Grey's Anatomy Prepares to "Reboot"
Without question, Grey's Anatomy pushed the envelope in its third season, resulting in the cavalcade of kudos from the lords of the Emmys - and more than a little criticism from fans.
As it comes into Season Four, Grey's Anatomy sits on the verge of what has become a fad for drama series exiting their sophomore years, BuddyTV notes.
The show is heading for a reboot.
Grey's Anatomy will now be shifting into a whole new dramatic space, a new chief, a flock of new interns, and, of course, a bunch of newly upgraded physicians.
As with all the other shows making changes to their dramatic architecture this year, Grey's Anatomy seems poised to either sink or swim:
- The Preston (Isaiah Washington) and Cristina (Sandra Oh) histrionics that helped form the path to the Season 3 finale are over.
- Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) and Derek (Patrick Dempsey) have fallen apart, or almost fallen apart, so many times that their dangling over the edge of shattered romance seems more held back by rubber bands than the viewers' empathic heart strings.
- O'Mizzie, the disastrous pairing of Izzie (Katherine Heigl) and George (T.R. Knight) has reportedly been nixed. But did we detect a gleam in George's eye when he spotted Meredith's sister, Lexie Grey?
Rumors have it that Jane Doe (Elizabeth Reaser) will, thankfully, return to challenge Alex's aversion to attachment, but beyond that, no one knows what this "reboot" holds for Grey's Anatomy.
A change in structure and authority suggests an attempt to create a blend of some of the resident drama from the first three seasons mixing with a faculty drama that was confined mostly to the over-40 set.
If one thing is clear, it is that Shonda Rhimes and the Grey's Anatomy writing team have always handled everything, even their failings, with a sensitivity and inventiveness that is uniquely Grey's.
The beauty of the reboot will be not knowing what to expect, but knowing it comes from some of the best in the business.
August 17th, 2007 12:10 PM
speaking of new chief...WHO GOT CHIEF!!!and will james still be on the show???? im confuzled:(:( please help me
August 17th, 2007 12:26 PM
Seriously, who wrote this peice? I did not see a source below it to find out who wrote this, but WHAT A SPIN job. Last season was not only largely disliked by fans, but by critics as well. As far as the Emmy's, most do not agree with voters choices as they think thye are not in touch with what is strong in any given season, so I'm not even going to try to tell you why the Emmy nods this year (as always) don't hold much weight as far as fans and critics are concerned.
The show failed last year, THOUSANDS of fans have been writing everywhere to voice this as well as articles and net news by critics have been voiced. Evey major couple, story and character was beaten down to the lowest they could go to. Meredith (lead character on the show) was brought through a "shark jumping" three parter only to have the WRITERS let her learn nothing from it. Her break up with Derek was disastrous. Don't blame fans for caring. Even Ellen Pompeo voiced herself to NZ TV Guide she thought the three parter was more to take attention off the back stage fighting than for anything legit. The Meredith and Derek characters are the most popular couple on the show, and the writers reduced them to a couplel on a really bad episode of Saved by the Bell. If they are helded by rubber bands, blame the WRITERS. Plain lazy writing for two actors who have built in chemistry and a HUGE fanbase. All they needed was strong writing and guess what? None of that was to be found. Fans have every right to be angry. Shonda & Co. failed us plain and simple. Purely bad writing for the sake of ratings, nothing more.
There's a REASON the writers were not nominated for Emmy's this year. Show creator Shonda Rhimes has made every excuse possible for the poorly written season (including dismissing the die hard fans) Not smart Shonda, even LOST writers and creators acknowledged mistakes in their second season and in season three both fans and critics noted the great changes to the show, but not Shonda. The blame game seems to be her call and she admits nothing. Shame. If you can't see where you failed and take at least some of the blame, you cannot look to fans for wanting to bail if we see the new season does not get any better.
You can blame the characters, you can blame the fans, you can blame the critics, spin off show, departures of lead characters or the weather conditions in your state, but in the end, the blame is solely on Rhimes & Crew, and in the end, if nothing changes, it will be HER to blame when the fans exit. But please DO NOT "spin" your love for this show in your articles. We love it too, but we got dumbed down last season and it won't happen again this seaon I promise you. There's too much really great competition out there. Cheat the fans again, and we'll look elsewhere.
August 17th, 2007 12:35 PM
Chief went to Callie
August 17th, 2007 12:39 PM
no she didnt she got chief resident
August 17th, 2007 1:19 PM
BRAVO CLAIRE!!!!
August 17th, 2007 1:37 PM
THANK YOU CLAIRE!
Well said, ditto to all your points made.
As just one of the thousands that were insulted by the quality of the writing last season, I have all but given up on Shonda and her team of flash in the pan dramatists. Too bad too - some amazing acting talent and ensemble cast chemistry. I'm not against new characters if Shonda et all writers can get over themselves and try to pull this debacle out of
to be cancelled and not so brilliant TV archives.
August 17th, 2007 1:50 PM
Claire i couldn´t have said it better myself. YOU SERIOUSLY ROCK.
August 17th, 2007 2:46 PM
I Sooooo Agree With Claire! xox
August 18th, 2007 1:57 AM
Bravo Claire you are so right. Let's "hope" they read your post.
August 18th, 2007 8:15 AM
you're right claire, i hope they have something worth watching on this new season. i personally don't want to watch it anymore with my man IW being gone, he was my main reason for veing a fan of the show, but if they make it interesting enough i may take a look, especially since the bionic woman is going to be on wednesdays and it won't conflict. if it did then i would have to choose my man's show. at first i was too mad to care and never wanted to watch the show ever again, but now that IW is happy and i've cooled down, i may reconsider. i mean, it is a pretty good show.
August 18th, 2007 10:12 AM
George and Izzie were hardly disastrous, they are the reason I stuck with the show in the second half. I was this close to jumping ship until I fell in love with them. I have friends who had dropped the show who came back because of them.
August 18th, 2007 10:19 AM
Wow, what a load of bull this article is. MerDer and Gizzie are the things I love the most on the show. A whole lot of people love Gizzie (I know they have lots of haters too, but they have many fans) so I would not call them disastrous. I hate how they got together, but they have amazing chemistry and belong together. If Shonda drops them because of one stupid pabnel, I will lose all respect for her.
August 18th, 2007 10:42 AM
Claire and her croonies have invaded yet another comment page. You must be proud. I guess spewing hate at Teenagers Without Perception is getting tiring for you. Oh, well, I guess with all of the hate mongers out of the way, Shonda can continue to do the excellent job she has been doing for the last 3 seasons. I completely enjoy the show, and will continue to do so. I have children of my own, and they don't even hold their breath to get their own way, so I find it hard to respect adults who think that they can get their way using this tactic. Pathetic at best. I adore George and Izzie together, and have always liked Meredith and Derek together. Hopefully, next season will bring more of the excellent character development we have seen in the past.
Note: For all the haters out there, kindly realize that there are as many lovers out there, if you look at the comments and polls that have come up lately. I do realize that the haters claim that the lovers are spamming, which I doubt, especially with the ABC.com poll. Also, most of the lovers of George/Izzie I know are adults, and not hackers. So I really wish the haters would stop PROJECTING their vices on others. Have a great day.
August 18th, 2007 3:11 PM
Susanna,
Your condescension is a cheap tactic, particularly when you have no idea who you are communicating with on the web. Some of us are having a dialogue about quality television writing.
You are the kind audience members that let Shonda & the writers get away with dumbing GA down with their crappy scripts over the last half of season 3. Oh, and by the way, some of us know that the GA couples are characters written for actors to play.
Thank you for sharing.
August 18th, 2007 8:17 PM
Wow Suzanna, you don't know me, yet you pool me into a hate group.
Obviously you did not read my post all the way through, but if you had, I do say I LOVE the show, but I question season three's writing with a passion, and I have EVERY right to do so.
I cannot come on here and "blindly" say I am in love with the way this show was written in season three. Had I NOT seen it done much better ( and in the first two seasons I certainly did) I would not be questioning it now. Even the some of the actors on Grey's Anatomy itself have done interviews over the summer hoping the show will "come back to what it was in the first two seasons" Are you calling them haters too?
And are we not allowed to have an opinion? I am hardly a member of some "haters group." Who are you to judge me so? The writing was poor. Do you write all the magazines and online critics that share this opinion? If you do, then you'd hardly have time to lay some guilt trip on me because I have issues with last seasons writing. It was lazy, some of the storylines were repeated from the previous season and it was just plain depressing, but I suppose I should LOVE it like you....sorry, I don't. And this comment portion of this site is not only for people who dig what happened in S3, but who are passionate about it's ongoing quality as well.
And btw..Shonda Rhimes herself is a self proclaimed "TV Addict" who (as she put in her own blog) would yell and throw things at the tv when she did not feel things were going the right way on her favorite shows.
Do you really think she herself would not use this medium to voice her opinion if she was unhappy with a show she once liked? Of COURSE she would. She uses the net and blogs now for crying out loud. She would be right here voicing her opinion rather than yelling at her tv set had this been an option for her then. And if I were a creator of a show, I would expect nothing less from the people who watch this series on a weekly basis. I would hate to think the only feedback I got was a biased one. How could I ever learn from that? Thank goodness for opinions I always say. Maybe you feel this way too, or perhaps only if the opinion is EXACTLY like yours. The latter seems to be the case based on your post.
To expect more, to ask for the show not to be so poorly written as last season, to want and expect MORE from some of the BEST writers in the business is not something I am ever going to apologize for.
Or I can just sit around as the plot lines get sillier and sillier, until the show is driven into the ground and wonder, what happened to such a great show. It had such promise.
Your child holding their breath is no way to get what she/he wants. To ask for better from people who have GIVEN ME BETTER before, to do the same thing the show's own creator has done by voicing an opinion, I think is a good thing. To compare ones wishes for better and the options if I'm no longer enjoying what is in front of me to a child's tantrum, is just silly and makes no point at all. Perhaps you should teach your child where apathy is gonna get them in life.
and do not judge me unless I've done something to be judged for. I haven't earned your criticism for not liking the way the writers have taken this show. I did not attack you, please refrain from doing the same to me and to all others who do not feel like you do.
August 19th, 2007 8:59 PM
Hmm, seson 3 was not my favorite, it had big problems, mainly that there were too much deaths and despair and not enough happiness. But the scenes with George's dad dying gave us some wonderful acting, mainly by TR, and Burke elaving gave us some of the ebst acting sandra Oh has ever done.
Season 3 has also given me George and izzie. I don't care if you thought it was disastrous. To me and to my friends who watch with me, those two were the saving grace of the show in season 3. I wish to God it had happened before he married callie, but there is no way you can deny the pure chemistry between TR and Katherine and the love those two share.
If they end, I am not sure I could bear seeing them with other people or back just as friends when Shonda and those two actors did such a fabulous job at convincing me those two were soulmates and totally in love.
August 19th, 2007 11:19 PM
I agree that season 3 had it's problems. However, due to the backstage drama that happened in the second half of the season, I will give the writing staff some time to redeem themselves on a set free of a hostile work environment.
August 20th, 2007 1:35 PM
Although there were moments in S3 which I enjoyed, there were a lot of moments that I felt the ship was without a captain. Some of the characters became caricatures and others lacked purpose.
I invested 3 season with Shonda and Co. and they disappointed me. I am not willing to continue to dangle at the end of the stick while waiting for promises that don't materialize about better writing, character development and cutting edge storylines which if you recall Shonda and Co. promised on their blogs and podcast all of S3.
I will probably sample from time to time to support my favourite Canadian actress, Sandra Oh but am no longer a devoted fan.
I vote with my viewership and support, there are many fans like me who want to demonstrate to Shonda, Co. and ABC that the ones who matter the most are the paying public.
August 21st, 2007 5:06 PM
CLAIRE,
YOU ARE SOOoo MY HERO. Everything you said . I've been saying for the past year. THANK YOU THANK YOU. I AM NOT ALONE .!!!!
Sabrina: Hi I'm Gloria I agree with the POOR WRITING. The problem is the ORIGINAL (9) WRITERS FROM SEASON 1 & 2 ARE'NT DOING THE WRITING. I follow each epis. and these people are NOT THE ORIGINAL (9). I HAVE NO IDEA where these people came from. But, WE THE FANS NEED THE ORIGINAL WRITERS FROM SEASON 1 & 2 AND PETER HORTON. EVERYONE ELSE CAN HIT THE SIDE WALK.!!!!
Note: Fans= RATINGS=ADVERTISERS=$$=SHOW.
No Fans, No Ratings, No advertisers, No $$, No Show.!!!