Grey’s Anatomy – Episode 7-18 Review

Reviews, Shows

I’m not going to sugarcoat this. I freakin’ hated Grey’s Anatomy last night. Just go look at my tweets. I went from weirded out yet hopeful, to annoyed, to angry, to furious over the course of the very painful to watch hour. Honestly, the “Musical Event” was such an epic train wreck that you’d think it had been directed by Julie Taymor.

Basically, here is my problem: This could have been a really great episode. Callie on the verge of death, about the lose the baby as Mark and Arizona argue over what to do and who’s more important is an excellent storyline. I should have been sobbing, not audibly sighing, yelling out “Oh my GOD are you kidding me?!” and letting out the occasional “Aaaaargh” But instead, people kept SINGING. And not, like, just inside Imaginary Callie’s head. Had all the singing taken place inside Imaginary Callie’s head as she lay there with one foot in the grave, I might have been able to deal. In fact, it might have even been moving. Instead, it was ludicrous.

The other doctors singing was bad enough, even with Callie standing there. In an ideal situation, only Callie would have been singing. Maybe some other people occasionally. But when people started singing when Callie wasn’t even in the room? That’s when they lost me for good. Little Grey singing to Mark, but also occasionally saying something? What? What was that? All the coupled-up doctors and lovers singing love songs to one another? WHAT THE HELL? That was the worst.

Jesus Christ Superstar this is not. It is a television series that I have watched for seven years. The singing was just so wildly out of place, it was ridiculous. It was laughable. It was one of the worst decisions ever.

Every time there was a good scene, like when Meredith confessed that she’d felt jealous of Callie at the baby shower the day before, I found myself thinking “Please don’t sing, please don’t sing. This is a great scene, don’t ruin it by singing.”

Had the plot of this episode been as equally stupid as the musical aspect of it was, or had it been a rather inconsequential storyline, I would have turned it off and just caught up by reading reviews this morning. But it wasn’t. It was Callie, a character I love. I had to see what happened. And really, it’s worse that the plot material itself was good. The musical crap turned a great episode into a gong show. It tarnished what had previously been an impeccable season. So the question is, how much damage did it do?

Personally, I’m willing to forgive them. I’m not going to run around saying “The musical episode was when Grey’s Anatomy jumped the shark!” and just give up watching. I think that’s a cop-out, because I do like this show. I forgave them for George and Izzie. I forgave them for the ghost of Denny Duquette. And I’ll forgive them for this. But they better not do it ever again.

OK, let’s talk songs. Some were executed better than others.

“Chasing Cars: Like I said, things worked best when Callie was doing the singing. This song opened the episode and was definitely jarring, but it gave me hope that maybe they’d pull this thing off. I can only imagine what it must have been like for fans of the show who don’t obsessively read entertainment websites and had no idea about a Grey’s Anatomy “Musical Event”. Yes, there are such people out there. And they were really confused.
“Breathe”: Aaaaand, then they started to lose me. In particular when Lexie and Mark were alone together and she was still singing.
“How We Operate”: Ugh.
“Wait”: This is when I started to get really, really annoyed with the singing. Mark and Arizona had a serious decision to make – who gets medical priority, Callie or the baby? Mark wanted to do whatever it took to save Callie, but Arizona thought Callie would want them to save the baby. Mark snapped “I’m the father. You’re not anything,” and my heart broke for Arizona. And distracting me from this incredibly difficult, and emotional debate? Yeah. Singing.
“Running on Sunshine”: By far, the worst. The. Worst. The stuff where Callie dreamed up a much less bitchy version of the conversation she’d had in the car with Arizona was good stuff, and I get that all the stuff with the couples being lovey-dovey was also supposed to be in her head. But it did not work on any level and was the epitome of how the episode was a horrendous mistake.
“Universe & U” and “Wait”: Honestly, I started to tune out the singing and focus on tweeting all my complaints. I couldn’t help it.
“How To Save A Life”: Another really, really bad number. The way Teddy sang a line that related perfectly to her inability to save Callie’s life? Groan. Also? I was completed grossed out by the tiny, tiny fake baby. Ick. I’m a horrible person, but ick.
“The Story”: This was maybe the one number that I thought kinda sorta worked. Imaginary Callie sung with a lot of energy (and it really showed off her vocal skills) as Real Callie laid in bed, trying to wake up. She did, and she told Arizona “Yes, I’ll marry you.”

So in conclusion? An epic failure. I really wish this hadn’t been a musical episode because there was some good stuff there. I loved Dr. Hot OB-GYN admitting to the Chief that she was out of her depth, that he flew in Addison, and that Addison criticized Hot OB…OK, I will start to call her Lucy. That Addison criticized Lucy’s doctorin’ skills. I loved Meredith admitting that she’d been jealous of Callie, and the emotion that brought out. I loved Alex referring to the hospital as “Seattle Grace Mercy Death”. I loved what the accident did for Mark and Arizona’s relationship – I really think this will help Callie, Mark and Arizona all move past any issues of jealousy, etc. I loved Cristina outperforming Teddy and Teddy taking it very personally. This was all good stuff, and I couldn’t appreciate it because of the goddamn singing.

I don’t want to see Rachel Berry or Kurt Hummel perform surgery on Glee. So let this be a lesson to all showrunners: Just because members of your cast CAN sing doesn’t mean they SHOULD. Next time, just release a special soundtrack.


You can follow Jill at her blog, couchtimewithjill.com, or on Twitter @jillemader Jill has been an avid fan of TV since the age of two, when she was so obsessed with Zoobilee Zoo that her mother lied and told her it had been canceled. Despite that setback, she grew up to be a television aficionado and pop culture addict.