Marni

TR did an exit interview with EW and did sound like there was some tension. No big incident but a buildup of frustration from the way the Isaiah incident was handled, the decisions being made about his character (George cheating on Callie, Gizzie) and his dramatically reduced screen time. From this and other interviews, even Shonda herself, it seems with her lack of experience and shy personality Shonda struggled with her showrunner management duties in the early years causing problems. It sounds like she's gotten much better with experience. Good for TR though. George's writing was messy, but I think TR's performance was aways great. He can really pull off physical comedy.

That's an interesting idea. I do have some hesitations about that structure because for me personally I'm not interested in all the characters anymore, like in the early seasons. Now days there are many weak characters I don't care about so if most or all of the characters I was invested in were in the background for that long a stretch of time I think I'd lose interest, especially with the two hiatuses being so long. But in general I do think more thorough planning of the overall season would improve the show a great deal, the Riggs/Owen stuff is proof of that. We know from interviews they were making it up on the fly, they just kept dragging it out with no end goal in mind and there ended up being zero payoff, it just kind of fizzled out. I found it so tiresome to watch and looking back now all the time they spent on it seems rather pointless. I do still have a tiny bit of delusional hope for some April/Amelia interaction later in the season if Amelia and Owen start talking about children. If Amelia has concerns about being pregnant again, April would the perfect person for her to talk to, and she's close to Owen.

I totally agree about the lack of connection between characters these days. There used to be such distinct dynamics between characters. Even for those that didn't have a particularly strong relationship, e.g. George and Cristina, there was still a connection between them and a specific dynamic that made their interactions interesting. Now there seems to be a mixture of characters who have no relationship with each other and those that did in previous seasons but rarely interact anymore, e.g. Alex with April and Jackson. I really noticed the disconnect with the Stephanie/Kyle's Izzie/Denny redux story. As well as it not being built up well enough Steph/Kyle had zero impact for me because Stephanie is so isolated, Jo and Amelia kind of cared but were focused on their own drama. With Izzie there were so many people connected to her it reverberated throughout the entire show and affected everyone. 3x01 with Izzie on the bathroom floor was such a great episode, it managed to focus on Izzie's grief while also giving everyone else something substantial. Even Callie and Finn got interesting scenes. It also annoys me that they don't utilise obvious connections, like April and Amelia have gone through such similar experiences with their babies and yet haven't spoken. They could have given them a small moment together, them striking up a conversation outside the nursery looking at babies or in the chapel, working on a pregnant women together etc. It could have been a powerful scene and even it it doesn't become a fully fledged friendship (since Amelia has to be with her 'sisters') it establishes a relationship between them and gives their future scenes more depth.

April never blamed Stephanie for her baby being sick, she was upset that Stephanie told Jackson before her, which I'm pretty sure is technically a breach of doctor patient confidentiality. April left the appointment but she was in the same building as her all day and ran into Stephanie in the ER later that day and talked to her about the appointment, but Stephanie didn't say anything and then April later found out Stephanie told Jackson. Not blaming Stephanie, it was a very difficult messy situation, but April being upset was justified, lets not twist facts.

I also think the build-up was intended to be the escalating conflict between Meredith and the other characters. This is a quick and easy way to move all the stories forward, everyone feels so sorry for Meredith they're forced to put their issues with her aside and support her.

I think Zola only spoke briefly in 11x21 when Meredith asks her "who can never be late?" and she replies "surgeons, but that was the previous actress who played her. Apparently Zola scenes have been filmed this season but ended up being cut. I don't think that actress (Jaimie Rose) is playing Owen's sister. This is pretty paranoid reasoning but she posted heaps of photos from set during filming and if she was playing such a mysterious character I think they would have told her to keep it quieter for the big reveal. In general Shonda hates spoilers but they are being especially secretive with this Owen/Riggs stuff. After the accidental reveal of Samantha Sloyan's return earlier this season with that bts photo, that was quickly deleted, they might try to be more careful. Also the actress is 56, so while certainly still possible that would mean a big age difference between her and Riggs (Martin Henderson is 41).

The previous TVLine blind item everyone was speculating was Izzie related ended up being about The Good Wife, and was overblown. I think Ausiello is just sneaky, and in fairness it's his job to get clicks. He knows KH is always top of mind for things of this nature and it will get heaps of attention so the blinds are purposefully written to imply Izzie, even though it's unrelated.

This episode was like 'The Good Wife: Lite.' It was a return to basics and all the usual shticks I used to enjoy so much, but the magic was gone. Everything felt clumsy and slightly off. I wish they created a new musician client. These overly quirky one note guest stars are only fun for one episode stints, after that they run out of juice and become played out. Rowby got annoying real fast. Luca sleeping with him was so half baked. Luca is awesome, I did not buying she would want to have a fling with some daft cheesy mediocre musician client who is fifteen years older then her and keeps hitting on her while she's trying to do her job just because she likes artists. The whole thing felt so forced and pointless. I want to know something new about Luca's personal life, again the only thing we're given is the guy she is involved with. The bit with the opposing lawyer constantly mentioning her adopted Chinese baby was weak, it felt like the writers trying way to hard to be eccentric. Can we please be done with the musical chair law firms, the thrill is gone now it's just boring. How many times can they repeat the same dramatic scene with some combination of Alicia, Diane, Cary, David, Louis etc asking the others to join their firm. Just put everyone together at one firm and be done with it. Diane and Cary are being wasted. Alicia is so entitled. I have no problem with a character being flawed, but I wish they would acknowledge it and play around with it, rather than always framing her as the victim.

I hope April and Jackson work out, I really like them together. Right now there are mostly new romances, having an established married couple is good for variety, story wise. Regarding the ambulance explosion it seems from the date the video was posted it happens in 12x10 not in 12x09, so is unrelated to Meredith being attacked.

Yes ferry boat was the first time I thought the show went really wrong. I hated Meredith in limbo and it started that whole Alex/Ava arc.

Yes, the show needs to realize it's okay for some characters to be supporting. It's admirable they want to flesh out each character and give them stories but it ends up burdening the show as a whole when they have to find something for 16 people to do every episode. Have a clearly established core cast and let the others just be recurring, to be used only when it's relevant to telling the central stories. They don't need to appear in every episode or have their own separate stories. When I think of Stephanie as a main character and compare her to others she is a pretty weak character, I really don't feel like I know her and what motivates her with any depth, but if I think of her within the classification of a supporting character she's solid. I don't have any desire to see a solely Stephanie focused story, as they did this season with the out of the blue schmaltzy backstory, but Stephanie the resident making more occasional appearances to service a patient story with a lead character is great. I completely agree, there was definitely a change in the structure of the show from S11.

Geez E14 and it's only just starting to come out, I'm already so over the Owen/Nathan drama.

For sure I agree with all of that, and in the whole scheme of Hollywood actor life Grey's is an objectively awesome job. In terms of contract decision speculation I just think it's worth also considering what the individual experience of the actors may be like on a day to day basis and the possible drawbacks of the job. T.R. Knight chose to leave a contract worth $14M, according to EW, because he was unhappy with what they were doing with his character creatively and his screen time was dramatically cut down. He could have stayed for that huge pay check and enjoyed the perks of his reduced screen time but chose to leave and return to theatre mostly. He says he doesn't regret it, whether that's completely true I don't know. Obviously having kids would make the financial security more valuable but it shows for better or worse subjective factors like job satisfaction, creative fulfillments, hey even ego can have a big impact on these decisions, logic and reason be damed. When I looked up his salary I came across this quote from him in one of the articles that I think sums up the imperfect science involved in these choices- "People like to add up all the dollar signs and how much you're walking away from, and let them. That's cool. I'm the one that's walking in my shoes."

The balance between having a big SL and smaller stuff would be enjoyable but with the cast at an all time high and it must be annoying for those who don't get a big story to have to constantly do silly one episode stories with little substance and group scenes where they're set dressing, e.g. OR scenes or ER scenes. They still end up having a significant time commitment but don't have much to show for it or get to make an impact. Easy work is fun only to a point, I think most also want something meaty every now and then. When they do get something good you can tell they get excited with all the social media activity and press. Look at Justin Chambers last season, Alex was around all the time supporting Meredith so Justin was working frequently but didn't have much to do as an actor. If he has to spend that time working I'm sure he would prefer spending the time doing interesting work.

I thought that too but apparently in interviews post S10/pre S11 when he had just resigned he said that he would be ready to leave after that contract for S12 was done. Probably not to pursue other projects, more of a semi retirement with occasional gigs having done well financially from Grey's.

I completely agree. I watched the promo with Meredith in danger and didn't even blink- Meredith in danger, what's new? For it to have an impact it needs to go beyond the standard disaster and have some greater meaning and purpose. I could also see Penny being Meredith's doctor and redeeming herself in some way by discovering something.

Yes, I definitely think they had a conversation with Ellen when Patrick was leaving about her plans and she tentatively agreed to stay. ABC spent a great deal of effort and time rebranding Grey's as "The Meredith Grey show", if there were questions about her leaving it would have been smarter to rebrand it as a ER type show about no single character and emphasise the ensemble. Also agree about Sara being a wildcard. Sara I could see wanting to do something else creatively, maybe get back to her broadway roots. Jesse I think will stay. He has said that acting isn't his passion, he cares more about his social justice work, which Grey's gives him the time and freedom to pursue. It's a pretty cushy gig for an actor and he has a young family, the ensemble cast allows him to have free time for his other work, good name recognition for his activism, no travelling, no worrying about ratings and cancelation and he'll be getting a healthy increase on his big network pay check. That's a lot to give up and go back to job uncertainty and auditioning. Justin I think is a wildcard. He seems over it and his kids are older now.

So for Buffy the episode starts out normal. It begins with her in a lecture at college listening to a professor talk about communication, which you then see all the characters have issues with. About 15/45 minutes in everyone's voices are stolen by ghouls. There is no speech, but still diegetic sound and a heavy musical score, silent film style. They fight the ghouls while learning to communicate with each other. The last 5 minutes their voices have returned. For Grey's I could see it being like this: Episode starts the next day, Meredith voiceover about communication. We see some short scenes or mentions of the current conflicts- Meredith/Amelia, Owen/Amelia, Owen/Riggs, Jo/Alex, April/Jackson etc. Meredith is receiving an ambulance, there is an explosion leaving her hearing impaired. She is in the hospital being treated by the others and we see the other characters from her perspective. E.g. Meredith watches Alex and Jo talking outside her room but we can't hear them, just body language and heavy use of music to express what's going on. Everything comes to the surface for Meredith- she reflects on her life, Derek and her grief, has a bonding moment with Amelia, maybe Amelia puts their issues aside and is really there for her as her quasi sister. The experience is clarifying for Meredith, she realizes she isn't coping as well as she thought and has some issues to work on. That would fit with her being back in therapy in 12x10. I hadn't thought about the Derek callback but it fits and Grey's does love parallels. Anyway sorry about the rambling, I have some free time today and have been thinking about it.

There are a lot of contracts up this year, I hope it doesn't go that way either. There's Ellen, Justin, JPJ, Chandra, Sara, Kevin and possibly Sarah and Jesse as they became series regulars in S7 so S12 would be their 6th year.

With the title being "The Sound of Silence I've read some speculation that Meredith temporarily loses her hearing in the explosion and then there is no speech during the rest of the episode. Buffy had a highly acclaimed episode with no speech and Shonda is a huge Buffy fan.

Exactly! I think they should give Meredith a nanny. It wouldn't have to be a proper character, just make it known she has a nanny helping her. Not to bring everything back to Shonda, but I'm reading her book and there's a great chapter about her beloved nanny being the reason she is able to "do it all". She writes about the stigma around having help and how damaging it is for successful working mothers to stay silent about the help they have as it sets up unrealistic expectations for others. It frustrates me that they are doing that with Meredith, presenting this completely unrealistic 'perfect' image. Why not acknowledge that for Meredith to seamlessly manage three young children, a highly demanding career and a social life, yes she would need to have help and she is able to afford it. That would be so much more honest and I think powerful.

It also seemed very deliberate to me as well. They took the time to show every other character acknowledging their situation but her. It wasn't just the absence of her showing any care at all, but her actively being disrespectful by following Bailey into the chapel and interrupting her mid prayer. She could have waited literally a minute and spoken to Bailey when she was done. The other thing is although they haven't had scenes together in awhile, Meredith definitely has a relationship with April and Jackson that we've seen being built over five seasons. April sat with her when Derek was being operated on after the shooting, she was with her during her miscarriage, Meredith welcomed them into her group after the shooting, lived with them, they both stood outside the room to show support when Zola was taken away, studied for the boards with them, Meredith reprimanded Jackson for taking April's virginity, talked to April during their first pregnancy scare, was a bridesmaid at April's almost wedding, etc. Characters with barely any connection to them at the time like Ben and Jo showed concern. I'm not saying all this to put down Meredith, only to say I think it was a deliberate decision to show the change in Meredith they had been building with all the comparisons to her mother.

By seeing her interact with different characters and have new problems I do think we have seen some different shades in Arizona's personality, but I definitely agree with these concerns. Last season I was especially disappointed the Herman arc was left so unresolved. There was so much build up of their relationship and then it was like it never happened, no exploration of the effect it had on Arizona. They could have used all that screen time to build her relationship with an existing character and carried that forward. This season her storylines do often feel driven by creating comedy for the episode leaving many unanswered questions (still don't get why she needs a roommate). Although I have enjoyed her friendship with April and I think that has lots of potential. It really comes down to having way too large a cast. I have these exact same concerns and questions for nearly every character right now, not just Arizona.

I don't mind Maggie and DeLuca but I think DeLuca's character development is going to suffer from putting him into a relationship so early. I would have preferred if they let the audience get to know him more and established who he is as a person separate from anyone else before they got together later in the season. This was always a problem for me with Callie and Arizona. Arizona benefited from having her own arc with Bailey before they paired her with Callie, but I always felt like because Callie was the older, much more developed character at the start of their relationship the writers got into the habit of telling their storylines more from Callie's perspective and neglected to show Arizona's pov onscreen consistently. I do like them as a couple but I have been really enjoying getting to know Arizona on her own these last two seasons.

I agree, we have to accept Grey Sloan is a special magical place where real world rules and logic don't apply. How many times have we seen the doctors take on some impossible case, no one else would dare to and perform a miracle surgery. The shows message has always been that these doctors are special and amazing because they try harder then others and find a way in the end. I am also frustrated by this message, but it's ridiculous to vilify April for following the same logic the show has always presented. She lied about the severity of the patient's condition so he would be treated by the mythical doctors at Grey Sloan. The other thing is whether they were able to save his hands or not he still required treatment as they found pre cancerous cells. It annoys me that if someone like Alex had done something dishonest like this for a child, which he did with his African exchange program, everyone would be praising him but because it's April she is so quickly condemned.