BaseOps

I loved this episode. I think it really emphasized how much better this show works with a tighter cast and more focus. Alex has been an MVP who's been pushed to the back for years. He's been one of my favourite characters since the beginning, and it was awesome to finally get an episode where he was prominent. I love how much he's grown. I think the writing as a whole is a lot better this season; they're hitting the mark a lot more. It's actually interesting, and believable and sexy and funny. I was smiling so much during this episode. I really liked all of Alex's scenes... with Meredith, with Arizona, with Jo. Amelia is still annoying, but I'm glad Owen wasn't around. The fact that the three girls all call themselves "sisters" is so unnatural and weird. Amelia, you have 2 (or 3?) real sisters. Go play with them. Maggie got on my nerves a bit here too, they give her too many speeches. She's fun sometimes, I certainly don't hate her as much as I do Amelia, and I think the actress is fine... but the speeches need to stop. I like that she slept DeLuca. We haven't had fun awkward hookups in a while. It's a hallmark of the show. Now - bets on how long it takes for DeLuca to become a regular? I love the evolution of Meredith too. I hope we get a scene with the kids soon though, it's starting to get a bit strange; at least they have her mentioning them often, even if she is choosing which one she'd kill. I've really enjoyed her stuff with Bailey lately. I'd love to get a Meredith-centric episode soon (it, uh, is her show...).

At this point, we can't be surprised that the show is all over the place and reliant on some shocks and interesting points rather than concrete story. It's bugged the hell out of me in some past seasons (especially Freak Show, which could have been great with a tighter focus.) But it is what it is, and as a piece of entertainment and an addition to the AHS universe, I thought the premiere was fucking fantastic. The cast, as always, is top-notch. Paulson was amazing, Bomer is one of the most underrated actors in Hollywood, O'Hare and Bates are always great... Gaga I'm still iffy on; her presence is a perfect fit for the show, but her dialogue delivery was stiff in some parts. Still, her intro scene with Donovan was one of my favourite things the show has ever done. It was creepy, sexy, over-the-top... exactly what we've come to expect from this show. The tone reminded me a lot of season 1... Which is another thing I loved. 5 seasons in, of course there will be some nostalgia for the early years. Asylum is still my favourite by far, but Murder House is what hooked me. I like that they've come back to the notion of ghosts haunting a premise (Sally died at the Hotel, so she's forced to stay there... except on Halloween!) I'm guessing Donovan didn't really die that night in 1994, just got close - and then The Countess saved him. So they're not quite dead, as they can roam free. Or maybe the season 1 rules are thrown out the window for them? I'm never one to really get scared, but I liked that this went back to 'creepy'. The scene of John walking through the hotel the first time was awesomely dark, especially cutting back to that gruesome rape scene. I know some people hate rape depicted at all in entertainment, but this is a horror series and rape is horrifying. That was some scary shit. Max Greenfield and Paulson were both awesome. Like others have said, the set is absolutely beautiful. It's so perfectly realized, and the direction by Murphy last night was great. It felt totally claustrophobic, which I assume was the intention. Fisheye lens can get tedious, but it worked here. So overall I really dug it. It was cheesy in parts, some clunky dialogue, and yes it relied much more on art than substance... but it was entertaining as hell.

Oddly enough for the 200th, they never promoted it as the 200th in the promos. You'd think they'd want to play up such a milestone.

I really enjoyed this episode. As always with the show, some of it will take a while to sink in (that opening scene was wild and kind of disturbing.) I thought it was a good intro to the new town and storyline, and when the Garveys finally showed up it was all the more exciting. I liked the new setup so far and thought it was all well established rather quickly. Regina King is great, and the new family kept me interested even though we had never seen them before. I'm excited to see where all of this is going, especially the "friendship" between Kevin and John. I'll probably have a more thoughts later, but right now I'm just happy to have this show back - there's nothing else like it on TV.

Do we have any sources as to how long Samantha Sloyan will be on? I wonder if they'll move her to GSM if the fan reaction is good. Like, is Shonda hunting for more regulars? I'm already sure that Giacomo Gianniotti and Joe Adler will be made regulars by next year, which would have us near 20 soon.. And I didn't meant to be rude lol I just thought it sounded funny... like you pointed out, I just noticed that I had never really heard what you DO enjoy about the show. So that's nice too see. I really wish they had developed Maggie / Richard more, too. It started off promising last year until Amelia started gaining prominence in the back-half of the season. Now they seem to forget that Richard is her father; it's never talked about, and they rarely interact.

Lol you're watching the show for a character that doesn't exist yet and one who appeared for 10 minutes in 1 out of 247 episodes?

From SpoilerTV: Grey's Anatomy - Episode 12.05 - Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner This is the episode that may take place all at Meredith's house, also episode 250.

From SpoilerTV I'm excited to see some focus on Alex next week. It's been too long; I'm seriously doubting that Jo is pregnant though. I wonder what it could be. 12x04 doesn't sound particularly interesting, but I'm enjoying the lighter tone of the season so I'm still excited to see it. I'm all for the babies being offscreen for the majority of the series, but it'd be nice to see a scene or two of Meredith interacting with them... I hope we have some of that coming.

I was thinking this. There are simply too many characters right now for them to put focus on everything, and I'm sad that the Richard / Maggie dynamic has been sacrificed. I think it'd have been a really interesting story for him. Hopefully they get back to it. I definitely noticed that as well. She looks good. At least one of those two will be a regular by next season, no doubt.

I think people really underestimate what Grey's does for ABC. It's an easy pickup every year; they've managed to maintain buzz for 12 seasons, which is virtually unheard of. New, young-skewing shows are failing to crack 2.0s with their premieres (Scream Queens, Quantico, Limitless) and Grey's is already besting or tying HTGAWM, which is only in S2 and just took home a Best Lead Actress Emmy. Thursdays at 8 has been a death slot for ABC (and many other networks) for years, but Grey's is self-starting and thriving there. Last night's NFL game was watched by a lot more people than the week before, and throw in the premiere of Bones... Grey's holding a 2.3 is incredible.

Grey's did a 2.3 last night, pending adjustments. 8.45M total viewers. It's held up incredibly well; a lot of shows took a huge dip this week. Most network series are struggling to crack a 2.0 right now. Considering the time slot (it's up against Thursday Night Football) most other shows would kill for Grey's ratings. The only scripted show to best it last night was Scandal with a 2.8 (HTGAWM also got a 2.3). Grey's beat the season premieres of The Blacklist, Bones, and Sleepy Hollow. Comparisons to other dramas this week: Blindspot - 2.6 (it follows The Voice) Limitless - 1.9 Scream Queens - 1.4 Agents of Shield - 1.7 (Season Premiere) Castle - 1.2 Scorpion - 1.7

Overall I actually really enjoyed this episode, which makes that two weeks in a row for me. - I LOVED the last scene between Bailey and Meredith. I always love their stuff together, and I think you can really feel their tumultuous history when they play off of each other. I'm happy to see Meredith become Head of General. She deserves it. - Another solid and unique patient story that got a decent amount of focus. - I actually like Cross. He reminds me of George, and it's annoying that they're using the exact same trope with him (in love with a girl who doesn't notice), but Grey's has never been subtle the past few years, so whatever. I usually hate the new interns and I don't mind these two at all. - I like that they're using more doctors in different dynamics. I always like when we have scenes with a bunch of the actors together, because there are so many regulars that otherwise many of them will never interact. - Not a big Jackson / April fan but I actually enjoy how this story is playing out. It's (gasp) relatively realistic. April's declaration with the amped up music near the end was totally overblown though. Made me chuckle a bit, but that's Grey's for ya. Amelia and Owen need to go. An otherwise mostly enjoyable episode was again marred for me by their annoying antics. Everything about her character bugs me, and this "love story" is written so sloppily and is so forced, it takes away from everything going on around it. Also, enough with the top 40 covers.

I think it has to be someone we've never seen before, because McKidd insists he doesn't know what happened between them. Maybe Henderson plays a sibling or family member? Has Owen ever mentioned if he's an only child or not?

That's so tough. I started watching Buffy when I was much too young to understand it, and I'm a lot older now and still love the show. As it stands, overall, I'd say my favourite seasons are: 3, 2, 6, 5, 4, 7, 1. Favourite episodes: Surprise / Innocence Passion Becoming Pt. 1 & 2 Band Candy Earshot Graduation Day Pt. 1 & 2 The Harsh Light of Day Hush Restless The Body Once More, With Feeling Normal Again Conversations With Dead People Dirty Girls (Narrowing it down was harder than I thought. Tons of my favourites got cut.)

From TVLine

Well, I love this show. It's stupid as hell and awesomely funny. I tend to watch darker dramas, so this fun, high-camp, mindless comedy is a really nice change of pace. I crack up every time Niecy Nash is on the screen, and I loved the reveal that Channel #3 is Charles Manson's daughter. The BSB death scene was ridiculous and awesome, and I even laughed at the Dean's white noise machine. If you accept it for what it is (a farce with 0 logic and a warped mind) then you'll probably enjoy it more. Also, aside from the odd episode of Glee (which I hated with a fiery passion) I've never seen Lea Michele in anything. I thought she'd annoy me to death, but I find her absolutely hilarious here. Kind of sad her neck brace is gone already.

I don't think the show is nearly as bad as some people do, but perhaps even worse, I'm just bored by it. I think Lee Jones is a decent leading guy, but I'm so damn confused and uninvested in everything going on around him. I'll probably stick it out a while longer to see if stuff picks up / comes together, but right now it's all very 'bleh' to me. Sagal's accent is so damn weird (I really love her) and all of the other characters have yet to really come to life for me. Verdict is still out on this..

The Bastard Executioner ran for 70 minutes last night, meaning it cut into the Daily Show - not sure if it says more about how much I enjoyed Noah on night 1, or how little TBX held my attention, but I left TBX during the last 10 to watch this. Once again I thought he came off as funny, intelligent, and incredibly fun to watch.

I know I play devils advocate a lot here, but just for the sake of seeing both sides: the show has literally always had extremely inappropriate conversations going on during surgery. There's doctors fighting, crying, talking about sex, throwing other surgeons out over personal issues, etc. They also discuss patient matters inappropriately, have sex in on-call rooms while avoiding pagers, inappropriately deal with patients and families, make scenes all over the hospital, drink heavily before working, and the list goes on... HIPAA doesn't exist in Grey's. I don't necessarily agree with it, but I've been over it since at least season 2 or 3. The quality of the writing was certainly better in earlier years, but a lot of things that get really nit-picked now have always been hallmarks of this show. If the docs didn't talk about personal issues during surgery, we'd either never get surgical scenes, or they'd all be incredibly boring.

I thought he was fantastic. I know tons of people are lining up waiting for Trevor to fail, but I went in optimistic (I'm a fan of his.) Those who watched the early days of Jon's Daily Show know he didn't exactly hit the ground running; he was always good, but he wasn't the Jon Stewart we now love for a few years. This stuff takes time. I thought Trevor came off as intelligent, comfortable, and quite funny. For a very 1st episode, I'd say he absolutely killed it. The writing remains strong, the new set is nice.... I'm overall very excited to watch this play out. I think if people give him a chance, Trevor will be the political voice of a new generation just like Jon was.

I totally agree. For one, I think 25 episodes is way too many. I wish they'd at least just stick to 22, because with 25 there's bound to be too much filler which often results in garbage (see "Owen and Amelia sing Staying Alive to a little girl over the phone" from S11.) And yea, I think the mid-way split works a lot better. The "back-half" of last season felt so all over the place, bouncing from one story to the next. I hope things are a bit tighter this season, since obviously PD's exit threw a wrench into some plans last year.

Press Release: "Walking Tall" -- The pressure is on as a determined Bailey tackles her first day as Chief; meanwhile, April's marriage is in jeopardy and she finds herself unable to address her problems; Meredith struggles to juggle all her responsibilities and Amelia works to define her relationship with Owen

When Shonda first mentioned Martin Henderson coming on she said he'd enter at "mid-season", and we now know he comes in around episode 6 or 7. So I'm guessing we'll be seeing a split early in the season again. I also believe they ordered 25 episodes this season though I may be wrong.

Grey's is an absolute powerhouse. It scored a 2.8 in the demo and 9.45 million viewers http://www.spoilertv.com/2015/09/ratings-news-25th-september-2015.html Other shows last night, for reference: HTGAWM - 2.6 Scandal - 3.2 Heroes Reborn - 2.0 / 1.9 And earlier this week: Modern Family: 3.2 The Muppets - 2.8 Limitless - 1.8 Scream Queens - 1.7 Castle - 1.2 Nashville - 1.2 Grey's remains one of the biggest young draws on TV. This number will go down over the season, of course, but it's still trouncing new and younger shows. If Ellen agrees to keep singing on, ABC is going to keep this going for as long as they possibly can. We can snark all we want about the quality, but Shonda has created something that keeps viewers coming back for these characters. It's pretty crazy.

I saw bits and pieces of PP but found it too soapy and boring. I understand why PP watchers are more inclined to like Amelia I guess, but like Deanie said... no Grey's fans (who had been watching the show for 10 years at that point) should had to have watched PP to understand her character. I get that she's an addict and has been through all this stuff, but I still find her incredibly irritating, crude, and annoying. We also differ at the fact that I find Caterina to be a terrible actress; always so dramatic, and when she does comedy, she talks like a 1930s cartoon character or a detective from a noir movie. I'm sure she's nice, I'm glad the rest of the cast likes her, etc. But for me, the character just doesn't work, and she takes a lot away from my enjoyment of the show because she's so present. I really resent that she came in and automatically gets 10x as much story and screen time as Alex and other more interesting characters.