*Possible spoilers within.*
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Last week, the season premiere of "C.S.I." trumped the premiere of "Grey's Anatomy"'s fourth season by a significant margin. That's because "Grey's Anatomy," a series which once shined so vibrantly, has been reduced to a dull glimmer. Throughout the series' first two seasons, it seemed incredible that a show could maintain such a level of greatness and be so addictive without going off the tracks every once in a while.
But come Season Three, the show did crash. Big time.
Truth be told, Season Three wasn't as bad as some will lead you to believe. The first half of the season was uniformly great. It wasn't until the midpoint, during an arc involving a ferry boat crash, that, ironically, the show crashed as well. In a painfully obvious attempt to garner higher ratings, the writers decided to have Meredith "die." Creator Shonda Rhimes is a big fan of Joss Whedon's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"; one can only surmise that Ms. Rhimes thought she could handle character deaths as gracefully as Whedon. (She couldn't, but in her defense, not many can.) Instead, Meredith's near-death experience - complete with visions of the afterlife, highlighted by the reappearance of Jeffrey Dean Morgan as the irresistible Denny Duquette - seems entirely unnecessary. The actors' straight-faced performances during that storyline just makes the whole thing more hilarious. Re-watching the episodes, it's apparent that the writers realized their mistakes after having made them, but were left with no choice but to make the best of them. One would expect them to deal with whatever problems they've created and then keep moving on. Instead, they took one enormous mis-step after another. The biggest of these, perhaps even surpassing the idea to "kill" Meredith, was the decision to make Izzie (Katherine Heigl) sleep with George (T.R. Knight). The result was the most unbearably grotesque "romance" of the year, an inconceivable concept made all the more nonsensical by the fact that, only a few episodes before, George had suddenly married Callie (Sara Ramirez).
On top of the seemingly ceaseless crimes being committed by the writers, the second part of the season was overshadowed by the infamous conflict between leads Isaiah Washington and Patrick Dempsey, in which Washington heatedly called T.R. Knight a homosexual slur. The incident was blown way out of proportion by a bloodthirsty media, bringing Washington's slur to the forefront and trying to bury his repeated subsequent apologies, which they did quite well. Unfortunately, Rhimes decided that this was worth dismissing Washington from the series, and so, in the uncharacteristically disappointing season finale, Burke just ups and leaves, during the middle of his wedding to Christina (Sandra Oh). It was a terrible, terrible, incredibly foolish waste of one of the series' most interesting characters and most charismatic actors, and a perfectly wretched finish (hopefully) to a number of wretched mistakes.
The season wasn't all bad, though. The pre-ferry half was actually excellent. The writers came up with typically fascinating developments and very amusing scenarios. One could sense, however, that they were feeling the pressure of being the most-watched show on television after two phenomenal seasons. There was noticeably more drama and less comedy. Before deciding to pseudo-kill Meredith, the writers concocted a number of interesting twists, the majority revolving around Mark Sloan (the inimitable Eric Dane), who joined the regular cast at the start of the season. That was an obvious and very smart move on the producers' part, because Dane added just the extra spark the season needed. Sloan's presence resulted in some major (and delicious) character development for Alex Karev (Justin Chambers). Karev had previously been the show's "bad boy," but with Dane filling his shoes (and needing an even bigger pair), Karev gradually evolved into not just a decent guy, but a caring, honorable, and very likable one, though he held on to enough of his hard edge to remain Alex Karev. Karev was also given two of the season's most interesting storylines: a brief and lighthearted romance with Addison (Kate Walsh), as well as the "Jane Doe" storyline, in which Karev discovers a pregnant woman deformed and amnesiac from the ferry crash.
At the season's end, one is left exasperated, exhausted, frustrated, and bewildered, but not entirely unsatisfied. As a whole, the season is evenly great and bad, but even when it's bad, "Grey's Anatomy" is better than most series. The writers made a lot of mistakes toward the end of the season, and they'll have a hard time clearing them up during Season Four. It's uncertain whether the series will ever be as stunning as it was during Seasons One and Two, but if one can look past the misguided writing in Season Three, it's clear that the show still has what it needs to be great. Here's hoping the good doctors at Seattle Grace can put the show back together again.
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sweeth70
Imperdibile!
Reviewed in Italy on June 15, 2020
sweeth70
Reviewed in Italy on June 15, 2020
Questo cofanetto contiene 7 dvd e diversi contenuti speciali.
L'audio è perfetto, vi è la possibilità di scegliere la lingua originale e i sottotitoli in italiano o viceversa.
L'unico neo di questo, e dei precedenti dvd , è quello che i dischetti sono davvero troppo anonimi, grigi e spenti.
Avrebbero potuto mettere un personaggio per dvd, renderli più allegri, più da collezione, ma tutto sommato questo piccolo particolare non rende di certo meno interessante i contenuti, che naturalmente sono la cosa più importante.
Da collezionare senza alcun dubbio!
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