ON TV: 'Grey's' season resumes in a darker shade
THE SHOW "Grey's Anatomy"
WHEN|WHERE Tonight at 9 on ABC/7
REASON TO WATCH
After a two-week breather, "Grey's" returns tonight with Derek (Patrick
Dempsey) and Izzy (Katherine Heigl) in crisis.
CATCHING UP Derek Shepherd has lost face after a failed surgery, while he
and Mark Sloan (Eric Dane) almost tore each other's head off in a brawl when
Sloan told him he was "seeing" Lexie Grey (Chyler Leigh). Meanwhile, Izzy's
dermatology exam yielded something ... bad.
WHAT TONIGHT'S ABOUT No preview screening was available, but sight unseen,
this one (titled "I Will Follow You Into the Dark") still feels like one of
those pivotal moments in a season that sets up the Shocking Must-Watch finale
to air six or seven weeks from now. Clearly, it'll be the beginning of the end
for Heigl's Isobel Stevens, while the exit door will be ajar for T.R. Knight's
George O'Malley, too.
These are (or certainly were) big characters, and a lot of care and feeding
will go into their concluding arcs. Meanwhile, Derek learns at a deposition
that he's not the god he thinks he was: More of his patients have died than
survived.
BOTTOM LINE: As Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) might say in one of those
mopey observations before the opening credits, this show that bears my name is
like all human enterprises under the sun - prone to some bad decisions and
blessed with good.... Blah, blah blah. In plain speak, Mere, "Grey's Anatomy"
can be very dumb or very smart. Dumb when overindulging in soap operatics or
groping around under the sheets. Smart when exploring the human dimensions of
the surgeon's trade. (In shorthand, dumb on sex, smart on the workplace.)
And of late, "Grey's" has been workplace-focused. Result: A much better
show. Derek will be in despair over his skill as a surgeon - not over his
skills as a lover. That sets up a richer narrative arc, by offering a whole new
dimension to Meredith-Derek's fraught relationship. After flubbing a surgery,
Dr. Campbell (Faye Dunaway) said, "I'm as human as any of us, and for that I do
not apologize."
"Grey's Anatomy" is human, after all. No apologies necessary, either.
GRADE B(+) (The season thus far)
