I can't sleep.
I've been trying to, but although the adorable snoring of my cat and the calming gurgle of my humidifier I just keep wondering how the last episode of Grey's Antaomy, while lovely in editing, music choice, thematic arcs and the other pieces I have praised decided the choice to take Callie, Arizona, Mark, Lexie and the viewers down was innovative and smart writing.
To me, and my often writing partner Nikki it's lazy, easy, and predictable.
I love Grey's for being a soap opera dressed up in big boy's clothes and not playing around in the cliche land that I expect soaps to mine since they are on everyday year around.
(Do not read below the cut if you have not watched the 1-13-11 episode of Grey's if so, spoilers ahead).
So in the writer's room the decision that how easy would it be for the comfort sex between Callie and Mark (which I still find completely plausible and in character) to result in a pregnancy... as a good idea?
It's lazy writing. The characters already have enough damaged trust, honesty, and betrayal in the simple act of deciding that a career opportunity is more important than your love life.
Many of my friends kept lamenting that the palate cleansing was, of course, going to lead to a pregnancy and how trite to throw the lesbian couple into the often written pregnancy storyline. I kept poo-poo-ing the idea because I trusted the writers to not lead into the easy path.
Both in Mark and Lexie and in Callie and Arizona's relationship children have been a major stumbling block. (At this point I just want Lexie and Arizona to be together, maybe they'll just brush each other's hair). They had dealt with it last year and last season.
I, as someone who love hanging out with kids, but no thank you, no sir-ee no thank you do I want one; loved that they showed Arizona as a person who didn't see kids in her life and how that is not selfish. And she was painted as the 'bad guy' for not wanting kids. Lexie, now at 25, I believe in the show let Mark know she was not ready to be a mother or a grandmother with Sloan's child on the way.
And we're revisiting baby town again with these couples?
I feel like I blissfully decided to follow the Grey's writers on a trip to Africa and paid no heed to my friends trying to warn me about how the writing was on the wall already. I got my passport, I got my Lonely Planet guidebook and read up, but when we checked in I found out that we were not going where I thought we were... on an adventure I've never been on, but instead. I'm going to Iowa (no offense Kamiah)... a state that has some great places to visit, but I've been there... a lot.
I expected more.
I also didn't expect to dislike both Arizona and Callie at the end of the episode.
The episode was filled with trying to get us to hate Arizona more for being an arrogant, unmoving, cold, woman who doesn't fight for anything if it's tough. Interesting, that's not the character I'm used to seeing. Is she just a good man in a storm... when the storm is mild?
Have I felt bad for Callie? Does life not happen how you plan because it's life? Yes. Has she been left by every person she's been in a relationship with? Yes. How about mining that instead of throwing in a plot device like a pregnancy (My last lingering hope is that it was a false positive)
As my tweet said; lazy writing is lazy.
Ceasing Ramble.
P.S. I did think that Wilson Cruz was fabulous in this episode. As well as Chyler Leigh's hair, she should be in shampoo commercials.
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2 comments:
I hate it I hate it I hate it.
The worse thing about this whole thing isn't even the lazy writing, it's the fact that it's lazy writing that thinks it's clever -- haha I got around the lesbians trying to get pregnant trope! without a sperm donor in sight! -- and decided to character assassinate everyone involved, and their relationships, along the way.
Arizona Robbins makes earnest speeches, and advocates for the tiny humans who have no other voice, and covers her patient's body with her own when there is a fucking gunman standing a foot away from her. But suddenly, Arizona doesn't listen? Suddenly, she runs away when things get hard? Last week, she ordered Alex to tackle Stark if he cut off a patient's leg she though she could save. Stark thought cutting off the leg was easier. Did Arizona run away?
I don't buy that Arizona left Callie at the airport because Callie was "cranky" for a week either. I'm not denying that Arizona leaving wasn't awful (and everyone always leaves Callie, which makes it about 50 times worse, because what's worse than having old wounds probed?) but I think Callie is at least a little bit culpable too. She didn't want to go to Africa. She really didn't. Last night's episode made it out to be all Arizona's fault, like Arizona had to make it up to Callie and Callie had done nothing wrong, and when you have to make the audience hate a character to garner sympathy for another you're really doing it wrong, wouldn't you say?
I'm not even touching the pregnant lesbian thing. I'm tired of watching it, I'm tired of reading about it, and I'm tired of ranting about it. Suffice to say, I'll be glad when it stops being the default for any lesbians over the age of 25 on television, but at this point god knows when that will actually be. Somehow, I think it's going to be even worse in this case as it's practically destroyed the relationship (not to mention Mark/Lexie who had finally, finally gotten back together).
I just hate everything about it. I've watched Grey's since the beginning, but I stopped watching right around the time that George/Izzie happened because I HATED that storyline. I'm willing to bet anything in the world that I'm going to feel the same way about this one by the end of the season. Arizona redeemed Grey's in a lot of ways for me, and I started watching again when she showed up but I was actually willing Arizona to leave Callie at the end of the episode. If they continue to write her the way she was last night, I kind of feel like she's already left.
Ditto. The character assassination last night was abominable. The general storyline this year is horrible. It took half a year to get the characters that we know and love back (Yang), and now they're destroying every relationship on the show. I can't tell you the last time I really ENJOYED a whole episode.
If they wanted a clean slate after the shooting, they got it - with a whole new clean slate of viewers because I don't know anyone who is pleased with this story.
The characters are no longer likable. Callie and Arizona were both horrible people in this last episode. Mark was out of character. Even Jackson Avery was unbearable to watch. Mer and Derek are so boring that I can hardly stand their scenes. I don't like Yang when she's with Owen. Teddy's got a storyline that doesn't involve any other main characters! I don't even know how that's possible. The only people I have consistently liked this season are Karev, Lexie, and April.
We've talked at length, so of course you know how I feel about the rest of it...
Babies have no point on television dramas and often ruin them. Don't make this mistake, Grey's. It's over done and I know that your writers have talent. Don't waste it on something so stale and pedestrian.
I'm still pulling for a recalled batch of pregnancy tests that everyone was using.
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