After the monster epic that was the House review, I’m really going to try to keep this one shorter. And, given that I don’t care about this show anywhere near as much as I care about House, I’m hoping it isn’t even an issue.
Henceforth, on with the show. Chapter 3: Grey’s Anatomy
First off, no discussion of Season 4 of Grey’s Anatomy would be complete without at least some discussion of the agony that was Season 3. Oh, Season 3. I think I speak for everyone who was completed enamored of the show with Season 2 when I say of Season 3, “What the hell happened, Grey’s???” Season 3 was tough. I almost threw in the towel on the show, I’m not going to lie. It was the awesomeness of Season 2 that made me hold on, but it wasn’t easy. Season 3 was just one depressing, painful blow after another and it made for some pretty painful episodes, arcs, character developments, and affected the overall tone of the show in seemingly irreparable ways.
Season 3 saw the complete de-mirthing of the show, the complete annihilation of Christina’s professional drive, acerbic wit and personality, the utterly bewildering change in George’s sweet, goofy, charming demeanor to a scowling, yelling, cynical annoyance to everyone on the show and in the audience, the mere… presence of Izzie (which is more than enough in and of itself), the abomination of Gizzie [insert cold shudder], the deterioration of Dr. Bailey’s confidence, the convalescence of Dr. Burke, who, after everything came out in the open, should have just died at the end of Season 2 and saved us all from his presence on the show, and the continued, but now utterly charmless relationship of Meredith and Derek, culminating in the ferry boat accident episodes, or, as I prefer to call them, “the slowest, lamest disaster that ever was.” Season 3 had some redemptive moments here and there, but by and large, it was just one painful, lame, ludicrous, and quease-inducing (Gizzie, I’m looking in your direction… involuntarily…) blow after another. The behind-the-scenes politics didn’t help this situation any either. Knowing full well that Isaiah Washington was a belligerent homophobe made it difficult to watch him on screen. It was particularly difficult to want to see him and Christina together and just downright awkward to see Burke and O’Malley being all chummy. The tension seeped in each and every scene he was in. Not good.
So. After the shitstorm that was Season 3, I spent much of the summer trying to decide if it was worth giving the show another shot for Season 4. I had heard rumblings from Shonda Rhimes (head honcho over at Grey’s) that she and the writing staff all recognized that there were aspects of Season 3 that didn’t work. They recognized that there needed to be a total shift in tone and return to the balance of drama and comedy that made Seasons 1 and 2 successful. This gave me hope. I decided to give Season 4 a shot…
And it proved to be a vast improvement over Season 3…. and I mean VAST improvement. The premiere was actually entertaining to watch! Hardly painful at all! The writers recognized that they needed to regroup and put the focus back on the main group of doctors and cut some of the 37 other characters who had infiltrated the show in Season 3. Grey’s was showing signs of fun again. The mirth, the competition, game-playing, the gossip, the heart of the show appeared to be making a comeback.
Season 4, while not as fantastic as Seasons 1 and 2, was a lot closer that the show had been in the over 2 dozen episodes that had plagued Season 3. It was nice to see. However, in spite of the vast improvement in the direction of the show, I began to not care about the characters so much and didn’t feel terribly invested in much of what happened in Season 4. As with any show, the audience gets to know the characters and the relationships so well that it loses some spark. I’d like to see Season 5 really spice up the character development and show us some sides of characters we really haven’t seen before. I think the finale for Season 4 sets up Season 5 to do just that.
The finale to Season 4 wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t an edge-of-your-seat rollercoaster or an instant classic, but it was good. It served a very specific purpose and put the characters in the places they needed to be for a rockin’ Season 5. In a way, I look at Season 4 as spending the entire 16 episodes trying to repair the damage done in Season 3. Meredith had to come to grips with her mommy and daddy issues and let Derek into her life, Gizzie had to crash and burn, Christina had to come out of her funk, and basically the entire universe had to take a major shift in a better direction. Season 3 left everyone and everything in a shambles. Season 4 spent every minute trying to repair the damage… and I think it did a pretty good job. I think the “Meredith’s mother tried to kill herself” arc was particularly effective, right there at the end of the season. They had to do a bit of ret-con work, but pulled it off very well. It genuinely made me care about Meredith again, and I’m not going to lie, it’s been a while.
Anyway, I’m actually a bit excited to see where things go in Season 5. There are a lot of character pairings that should prove interesting and now that Meredith and Derek appear to have worked out their issues, the show can focus on characters and relationships that I’m much more invested in. The mere fact that Christina, my all-time favorite character on the show, is finally free from Burke and out of her funk, gives Season 5 a hell of a lot of potential. I love Christina. I’ve missed Christina. And now she’s back. They’re all back. Finally.
Season 4 Grade: C+
Season 4 Grade when you factor in the pain that was Season 3: B
Finale Grade: B+
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