Glee 1.02: "Showmance"

“Now remember, if the balloon pops, the noise makes the angels cry.”

-Quinn

The highly anticipated first new episode of Glee since the Spring premiere dealt mostly with compromise. Some of our characters compromised what they wanted out of guilt or feeling like they had no alternative. Other characters compromised who they were in hopes that their crush would like them more. There were plenty of silly high school antics that took me back to my own time in high school. There were, also, plenty of things to nitpick. Overall, this episode of Glee packed in plenty of food for thought, fun, angst, and music- pretty much all I’d ask for out of this show.

The clearest examples of compromise happen between Will and Terri, surprisingly enough. Not so surprisingly, it’s Will who makes the first compromise. Terri’s sister has convinced Will and Terri that since they have a baby on the way, they need to buy a fancy house in her subdivision. Will knows they can’t afford it, but Terri and her sister insist. Will compromises by offering to look for extra work to help pay for it. Terri (sort of) compromises by only insisting on the grand foyer upgrade to the house instead of both the grand foyer and the sun nook. Will ends up taking on night shift janitorial work to help pay for it. Terri repeatedly says throughout this scene that the house is “their dream,” but I wonder if it’s really Will’s dream at all. In a plot twist with which I have serious issues, Terri finds out she isn’t really pregnant, but, at the last minute, she decides not to tell Will. To stave off her guilt, she makes her own compromise and tells Will they don’t need to move to the new, fancy house after all. This compromise redeems Terri somewhat, but not nearly enough to make up for the heinous thing she has done.

Emma ends up compromising by accepting a date with Ken the football coach, even though she’d much rather be with Will, because she finally comes to her senses and realizes that pining after a married man with a baby on the way is only going to lead to heartbreak. Rachel compromises herself in a sense by trying to act more like Finn’s girlfriend Quinn in the hopes of winning Finn’s affection. She goes to the Celibacy Club meeting that Quinn runs, and she also ends up running a Glee Club meeting much like Quinn runs a Celibacy Club meeting, complete with gavel. Rachel doesn’t completely compromise herself, however. She gets frustrated will Celibacy Club and tells the club members exactly what she thinks of abstinence-only sex education before storming out. She is rewarded with a kiss from Finn, but it’s short lived, as he goes running back to Quinn asking Rachel not to tell anyone what happened.

The Glee Club’s performance of “Push It” at the pep assembly took me back to my own high school days. Had something like that happened at my high school, we all would have gotten an “I’m very disappointed in you” speech from the principal over the PA system. I know this from experience! I guess all high schools have their offensive pep assemblies now and then. Another scene that is especially great satire of high school is when Emma catches Rachel trying to vomit in the toilet. First, it’s revealed that Rachel wasn’t the first one to use that toilet for that purpose that day. It sort of speaks to how image conscious the media trains young women to be these days. Second, when Emma brings Rachel into her office to talk about it, she has a collection of hilarious brochures for every occasion. The one she gave to Rachel was called “So You Like Throwing Up?”

I did, however, have some major issues with this episode. The first, surprisingly, was the music. It felt way overproduced in this episode. The biggest problem was that the lip sync wasn’t quite right. The mouths of the characters weren’t quite moving with the music. I know it’s possible to do good lip sync. There’s a great featurette on the “Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog” DVD (highly recommended…it’s Emmy award-winning!) about the music in that production, and Neil Patrick Harris and Felicia Day both mention how they put a lot of effort into lip syncing properly. Felicia in particular mentioned that she paid close attention to how she phrased things in the recording studio so that it would look natural when she was lip syncing on camera. Natural-looking singing is possible in a situation like this! My other major problem this episode was just how unforgivable Terri’s lie was. It’s just such an unspeakably awful thing to make someone think they’re going to be a parent when they’re not. I like that her offer to compromise on their living arrangements gives her layers (she’s not completely heartless), but it’s not enough. I also don’t care that it came from a good place. Terri saw the look on Will’s face when she mentioned she had been to the OB/GYN- he was thrilled with the prospect of having a baby- and she decided she couldn’t go through with telling him that there was no baby. Just thinking about what she did makes me sick to my stomach.

Overall, I enjoyed this episode, although it was kind of a roller coaster, what with Emma and Rachel both getting closer to their crushes just to end up farther away than ever by the end. I’m hoping this baby storyline is over soon, because it has the potential to drag down the entire show, for me at least. I’m also hoping that we see a return to more natural, less produced music, even if they are hoping to put a few songs from every episode up on iTunes.

Glee 1.01: "Pilot"

“You’re very talented. . . . I would know. I’m very talented too.”
-Rachel

Even though it was originally broadcast this past spring, I didn’t get around to watching the pilot of "Glee" until earlier this week. I guess I’m looking for a replacement for "Pushing Daisies," my all-time favorite show. "Pushing Daisies" would never fail to put a big, stupid grin on my face, even in its darker episodes. The colors of the world were just so bright, the hyper-reality so mesmerizing, and the characters (especially Chuck) so relentlessly positive. "Glee" seemed like it could possibly fit that mold, given the cuteness with a bit of an edge and the frequency of musical numbers that were apparent from the commercials. "Glee" is an enjoyable show, and I intend to keep watching (and blogging) about it. It’s not quite a "Pushing Daisies" replacement, however. "Pushing Daisies" had my attention fully from the “Pie-lette,” and "Glee" didn’t quite achieve that same level.

First, though, I’ll talk about some of the things I liked. For the most part, I liked that "Glee" also takes place in a hyper-reality. The characters are all a bit more exaggerated than you would find in real life, and when that is done intentionally in a TV show, it can be fun. I also really enjoyed the music. I thought Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab” was an odd choice for a high school show choir, but there was so much energy in the performance that I bought it. I also really enjoyed the performance of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” at the end of the episode. Broadway veteran Lea Michele, who plays star Glee Club member Rachel Berry, really does have an amazing voice. I was amused by Rachel’s choice to sing “On My Own” from Les Mis as her Glee Club audition piece, because it was so typical. “On My Own” was pretty much the standard talent show performance for all girls in my middle and high schools that thought they could sing. Also in keeping with the music theme, I loved the music playing during the opening scene. It reminded me of the early 90’s “C+C Music Factory”-like dance music that dominated my dance recitals in early elementary school, complete with sirens.

I also like how the show can be subversive, sometimes quietly so. For instance, when Will (Spanish teacher and Glee Club director) told Finn that marijuana was found in Finn’s locker during “mandatory, bi-weekly afternoon locker checks” (he was trying to con Finn into joining the Glee Club), I got the feeling that his description of the high school’s locker check policy wasn’t far from the truth. My high school, when I was there from 1999-2002, especially in the later years, was known to bring in a drug sniffing dog now and then. I can only imagine that security has gotten even more intense since. It always struck me as overkill, and I think that’s the point the "Glee" writers were trying to make with that line. Of course, there’s always the argument that kids who are stupid enough to keep drugs in their locker deserve to get caught, but I digress.

Putting those good things aside, the pilot did indeed have some flaws. The biggest problem for me was that some of the characters were very two dimensional. The worst of the bunch was Will’s shrew of a wife, Terri. She was just so over-the-top disagreeable, complaining about the prospect of cooking dinner after working 3 days a week, 4 hours each day at “Sheets and Things,” and complaining about how she deserves nice things. It was blatantly obvious that the writers want the audience to root for Will and Emma the guidance counselor (played by the talented Jayma Mays, whom I’ve mentioned on this blog before) to get together romantically, and I don’t like when things are obvious. Terri is so disagreeable that I cringe during every one of her scenes. Sure, some of the other characters are exaggerated and bordering on caricatures, but Terri is just one step too far.

I’m also not sure how I feel about the split voiceover technique utilized in "Glee." The first half of the episode featured voiceover narration by Will, and the second half featured voiceover narration by Finn. Even though it’s kind of considered cliché and over-done these days, I generally like the voiceover as a device. I get great quotes from voiceovers! I’m just not sure having two characters split voiceover duties each episode works for me. It’s like a book where the author tells each chapter from the point of view of a different character. I usually admire the author for their ability to create all those distinct voices, but I don’t get as invested in the story. Voiceovers work best when they’re used as a framing device to make us think about the theme of the episode ("Grey’s Anatomy" did this well, especially in its first season), or when they’re used to give the show a storybook, fairy tale feel. "Pushing Daisies" would be a great example of the latter. "Glee" isn’t meant to be a storybook, and when the voiceovers are split between two characters, it’s a little more difficult to use them as a framing device or a means through which to really get inside the head of the main character.

Overall, Glee is a pretty fun way to spend an hour, and it also has some depth and social commentary. That’s pretty much what I look for in a TV show. It also has a very important, positive message. Glee really seems to be all about being comfortable with who you are and not letting others try to define you. The show has some issues, but I think that many of them, especially the characterization issues, will go away as we get more time to get to know these characters. Here’s hoping for a long run for Glee so that can happen!

Greek 3.02: "Our Fathers"

“Russ? Don’t let him see you run.”
-Calvin

Monday’s episode of "Greek," which focused on Fathers’ Weekend at the ZBZ house, saw some interesting changes in the relationship dynamics, both romantic and otherwise, between our usual cast of characters. Ashleigh, Rebecca, and Casey were at odds after Rebecca’s actions at the “End of the World” party (and Casey’s part in hiding those actions) were revealed. Cappie and Dale spent some quality time together. And Casey and Cappie had a strange conversation that didn’t really change much at all. Also, this episode offered some interesting fuel for the ongoing debate about how "Greek" portrays female college students, and sorority members in particular.

Ashleigh is understandably extremely upset when she finds out that Rebecca kissed her boyfriend Fisher at the “End of the World” party and Casey knew about it but didn’t say anything. More compelling than the Ashleigh/Rebecca cattiness is what the incident does to Ashleigh and Casey’s friendship. Casey insists that she was just trying to protect Ashleigh’s feelings, but Ashleigh doesn’t buy it. She finds it patronizing. Casey doesn’t get it at first. She’s upset at Ashleigh’s reaction, but she doesn’t register any understanding of Ashleigh’s reaction. After spending a weekend being treated like a child by her dad, however, Casey understood. She didn’t appreciate it when her dad pointed out every little thing she was doing wrong and tried to help her avoid every possible mistake (such as when he asked her multiple times about when she had last taken her car for an oil change), and she realized that Ashleigh must not have appreciated Casey trying to “protect” her from heartbreak.

By the end of the episode, Ashleigh had forgiven Casey, but not Rebecca. I think this speaks to Ashleigh’s heart. Even though what Casey did hurt deeply, Ashleigh knew it came from a good place. What Rebecca did just came from a place of alcohol and narcissism. Ironically, despite Casey’s worry for Ashleigh’s emotional well being, Ashleigh was stronger throughout this episode than Casey was when faced with a similar situation with Evan back in Season 1. When Evan cheated on her with Rebecca, Casey let Frannie convince her that she needed to take Evan back to keep up appearances. Ashleigh instead let it be known that cheating is not okay in her book, and any guy who cheats on her is automatically out of her life.

I generally like Cappie and Dale’s friendship. It’s such an odd pairing, and it usually results in pretty hilarious dialogue. “Our Fathers” showcased more of their friendship than any other episode of "Greek" I can think of. Sad to say, it doesn’t seem like Cappie is actually that great a friend to Dale. First, Cappie ignored Dale in last week’s episode when Dale needed to talk out his feelings about losing his virginity. This week, Cappie spent more time with Dale, but he was still distracted over his drama with Casey. He was, as he put it, “in a funk.” He was turning to just about everything he could think of to fill the void, from book clubs to tennis to new girls. It’s the last item on that list where he came into conflict with Dale and wasn’t an especially great friend. When Cappie and Dale encountered Mary-Elise, a student promoting a Catholic group on campus, Cappie ignored Dale’s attempt to turn to Mary-Elise for spiritual guidance and instead focused solely on trying to get a date with her. This seems like a step back from the more mature Cappie we’ve seen in recent episodes.

Speaking of Cappie, he had one extended conversation with Casey in this episode that just seemed like treading water. They talk about the book he’s reading for his book club, and in that book, the “timing was all wrong” for the couple. Casey then bolts, and that’s the end of the scene. I suppose the fact that, at the end of the episode, when Dale said he didn’t want to find a new God, he just wanted his old one back, Cappie’s look of realization should be some consolation.

Finally, I wasn’t sure whether or not to find this episode’s depiction of female college students troubling. In some ways, the episode really played up the sorority girl stereotype. There’s Becky, the ex-ZBZ who still doesn’t realize she’s not a sister anymore. She doesn’t bother me too much because her KT counterpart, Beaver, isn’t the brightest crayon in the box, either. Then there was the all-out cat fight brawl during the Fathers’ Weekend barbecue. Neither of the fraternities would ever be pictured behaving like this. It was a stereotype of sororities and women in general, and it irked me to no end. The only thing that could have made it worse would have been if there was pillow fighting involved. My anger went down a few notches, however, when the fathers began to act petty too. Casey, Ashleigh, and Rebecca’s dads all sniped at each other just as much, maybe even more so, than their daughters. The evening-out of things helped, even if all characters involved were a bit shrill.

Overall, this was a middling episode of Greek. I liked that Casey and Ashleigh’s argument was resolved by the end of the episode and they are now friends again. I liked that there was plenty of Cappie screen time, even if he wasn’t on his best behavior. The portrayal of women in this episode certainly bothered me, but because it was balanced out for the most part, I kept watching.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Thanks to cable channels broadcasting their original shows at odd times of the year to avoid competing with network fare, summer is no longer quite the TV doldrums it once was. I’ve sampled quite a few of these shows this summer, some of which I’m very attached to now. So, here’s how I spent my summer vacation (when not studying for or taking the bar exam, that is).

1. In Plain Sight

The Premise: Inspector Mary Shannon is a U.S. Marshal assigned to WITSEC, the program that relocates witnesses in high profile federal criminal trials to protect them from retaliation by the people they’re testifying against. Each week Mary, her partner Marshall, and their boss Stan protect a different witness, and trouble usually ensues. Mary also faces her share of home drama, as she lives with her recently sober mom Jinx, her younger sister with a kind of sordid past Brandi, and her new fiancé Raphael.

The Run-down: This show has its ups and downs, but the good generally outweighs the bad. Some of the witnesses of the week are very compelling, like a structural engineer played by Clark Peters (Detective Freamon on “The Wire”) who wants to commit suicide after a bridge he designed collapses. Other witness of the week stories are too farfetched to hold my interest. An example would be the witness in the second season finale which aired this summer. The witness in that episode was a revolutionary from a South American country who angered her government when she tried to organize factory workers. The CIA pulled her out of the country and wanted to fake her death, and they asked Mary to watch over her. I also don’t love the plots about Mary’s family life, because they tend to run towards the over-dramatic, although Mary’s family has been somewhat toned down from the shrill first season finale. The thing that I appreciate most about "In Plain Sight" are the scenes that take place in court rooms. IPS is the only show remotely law related that I can stand to watch because for the most part, they get courtroom scenes right. Or at least they get the big stuff right. Direct examinations sound like they’re supposed to, and there are only leading questions on cross. IPS is truly the only show I can say that about, which is definitely a huge point in its favor.

2. Psych

The Premise: Shawn Spencer and his best friend Burton “Gus” Guster run Psych, a “Psychic Detective Agency.” Shawn, however, is not actually a psychic. He has been trained by his cop father Henry to be extremely observant and use his photographic memory to his advantage. Shawn and Gus get most of their work from the Santa Barbara Police Department, where they often work with Detectives Carlton Lassiter and Juliet O’Hara. Outside of their detective agency, Shawn has a somewhat tempestuous, but usually supportive, relationship with his dad, and Gus is a pharmaceutical sales rep.

The run-down: Other than an ill-conceived short arc involving Shawn’s mother at the beginning of season 3, "Psych" is, for the most part, good silly fun. The mysteries in each episode are pretty simple, but it’s the funny banter between the characters, especially Shawn and Gus, that keep me tuning in. "Psych" has heart. Shawn and Gus are best friends since childhood, and it’s obvious in every episode that they really do care about each other. It has also been fun to watch Detective Lassiter, once a thorn in Shawn’s side, begrudgingly come to respect what Shawn does, even if he knows Shawn isn’t really a psychic. "Psych’s" summer half of the season only started a few weeks ago, but so far the episodes have been the light fun or horror movie spoofs that Psych does well. The only thing I’m not thrilled with so far this season is Shawn’s new girlfriend, Abigail. Shawn doesn’t really seem to care about her all that much, and she’s very meddlesome. In the second episode this season, she met Henry behind Shawn’s back because she wanted to “fix” Shawn and Henry’s relationship. Anyone who watches "Psych" knows that Shawn and Henry, even though they may not admit it, actually have a pretty great father/son relationship.

3. Leverage

The Premise: Nate Ford used to be an insurance claims investigator until his own company denied a claim for cutting edge treatment that could save his son’s life. Nate teams up with “grifter” Sophie, “hitter” Eliot, “hacker” Hardison, and “thief” Parker to form Leverage, Inc. The Leverage team finds people who have been victimized by big corporations and cons the executives of those corporations. The goal is to get some monetary relief for the client and embarrass the executives. The team doesn’t really get along at first, but as they take more clients, they begin to rely on and trust in one another.

The Run-down: I love heist movies, so I find "Leverage" to be a lot of fun. It’s sort of like a 40 minute mini-heist movie every week. The characters on "Leverage" aren’t quite as well developed as the characters in many of the shows I watch, because the focus is usually more on the con, but I enjoy watching the team do their thing so much that it doesn’t matter. It’s interesting to see the variety of methods they can use to accomplish their goal. Sometimes they want to steal a specific item, sometimes they want to mess with the executive psychologically. The team seems to have gone the psychological route more frequently in recent episodes. In “The Order 23 Job,” they took over the floor of a hospital to make a man who had conned countless people out of money think he had a horribly contagious disease. In “The Three Days of the Hunter Job,” the team made a cable news network “reporter” that thrived on her viewers’ fears think she had a lead on a huge story so she would embarrass herself on the air. I prefer the more straightforward heist episodes, however, and last week’s episode, “The Two Live Crew Job,” which saw Nate and the crew go up against a rival team of thieves, did not disappoint.

4. True Blood

The Premise: Sookie Stackhouse is a barmaid at Merlotte’s Bar and Grill in the small, sleepy, Northern Louisiana town of Bon Temps. Sookie tries to be unobtrusive and live an ordinary life, but that’s difficult because she is a telepath. She hears the thoughts of everyone else, and it’s difficult to maintain relationships when you know exactly what the other person is thinking. Everything changes when Bill, a vampire, walks into Merlotte’s one night, because Sookie can’t hear his thoughts. Through Bill, Sookie is introduced to the world of the supernatural beings, or “supes.” Vampires have recently “come out of the coffin” and announced their presence to the general public, but there are shifters and werewolves too. Sookie juggles her everyday life and supernatural politics, occasionally solving a murder along the way.

The Run-down: I got hooked on "True Blood" at first because every episode ended on a cliffhanger, and I wanted to see what happened next. Watching the show encouraged me to start reading the Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries by Charlaine Harris, the series upon which the show was based. Now, I enjoy "True Blood" for the opportunity to spend a little time in the world of Bon Temps. The production design on the show is so excellent that I feel like I’m transported to the world of the books for about 50 minutes each week. To fill twelve episodes a season, Alan Ball, the creator of the show, and his writing staff have expanded upon and developed incidental characters from the books to have whole plotlines of their own. Sometimes this works very well, and sometimes it doesn’t. For instance, this season, Sookie’s best friend Tara, who is sort of an amalgam of the characters of Tara and Amelia from the books, has been under the influence of a maenad, Maryann. This plotline seems like little more than an opportunity to show gratuitous violence and sex, and it really isn’t all that interesting. On the other hand, one of the more interesting storylines of the season has been the story of Hoyt, a member of the parish road crew, and Jessica, a newly-made vampire. Hoyt is pretty much a background townie character in the books, and Jessica is not even in the books, yet these characters are extremely compelling on screen. Overall, True Blood is an addictive way to spend your summer!

"Classic" Recap: Psych "From the Earth to the Starbucks"

“Heard about Pluto? That’s messed up, right?”
-Gus

I’m pretty sure “From the Earth to the Starbucks” is when I first really became invested in "Psych." This particular first season episode of "Psych" is special because it is the first instance in the series where we start to see real character development. Shawn thinks about someone other than himself, and Lassiter is more than just a bully who wants to get rid of Shawn. There’s all the hilarious Shawn/Gus banter you could possibly ask for. Overall, the four main characters are just really well used in this episode. Plus, the action takes place at a space center! As a former space nut (I’ve been to Space Camp three times- true story), I found that aspect of the episode especially fun as well. Please excuse me if this blog post seems a little disjointed. I’m a little distracted by all the buzz on Whedonesque and Twitter suggesting something may be brewing in the world of everybody’s favorite internet musical, “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.” A short vid for the Emmys, perhaps? Anyway, let me just put my Neil Patrick Harris fangirl-ness aside for a minute and get back to talking about "Psych." Gotta take a deep breath…

And back to our regularly scheduled programming! Shawn and Lassiter both really appear as well-rounded, three dimensional characters by the end of “From the Earth to the Starbucks.” There are two times when Shawn actually does something nice for someone else. The first is the very beginning of the episode when he’s at Tom Blair’s Pub, and he figures out that his date just got out of a relationship. He’s okay with being the rebound guy, but then he figures out that his date’s ex didn’t cheat on her, he was about to propose. Instead of continuing the date, Shawn encourages the woman to call her ex, and she happily bounces back into the bar after the phone call to announce that she’s engaged. Shawn’s bigger selfless act of the episode is actually the episode’s focus. He decides to start investigating a case Lassiter has been having trouble with free of charge. And he wants Lassiter to take all the credit and believe it was his own work that led to the arrest. This is clearly not normal behavior for Shawn, who likes to be the center of attention. Gus acknowledges how strange it is when Shawn first tells him the idea. Gus is baffled, in fact, that Shawn doesn’t want to take the credit. That opening scene in Tom Blair’s Pub also gives more depth to Lassiter. Shawn finds Lassiter in the pub very drunk because it has been two years since Lassiter and his wife separated. Lassiter provides details of the split that he has never told anyone before, and Shawn, and we as viewers, begin to see Lassiter as a human being. That realization is the major reason why Shawn decides to undertake Operation: Get Lassie His Groove Back.

This episode contains some of the funniest Shawn/Gus banter of the entire series to date. The idea that Shawn regularly stalks Gus (that’s how Shawn knows Gus will like to take a case at the Space Center) may seem creepy on its surface, but the result never fails to make me laugh uncontrollably. Gus promises Shawn that Shawn won’t be able to follow him anymore because he’s going to be “stealth…like a jackal.” I especially love Dulé Hill’s head bobs to illustrate being “stealth.” Then there’s the whole scene of Gus actually trying to be stealth when arriving for his next visit to the Space Center. He drives his car around in circles and hides in bushes, only to find that Shawn has gotten a job at the Space Center just so he can be there the moment Gus arrives. Shawn announces to the entire building over the PA system “The Jackal has arrived!”

Every character really gets to shine in “From the Earth to the Starbucks.” I like how Lassiter and Juliet are actually integral to this case. They do police-like stuff such as running phone records. These days, it feels more like Shawn and Gus solve the case in spite of the SBPD, or the SBPD just shows up for the arrest at the end. I also like how this episode shows that Juliet has such a good heart. She doesn’t question Shawn’s psychic ability, and as soon as she finds out that the purpose of Shawn’s scheme is to get Lassie back in the game, she’s all in. Gus gets plenty of comedy in addition to the whole “Jackal” sequence, and he gets the girl! Even if it is only for about 5 minutes before Shawn inevitably screws it up (that stalking thing again). In addition to his silly “space run,” Shawn also gets some emotional moments in this episode. He has to deal with the fact that his father is indeed dating again. Shawn doesn’t exactly deal with it well, but it is certainly an interesting struggle to watch.

Another thing I love about this episode is all the space jokes. The quote at the top of this post is pretty much my favorite all-time Psych quote (the episode was written around the time Pluto was de-planetized). There’s also the fun of Shawn trying to run a planetarium program without knowing any constellations. The best moment of that sequence is when he calls one constellation “The Hammer of Jeff.” I also love when Shawn says, “And that is why time travel is not only possible, but has already occurred!” as he leads his motion-sick guests out of the 45 minute (it’s only supposed to be 7 minutes) planetarium program. Anybody else think the creepy klepto janitor in this episode looks like Viggo Mortensen (even though he’s definitely not)?

Shh...gotta post this before Shonda knows I'm here...

Dear Grey’s Anatomy,

It is hard to believe it has been five years. Well, maybe 4.5 if you consider that your first season finale (which was so much better than Desperate Housewives’) was when I truly became committed to you. It’s been three years since you offered me familiarity and companionship when I first moved to a new city. I may not have known many people yet, but I had your first season DVDs to pass the time and not think about the craziness of law school I was about to endure. I considered your characters my fictional “friends” for a while, and it always gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling back when Meredith, Izzie, and George (yeah, George, you remember him, right?) lived together to see them all acting as a family unit. We’ve had our ups, and we’ve had our downs. You provided a way for me to schedule a social occasion with some of my classmates during our first year of law school. You also caused me to spend a panicked weekend on message boards when I should have been studying just to make absolutely sure my instincts were correct and you weren’t killing off Meredith. I purchased your second season DVDs with a gift card I got from some former co-workers. I had the DVDs scheduled to arrive within a week of the release date. My new-found friends at law school were surprised (not sure if they were actually impressed…probably a little freaked out) by my dedication.

I should have seen it way back then when I got those DVDs and season 3 began. I always had to psych myself up to watch the season 2 finale because it was so painful. Not painful because the characters are put through a horrible situation (which they are), but painful because it was contrived and gimmicky. Not the quirky, character-based drama you introduced yourself as back in the winter of 2005. Then there was that whole Meredith almost dying thing. The third season finale was so incredibly depressing that I actually hand wrote a letter to one of your producers warning her you were going down a dark path and that you needed an intervention to be set right again. But I let us keep stringing each other along. I watched the fourth season premiere and was happy that you seemed to be feeling lighter again. I justified “Izzie saves a deer!” to my best friend by saying, “Hey, it’s Grey’s, it’s supposed to be quirky like that.”

After the writer’s strike forced us to be apart for a little while, you came back on your best behavior, and I found myself starting to care about you again. I was considering starting up a blog at the time, and I began my first test blog entry with “Grey’s is back!” I wasn’t, however, thrilled with your choices in season 5. Sadie was a disaster. Izzie’s cancer plot hit a little too close to home since I had just lost a close relative to brain cancer. I was getting tired of all the new characters at the expense of face time for George. Then you killed George. I was, however, content, since we’ve come so far already, to stick with you for season 6 and see where the ride took me. Until now. I see you have big changes planned. You’re moving ahead with different plans for your future, higher aspirations than you had when we first met. That’s fine. You’ll just be following those new dreams without me.

When we met, you were all about the characters. You had sharp dialogue. You embodied a sort of misanthropic worldview similar to my own. Those characters are what kept me coming back to you. It was never about Seattle Grace. Sure, the hospital was bright and shiny and fancy, and crazy things happened there, but that’s not why I cared about you. It was about Meredith, Izzie, George, Cristina, and Alex and their struggle to balance being a doctor with being human. Now, instead of being a show about young people finding themselves, you think you need to be a full-on hospital drama with interchangeable characters that can potentially last for 15 seasons? Seriously? I know ER’s cancellation left a vacuum, but I never liked ER. I never watched ER. That’s not what I’m looking for when I turn on my TV. We want different things out of life. You want to be mainstream fare, a medical procedural, and you know I don’t watch procedurals. I need the character work. I need the quirky dialogue. It’s time we go our separate ways for good. There are plenty of other shows on my TV schedule that I can watch on Thursday nights, and you still (for now) have millions of other viewers besides me. We’ll both be okay.

So, goodbye, Grey’s. It’s been an interesting ride, to say the least.

Thanks for the memories,
Jen the TV Junkie

Greek 3.01: "The Day After"

“He was a nerd, but he was hot. It was just so confusing.”
-Laura (random ZBZ sister)

Last night was the premiere of Season 3 of "Greek" on ABC Family. I first got into "Greek" last winter out of nostalgia. I was in a professional music sorority as an undergrad, and although we weren’t exactly wild and crazy (far from it, actually), plenty of moments in "Greek" bring back college memories. As I watched last night’s episode, I experienced a roller coaster of emotions, first thinking I was going to like how things were turning out, only to realize I was wrong, potentially very wrong.

The theme of “The Day After” can be summed up as regret. Many of our characters are regretting choices they made recently, especially the night before at the KT house’s “End of the World” party. Rebecca is regretting kissing Ashleigh’s boyfriend, Fisher. Evan is regretting encouraging his parents to cut him off from his trust fund. Rusty is regretting going to the party instead of working on the extra credit project he needs to complete to stay in the Honors Program. Dale is regretting losing his virginity to his landlady. Ironically, one of the few characters not feeling regret is Casey, even though her actions the night before had the largest impact on someone else’s life. After Casey broke up with Max, Max up and left the country. Literally. He went back to working with the professor in England he had been helping temporarily in late Season 2. Not only did this drastically affect Max’s life, it affected Rusty as well, and he spent most of the episode (kind of annoyingly) making sure Casey knew that. By losing Max, Rusty lost a valuable advisor, and more immediately, the person with the keys to the building he needed to enter to finish his extra credit project. Casey, however, doesn’t seem all that upset about having broken up with Max. She’s embarrassed by the attention she’s getting from the other ZBZ sisters, and her “pity party” wasn’t about breaking up with Max, it was about not getting a “yes” from Cappie.

This episode really added a lot of depth to the Casey/Cappie relationship. I’ve been a fan of them from episode one, but I did recognize the valid criticism that the show hasn’t really shown us much of why they were once so good together. Their efforts to help Rusty get into the chemistry building show just how alike they really are. At first, I thought that whole situation was a set-up, what with Jordan telling Casey and Dale telling Cappie that Rusty was in trouble. I realized later that probably wasn’t the case. Jordan was just going to her Big Sis for help (shout out to Emma, my own Big Sis!), and Dale really wanted to talk to somebody about what happened with Sheila. The thing that really struck me about the breaking-into-the chemistry-building subplot was that Casey and Cappie, as much as Casey might not want to admit it, are both masters of deception. Both Casey and Cappie pull off perfect cons during this sequence, Casey to get herself and Rusty into the building, and Cappie to get them out. The fact that Cappie’s con involved him sacrificing himself (pretending to have broken into the chemistry building to protest the treatment of animals), was also very interesting. It shows that Cappie has grown up from who he used to be. Even the fact that he showed up at all shows his growth. His entrance was conveniently timed just as Casey said “they don’t show up,” referring to Cappie standing her up for a formal their freshman year. Cappie doesn’t stand up people he cares about anymore. He shows up, and he can be counted on.

There were some little details that really worked for me in this episode, and some that just didn’t. We’ll start with the bad so we can finish on a high note! First of all, Jordan looks noticeably different. She doesn’t look bad, just more made up and with more carefully styled hair. It kind of goes against the tomboy persona she was supposed to have in Season 2. There was also a line reading early in the episode by the actor who plays Rusty that was kind of off. After Jordan, his girlfriend, suggests a trip to the lake, he says, “That sounds like crap!” I, as a viewer (and Jordan), think Rusty is saying that he hates the idea of a trip to the lake. It took a rewatch for me to realize that instead, Rusty had suddenly realized he didn’t finish his extra credit project. There should have been a beat in there, something more like, “That sounds like…crap!” for the true meaning of the sentence to be apparent. Now, for what I liked. I loved the specificity of Casey’s post-“End of the World” pity party. It involved a box of taquitos, seven 100 calorie packs of cookies, watching the first hour of “Once” twice (great movie soundtrack, by the way), and watching the last 45 minutes of “The Notebook” once. This tells us as viewers a lot about Casey. I also love the little “break up” ritual the ZBZ sisters do with the stuffed animal cat and the song. When they sang “nobody loves you,” it cracked me up.

So, after all this good stuff, why did I sound disappointed in my introduction? Mostly because of the season previews that aired at the end of the episode. I would like for Casey and Cappie to be together, mostly because I’m tired of the will-they-won’t-they and the kind of artificial road blocks that have been thrown up between them for the past two seasons. I especially don’t want Casey to get back together with Evan, which is what the previews were hinting at (granted, the previews could just be blowing one moment of one episode way out of proportion). Casey and Evan were never interesting together, and, most importantly, Evan’s kind of a jerk.