Grey’s Anatomy Star Sandra Oh Talks About ‘Cristina and Owen’

Recently the Hollywood Reporter spoke to Sandra Oh about Grey’s Anatomy, her character’s storyline, and saying goodbye to cast-mates.

Read the interview below: 

The Hollywood Reporter: This season has been particularly grueling for Cristina: an abortion, a broken marriage and infidelity, all topped off by a plane crash. Which scene did you grapple with the most?

Sandra Oh: It has been an extremely challenging year that has had a lot of ups and downs, both challenging and exhilarating. A lot of the scenes that Kevin McKidd and I did of Owen and Cristina arguing in their apartment was like its own story line. We would shoot all our scenes for a day or two straight, and that was extremely challenging because emotionally and physically it becomes really exhausting. Our finale was extremely challenging physically and emotionally. So, I'd say two things - our finale and those apartment scenes where Cristina and Owen lock themselves in and just go at it.

Cristina tosses a bowl of cereal on him, which isn't a reaction that Cristina is typically prone to.

Wasn't that good? Kevin had to have cereal thrown on him eight, 10 times for that one because we did a bunch of angles. There is that one shot - and we only did it once - which was his close-up, which was also my best and most direct hit. He was a great sport about that. Mark Jackson directed that episode, so we had special effects make a soft bowl because I'm not actually throwing an actual ceramic bowl at him. But that was real milk and Grape Nuts. I really liked that scene because that's her first actual moment of connection with him after he tells her the truth. Even though it's physical and it's violent, it's also a connecting moment between them where she looks at him and connects again.

Cristina rarely expresses so much emotion, which she did a lot of this season. It was a slow burn that started with the season premiere and carried throughout the season, which is different that the Grey's we've seen in the past.

You see her express her emotions with only two people: her best friend Meredith and her husband Owen. To see someone being pulled apart so intensely, which honestly most everyone goes through in their life in some ways, if you're lucky you're completely pulled apart and then you have to pull yourself together, which hopefully will be the exploration within hopefully the next season. It's not like we played this in a couple of episodes; we've played this throughout the entire year, and the reality of the resentments building and things not being dealt with building and betrayals happening is closer to real time in the way that we played it. Being on a show for this long, you don't have to do things boom-boom-boom because you have eight years of history and developing the character. So you can take your time with things and let it soak in, in a different and deeper way. I'm super-proud of this year. Having been on a show eight years, for me to have the richest storyline now, I'm extremely grateful.

Looking back on the season, is there one particular scene that you're most proud of?

It's an earlier episode with Teddy (Kim Raver), and it was a very technically difficult scene: Telling Teddy that Henry (Scott Foley) had died was a difficult scene, but there was one episode after that where Teddy needs to hear what happened in the room over and over again. All Cristina does is tell her what has happened medically, and all my dialogue was completely medical; I would just spout this out over and over again because she would just need to hear it until finally at the end of the episode, something shifts for her and she accepts what happened. I remember getting that episode and reading it in the run-through, and all my dialogue was reams and reams of medical jargon. I knew I had to start memorizing it right away and asked them not to change it since it was very challenging. You saw a crystallized version of Cristina, where she does her job and she hangs on to what she has to do and delivers the information. It's vintage Cristina. Then everything with Owen is Cristina coming apart.

What was filming the finale like? You're on location in the mountains near Big Bear for more than a week after the plane crash, which adds a physical element to an already emotional episode.

It was so hard. It was physically and emotionally challenging because you're constantly at extremely high stakes. The physicality for Cristina, she had to do a lot of things with one arm, and I had to do a lot of things with one shoe. You're running around the mountain with one shoe and one arm basically and doing things that way. And it's like we've had this cushy time on stages and in the hospital. But being out in the open on the side of a mountain was exhilarating; you cannot beat location work. I've done very little greenscreen work, but it's just a pooper. I don't care how much you blow that fan on my face, there's not a helicopter coming at me. It's really hard to manufacture the clear reality of what that is, but when you are on a mountain and you are freezing, you're freezing.

What does getting out of the hospital set do for the cast? In addition to Big Bear, you were away from the set and on the Disney lot in Burbank for the hotel scenes for the boards. Could we potentially see more new locations next season as the residents begin heading elsewhere?

It totally reinvigorates us. They had to build the hotel, the hotel rooms, and they built a bunch of other sets. It's reinvigorating for everyone, including the crew, who we've spent the last eight years on five stages. It's nice to go out; I'd love to see them in different places. We could possibly see them in other places, but again I have no idea what Shonda is going to do after this finale.

Filming the finale, in which Grey's said farewell to two castmembers -- Chyler Leigh's Lexie, who died, and Kim Raver's Teddy, who moved on -- what was that process like for you?

The finale was such a great experience, everyone really got out of their comfort zone. Those were some really painful, devastating scenes. We saw one scene cut together, and I had to get my hair and makeup redone; I could not stop weeping -- and I wasn't in that scene. It was extremely difficult because people come in and out over eight years. It's rare to have certain people be around you for eight years or five years or even three years. There's a kind of carnival aspect of to it. A lot of times for plays or films you come in for six weeks, fall in love with people, and you leave. You become family members and have really deep ties with people even if you don't spend time outside of work with them. When you have to let go of some of those things, I found it extremely difficult and extremely sad. We've been down for almost a week now, and I'm just extremely depressed and recuperating, but it's not just the physical recuperation. This has happened to me before with certain projects that I have left that I feel really low, and I know we're coming back, but certain things and dynamics will have shifted, and there's a lot of that makes me very sad.

Changing it up a bit, after so much heavy material this season, was there a scene that stands out when it was the hardest to keep a straight face?

Justin Chambers is pretty funny and always makes us laugh during scenes in April's office. There's also an episode right before Cristina actually tells Teddy about Henry where Teddy wants to dance and have a good time and she's going like, "Woo-hoo, woo-hoo," and that was pretty funny. What I really like about our show is it's really a drama with a lot of really good comedy in it, and it's mostly comedy based on character. After some heavy stuff, I'm sure that they're going to give us some funny stuff to do. And Cristina's stuff with William Daniels when he's her proctor, I thought that was hilarious. I just thought how amazing this is if we're talking about medical shows past and present. I'd be so willing to do that in 25 years, to come on as a doctor to some other kid in a medical show.

Well that was quite an interview and very informative and entertaining, but since when is Sandra Oh not entertaining and interesting to talk to. She makes a habit of not doing many interviews, however the ones she does do are definitely worth reading and/or seeing?

She didn’t really give us any clues into what to expect for Season 9, but I didn’t really expect her to as the actors probably have no idea what’s to come, unless scenes were filmed for Season 9 before they went on Hiatus. If they are filming at Big Bear in September then I think we can assume those scenes were filmed back in April before the actors went off on their holidays.

What did you think of Sandra Oh's interview? Sound off in the comments or you can chat to me and other Grey's fans on Facebook or Twitter.

You can also find more about Grey’s Anatomy at THR Official Website or you can read more Grey's Anatomy articles at: JanelleCoulton@Suite101

Copyright © 2012 Janelle Coulton

 

Chyler Leigh Dishes About Lexie's Death on Grey's Anatomy

Chyler Leigh

Recently Chyler Leigh spoke to TV Guide regarding her departure from Grey's Anatomy, the death of her character Lexie Grey and her future plans.

Read Keck's Exclusive Interview with  

Grey's Anatomy's Chyler Leigh 

More than a month after we lost Lexie on the chilling Grey's Anatomy season finale, it still hurts to think about helpless Little Grey trapped under the wreckage of a downed plane as she struggled to breathe through bloodied teeth. Well, Lexie's portrayer, the always lovely Chyler Leigh, is happy to remind us, "I'm alive." Here, for the first time since she released a brief statement explaining her reasons for leaving the series [we agreed not to get back into that], Leigh opens up about her last moments on set, what's next and being honored by an organization helping to bring water to the world's thirstiest.


TV Guide Magazine: Chyler! How are you?Leigh: I'm good. If I cough, I'm sorry. I'm kind of getting over a little cold.


TV Guide Magazine: Well, you're in much better shape than the last time we saw you on TV.
Leigh: [Laughs] For sure.


TV Guide Magazine: I first have to tell you, as hard as it was to lose you, your death scene was brilliantly acted.
Leigh: Aww. Thank you. I wasn't really dying though. That was quite an experience. I haunted a lot of people.


TV Guide Magazine: We'll talk more about that. In the meantime, what have you been up to?
Leigh: Life. A whole lot of life and I am so grateful that I get to be home with my kids who are three beautiful, complicated, dynamic children. I have a lot of life to live.


TV Guide Magazine: You also had a movie out that Justin Chambers [Alex] was originally slated to be in.
Leigh: Yes, Justin wasn't available [because of his Grey's shooting schedule] but we still made the movie called Brake with Stephen Dorff as the main character. I played his wife. It came out in March. A really incredible little movie.


TV Guide Magazine: So what's next?
Leigh: A few things. My husband [actor Nathan West] and I write. There's a musical thing and a children's book we're in the process of. It's still all very much in the developmental stage.


TV Guide Magazine: Why is a children's book something you wanted to do?
Leigh: We read books to our kids every night and my husband is such an amazing storyteller. He has them rolling with laughter. So we had some pretty profound ideas come up.


TV Guide Magazine: You and Nathan are being honored next week with the Pioneering Spirit Award by an organization called the Thirst Project. What's this all about?
Leigh: The Thirst Project is a phenomenal organization [about] the water crisis. Almost one billion people on our planet don't have access to any clean drinking water. 4400 kids die every single day from diseases caused by contaminated water. And eighty percent of all global diseases are water-born. It's ridiculous. My eight-year-old son will complain about having to drink a cup of water and I'll show him a video to watch. The Thirst Project has been able to build wells in several developing countries all around the globe and teach the people in the villages how to maintain them so they have clean water for life. Clean water has been brought to over 100,000 people over the world in just four short years. For my husband and I to be able to put our names out there, we're able to be a part of it. We were also able to finance a well in Swaziland that's making an impact.


TV Guide Magazine: Have you had a chance to visit any of these developing countries?Leigh: I have to say that has been my heart's desire since I was five. It seems like every time I had a chance I was having a child. But I will be going in September to Uganda and perhaps Swaziland. It's a whole other thing to be impacted up close and personal.


TV Guide Magazine: Did you invite any of your Grey's friends to come to your gala next week?
Leigh: Yeah I did, and so many people are going to be out of town. This is the family time for people to get out. They're all over the place, and that's okay.


TV Guide Magazine: Who do you still keep in touch with?
Leigh: I have a few people that I've reached out to, obviously with no offense to anyone else. I've texted back and forth with Sara [Ramirez] and Chandra [Wilson] and Sarah Drew. I owe Jessica [Capshaw] a text.


TV Guide Magazine: Fans were so invested in Lexie and Mark [Eric Dane] as a couple and so devastated by her death that some have expressed a desire for Mark to die as well and join her in the afterlife. What are your feelings on this?
Leigh: The roller coaster between them was always very dynamic and I think realistic. When it comes to death we never know the date or the hour. There is absolute shock value to that. As far as their relationship, it was in some ways very young. So Rachel and Ross [from Friends]. It's so hard to put a pin in what went wrong or how it could have gone better. But will Mark go on? Absolutely. He'll move right along. That's just what Mark Sloane does. But initially I hope there will be a devastation.


TV Guide Magazine: Do you think Mark was the love of Lexie's life?
Leigh: I do. She learned so much from him about herself and about life in general. I do think there could have been a destiny for that.


TV Guide Magazine: Will you submit your death scene for Emmy consideration?
Leigh: I didn't push it. And I don't know if my peeps did or not. I'm going to let Lexie be.


TV Guide Magazine: Was it hard to shoot that? Had you ever died on film before?
Leigh: No, I never died before. That sounds funny saying that. I think everyone has an emotional wellspring and that happened to be a moment where I was sprung.


TV Guide Magazine: Was it cold shooting that scene?
Leigh: It was. Cold. We were up at Big Bear and at one point it had snowed. Then it would rain and be sunny and hot.


TV Guide Magazine: Was any of the cast particularly supportive during the shoot?
Leigh: Everybody was very accommodating — the crew, cast. And I opted to stay underneath [the wreckage] for the most part over two days rather than trying to get in and out.


TV Guide Magazine: So after that, are you ready for another series right away?
Leigh: I don't know really what I want to do. I'm always down to do a sitcom. I did That 80's Show back in the day and that was a really great experience. I think comedy would be good for a while. Right now I'm just taking a pause from everything. We also live in Orange County so it's nice not to have to drive back and forth to LA.


TV Guide Magazine: Lastly Chyler, of all of Lexie's great scenes and storylines, which are you most proud of?
Leigh: Ironically, I think her death. It really was a chance for me to be able to go from the beginning of the character to the end. There's something that's very bittersweet about that. Something about being able to be there for the moment of her death that I appreciate. I don't know if that's morbid or not, but that's how I feel.



Keck's Exclusive Chyler Leigh Interview


So what did you think of Chyler's interview? I didn't think that it really told us much more except that she possibly is not in close contact with any of the Grey's cast; which is strange. It sounds as though she is happy and doing well. Your comments are always welcome so fire away via Twitter or Facebook or you can have your say below:




To read more about Grey's Anatomy, Please visit me at: Janelle Coulton@Suite101


Copyright © 2012 Janelle Coulton

Grey's Anatomy: Season 8-16 Postmortem

If Only You Were Lonely


This episode was probably one of my least favourites; and it's where I started wondering if the writing was going to suffer as it did at the business end of Season 7. I don't know what it is, but I felt depressed after watching this episode. Is it Cristina and Owen's problems? That tiny, preemie baby whom has very little chance of survival or Adele's deteriorating alzhiemers.


The basic premise of the episode being about the things that we think, feel and do when we are feeling lonely. If that was the point Shonda was trying to make, then it worked for me anyway.


So Cristina thinks Owen is having an affair because he is so distant and seems to be friendly with a certain nurse. Watching Cristina follow the nurse around and basically obsess about Owen was depressing to watch and just not Cristina at all. When she tells her patient that he is making up stuff in his head about his barista flirting with him; I figured she had realised thae she was doing the same thing, but later when we see her rifling through Owen's computer, phone bill, clothing etcetera it seemed like she was still convinced of Owen's infidelity.


Dr Webber wakes up to the fire alarm sounding in his house and Adele almost setting the house on fire. He cops a pretty nasty burn whilst putting out the fire and ends up in the ER to have it treated. Meredith takes care of him and suggests Rose Ridge; the care facility where her mother was. Webber takes Adele to look at the place; and she says it's nice but to small for them. Webber decides they can manage at home. He later arrives home to find her throwing things at her carer, who I assume was her carer (that was not explained). Adele is shocked when she sees she has hurt her husband and insists that she should go to live at Rose Ridge.

Lexie's happiness at being assigned to Peds was short-lived when she discovered she was on intern Morgan's baby's case and the said baby was only 14.3 ounces. However she does her best to maintain her positive attitude. Things start to fall to pieces with the baby when he starts to have a lot of trouble with his lungs. The father wants to cease treatment, however Morgan will not consider doing that when there is so much they can do. Seemed a bit rough him just walking out on his son; which is essentially what he did, even if Morgan told him he could go. Look as though it will be Alex's job to hold her up throughout this crisis, because she has no-one.

Teddy's research grant for stem cell hearts came through thanks to Owen's input. I wonder if they will make up anytime soon. They are both lonely; Teddy's missing her husband and Owen is so distant from Cristina, it would be nice to see them renew their friendship. What I would sooooo hate is if Teddy and Owen end up together. But given Teddy's reaction to Owen's offer of help in the OR, I don't think we will see them as friends anytime soon.


Derek was kind of in the background this week, mostly seen with Zola, which I never gettired of seeing. Patrick Dempsey has amazing chemistry with babies, he is great with them. Not surprising I guess, cause he has kids and he would be more than comfortable interacting with babies and children. Anyway I guess he had a race coming up when this episode was filmed, because we didn't see him that much.


I loved Mark trying to set up Jackson; but hated Jackson's ridiculous reason for turning him down. I get he may have loved Lexie to pieces, but when you break up with someone you try to move on, even if it is going on a boring date with someone you might not click with. Having a night out with friends is a great way to relieve tension and stress. Nuts!

So there you have it, probably not the best, comprehensive review I have ever written, but as I said before, something about this episode left me feeling flat. I'm hoping this was a one off and next week will be better. The previews look good. Meredith and Derek working together again should make for interesting viewing. Let's hope.


What did you think of If only You were Lonely? Comment below or via Facebook and Twitter.






To read more about Grey's Anatomy, Please visit me at: Janelle Coulton's Articles @ Suite101


Copyright © 2012 Janelle Coulton

Shonda Rhimes Talks About Writing "Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice and Scandal

Ms Rhimes and fellow Show-runner Colleagues teamed up for a Chat with The Hollywood Reporter.

Given that I am writer/blogger; I am alway fascinated to read about other successful writers and how they deal with things like writer's block, the never-ending creative process of writing a long running TV series or Novel, or whatever!

This interview was quite lengthy and because I am a Grey's fanatic, I chose to leave out most of the comments made by the other show-runners. However, the link to this article is post below for anyone who wishes to read theh entire article or watch the video.

Anyway the following is Shonda's part of the interview:

THR: How difficult is it to kill off a character?

Shonda Rhimes: Killing characters is never fun. I remember for Private Practice, trying to get in touch with [actor] Chris Lowell — it was the same thing. He was on a mountain in Africa. He was like, “Well, I’m in the most beautiful place in the world to hear that my character’s going to go.” And then he said: “OK. Can you at least just kill me in the worst way possible?” And I was like, “That I can do.”

THR: How difficult is it to keep these secrets?

Rhimes: We have fake sides [specific pages from the script in which an actor’s character appears]. The media will report something that’s going to happen on Grey’s Anatomy, and it’s completely wrong because we have an assistant who spends all of her time writing fake sides.

THR: Do you know how your show will end?

Rhimes: I knew how Grey’s Anatomy ended — if we had ended in season two or season four. But now we’re heading into season nine, and I have no idea. I have no plans. I’ve learned to let that go.

THR: Shonda, you’re very active on Twitter. Does that make your creative process easier or more difficult?

Rhimes: I don’t think that it affects it because by the time the audience is seeing something, we’re so far ahead and stuff has already happened beyond that, that it doesn’t actually affect what we’re doing. It’s sort of an exercise in torture. I sort of don’t know why I get on there. It’s a little like inviting people who hate you into your house to say mean things to you. Twitter is most useful for talking to the press because if I tweet something, reporters will pick it up and put it on paper. I don’t have to get on the phone. (Laughter.)

THR: Shonda, with three shows, how do you make sure each episode still has your imprint and tone?

Rhimes: If you spend time in the writers room, it usually comes through. You know, I feel like I spend some time downloading my brain, and then I have to go someplace else and download my brain there. But what’s worked is, on Grey’s, I’ve kept the same writers since basically season two. Those people know me inside and out: “Shonda’s not going to like that.” They answer their own questions a lot of the time. On Private, I’m still continuing to hone that skill. But on Scandal, it was great because I said, “I’m just going to plop myself down in this writers room like the old days.” And then everybody can come ask me questions about the other two shows.

Winter: Did you hire new people?

Rhimes: I took some people from different places. It was sort of like this very interesting dream team, and there were only five of us. We spent tons of time just planning everything out, and we had a blast doing it. We all went back to Grey’s Anatomy, but it was great.

Gilligan: Are you all in one complex for all three shows?

Rhimes: No. I’m on three different lots. I don’t know how it happened, but I do know that it requires the studio to pay for a driver for me. (Laughs.) So I’m not going to complain about it. That is the single greatest thing that’s ever happened. I was trying to do like two days here and two days there and one day here. That didn’t work; I probably hit two shows every day. They’re all on this side of town — Raleigh, Sunset Gower and Prospect — so it’s not so bad. I have a 3-month-old baby now, so I just said I was going to work from home and everyone had to come to me there! And they have this awesome editing system where you can edit from home. So that’s been good. Time management, I guess.

Rhimes: I’ll get the Private Practice script and I’ll get the Grey’s script, and I’ll be like, “These two patients are exactly the same, and look, they’re both saying the same thing.” But the writers don’t talk to one another! I’m the only common link, which means that I went from one writers room and pitched a story to another writers room, and pitched the same story but did not realize that I was doing it.

THR: You are all at the top of your game, careerwise. But is there something you haven’t done in your lives that you’d still like to do?

Rhimes: About once a year, I announce to my sisters that I’m going to get my master’s in library science. I’m very serious about it. The idea of being a librarian is like the happiest job I can think of. My sisters laugh at me every single time, and they’re like, “It’s not going to happen, let it go.” But one day I’m going to have a library in Vermont somewhere.

So Grey's Fan's, what did you think of that? I felt as though I was given some insight into where Shonda is coming from. Anyway feel free to comment below or via Twitter and Facebook.

Read the full article here: TheHollywoodReporter



To read more about Grey's Anatomy, Please visit me at: Janelle Coulton's Articles @ Suite101


Copyright ©2012 Janelle Coulton

"Warning! Spoilers!" Did The New Grey's Anatomy Writer Just Tweet A Spoiler?

This Blog Post Contains Spoilers from the Season 8 finale, if you are spoiler free, then do not read on any further.




Could This Mean Arizona Will Be Back?



First of all: Great news about Shondaland getting a new writer. Let's hope Dan Bucatinsky can breathe the life (no pun intended) back into Grey's Anatomy and give this show the storylines it has been missing for a long time. Excellent drama and emotion, less tragedy and depression and lots more dark, funny, hilarious humour and great music of course. Not that I've ever had a problem with the music; it's always been awesome.

Arizona to Cristina: "Where's Lexie?"

Many Grey's fans are shippers of a couple or characters, but I don't really ship anyone. I have a few favourites, but most of the cast are great, entertaining and great actors in their own way. Truly though; Grey's could really do without Jackson and April, the two characters are not that popular and dropping those two actors would open up opportunities for better storylines for the more popular characters.



    

       McSteamy and McDreamy                   Mark pops Cristina shoulder back in, Ouch!




Having said that; I do not mean more Derek and Meredith, or more Callie and Arizona, or Cristina and Owen. With all due respect to the shippers of certain couples, it is impossible to give the fans of certain characters/couples enough of what they are craving, and I think this is why Shonda says that she tries to put aside what the fans suggest. However in all fairness, I'm sure she reads the feedback and make some decisions based on that.







So back to this tweet that I discovered on Twitter a few hours ago. Grey's has a new writer who seems absolutely over the moon about joining ABC and Shonda's team and can't wait to get to work. Jessica Capshaw's "YAY" in response to Dan's tweet set off some alarm bells for me. And also gave me reason to believe that all will be well with Arizona come next season. However, I'm not getting ahead of myself or reading too much into this tweet; I just thought that my fellow Grey's Anatomy fans would appreciate this info. Scroll down to read Jessica Capshaw's Twitter.

Arizona looks great compared to the Season Finale

"I am not interested in dying."

Interesting that Dan also mentions that he is joining the team tomorrow, does that mean it's back to work for Shonda already? I know they don't start filming episodes until July, however it makes complete sense that the creator, and writers would have to get a head start putting together the next season. Hmmmm; September seems like such a long time to wait. Crap!

RIP Lexie (Little Grey), we'll miss you

Read Jessica Capshaw's Tweet:

Source: http://twitter.com/jessicacapshaw



Pictures from Google Images



To read more about Grey's Anatomy, Please visit me at: Janelle Coulton's Articles @ Suite101



Copyright © 2012 Janelle Coulton

"Why does this keep happening?"

Chyler Leigh Breaks Her Silence On Her Grey's Anatomy Departure

01 June 2012


Chyler Leigh Gives a Statement



This morning, Michael Ausiello at TVLine broke the news that Chyler Leigh has finally released a statement to her fan's about her departure from Grey's Anatomy. After over two weeks with no word from Chyler Leigh at all about why she left Grey's Anatomy, she released this statement today:


“Earlier this year, I made the decision that Season eight would be my last on “Grey’s Anatomy.” I met with Shonda and we worked together to give Lexie’s story appropriate closure. I am very lucky to have worked with this amazing cast and crew for five seasons. My experience on “Grey’s Anatomy” is something that I will treasure for the rest of my life. I want to take this time to say thank you to the fans. Your unconditional love and support have made these last five years very special for me. I look forward to my next chapter and I hope you will continue to follow me on my journey.”

Hopefully this will put the speculation that has been going on amongst the fans and on forums all over the internet to rest. It sounds to me as though Chyler and Shonda came to a mutual decision regarding Chyler's wish to leave Grey's Anatomy and the decision to kill off Chyler's character, Lexie Grey sounds pretty mutual to me too.

Good luck Chyler, we will all miss you. Seattle Grace won't be the same without you.

Source:


Michael Ausiello TVLine



To read more about Grey's Anatomy, Please visit me at Janelle Coulton Suite101



Copyright © 2012 Janelle Coulton

Grey’s Anatomy Private Practice Cross-Over – Postmortem

Have You Seen Me Lately? – Grey’s Anatomy Season 8 Episode 15

Aired – 31 May 2012 9.00pm EST

Derek’s sister, Amelia paid Seattle Grace a visit last night to enlist the help of her fancy neurosurgeon brother to help her with an extremely tricky brain tumor. Amelia spends most of the episode calling her brother a jackass; with Lexie playing referee. In the end, Lexie is the one to convince Derek to stop worrying about his sister slipping back to her addiction and help her find a way to help her patient. She further points out that it was his idea to take on hopeless cases in the first place, and if it were any other patient he would still be looking at the scans and trying to find a way. This is enough to spur Derek into action and help his sister. For me Amelia, Derek and Lexie’s sparring was the highlight of ‘Have You Seen Me Lately?’

                     

The disappointing part of this threesome was the absence of Meredith. It would have been great to see her bond with Derek’s sister, they are family after all. It also would have been great to see the four of them bond; Meredith, Amelia, Derek and Lexie.  However, Meredith was extremely busy trying to impress Callie in order to learn the secrets of Callie’s secret study method. But seriously, couldn’t they have had one scene together?

A Man’s Hand is Stuck in a Meat Grinder

Yikes; how friggin painful would that be? Those machines are designed to make mince meat from pork or beef or whatever. One would think his hand would have been minced in this contraption. And the patient was conscious, I really think I would have passed out way before the pain-killers were administered, simply from the sight of my bloody, messy hand. But hey; I pass out if I watch while a nurse takes my blood. I digress. Anyway, Callie tells Meredith that she is running the case and proceed to quiz her on what they should do. At first Meredith wants to amputate, but after more careful examination of the fingers poking out of the meat grinder, she reassess and tells Callie that she thinks the hand could possibly be saved.

The patient’s brothers' offer to take the machine apart, given they clean it everyday, Meredith agrees it’s a good idea. Once they get the machine apart, and see the bloody mess their brother’s hand is they both pass out on the floor. Didn’t you just love it when they requested the tools they needed and called out Stat! That was funny. Meredith almost puking while trying to save one of the patient’s fingers was a classic. As it turned out they were unable to save the thumb which lead to Meredith coming up with an idea of removing the man’s big toe to use as a replacement. Callie disagreed with her but only because Meredith had forgotten part of the research she had read. It turned out after getting the patient’s consent they removed his second toe and saved his hand. It was then that Callie agreed to coach Meredith and teach her the secret study method so she would pass the boards.

Cristina and Owen go to Couples Counselling

The two story arcs above were really the only interesting part of the episode for me apart from this one. Kevin McKidd and Sandra Oh were perfect in these scenes however, I think the writers have forgotten one simple fact. Cristina did mention she didn’t want kid back in Season 6 – Sympathy for the Parents. Please Grey’s Anatomy writers, I’m begging you; get you shit together? It’s annoying. While I am not really invested in this couple and I do not ship any particular character or couple; Cristina Yang is my favourite and I’m really intrigued as to how Shonda expects to reunite this couple as it would seem to me they are in a no win situation.

Cristina’s “Be my frigging person!” outburst near broke my heart, because it really seems as much as Owen love her, he can’t see it from her point of view. I get that Cristina needs to learn to be more in tune with other’s feelings and that was quite likely one of the points to this storyline; but jeez it’s depressing. But I’m hanging in there because I do not think separation or divorce is their answer and as you will see in upcoming episodes, Cristina is of the same opinion and shuts Meredith down when she suggests the possibility of it.

Alex and the Pregnant Intern

Okay; I love Alex, he’s awesome and Justin Chamber is so underrated as an actor but, I did not warm to the pregnant intern, her heart condition and very premature, sick little baby. I think this story is going somewhere weird and I am really hoping that this intern is not Alex’s new love interest. Gotta say though, I loved Arizona in these scenes, especially her quote; “Karev, learn your freakin intern’s names.” And did you see how tiny that baby was? I don’t remember Sofia being that small at 23 weeks, but maybe she was and I missed it.

That’s a Wrap

So that’s the Grey’s Anatomy part of the cross-over and apart from Meredith being absent in the Lexie/Derek/Amelia scenes, I thought it pretty good for a cross-over event. Last season’s was hardly worth calling a cross-over; if you had blinked you would have missed Addison, we barely saw her.

Next week’s episode has a lot of McSteamy, if you believe the promos. We will meet the intern, Morgan’s finance, who is less than optimistic about the baby survival chances and Meredith will spend half the 42 minutes wondering what the heck is up with Cristina.

Anyway till next week; have your say in the comments or discuss #GreysAnatomy on Twitter or connect with Grey's Anatomy Addicts on Facebook.

You Break My Heart – Private Practice Season 5 Episode 15

Aired 31 May 2012 11.00pm EST

When it comes to Private Practice cross-overs, I have never really been a fan. But this one was awesome. I did not give a crap about what was going on in LA with the other’s; so I pretty much fast-forwarded through all of that before I wrote this review. As a huge fan of Charlotte and Amelia, there was little need to know what was up with Addy and the others. I’ve never liked Violet, or the marriage to Pete. Never should have happened. I adore Pete, he is a unique person, a caring doc and hot, hot, hot! And I love Benjamin Bratt (Jake) too, but that was from Law and Order. Anyway I digress again.

In short, and I don’t really want to rant on about the Private Practice part of this double episode, is because this is a Grey’s Anatomy blog and the only scenes I really enjoyed were with Derek and Amelia, Charlotte, Cooper and Mason, and Lexie’s role on the case. I am quite getting used to Lexie and Derek working together, so much so that I can’t see Meredith coming back to Neuro now. I am really pissed that Meredith was not a part of the cross-over. It would have been nice for her to be there. Amelia is Derek’s family and it would really be great to see them bond as sisters-in-law. Why wasn’t Meredith a part of this cross-over? Surely it was not because she was not needed in a medical sense? If that’s the writer’s excuse for not including her, then that is pretty weak. Meredith could have been included simply to support Derek, Amelia and Lexie; given the difficulty and length of the surgery. Anyway rant over.

The only other storyline that had me mildly interested was Sam’s sister Corrine and her bipolar situation. I found this story interesting as I spent almost a year at university studying mental illnesses and I am well aware how horrid and awful bipolar and other mental illness can be and how they affect the patient and their family and loved ones.

I am not a fan of Sam in the slightest, but I really feel for him at the moment and my prediction is that Sam has no idea what is ahead.

Anyway the best part of the episode for me was the way in which Derek supported Amelia and how much their relationship was healed from doing that surgery together. He helped her alleviate her doubts and he was so happy when Erica woke up after surgery. The best part was when they hugged and he said we have to publish. How awesome, a brother/sister article in a medical journal about how they removed an impossible tumor. Erica lives, which is a miracle and I have to say my heart was in my mouth the whole time. I really thought she was going to die.

You Break My Heart was for me the best cross-over Grey’s Anatomy have done so far, and I guess they do it to push the rating up over on Private Practice; whatever, it all worked for me. I loved it.

Anyway till next week; have your say in the comments or discuss #GreysAnatomy or #PrivatePractice on Twitter or connect with Grey's Anatomy Addicts on Facebook.

To read more about Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, Shonda Rhimes and many more interesting topics: Please visit me at Janelle Coulton@Suite101




Copyright © 2012 Janelle Coulton