Blood makes me squeamish. Really squeamish. In fact, at the sight of blood my feet go numb and when it’s really bad, all the way up to my knees. Not numb, per se. Limp, weak, dead. The point is that blood (blood is really more of a blanket term for needles, bones, organs, veins, arteries, etc.) makes me feel woozy and in turn it makes it hard for me to want to watch bloody movies and television shows. So hard I usually turn them off.
I never turn Grey’s Anatomy off. It’s that good. If you don’t watch this show you are seriously missing out. Take it from me, the girl whose feet will go numb at the sight of “the red stuff.” And there’s a lot of “stuff” on Grey’s. You see beating hearts and severed limbs and “stuff” spurts. It’s really quite nauseating, but I keep on watching nonetheless. The reason I keep watching has (believe it or not) nothing to do with the “stuff” stuff. It’s for the drama, the dialogue, the sense of humor, the breadth, the casting and by golly, the characters.
In case you live in a non-Grey’s-watcher-hole, I’ll give you a little background. A group of five med schoolers begin their internship at Seattle Grace Hospital in the first season of Grey’s Anatomy and we watch them learn how to end relationships and save relationships, and how to end lives and save lives. Dr. Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) is the narrator and main character although it’s really more of an ensemble cast. The other four newbies are Dr. Alex Karev (Justin Chambers), Dr. George O’Malley (T.R. Knight), Isobel “Izzie” Stevens (Katherine Heigl) and Dr. Christina Yang (Sandra Oh). Yang is my favorite. I can’t decide if that’s because the character is awesome or if Sandra Oh is awesome. I’m guessing it’s about 50-50.
That said, these five are taught by some of the best surgeons in the country and with their help, we watch them become residents in the fourth season (except for George because he fails his intern exam). The team of attendings [which contains one McDreamy (Patrick Dempsey) and one McSteamy (Eric Dane)], the Chief of Surgery (James Pickens Jr.), and the aforementioned five create a whole lot of drama. All of their personal drama surrounds the drama created by the patients, and round and round it goes. Will so-and-so survive? Will he and she break up?
Season five is much like the previous four seasons, except that the beginning of season five was just mean. Fooling with the audience with a dream sequence is just mean! But, I guess it makes for a sweet sigh of relief when you and the character realize what just happened. While I feel that season four should’ve possible been the end of the series, it wasn’t. I do enjoy the new drama that season five brings, but in some ways it’s just more of the same. It feels like it’s on the verge of becoming repetitive and awkward in season five, but it’s not quite there yet.
The characters are very diverse and the huge cast keeps the show entertaining. In any one episode of Grey’s there are probably about 10 story lines, which is a lot. This translates to the fact that it’s great for a drama lover, but horrible for a hypochondriac. That’s a lot of times in an episode that you could have a minor freak-out that can only result in a long night of WebMDing. Aside from hypochondriacs (and maybe the squeamish if it’s worse than my case of the squeams), this show is really accessible and everyone needs to be watching it. Especially for those who actually like watching the “stuff” stuff. Uh oh. My feet are going numb again.
DVD Bonus Features
There’s a blooper reel! I love blooper reels and this one is pretty good. It’s a bit short, but it’s fun to see the actors being goofy with each other in the midst of filming a mainly serious show. You also get interviews with the creators and a short one with Ellen Pompeo, which was nice. There was another interesting feature called “Heaven Sent,” which explores the Denny Duquette character. Denny is a man who Dr. Izzie falls in love with, and accidentally killed in an attempt to save his life, who comes to her from beyond the grave to continue their relationship. I know this all sounds a little too sci-fi, but it’s really not. And of course to top it off, there is an extended episode and deleted scenes. On a show that begs for an extra features section, the season five extras are not shabby, but not great.
"Grey's Anatomy: The Complete Fifth Season" is on sale September 15, 2009 and is rated NR. Drama, Television. Directed by Peter Horton, Rob Corn. Written by Shonda Rhimes. Starring Chandra Wilson, Ellen Pompeo, Eric Dane, Justin Chambers, Katherine Heigl, Patrick Dempsey, Sandra Oh, TR Knight.
