BaseOps

Now, first look cast promotional photos http://www.spoilertv.com/2015/08/american-horror-story-season-5-first_26.html

EW has our first real look at the new season: More here: http://www.ew.com/article/2015/08/26/lady-gaga-american-horror-story-hotel-ew-cover

It makes sense and it's what I thought. He was clearly not 100% committed to Grey's and wanted to be racing.. Shonda didn't want to continue writing him in and out, nor did she want to divorce Meredith and Derek. I agree that killing him off was the best option. Did it happen the best way possible? Not sure. But with Dempsey going, I agree that Derek had to die.

From SpoilerTV:

Coming from someone who's enjoyed Trevor for a long time - his standup, his documentaries, etc. - I'm eager to see how he does. I think people need to remember that The Daily Show of the past several years was not immediate; it took Jon time to mold the show into what it became. I expect Trevor's start to be somewhat rocky as well, but I really do want to see him succeed. It'll be an uphill battle, but I hope people give him the benefit of the doubt and don't just pounce on him because of what he's done in the past, or the few missteps he's sure to make early on.

Now THIS is something I can get behind. I'm not the biggest fan of Jo, but anything that gets Alex a story makes me happy. I've warmed up to her a bit during my recent rewatch of season 9+, and I'm just eager to see Alex get some major arcs. I'm also happy to hear Shonda acknowledge what we all knew, which is that Dempsey's exist threw a big wrench into the plans for S11.

I don't get why they keep expanding the cast when it means that so many characters get totally sidelined (*cough* ALEX *cough*). I'm not interested in seeing Meredith revert to childish bickering with two woman in her house... she has 3 children. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Shonda has a bad habit of trying to recreate old magic with new characters by shoving them into old situations. Making Maggie and Amelia live in the house that so many of our old favourite characters have lived in will not endear us to them. It's a boring, illogical retread. These are grown ass woman... successful surgeons, no less. They shouldn't be living in a frat house. I wish that in part of those 12 tidbit they'd have branched out a bit to some other characters. We literally didn't learn a single new piece of info from it. Aside from Callie getting a new romance, I'm struggling to get excited for this season. I think there's great opportunity to tell a great story for Meredith, but I'm so uninterested in Amelia being a huge part of her story, because we know she'll also be eating up screen time in her back-and-forth with Owen.

Continuing rewatch... the writers have gotten about as subtle as a hammer to the head. When they wanted to drive a wedge between Mer / Cristina, they were SO over the top with the "motherhood getting in the way of surgery" stuff. I liked the idea behind that story, but they never just let it breathe. Also, my distaste for Katherine Avery is never-ending. One thing I do love and miss is Cristina / Alex interaction. One of the biggest missed opportunities ever was them barely exploring the living dynamic between them when they were both in Meredith's house.

Just started season 10... it's insane how annoying Katherine Avery is. When Bailey is doing surgery on Richard and Katherine starts screaming from the gallery.. wow. This premiere overall is super messy. I did notice that they put in jokes about Meredith possibly being Richard's daughter due to his affair with Ellis, to which she replies 'they met when I was 3.' Perhaps this was Shonda dropping an anvil about Maggie's arrival at the end of the year. It also pisses me off that while they knew it was Oh's last year, they continued to run her story into the ground with the repetitive Owen stuff. I love drunk, sad Callie. "Everyone I love cheats on me or dies. Or cheats on me AND dies. George did both!"

You're probably right. Unfortunately, for me, I can't think of anything more unbearable than an Owen / Amelia wedding or childbirth. Dear lord. They were such a sloppily written couple last season, I don't see it getting much better this year. I'm just not personally invested in either of them at this point, so as a couple I care even less. I know they have lots of shippers though, so I'm sure they'll be excited.

Not excited about Meredith living with Amelia and Maggie. I'd be happy if it was just Meredith / Maggie, but knowing that Amelia will be tied to Meredith's story all season, and featured in most of the scenes in that house... ugh. Shoving Amelia into the house that so many great characters have lived in is not a way to endear me to her. I am excited to see Callie and Arizona dating other people... I wonder how serious they'll be. I hope Shonda also remembers that they have a daughter and starts addressing how they co-parent. It seems like last season they'd work all day, then Callie would go to the bar and Arizona would be at Alex's. Where was Sofia!?

I didn't mind Callie grieving Mark a lot... they were best friends and had a child together, and he was very young, so it's underdstandable. It even helps make sense of why she is so frustrated with Arizona, who got out alive but initially refuses to get out of bed. You're dead on about how it was all handled though... in the backhalf of the season they have almost nothing to do. They're not fighting or making up or working through anything; they're just existing, and then Boswell shows up. I always forget about that shoe-horned in miscarriage story.

I've seen seasons 1 - 8 several times (I own the DVDs), especially 1 - 6, but I've never done a full rewatch of S9 and on. So I started season 9 on Netflix a few weeks ago and I'm just about to finish it. It's an odd season... Alex and Jo's relationship seems to come out of nowhere, it's super forced. Camila is fine, but I just never feel real chemistry between them. The episodes also enforce my belief that Jackson / Stef were never really a couple, they just sort of have sex occasionally. I totally forgot that S9 was the one that ended with Owen and that kid. Owen is unbearable, and the writing feels like a bad lifetime movie during all of his scenes. They really, really, REALLY drove the point into the ground that Owen needs kids; he treats everyone around him like crap during this time, including Cristina. I also forgot about Bailey's OCD, but I suppose at least she was given a storyline. Ben really isn't around at all in S9, so they had to come up with something I guess. The biggest thing for me - I finally see why some people were annoyed by Callie in S9. I love Callie, she's among my favourite characters and has been since she joined the show. I never quite understood why some people were put off by her in S9, but I see now that she was written as sort of pushy and domineering a lot of the time. And it's more apparent to me than ever that Callie and Arizona literally never dealt with any of their issues.

My bad, I guess I used a curse word which I assume is frowned upon. Sorry about that, didn't mean to offend anyone!

Often scenes that take place in the boardroom / meetings they use a few extras so that it's not just 'our doctors'. The other guy in the photo could very well just be an extra. I didn't delete it, not sure why it was taken down..

Again, not super spoilerly but I'll take what we can get for now: Set photo from Jesse Williams - Jackson, Callie, Owen, Maggie + ShittyShepherd in the conference room https://instagram.com/p/6QYvdJne4k/ A Jackson / Maggie scene https://instagram.com/p/6DjljCne_G/?taken-by=ijessewilliams Jerrika has posted a ton of photos of the set the past few days (Owen / Meredith, Callie / Ben, etc.) https://instagram.com/hellojerrika/

From TVGuide's Fall Preview... not really any Spoilers, more a recap of what we know so far:

I don't see how it's beating a dead horse with Calzona... I'm actually hopeful and excited to see them both move on like grown-ups. Last season they were stagnant, and I really want to see Callie in a happy and healthy relationship. And they don't need PTSD to break up Jackson and April, Jackson made it clear that if April left they were done, and since April left, it looks like they'll both be single when we return.

Sadly Shonda is now referring to Amelia as Meredith's 'sister' and I fear we're going to be watching her try to turn them into best friends.

Did you see Vince Gilligan's follow-up to Breaking Bad? Battle Creek makes Season 2 of TD look like The Sopranos or Mad Men. It was some of the worst written TV I've ever seen.

I'm betting on it. I wonder if they're going to shoot for a Drama Series nomination again though rather than Limited Series (they'd have a lot better luck in the limited series category, for sure). I think McAdam and Farrell both deserve nominations, though between the backlash against the season so far + the fact that the next round of Emmy nominations are a year away, it's entirely possible that S2 will be forgotten / shut out.

They may very well be trying to keep things more under wraps at Grey's because of how widely word of Derek's death was spread. I think we're probably all just reading too much into it.. Shonda may have asked them to keep that sort of stuff off of social media for a while, or more likely they just haven't thought of it lol. It's not like they all post all the time, they're just getting back to work... I'm sure we'll start seeing stuff soon.

No I totally get it. I think that's the biggest problem with the too-large cast... things just happen to these characters now, and there's no time to really deal. With such small bits of screentime and stories, we have huge stuff happen to characters but never work through them or deal with after-math (Jackson/April and their baby, Meredith losing Derek, Callie and Arizona's divorce, etc.)

I know what you mean about Amelia 100% even if I really (really) hate her lol. I think that's why I also really liked Arizona when she came on... she had a storyline with Bailey first, and she quickly developed relationships with other people in the hospital. So, to me, she was always more than just a potential love interest for Callie. How that's been handled since may be a different story (I agree that Arizona has been under-developed the past few seasons) but I get what you mean. I was discussing in a thread a while ago how someone like Matthew, for instance, was never introduced as anything other than a complication for Jackson / April, which made the whole storyline so boring and predictable to me.

George, Alex and Olivia all had syphilis lol