Grey's Anatomy Spin Off; Private Practice Cancelled "Caution Contains Spoilers"

Shonda Rhimes' creation Private Practice will be ending as of Episode 13. Private Practice began as a spin-off of Grey's Anatomy and starred Kate Walsh as Addison Montgomery Shepherd. Addison moves to LA to work with her friends after her reconciliation with Derek Shepherd falls apart. The following post contains spoilers for people who have not seen the first four episodes of the new Private Practice season. If you do not want to be spoiled, do not read any further.




We shouldn't be surprised at this news; Private Practice has not been doing well in the ratings for sometime now. The ratings have not been awful, however with Kate Walsh hanging up her scrubs as of episode 13, it was probably clear the show would not survive without the character of Addison Forbes Montgomery.

It is sad though. Sad for the actors now out of work. My hope is that some of them come to Grey's Anatomy. I would love to see Charlotte and Cooper; and Amelia. Addison and Jake would be great too. I could look at Jake all day long, what a total hottie. Addison got it right when she chose him. Anyway enough, I digress....One person I do not want to see and will not miss is Violet. I adore Amy Brenneman and she is one hell of an actress, but her character just grates on my nerves. And poor Pete, I feel so sorry for poor Pete; why did he have to die like that. So much unfinished business, he never told Violet why they broke up last year. I hope Shonda rectifies this, cause I really want to know why Pete all of a sudden could not imagine spending another twenty-five years or longer with Violet. It's like the thought of being married to her for that long terrified him. And I know Pete loved her. Was it because she ran off to do that book tour after her licence was suspended at the beginning of last season, and he never forgave her? However, not that Pete has died it's unlikely Violet will ever get those answers.

I'll miss those Grey's/Private crossovers

Anyway enough about Violet. Hope I never meet up with that character again. Send her over to Scandal and have her play a really, mean character. Perhaps she could be someone from Olivia's past and the two could have a huge bitch-slapping fight. That would be so funny and so awesome, and I would not put this kind of thing past Shonda Rhimes, the Queen of Drama and Devastating events....Hmmmmm okay, back to Private Practice and it's demise into the ABC archives and peoples DVR's and DVD collections. 



It is a shame to see the end of this show, even if the only reason it survived for as long as it did was because it followed Grey's Anatomy on a Thursday night and there were cross-over episodes. It is true that Private Practice had a following of people who were not fans or even Grey's Anatomy watchers, so it did build a solid fan base there for awhile. When it moved to Tuesday nights to accommodate Scandal the ratings were looking pretty ordinary. 

One of the Best Episodes of Season 5 - Amelia's Intervention

From Season 3 onwards, I felt that show was better, the stories were well told and more interesting, however by the time we got to the end of Season 5, I felt something was missing. I did not enjoy the whole baby storyline with Amelia, or Addison's dilemma of whether she should choose Sam or Jake. Private Practice is now four episodes into Season 6 and the positive of this is that they have time to wrap up everyone's story arcs. Having already seen a few episodes of Season 6; it is clear that Shonda and the writers have been preparing for the end. When Kate Walsh announced she was leaving in the summer hiatus, the network probably felt that it should end. After all this show was created especially for the character of Addison Montgomery and it didn't seem as though it could go on without this character. With Kate Walsh gone, ratings would be worse than they are now. Kate Walsh is a very popular actress and the reason why a lot of viewers watch this show. 

Pete's Bali Themed Wake

There are also references made to Mark Sloan's death on Grey's Anatomy; but by the time these episodes make it to Australian TV; many people may wonder what and who they are talking about; especially if they are not Grey's watchers. Having Private Practice follow Grey's always meant that the crossover episodes made sense; but now that it doesn't and may not run after Grey's in Australia will means some fans may be very confused.

While I will miss Private Practice, it is good that they are ending it now and the characters stories will get some kind of closure. Nonetheless, I will miss my Jake, Coop, Charlotte and Amelia fix every week. Here's hoping these characters pop into Seattle Grace sometime in the future.

    

What do you all think of Private Practice being cancelled? Sound off in the comments area or link up with this site on Facebook or Twitter.


To read Shonda's statement about the cancellation of PP, the link is below.



Source:

Deadline Article



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Scandal; Shonda Rhime's New Show Screens in Australia

American Political Drama, Scandal Premieres in Australia



What can I say about this show? Shonda Rhimes, creator and brainchild of Grey's Anatomy is behind Scandal and it is written and directed by the same crew who make Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice. Unfortunately Scandal is not the monumental hit that Grey's was in it's hey-day.

That's not to say it is not a good show. It is a very good show, the premise is a solid idea. Would we love to have someone come along and cover for us, when we get in to trouble. A white-knight who will move heaven and earth to protect us and our secrets. That's the pitch that this show is trying to sell; along with actress:  Olivia Pope, who is played by Kerry Washington is what the creators refers to as a "Gladiator" in a white hat, she and her team of fixers are hired when there is a crisis that needs to go away. At the same time there is a whole other back story of intrigue and mystery going on about some of the characters. 

In the Season 1 Finale, viewers were left wondering who this mystery woman is who calls herself Quinn Perkins? Quinn (a lawyer) came to work for Olivia in the first episode, and in episode 7 it is revealed that she is not who she appears to be. Season 1 is only seven episodes long and ABC in the US have renewed this series for a second season, however it is not clear how many episodes have been ordered, however it is assumed it will be between 10 and 13.

Olivia Pope and her fixers

Grey's Anatomy fans have been the most critical of this show, as many feel it is Shonda's main focus and over the years the writing on Grey's Anatomy has suffered a downward spiral. Many fans believe this comes down to Rhimes focusing all of her energy on her other two shows; both of which have not done well in the ratings. Scandal might succeed if all the sappy cliches disappeared from the scripts, and the focus was on what these fixers actually do and it's still hopeful that we will see this in Season 2, however at the moment many fans find the show frustrating as we are not learning enough about what these characters do and how they do it.

Creating a love affair between the main character and the US President is not going to win viewers, especially when other characters in Rhimes' other shows are portrayed as terrible people if they commit adultery. Take the character of Addison Montgomery when she was in Grey's Anatomy, she was not forgiven for cheating on Derek Shepherd and more recently on Private Practice she was beating herself up for being a cheater. Olivia Pope's love affair with the President should not get a pass either and how many times have we seen that story done on TV, hardly original. However, the portrayal of how these Gladiators go about their business and help their clients is interesting and it's my guess that the fans want to see these stories unfold.

Scandal is a great show with the material to go on for a few seasons, however if the focus does not shift to building the back-story of the characters and explaining to the audience how and why they do what they do; the ABC network in the US will axe this series after Season 2. It's very difficult to decide whether to get invested in a show that could end without a resolution. However if you are looking for something different that is a mystery, thriller, drama all rolled into one and are not to hung up on how it will end; then you may like Scandal. 

Season 1 begins airing in Australia on Monday; 15 October 2012. The Seven Network will not be fast-tracking Season 2; Scandal will probably return to Australia with Season 2 in February 2013.



Update 10 Oct 2012: The US network ABC have ordered another 13 episodes of Scandal for Season 2. It is possible that more episodes might be ordered depending on how the ratings are, however if recent numbers are anything to go by; Scandal, Season 2 has not premiered well in terms of ratings in total viewers and has not done well in the advertising demographic this show targets. And given that it follows Grey's Anatomy; on a Thursday night in the US it really should be doing better. 




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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



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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.

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