Marni
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Posts posted by Marni
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On 6/25/2016 at 3:52 AM, BaseOps said:
You hit the nail on the head with the Steph / Kyle storyline for me. It just didn't affect me at all and overall added nothing to the show because the characters aren't part of any greater narrative. In the following episode they literally gave Steph 20 seconds of dialogue. They need to start developing connections for the characters that they want to keep around rather than having them exist in little bubbles and throwing random stories at them here and there. Like what you pointed out: I can't even think of a single April / Amelia interaction. Or Jackson / Amelia. Everyone is just so far apart. With Callie gone, we have one less character that had deep history with several other doctors (Meredith, Bailey, Richard, Arizona, Owen, etc.) They didn't even explore so much of that in her final season, which really irks me (though, I know Sara apparently left pretty last-minute).
I'm hoping next year they do what I've been thinking they should have done the past few years if they're determined to keep the cast so huge: focus on half-seasons with different characters taking the lead in each chunk, and the the other characters playing supporting parts in those stories. At least that way we get to follow concrete narratives from beginning to end. For example:
Episode 1 - 12 focuses primarily on:
Meredith / Riggs / Maggie / Amelia / Owen / Alex / Jo / Bailey / BenEpisode 13 - 24 focuses on:
Meredith / Riggs / April / Jackson / Arizona / Richard / Steph / DeLuca
Now, I don't mean all stories for Alex / Jo / Amelia, etc. should suddenly stop in 13 - 24, just that the focus should shift primary to the characters who were less served in the first half. It could also allow them to throw together some unorthodox pairings: give us 3-4 episode patient arc where Meredith / Jackson / Owen / Ben have to work together, for example. Put Riggs, Richard and Steph on a case together. Anything. Just mix it up. And tell complete, fully developed stories that don't include time jumps or stopping and starting.
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.
23 hours ago, apn85 said:I agree completely!!
There are numerous examples, but the April/Amelia thing is a glaring one. It's like you have this real potential to tell a powerful story that could resonate with a lot of viewers and nope....not gonna go there. I always wondered why they didn't touch on it. Not only would it have given Amelia more of a background (lots of viewers don't know her from PP), but it had the potential to be a really beautiful story line. Oh well, ship sailed.
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.
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On 6/7/2016 at 0:59 AM, BaseOps said:
A friend of mine just started the series on Netflix and I spent some time with her over the weekend and caught a good long chunk of season 2 episodes. I really, really miss the days of George, Izzie, Burke, etc. It also really drove home what I have said about the series for years now: it works best with a tighter cast and when everyone is somehow connected. Now generally I say it works best with Meredith as the anchor, but even beyond that - the earliest seasons, even outside of Meredith, every character had great interactions. George / Addison, Bailey / Mark, Burke / Meredith, Derek / Richard... everyone in the cast got enough screen time to keep their stories and development moving along at an acceptable pace, and everyone had unique relationships with everyone else in the cast. These days it feels like we're just watching a bunch of random doctors in a hospital, and many of the relationships are so contrived (the 'sisters' thing will forever drive me nuts.) I can't remember a single interaction between Steph and Callie, for example. I can't fathom why DeLuca was ever made a regular.
I had really hoped that the end of this season would see a few characters departing... unfortunately, much of the dead weight stuck around and instead we lost Callie (which, I know, was out of Shonda's hands.) To me, there's nothing exciting or interesting about DeLuca, Steph, Ben, etc. I also don't really have any vested interest in Maggie or Amelia. I wish that somewhere along the line they took the time to integrate Jo with the cast better, instead of just adding in even more new characters. As much as the writers may try this year, I don't know that I'll ever fully warm up to Jo at this point because the ball has just been dropped for so long. When there are so many storylines going on at once, it always results in the stories either being rushed, too slow, or not given enough development. I miss when every character appeared in every episode for a good chunk of time. I miss when - even if I disliked a character - I understood their motivations and I was down to watch their journey. I know change is inevitable, and I realize new blood is always needed especially in a show like this, but with 4 of the original stars still around, I hope there's a conscious effort in S13 to really give Meredith, Alex, Richard and Bailey some focus. Play off of their history. I really hope we don't get any new regulars this year. The cast is already so bloated and there's more than enough to work with.
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.
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On 5/1/2016 at 11:02 PM, Joana said:
I don't give April a pass for her treatment of Arizona. It's understandable she was upset, but I also remember how she acted like it was somehow Stephanie's fault that her baby was sick and harangued her about not telling her about its condition even though she didn't ask anything herself and left the check-up before it was finished and Stephanie wanted her to stay. I don't have time for people who are always unabashedly nasty to others in times of a personal crisis, no matter how great. We all have problems.
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.
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I just think we can't really say that it doesn't fit until we see the episode and the aftermath. Generally I think all of the disaster episodes (aside from the shooting) came out of nowhere, but I do think there was some build-up for this. When we left, Meredith was at a boiling point with so many characters - Jo and Alex's fight was about Meredith, she was arguing with Callie, and she had that blow-up with Amelia. I'm not sure what the purpose will be, but I believe (or maybe hope) that there is one.
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.
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She's adorable. Has Zola ever had actual lines on the show (I can't recall any)?
I think Owen's sister is a great guess for that actress. A relative of April would be my secondary guess. Please no Penny relatives unless they are there to escort her out of town.
Hoping we get some spoilers or cast interviews next week. Once we get to the "one week to go" mark there should be some more info dribbled out.
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).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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I think one of the biggest problems is that the writers seem to think that they can fill those voids with other characters, and every time we lose one we gain two. Instead of forcing Amelia on us and pushing the whole 'sisters' angle, they could have just brought on Maggie and focused on really developing her relationships with Richard, Meredith, and anyone else. We have so many under-serviced characters (Alex, Bailey, Arizona, Callie, Richard, Jo, sometimes even Meredith, etc.) that they don't need to keep over-compensating. Now we're stuck with characters who are fine, but add nothing really to the show and have never really be given an interesting arc (Steph, Jo, Ben...) New blood is needed from time-to-time, for sure. But the show would be at its best, in my opinion, if they just really focused on providing great stories for the few originals we have left, as well as the characters who are really integrated with them now (Callie, April, Jackson, Arizona, etc.) and then using the rest as supporting players. The cast needs to be trimmed by next season. With DeLuca becoming a regular, we're now at 16... I keep forgetting they made Ben a regular. Trying to service such a huge cast and constantly adding in multiple new recurring characters (Penny is there until at least 12x14, plus the other new interns) just throws off storytelling and ends up short-changing a lot of fans.
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.
While I certainly miss Cristina and Derek, I think the pacing and overall issue of storytelling is actually due to the changing of writers in season 11. I feel like season 11 and season 12 (to date) have been so different in terms of types of stories, pacing, overall arcs, balancing characters, etc. At first it seemed like season 11 was thrown off due to Patrick's departure, but season 12 is just as disjointed in my opinion. It's not that I am not enjoying it, but the pacing is not great. And I can really see the difference of the medical stories that are told. I've been thinking how much I miss the doctors each having their individual cases. Season 12 so far has basically been 1 medical case per episode. It seems like suddenly there is no time for everything in 42 minutes, but they've been doing it for 10 seasons fine. While this is the largest regular cast to date, it's not really THAT much larger than previous years. There were 15 regulars in season 10, 14 in season 7. While I agree some characters are useless (Stephanie, Ben) I really don't think its the size of the cast that is the issue.
Joan Rater and Tony Phelan were the head writers through season 10 and season 11 through current Stacy McKee and William Harper have taken over.
Also wanted to add- i don't mean to say they are doing a poor job but more that they seem to have a different approach.
I completely agree, there was definitely a change in the structure of the show from S11.
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Geez E14 and it's only just starting to come out, I'm already so over the Owen/Nathan drama.
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I agree that it must get a bit grating at times to keep being put in the background. But I also think that most of the cast knows what it's like in Hollywood - it's not easy to just go out and score another great job. With Grey's, at least they're doing work that people are really passionate about. And despite having to stick around for a lot of frivolous scenes (which is the case for any show, really), these actors get a lot more time off than the average regulars simply due to the huge cast size. And by this point, Ellen, Chandra, Jason, James, and Sara are all definitely getting pretty paycheques. Plus it's obvious that everyone really gets along. So I think it's not always just about doing big, meaty scenes, but about the fact that they a) have job security b) enjoy the job & their co-workers c) are part of something that is still widely consumed and enjoyed. I think Justin Chamers is incredibly talented, but there's no assurance that he wouldn't be stuck doing guest appearances or direct-to-DVD horror movies if he decides to walk away.
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."
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All the cast members that are parents have said that they like having the opportunity to have big SLs once or twice a season and just be bit players the rest of the time.
I assume they get paid the same amount per episode whether they're in it for one scene or the majority of it. Would be hard to pass that paycheck up.
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.
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Hmm, I think Justin will be back for sure. Five kids is a lot, even if they are a bit older. I don't think anyone with a large family would give up that good a paycheck and a steady job. As an original, he probably has one of the highest cast salaries at this point, and I think he knows he has a good thing going because he's hardly in any scenes and doesn't get anything major to do. I don't see him as a Sandra Oh type situation, wanting to leave because he feels creatively unsatisfied. In fact, he might be happy to get to go in, knock out some easy scenes and leave.
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.
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Hush is such a genius episode of Buffy because of exactly what you described. Without any dialogue, it moved along arcs, gave the characters and audience new perspectives, was truly scary, and it did everything in such a unique way. It's one of my favourite TV episodes ever. What you described for Grey's could be really impactful, and I could see it playing out that way. I just hope that whatever it ends up being it isn't treated as a crazy one-off event episode, but that it really reverberates throughout the season.
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 bet that is similar to what actually happens. I also thought they'd make it so Nathan is Meredith's doctor in this episode to give them some kind of push.
I would be more than okay with that scenario if that episode happened pre-season 10, honestly. But now the emotional impact of something like that would be minimal because we'd probably get acoustic covers of NSync or Britney during it.
I could also see Penny being Meredith's doctor and redeeming herself in some way by discovering something.
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I don't really have any doubt at all that Ellen is singing back on, especially since the Oprah interview where Shonda basically said that Ellen wanted to continue and Patrick didn't. I think it's safe to say that all of the originals will be signing back on. Sara Ramirez and Jesse Williams are wildcards for me. I think they could go either way. I think Sarah Drew will continue as well, but of course there have always been surprises.
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.
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I forgot about that speculation, that could be interesting, although I wonder how "stand alone" it will be. That scenario would also make sense as I could imagine Denzel being up for the challenge of directing that kind of episode. I'm kind of finding it hard to imagine how they will fill all 42 minutes with silence from Meredith's perspective, but I guess we'll see. Maybe some characters (like Jo and Alex) won't even be in the episode, which I would actually prefer, especially since it would make sense that the entire would take place at the hospital.
It would also be the opposite of when Derek was injured/dying - he could hear but couldn't speak. I've never seen Buffy to have an idea how it would play out.
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.
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Thanks, Kate213. I didn't realize Kevin's contract was up this year along with the others. I hope they settle everyone's early and its not left lingering for the remainder of the season. JMO, but I think its better when the writers don't need to have open-ended season enders in case someone doesn't sign.
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.
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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.
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I actually don't want to see Meredith doing much of those things. BUT, since they gave her three kids, then Mer's story line can't be "juggling career and single motherhood to 3 kids" and completely ignore the limitations that having 3 kids places on a person. Like, knocking down walls in the middle of the night and no kids are waking up crying, scared to death at the noise. Like, always being out and about drinking while the kids are where?
The show wants to have it both ways...oh, look, poor widowed Mer is raising 3 kids on her own AND Mer's 3 kids don't impact her life in any way just as though she didn't have any kids.
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.
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I don't think it makes her an uncaring monster either, and I agree that characters' reactions have been glossed over, but in this particular episode they made a point of showing many characters responding with compassion and Meredith...decidedly not. I don't recall if every character went to the chapel, but I do remember Alex and Owen, Jo and Stephanie, Arizona, Bailey and Amelia, maybe more. That is quite a few that didn't have anything to do with Jackson and April's storyline. This particular situation stood out to me precisely because Meredith's actions seemed so cold and so far removed from everything that was happening with everyone else and so far from who she had been presented as previously. The writers seemed to go out of their way to contrast Meredith's behavior with nearly everyone else's. So it didn't seem like just one more thing to be chalked up to too many characters. It seemed deliberate.
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.
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While I do feel both Callie and Arizona's story's got too intertwined with each other, I don't feel we really have gotten to know Arizona in any real way since they split up.
There seemed to be something coming with the Herman storyline, but it turned into Amelia's story.
Right now Arizona is getting back into the dating game, but why does she feel she needs a wingman? We don't really know where Arizona is coming from. Is this a lack of confidence because she hasn't been out there for awhile? She had Lauren and Leah chase after her and that helped her be okay with the leg, but what happened that caused this setback with her confidence? Is it simply because Callie (rightfully) walked away?
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.
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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.
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And, she out-and-out lied about the Middle Eastern kid's condition, on the assumption that Jackson would rise to the occasion. But I guess April knows that medical magic happens at Grey-Sloan-whatever, that the doctors there have special healing powers found in no other hospital in the (logical) world, so of course, Jackson and Callie would be able to fix the child's problem.
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.
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Behind The Scenes: The Drama Behind the Drama
in Grey's Anatomy
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.