Grey's Anatomy - Season 5, Episode 1

So, after a brief period of jumping the shark followed by a promising post-writers-strike return, Grey's is back for another season with a 2 hour premiere.

First thing I noticed....what's with all the bleeding commercials?? Seriously! I'm pretty sure if you took all the commercials out, this would have been a regular hour long episode! Christ.

Now really onto the show. After watching this premiere, I find myself wondering, is this show even relevant anymore? Really? This is coming from someone who was a huge fan in the beginning. Part of the reason that Carra is now somewhat a TV watcher is because I forced her to watch Grey's. I've sat through all 2 hours of the premiere and I have virtually no connection to any of the characters. I'm not getting excited about any of the story lines. I just don't care.

I think the problem is that a lot of the characters are just simply...annoying. Meredith, Izzie, Meredith's sister (see, I can't even be bothered to remember her name!). The only one I'm even remotely interested in is Sloane....and they're doing nothing with him!

In regards to the actual happenings in this episode, I have a few thoughts.

• The dream sequences were completely unnecessary; especially the Denny one near the end. Dude died two years ago...Let. It. Go.
• Meredith whining about her relationship the entire episode is a ridiculous step backwards. We ended the season last year with her taking a huge step forward and making a concrete decision about her relationship. She then spends the entirety of the premiere questioning that decision. Backwards. How much more enjoyable would it have been if they just played out the Rose conflict and left Meredith's neuroses out of it?
• Lexie lusting after George...I'm not buying it. She doesn't sell it well. It doesn't work. As much as I enjoy T.R. Knight, his character would be so much better off if they had taken him in a completely different direction when he failed his intern exam.
• The icicle impalement - while providing some chuckle-worthy moments, completely unbelievable. How long did Christina lay there without the thing melting? At all? Need I remind the doctors of the MEDICAL show that normal body temperature is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. That's warm. Ice melts. The military medic provided some much needed distraction, I enjoyed his repartee with Yang.
• The Callie/Hahn lesbian relationship just seems like the writers are grasping to pair everyone up.

The one thing that will save this episode for me, at least to the point of getting me to watch next week, was the Chief's speech at the end. It struck me as a wiping clean of the slate by the writers. I would like to see the Chief lay down some rules around the personal shit at the hospital. I would like to have the opportunity to get wrapped up in the medical storylines which sadly have been incredibly secondary to all the relationshipping. Remember the two people impaled together in the train crash? Remember the guy with the bomb in him? There was no time for sweating the what ifs in the various relationships with those ones! The medical storyline in this episode was strong, but not enough time was spent on it. I found myself wondering if as many patients would have died if the doctors could have filed away their personal garbage for a more appropriate time.

So, like I said, I will be watching the next episode, but I am not committing myself for the entire season based on this episode. Speaking directly to the writers: MAKE ME CARE!!!

Oh yeah! Those two strangers stuck on a stick... I remember them! I was quite horrified by it, actually... probably why I blocked it...

My first intro to Grey's was of course by Kim... Ahhh, friends who love pushing TV on me... and then giggling darkly as they watch me flounder in the pool of obsession. So obsessed, in fact, that in Season 3 I walked around for a week saying "Meredith fell in the water. Meredith fell in the water and no one saw!" Entertaining at first to most people, then likely annoying as the week drew on.

Anyway, I watched the first 2 seasons on DVD, then watched the 3rd season in real time with the rest of the world. Toward the end of the 3rd I noticed I wasn't really enjoying it as much. By the end I had committed to Season 4, but if they couldn't grab me by Christmas, I was walking.

I made it through Season 4's first episode. Done. It was embarrassing. I walked.

Then by fluke (actually because it followed SYTYCD one night) I saw the last episode of Season 4 and it seemed noticeably better. So I made the same deal. And after watching Episode 1 of the 5th, I... I don't know. I agree with Kim pretty much on all points (especially about Meredith and Derick, who I used to love), and will make my decision next week as to whether or not it will earn 1 hour a week of my life.

However - Izzy's hair all short like that? Best part of the night for me.