see in Charm City, I knew that he must be some sort of celebrity. Sure enough, it was Mr. Holbrook who was in town doing a Mark Twain one man show (which I had seen on PBS). So I stopped him, gushed at him embarrassingly for a few minutes and then we talked a little bit about Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn and Baltimore. He was simply as lovely and as gentlemanly as you could imagine and I will forever regret not offering to buy him dinner and/or a drink as he mentioned that he was alone in town and just trying to stroll around Baltimore to see the sights. Maybe I'm naive but I feel like he would have said yes. You better believe that I have spent the years since imagining how close my husband and I would have gotten with he and the dearly departed Dixie, and how even now he would be regaling me with behind the scenes stories of Grey's Anatomy. Oh well. Also, Stephanie deserves better than whatever kind of exit they seem to be concocting for her.

At this point, I find Carrie to be the least interesting and most one-note character on the show, and I think it was a mistake to really take her out of the loop and concentrate so much on her role as a mother. I'm tired of the ugly cry, I'm tired of the forehead crinkle and I'm tired of the constant bad decision making. I know that part of that is her character, but she just doesn't do it for me anymore. I find even minor characters to be more interesting than her at this point. Even the Carrie/Saul scene didn't move me like it normally would, but I am glad that Saul reminded her of her bad romantic decision making as well. God help me, I thought that Quinn putting Astrid's blood on his face to be very moving/romantic. I love Quinn.