Grey's Season 8 Episodes 1-4
So, I need a distraction away from what's happening in Japan with my favorite idol group (which is something I'm gonna be sad about until I'm sure they all will do well in their careers in the future, and even then), so I'm finally commenting about the new season of Grey's Anatomy.
You know, I was expecting pretty much crap. After the mess that was the previous season I really thought there was no hope for this show. But now I remember how I wanted to stop watching after the end of the second season where no one made Izzie responsible for stealing a heart and I had to witness a hospital turn into a prom party AND deal with Meredth and Derek at their worse, but then Alex starts to have these awesome scenes with Addison, and the Jane Doe storyline gave him a bit more attention, and thus, I start to watch again. I continued watching even though the four season was also a mess because Alex's chemistry with Lexie was juicy and while extremely sad, Rebecca going crazy and Izzie trying to help him were nice twists at the end. Season five and six were rollercoasters for Alex, but had awesome storylines for him, both medically and emotionally, and then the seventh season gave us some good stuff, but it could have been, oh, so much better, damn it!
So I wasn't expecting anything this season. If they didn't give me a decent premiere, I was gonna go with my head canon and have Alex take the African job and be happy saving African children and come back a year later to show how awesome and in charge he has become. But the premiere didn't suck. It was pretty decent, actually. Alex got to save a kid (of course!) and Arizona showed she cares for him and wants him to do better and he had some of the most awesomest scenes ever with both Cristina and Meredith! There's nothing to complain about! There's a lot to CHEER for! Awesome!
OK, some stuff still are crappy plot points, but the show has never been perfect, I can deal with those. I loved Meredith talking to Owen about Cristina, I loved that the writers were able to man up and let Cristina have her abortion, I loved Zola being adorable and Sofia being adorable (damn, I love babies), and hey, I even enjoyed Arizona and Mark getting along! I didn't care for Bailey blaming April's mess and Jackson getting kicked around by Mark and Cristina having issues with Owen and Teddy (though I did love how Teddy pointed out the flaws in Cristina's training) as something Meredith was to be blamed for, and the "gunther" idea was a stupid one. I certainly didn't care for Derek (I never do), and as supposedly awesome something like a huge hole in the middle of the city should have been, it was a bit... meh.
Actually, I have to say, the gigantic hole storyline made me think of another medical drama, Code Blue. It was a plot that could have worked perfectly in that show (a lot better than it did in Grey's). I could totally see Aizawa going down without hesitation, taking a chainsaw and cutting the woman's legs without having the husband go through the trauma of doing it himself, and Saejima the nurse would have been right behind him with the rest of the tools needed, because they were THAT COOL! Man, why did season two had to be so conclusive? I wanted more of that show! A movie at least, it was too good! The sad thing is, the only disaster that could top the massive pile up accident in the tunnel, the train derailing and the airplane crashing would be an earthquake, but it's too soon to have a fake one with the real one in Japan is still so fresh in everyone's memory. Still, if any show could give tribute to what happened there, it would be Code Blue!
Anyway, going back to Seattle... I liked that Alex got his moment with Cristina, so, so THEM (even the killing part!), and then the quiet moments with Meredith, so perfect for them too. I would love that some of the awesome fic writers that I know this show has (I'm looking at you!!) could write something about Alex's heart condition, because man, that needs to be written! And the fandom has not worked many decent fics lately (like, in a long time now!).
I don't have much to say that hasn't been said by now about the premiere. I like it when I don't have that much to add to an episode, because it means they were good to me as a fan of the show.
Moving forward, episode three was decent enough. For a moment I thought we were going back to having Alex be a jerk for the sake of developing an easy plot, but in the end it was a decent plot with a sad outcome that wasn't at all Alex fault, which I liked that it was made clear and that April had his back. I don't know how I feel about them if the show decides to make them interact romantically, but she's a lot less annoying when she's around Alex (and Jackson), and all five of them are more on the same level with each other, which is nice. She and Alex are fun together, I'm up for a lot more of that, though of course, Alex with Mer and Cristina is still a lot better! <3
About episode four, it had more things I liked it than thing I didn't. I don't really know why some people got so angry with the cliches, it's not like they weren't there before... it was mostly an uneventful episode, but it had some interesting stuff, like the chief interacting with Jackson and Alex, which I enjoyed. From maybe around season three, the chief has had some interesting scenes with Alex, like the time in the woods when Alex told him about growing up in a bar, and the "underdog" conversation. I was hoping the previous episode would have had some of that as well, considering how in the premiere Alex went to the chief with the idea of lying to save Meredith's job and the chief then implemented it himself, like Alex deciding to do the chief's surgery out of guilt or something, but that didn't happened, and instead I got this, which had a nice outcome. I liked how Alex went and gave the chief the surgery he was looking for, it was sweet of him. I think Arizona is a great mentor for Alex, but it would be nice if he could have the chief in his corner as well, considering I doubt he will ever get along with Derek, Mark and even Owen (now that I finally came to the conclusion that he's bipolar). I liked how Mark went to him for help with Sofia, too. Even if he did it because anyone else would tell Arizona, he has to trust that Alex can do the job to go to him, which is not something Mark really thought before of Alex. One of the many reasons why I wish there had been some follow up on their relationship after the shooting...
Which brings me to something I won't have time to go into right now, but I been wanting to do it since the beginning of the seventh season. I want to re-write it. Not in fic format because that will take forever, but it would be nice to put in writing how things "really" turned out in my head, and with the same result, now that I actually like the beginning of season eight. It's a bit of a challenge. Maybe I'll do it next time.
You know, I was expecting pretty much crap. After the mess that was the previous season I really thought there was no hope for this show. But now I remember how I wanted to stop watching after the end of the second season where no one made Izzie responsible for stealing a heart and I had to witness a hospital turn into a prom party AND deal with Meredth and Derek at their worse, but then Alex starts to have these awesome scenes with Addison, and the Jane Doe storyline gave him a bit more attention, and thus, I start to watch again. I continued watching even though the four season was also a mess because Alex's chemistry with Lexie was juicy and while extremely sad, Rebecca going crazy and Izzie trying to help him were nice twists at the end. Season five and six were rollercoasters for Alex, but had awesome storylines for him, both medically and emotionally, and then the seventh season gave us some good stuff, but it could have been, oh, so much better, damn it!
So I wasn't expecting anything this season. If they didn't give me a decent premiere, I was gonna go with my head canon and have Alex take the African job and be happy saving African children and come back a year later to show how awesome and in charge he has become. But the premiere didn't suck. It was pretty decent, actually. Alex got to save a kid (of course!) and Arizona showed she cares for him and wants him to do better and he had some of the most awesomest scenes ever with both Cristina and Meredith! There's nothing to complain about! There's a lot to CHEER for! Awesome!
OK, some stuff still are crappy plot points, but the show has never been perfect, I can deal with those. I loved Meredith talking to Owen about Cristina, I loved that the writers were able to man up and let Cristina have her abortion, I loved Zola being adorable and Sofia being adorable (damn, I love babies), and hey, I even enjoyed Arizona and Mark getting along! I didn't care for Bailey blaming April's mess and Jackson getting kicked around by Mark and Cristina having issues with Owen and Teddy (though I did love how Teddy pointed out the flaws in Cristina's training) as something Meredith was to be blamed for, and the "gunther" idea was a stupid one. I certainly didn't care for Derek (I never do), and as supposedly awesome something like a huge hole in the middle of the city should have been, it was a bit... meh.
Actually, I have to say, the gigantic hole storyline made me think of another medical drama, Code Blue. It was a plot that could have worked perfectly in that show (a lot better than it did in Grey's). I could totally see Aizawa going down without hesitation, taking a chainsaw and cutting the woman's legs without having the husband go through the trauma of doing it himself, and Saejima the nurse would have been right behind him with the rest of the tools needed, because they were THAT COOL! Man, why did season two had to be so conclusive? I wanted more of that show! A movie at least, it was too good! The sad thing is, the only disaster that could top the massive pile up accident in the tunnel, the train derailing and the airplane crashing would be an earthquake, but it's too soon to have a fake one with the real one in Japan is still so fresh in everyone's memory. Still, if any show could give tribute to what happened there, it would be Code Blue!
Anyway, going back to Seattle... I liked that Alex got his moment with Cristina, so, so THEM (even the killing part!), and then the quiet moments with Meredith, so perfect for them too. I would love that some of the awesome fic writers that I know this show has (I'm looking at you!!) could write something about Alex's heart condition, because man, that needs to be written! And the fandom has not worked many decent fics lately (like, in a long time now!).
I don't have much to say that hasn't been said by now about the premiere. I like it when I don't have that much to add to an episode, because it means they were good to me as a fan of the show.
Moving forward, episode three was decent enough. For a moment I thought we were going back to having Alex be a jerk for the sake of developing an easy plot, but in the end it was a decent plot with a sad outcome that wasn't at all Alex fault, which I liked that it was made clear and that April had his back. I don't know how I feel about them if the show decides to make them interact romantically, but she's a lot less annoying when she's around Alex (and Jackson), and all five of them are more on the same level with each other, which is nice. She and Alex are fun together, I'm up for a lot more of that, though of course, Alex with Mer and Cristina is still a lot better! <3
About episode four, it had more things I liked it than thing I didn't. I don't really know why some people got so angry with the cliches, it's not like they weren't there before... it was mostly an uneventful episode, but it had some interesting stuff, like the chief interacting with Jackson and Alex, which I enjoyed. From maybe around season three, the chief has had some interesting scenes with Alex, like the time in the woods when Alex told him about growing up in a bar, and the "underdog" conversation. I was hoping the previous episode would have had some of that as well, considering how in the premiere Alex went to the chief with the idea of lying to save Meredith's job and the chief then implemented it himself, like Alex deciding to do the chief's surgery out of guilt or something, but that didn't happened, and instead I got this, which had a nice outcome. I liked how Alex went and gave the chief the surgery he was looking for, it was sweet of him. I think Arizona is a great mentor for Alex, but it would be nice if he could have the chief in his corner as well, considering I doubt he will ever get along with Derek, Mark and even Owen (now that I finally came to the conclusion that he's bipolar). I liked how Mark went to him for help with Sofia, too. Even if he did it because anyone else would tell Arizona, he has to trust that Alex can do the job to go to him, which is not something Mark really thought before of Alex. One of the many reasons why I wish there had been some follow up on their relationship after the shooting...
Which brings me to something I won't have time to go into right now, but I been wanting to do it since the beginning of the seventh season. I want to re-write it. Not in fic format because that will take forever, but it would be nice to put in writing how things "really" turned out in my head, and with the same result, now that I actually like the beginning of season eight. It's a bit of a challenge. Maybe I'll do it next time.