S16.E04: It's Raining Men

[WinJet0819]

10 hours ago, pennben said:

The basis of this show has always been sexy soap opera set in hospital with interesting medical stories. They may be running out of steam on the latter (and given aging,  not as “sexy” anymore) but let there be no doubt about the former being very much a core of the premise originally. 

Evidence: Early seasons intro sequence. 

It's been a sexy soap opera, but 2 pregnancies in the first four episodes of a season? That's just tired. Does every female doctor need to be knocked up because just having relationships is too boring?

10 hours ago, kariyaki said:

Yeah I don’t agree, the pregnancy storylines have been the C plot for each episode so far. Plus, that was a pretty extensive brain surgery scene in this episode. 

The brain surgery was the only groundbreaking type surgery, and we didn't even get to see all of it. Jackson, correctly, had Amelia do the procedure so Koracik couldn't make a spectacle out of it, but we hardly saw any of it. Jo was doing an ALPPS procedure with the gallery watching, but it was only really to show Meredith on FaceTime. In between all the relationship drama, there were surgeries that only one of them "on the entire West Coast" would be able to do.

[AzraeltheCat]

On 10/19/2019 at 12:04 AM, KaveDweller said:

She didn't write a letter to the editor, like you sometimes see published in newspapers. She wrote them a pitch for a story that she wanted to write. It seems like bad form for them to publish the pitch, but probably not illegal. I think a bigger issue would be that she probably expected to be paid for the full article and they just took her pitch and profited off it without paying her? I know she doesn't need the money, but still.

But she supposedly had a whole list of pitches, presumably just a few sentences.  So how does that become an article? And Mer still has to observe HIPAA & it seems like some of the "article" contained protected material, which she shouldn't have disclosed in her pitch. Also, who did she submit this pitch to? I would assume it would be something like JAMA or the New England Journal of Medicine, but since it was this viral article that came out almost immediately, it's like she submitted it to BuzzFeed or something.  This whole storyline is stupid, starting with the fact that Mer could've admitted the kid as a charity patient instead of using her own kid's name.  

[statsgirl]

On 10/22/2019 at 1:32 PM, AzraeltheCat said:

Also, who did she submit this pitch to? I would assume it would be something like JAMA or the New England Journal of Medicine,

It wouldn't have been an academic journal because it obviously wasn't peer-reviewed since it was published so quickly. Also both JAMA and the NEJM have been running articles, better ones, about the problems in the American medical system for years so they wouldn't be interested in this half-assed mixture..

It feels like slandering Buzzfeed to say them. What's below that?.

[OpalNightstream]

According to this show, every other hospital is complete crap if it’s not gray Sloan. 
I like how every person (doctor or not) read Merediths article. Was it posted on billboards and broadcast as breaking news on all the tv stations? I was in the hospital when one of the space shuttles blew up and i wasn’t aware of it until the next day because I was in my own little world. But in this world Meredith is the sun so of course everyone would read her article. 

[OpalNightstream]

On 10/18/2019 at 5:30 PM, iMonrey said:

Oh for the love of Criminy. Is there a doctor on this show who hasn't had an unplanned pregnancy? Any? All these medical geniuses, tops in their respective fields, and none of them seem to know how to use birth control. It's absurd.

Oh, and considering the circumstances? Tacky episode title. Tacky.

Line ‘em up! Who else needs a baby? Jo? Maggie? Maybe Jackson’s mom? 
YOU get a baby! And YOU get a baby! And YOU get a baby!

Edited October 24, 2019 by OpalNightstream

[OpalNightstream]

On 10/17/2019 at 10:39 PM, Laurie4H said:

Bailey said something about going through menopause at a young age.  So I’m assuming she plays a character younger than she is.  As does Meredith and I’m assuming Teddy and others as well.  I wish I could like Amelia but it is so annoying how she can’t say lines without a sarcastic tone.  Emphasizing certain letters and syllables.   The only time she talks normal is with patients.  

This show is terrible with ages. Most of the actors look substantially older than what their characters are supposed to be. I think only jo and Maggie can pass for a 30-something doc. The rest mostly look in their mid to late forties (except bailey who looks in her fifties). Sorry no one will convince me that Meredith is a young mom who still attracts 20-something guys. 

[Anela]

2 hours ago, OpalNightstream said:

This show is terrible with ages. Most of the actors look substantially older than what their characters are supposed to be. I think only jo and Maggie can pass for a 30-something doc. The rest mostly look in their mid to late forties (except bailey who looks in her fifties). Sorry no one will convince me that Meredith is a young mom who still attracts 20-something guys. 

If Dennis Quaid can marry someone forty years younger than himself, Meredith can go out with someone who is twenty years younger.

I have a friend whose husband is something like twenty years younger than she is. They're still together, still happy. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

On 10/22/2019 at 10:32 AM, AzraeltheCat said:

But she supposedly had a whole list of pitches, presumably just a few sentences.  So how does that become an article? And Mer still has to observe HIPAA & it seems like some of the "article" contained protected material, which she shouldn't have disclosed in her pitch.

Meredith said that she sent a list of ideas of topics she could write about and she included headlines and descriptions, and what they printed was every idea she sent them without any context or explanation. Whoever published it took the list of possible articles she gave them, numbered them, and printed it. People who saw it kept referring it to as a list, as in, "I've seen the list." One person said that it ended with number 40, so they didn't even bother trying to fluff it up into an actual article. They just printed her list as is.

She didn't violate HIPAA because she didn't write about anyone or anything specific (and you can talk about specific cases without violating HIPAA so even if she had mentioned certain circumstances, that's not necessarily a HIPAA violation). The bullet points that people read from the list:

• In the eyes of the hospital, you are your insurance.

• In America, the rich live 10 to 15 years longer than the poor. The healthcare industry sells its time to whoever can afford it.

• Healthcare is a $3. 5 trillion industry for a reason. Drug companies aggressively influence doctors to write you prescriptions, which sometimes make you even sicker.

• Thanks to Big Pharma, it's cheaper for you to travel out of the country to buy the medicine you need than to get it in your own hometown.

• Not enough residency positions to train doctors and with an aging population and overwhelmed workforce, we are stretched too thin and patients are paying the price.

• There's a nationwide epidemic of physician burnout, increasing the risk of medical error, lowering your quality of care, and costing patients and doctors their lives.

• We doctors are the sick ones. We have the disease. The call is coming from inside the house.

[RedbirdNelly]

count me as one viewer who did not suspect Bailey was pregnant--simply because it never occurred to me they would have 2 characters with surprise pregnancies at the same time. Seriously.

I actually was a little relieved though. Bailey being SO emotional over menopause did not ring true to me as someone who is not yet 50 but has been dealing with hot flashes on and off for the last 3 or 4 years. I know I'm a sample size of one but I thought at first they were going with "women find out they are in early menopause and it just freaks them out!!"---- maybe it does for some people but did not for me at all. No gush of hormones making me cry. Happy to skip most periods; annoyed with having to dress strategically so I don't burn up at work but don't freeze to death the rest of the day. . . .

 I did have gushes of hormones that caused me to cry early in my 2nd pregnancy--to the point I had to tell someone I was pregnant before I intended to in order to explain why I could not get control of the tears. I mean it was embarrassing. . . .:)  So Bailey being pregnant made that part of the episode make more sense.

[Anela]

1 hour ago, RedbirdNelly said:

count me as one viewer who did not suspect Bailey was pregnant--simply because it never occurred to me they would have 2 characters with surprise pregnancies at the same time. Seriously.

I actually was a little relieved though. Bailey being SO emotional over menopause did not ring true to me as someone who is not yet 50 but has been dealing with hot flashes on and off for the last 3 or 4 years. I know I'm a sample size of one but I thought at first they were going with "women find out they are in early menopause and it just freaks them out!!"---- maybe it does for some people but did not for me at all. No gush of hormones making me cry. Happy to skip most periods; annoyed with having to dress strategically so I don't burn up at work but don't freeze to death the rest of the day. . . .

 I did have gushes of hormones that caused me to cry early in my 2nd pregnancy--to the point I had to tell someone I was pregnant before I intended to in order to explain why I could not get control of the tears. I mean it was embarrassing. . . .:)  So Bailey being pregnant made that part of the episode make more sense.

I think I'm in the early stages (period has gone missing here and there, I think I've had a few hot flashes - not sure, sometimes I get warm when I think about something stressful. I find it upsetting, but I have reasons for that. I know some women who are happy to be at that stage of life. 

So, at first, I was put off by the story line, because it's something I don't want to think about. By the end of the episode, before they announced that she was also pregnant, I was fine with it, because it isn't something that's handled in shows (although I could do without the "woman goes crazy, it's her hormones" thing, over and over). 

[RedbirdNelly]

37 minutes ago, Anela said:

I think I'm in the early stages (period has gone missing here and there, I think I've had a few hot flashes - not sure, sometimes I get warm when I think about something stressful. I find it upsetting, but I have reasons for that. I know some women who are happy to be at that stage of life. 

So, at first, I was put off by the story line, because it's something I don't want to think about. By the end of the episode, before they announced that she was also pregnant, I was fine with it, because it isn't something that's handled in shows (although I could do without the "woman goes crazy, it's her hormones" thing, over and over). 

I was fine with it being a topic but I was annoyed when I thought it was going to be "OH MY  GOSH MENOPAUSE!! I KEEP CRYING!" over and over. It just didn't read realistic to me even if some women are more upset about it. I have not met any friends who reacted to starting menopause with the inability to stop crying and getting hysterical about it. If they handle it with some realism I'm in. (but now we have pregnancy to deal with so I doubt we'll be focused on it).

[AzraeltheCat]

On 10/24/2019 at 6:48 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Meredith said that she sent a list of ideas of topics she could write about and she included headlines and descriptions, and what they printed was every idea she sent them without any context or explanation. Whoever published it took the list of possible articles she gave them, numbered them, and printed it. People who saw it kept referring it to as a list, as in, "I've seen the list." One person said that it ended with number 40, so they didn't even bother trying to fluff it up into an actual article. They just printed her list as is.

She didn't violate HIPAA because she didn't write about anyone or anything specific (and you can talk about specific cases without violating HIPAA so even if she had mentioned certain circumstances, that's not necessarily a HIPAA violation). The bullet points that people read from the list:

Aaah, clearly I wasn't paying close enough attention! I could've sworn that she gave some anecdote about a patient but I guess not. Also, I thought she had submitted a list of topics and that's why I was confused as to how that became an article...  I must've missed the references that others made to "the list" but that makes slightly more sense than how my brain interpreted it.  

[RoxiP]

On ‎10‎/‎24‎/‎2019 at 6:43 PM, RedbirdNelly said:

I was fine with it being a topic but I was annoyed when I thought it was going to be "OH MY  GOSH MENOPAUSE!! I KEEP CRYING!" over and over. It just didn't read realistic to me even if some women are more upset about it. I have not met any friends who reacted to starting menopause with the inability to stop crying and getting hysterical about it. If they handle it with some realism I'm in. (but now we have pregnancy to deal with so I doubt we'll be focused on it).

Y'all act like a woman who is peri-menopausal has a lot of ability to control their hormones and emotions.  I was one of those (possibly arrogant) women who had absolutely normal periods, started on day X and ended on day Y, one day of light cramping blah blah blah and then it was like I was hit by a tornado.  I am lucky I have a single friend left from that time in my life (and it went on for years although as time went by I found ways to handle it a little more gracefully).  Sometimes I would be in the middle of a rant and I could almost see myself from the outside looking in going "who is that crazy bitch?"  It was the worst part of my life to date and I am deeply regretful of some of the things I said and did during that period.  I'm not an emotional person but those mood swings were brutal!

[RedbirdNelly]

1 hour ago, RoxiP said:

Y'all act like a woman who is peri-menopausal has a lot of ability to control their hormones and emotions.  I was one of those (possibly arrogant) women who had absolutely normal periods, started on day X and ended on day Y, one day of light cramping blah blah blah and then it was like I was hit by a tornado.  I am lucky I have a single friend left from that time in my life (and it went on for years although as time went by I found ways to handle it a little more gracefully).  Sometimes I would be in the middle of a rant and I could almost see myself from the outside looking in going "who is that crazy bitch?"  It was the worst part of my life to date and I am deeply regretful of some of the things I said and did during that period.  I'm not an emotional person but those mood swings were brutal!

thanks for adding your experience. As I mentioned in my first post, I'm a sample size of one. I understand others have other experiences. Sorry your experience was so rough. Mine is mostly annoyance--having to be more strategic with what I wear and having to skip some favorite clothes that aren't easy to adjust. ..

[RoxiP]

1 hour ago, RedbirdNelly said:

thanks for adding your experience. As I mentioned in my first post, I'm a sample size of one. I understand others have other experiences. Sorry your experience was so rough. Mine is mostly annoyance--having to be more strategic with what I wear and having to skip some favorite clothes that aren't easy to adjust. ..

It was just surprising to me because before then I was a zero PMS girl.  I am so glad that is far behind me now!

Just now, RoxiP said:

It was just surprising to me because before then I was a zero PMS girl.  I am so glad that is far behind me now!

By the way, I did go back and apologize after my insane rants.  I realized I was irrational but I just could NOT stop myself.

[Anosmia]

I’m just chiming in to say how pleased I was to see a patient with craniosynostosis! I was born with a pretty severe case of it in 1974 and needed two surgeries. There were some lingering lifelong issues because of it, but overall I’m happy and healthy. It’s a birth defect that doesn’t get repped very often, so I was happy to see it in this episode!

[LisaM]

A bit behind on the episodes. I really like the Pac North idea. Let's see if/how some of the brilliant surgeons can rescue a shitty hospital. Plus - I like seeing Alex in charge. Perhaps he can convince Arizona to come back and run the Peds surgery area?

I'm still a huge Meredith fan even though leaving the work crew early to apologize to Bailey made no sense. Have never been a fan of Meredith/DeLuca. I would prefer to see her with someone her own age. 

I like Jackson/Firefighter from Station 19 a lot. She is a very appealing actress and they have chemistry. 

Annoyed that TPTB screwed up Tom Karasick's quirky and fun personality in favor of making him a dick.