With the first season coming out on DVD tomorrow, and a post-Superbowl audience of 38 million, I'd say a couple of things are clear:
- Start writing that Grey's Anatomy spec. Stat.
- This sucker's the next huge, huge hit.
In fact, Grey's is a pretty good example of the weird, feminized man I talked about in an earlier post. Let's look at the male characters:
Dr. McDreamy/Shepherd - the idealized, unavailable sex object. He's sensitive as all get out. He doesn't always know the right thing to say, but he does seem to always be on the verge of tears.
Dr. Burke - constantly trying to push Yang to define their relationship; the first to say "I love you." Capable of expressing his emotions to the more witholding Yang.
Alex Karev - the one reliable 'bad-boy' in the beginning, who's now that kind of cuddly bad-boy lite.
George O'Malley- great actor. Great comic chops. The standard "let's be friends" guy. Practically one of the girls. The one time he gets to have sex on this show where everyone has sex constantly, he gets chlamydia.
Dr. Webber - nominally the 'big guy in charge.' But he's evidently terrified of his wife. And it looks like in his early affair with Meredith's mother, he wasn't exactly in the driver's seat, either.
I've watched this show from the beginning, and it's amazing how much the "strong male" characters (Burke, Webber, Karev) have been slowly feminized as the show progressed. The level of sensitivity among the men in Seattle Grace Hospital now runs the gamut from A all the way to B.
I mean, fair enough -- it's a show aimed mainly at women, and the head writer and creator's a woman. And yup, we've had years of stereotypical females in every show under the sun. But would it have killed them to keep Alex a jerk? Really?
Carla on Cheers took eight years to become a cream puff. Karev didn't last 22 episodes.
Just sayin. 18-49 year old men, meet Halo...Halo, 18-49 year old men...
5 comments:
The male characters are all men as seen from a woman's perspective. Not that I'm complaining -- it's interesting to see how women see men, and there are enough shows, Lord knows, in which the women are all women as seen from a guy's perspective.
But a guy like Alex would actually spend most of his off hours having nothing to do with women. E.g. hanging with his buds drinking, watching sports, and cussin' women. (Which would be why he doesn't get Izzie, but then a guy like that doesn't really want to.)
And George would have other geek friends. But this is Meredith Grey's universe, so there you go.
Not being a Grey viewer, I caught the first half last week after reading Denis' post and was intrigued enough to watch the second half last night.
I gotta say, I'm kinda surprised you writer-folks are such big fans. I mean, this show seems to be the very definition of "tell" - as in "show don't tell". Everyone speaks their emotions, everyone states the obvious and summarizes the plot as part of their dialogue - including Meredith as she tries to get Sandra Oh to talk to her - to say anything 'cause she has her hand on a bomb in a guy's chest.
Ugh. It got stale fast.
And is it my imagination or does everyone yell at everyone? If it weren't for the odd "surreal sequence", the show would have been pretty monotonous.
And, to pick a fine point, what was with the bomb squad guy walking off with the super-sensitive bomb? Are you kidding me? Suspension of disbelief is one thing, but this was one of those moments when you wondered if the writers bothered to consult anyone (even the internet) on proper bomb disposal techniques. T-e-l-e-g-r-a-p-h.
This show has a great cast. I like Alex, myself. And nice to see Patrick Dempsey doing something post-high-school-comedy-flick, and not suffering from C. Thomas Howell syndrome.
But the dialogue was...contrived, even obvious.
So what's the attraction? Is it purely a guilty pleasure? 'Cause that excuses all. Hell, I watch wrestling from time to time (don't tell anyone! The writing is atrocious, but the overlapping of fake and real is unique).
I hope the show continues to grow, but I can't say I'll tune in anymore. You're right: the men have no balls and, despite the fact I'm as sensitive as the next guy, they don't really speak to me. There's something about this show that reminds me of Ally McBeal - I didn't watch much of that one, either.
If the show comes around, let me know and maybe I'll give it another shot.
It lost me, too, as I detail. I'm not into the soap opera.
I thought last night's ep was weak. I've been a big fan of it from the beginning but ugh, I didn't like part 2 of this Superbowl episode. It just dragged and didn't feel like the Grey's I've come to know and love. It pretty much felt like a stunt, which I know...I know.
As long as it gets back on track after this and we can forget it, then cool.
Well, there's always Dr. Cox from Scrubs!
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