'Grey's Anatomy' Proves that Hair Really Matters

I've already posted about last night's episode of 'Grey's' (S8, Ep13: "If/Then"), so I won't bore you with the details here.

What I want to talk about instead is hair styles. Namely, how crazy it is that simply changing characters' hair styles immediately changes their whole personae.

For instance, I loved Callie's new hair-do, but it certainly made her look way more suburban mom:

Meredith's lack of volume showed how deflated she was with her mother ordering her around:

Bailey's hair-style was a little juvenile, and didn't fit with the harder personality she has in current reality. In alt-reality, where she was under Meredith's mother's thumb, it was perfect:

Cristina's harsh bangs also suited her alt-reality persona, where she was considered unapproachable, and slightly evil:

Hair styles aside, the rest of the costuming was also very well done:

Meredith's day-clothes were almost exclusively pink, signifying how she is still very much a little girl who is controlled by her mother. Her pink watch, and shiny black shoes, reminded me of a suburban child, while her cardigan and button-down screamed preppy: 

 Alex was also screaming preppy with his belt, polo-shirt, and glasses. If they were trying to make Justin Chambers less attractive, they succeeded. If they were trying to make him match Meredith? Yep, that happened too. I think it was particularly well-done because he looked a little over the top, like a boy playing dress up. Considering the fact that he was faking his affection for Meredith (presumably, in part, to please her mother) this outfit makes sense.

Finally, I have to touch on those hideous scrubs. I worked in a hospital for two years, so I know what normal scrubs look like. And no, they don't look like the ones that normally appear on 'Grey's Anatomy'; those are clearly tailored for each specific actor. Still, these ones are especially ugly. And different scrubs for the men and women? That would never fly at any hospital I've ever worked at. Also, why do them at all if you clearly need to outfit Sarah Drew (Kepner) in the normal scrubs due to her real-life (hidden on the show) pregnancy? This is the one costuming decision I don't understand.

photos from givememyremote.com

Tracy Morgan ("30 Rock") consequences of homophobic rants

But Why Would You Say That?

Washington ("Grey's") & Morgan ("30 Rock")

Do any of you remember Isaiah Washington? I barely do. But just a few years ago he was the hot doctor boyfriend of Cristina (Sandra Oh) on “Grey’s Anatomy”. All of that changed when Washington left the show in 2007. He left amid controversy…controversy which he had caused. After news of homophobic slurs against openly gay co-star TR Knight began to surface ABC had little choice but to refuse to renew his contract at the end of the year. If they had actually fired him he would have left shortly after the incident, in the middle of production. The fact that this did not occur made many think badly of showrunner Shonda Rimes (perhaps somewhat unfairly, since it would have been almost impossible to rewrite storylines to explain Washington suddenly disappearing). Regardless, as the NY Daily News stated in an article that they wrote 3 years after Washington left “Grey’s”: “Homophobic comments make bad career moves”.

Because of this, Tracy Morgan’s homophobic ‘joke’ during a recent stand-up routine (which included graphic descriptions of violent actions again gays, and described how he would harm his son were he to state he was gay) seems not only offensive and politically incorrect, but downright stupid. Have actors not learned anything from Washington?

As news of Morgan’s ‘joke’ has spread many have called for him to be reprimanded by NBC. However, some differences do exist between the circumstances of Washington’s rant and Morgan’s graphic comment. Washington’s insult directly related to a fellow cast member (TR Knight) and consequently not only put him in a bad light, but also cast a shadow over the production of the show. Other people involved in “Grey’s” (most notably Katherine Heigel) began taking open stands, essentially dividing the cast and crew. This meant that Washington’s comment harmed both the public’s image of the show, and the continued successful production of the show.

Could Morgan’s slur do the same thing? Yes and no. He did not attack a member of the cast or crew directly, although I am sure that there are plenty of openly gay people who work at NBC. Many of these people were probably upset by Morgan’s comments, particularly if they work with him daily. Still, there was no direct attack.

Morgan also made the comment during his stand-up act, which was in no way related to “30 Rock”, Washington, in contrast, ranted while on the set of “Grey’s”, and is said to have actually grabbed Patrick Dempsey by the neck.

While Morgan did not act violently, he did seemingly recommend violent actions against gays. In a year that has had a number of high profile gay suicides, this could not come at a worse time (of course, there’s really no better time for it either).

Those involved in the production of “30 Rock” have all made official statements.:

As quoted by the Huffington Post, Greenblatt (NBC Entertainment Chairman) said the following:

“I speak for NBC and myself personally when I say we do not condone hate or violence of any kind and I am pleased to see Tracy Morgan apologizing for recent homophobic remarks in his standup appearance. We will always recognize an artist's freedom to express him or herself, but not when reckless things are said no matter what the context. Unfortunately, Tracy's comments reflect negatively on both 30 Rock and NBC -- two very all-inclusive and diverse organizations -- and we have made it clear to him that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated”.

Tina Fey, showrunner and star of “30 Rock”, also spoke up (again, this is from The Huffington Post):

“I'm glad to hear that Tracy apologized for his comments. Stand-up comics may have the right to "work out" their material in its ugliest and rawest form in front of an audience, but the violent imagery of Tracy's rant was disturbing to me at a time when homophobic hate crimes continue to be a life-threatening issue for the GLBT Community.

It also doesn't line up with the Tracy Morgan I know, who is not a hateful man and is generally much too sleepy and self-centered to ever hurt another person.

I hope for his sake that Tracy's apology will be accepted as sincere by his gay and lesbian coworkers at "30 Rock," without whom Tracy would not have lines to say, clothes to wear, sets to stand on, scene partners to act with, or a printed-out paycheck from accounting to put in his pocket.

The other producers and I pride ourselves on 30 Rock being a diverse, safe, and fair workplace.”

I truly adore Tina Fey, but I was a little upset by her statement that Morgan is “much too sleepy and self-centered to ever hurt another person”. That sounds very much like an excuse…as though she is saying that his words don’t matter…and trying to joke away what he said. While I appreciate that Fey made an effort to quickly release a statement, I wish it had not contained that joking line (perhaps she didn’t even mean it that way, but that is how it comes across). It cheapens her to come to his defense. Also, just because she thinks he isn’t ‘active’ enough to commit a crime like the one he suggested, doesn’t mean that somehow who hears him is too inactive.

Regardless, it seems to me unlikely that Morgan will leave the show for good. He is a central character, and would be very hard to replace. His statement was also not made in a setting tied to NBC, and consequently it would be hard for them to directly reprimand him about it anyway.

They are probably incredibly pleased that “30 Rock’ will not be returning again until midseason (due to Fey’s maternity leave). My guess is that everyone at the network is quite happy about her pregnancy right now. Eight months gives the viewers a long time to forget.

*Morgan recently released an apology to the LGBT community: read it here.

grey's anatomy season 7 finale: Unaccompanied Minor

'Grey's' Anatomy: The Seventh Season's Finale

what decisions the writers made and how they're flawed
evaluating "Unaccompanied Minor"
spoilers

All right, I suppose my last post proves that I watched 'Bones' last night instead of 'Grey's'. Honestly, it was kind of a toss-up, but I knew that the 'Bones' fans would be reacting like crazy online, and I knew there would be no way to avoid seeing the answer to the sex question somewhere. And boy, was I right. Almost immediately after the episode EW posted an article and the link literally contained the words 'pregnant'. I'm sorry EW, but placing spoiler alerts in your article isn't really good enough when you're going to give everything away in the title of your link...see-->http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/05/20/bones-season-6-finale-pregnant/.
All right, now that I'm done with that rant I'll get on to discussing 'Grey's'.

First of all, this is FULL of spoilers. So, if you don't want spoilers, don't read on. Seriously.

1. Meredith--She messed with the Alzheimer's Trial. That's an unrefuted fact. And, lucky for us Meredith is willing to own up to that. What she's not willing to own up to is the fact that it may not have been a good decision. This drives Derek crazy.

2. Derek--He finds out Meredith has screwed with his trial (and honestly, she really, really has, I mean all of his hard work is no longer scientifically valid). He says she's going to be a bad mother. Storms off. And refuses to answer her phone calls.

3. Alex--He was upset last week about Meredith's tampering with the trial and let his knowledge slip (drunkenly) to Owen. He is still pissed at Lucy (Understandably!). At the end of the episode Lucy tells him to ask her to stay and he says "go to hell". Thank you, Alex! After all if she had really 'agonized' about stealing that job out from under you then she wouldn't have to even say that to you. And what kind of a power trip is that woman on that she thinks she can screw up your life one minute and be the love of your life the next? I seriously dislike her character, and she has not done one thing to make her the least bit likable. Alex is getting drunk again at the end of this episode, which makes me wonder if the writers are setting him up for some sort of a depressed/abusing alcohol situation next season.

4. Owen--He's all kinds of wrong in this episode. First, Owen tells Alex he didn't get Chief Resident because he ratted Mer out. But we know that Alex did the right thing here. And isn't part of being Chief Resident doing the right thing? And disciplining your peers? (Avery even states this later in the episode). So why did Alex's slip cost him Chief Resident? Sure, he did it in a stupid way, but that's kind of beside the point. And Owen seems to suggest that being Chief Resident is a popularity contest, and that Alex can no longer do it because they all dislike him for what he did to Meredith. BUT Kepner is not at all popular (no one even congratulated her after she won!), and her peers don't think she deserved it...so I don't understand Owen's rationale at all. Of course, Owen's rationale is completely screwy the whole episode: see below.

How Owen's Anti-Women
When Owen finds out that Cristina is pregnant and that she doesn't want to keep the baby he goes off on her. Despite the fact that she has always, always said that she does not want children, he throws the whole 'marriage is a partnership' thing in her face. Owen, Cristina has always said she doesn't want children and you knew that when you married her. What? You think you're so special that your desires should have overpowered hers already? Plus, I don't even want to talk about your pro-life rant at your obviously emotionally distressed wife. What I found truly remarkable was the fact that Owen kept on saying that it should be their decision, when what he clearly meant was that Cristina should do what he wants. He kept on asking her to be quiet, and to listen to him. And she actually did (which is unusual for her, and shows that she does consider him). Besides, she clearly values what he has to say, because last week when he told her she was never going to be Chief Resident, and gave her a valid reason, she accepted it. She wasn't mad, she thought about what he had to say, and she agreed. But in this episode when she repeatedly came to him and said she had thought about it and she still wanted an abortion, he kept throwing "we're a couple, we should make decisions together" into her face. I'm sorry, but who is the one who will be carrying the baby? And whose career will be put on hold for nine months, and then really (to a certain extent) forever. Cristina points out that she's not coldhearted or anti-children, and that she knows that if she has a child she will love it (and consequently change her career path, life, etc.). And Owen laughs her off! Then, at the end when Cristina comes to him with tears in her eyes and says she is having the abortion he kicks her out! It would be one thing if Cristina had told him at some point that she wanted children one day and was then making this decision. She has always always said she never wants children, and Owen married her anyway. If children were so important to Owen he should have married someone who wanted them. What, Owen? You think that women can't have unchanging values or opinions? Oh wait, I forgot that women are idiotic creatures who have constantly changing life values, and who always do whatever their husbands want.

Problems with the Derek and Meredith Situation (Version 7.0):
I take issue with two things. For one, how does Meredith making a stupid decision about a research trial have anything to do with her being a bad mother? She says to Derek that he shouldn't see things in black and white, and that she agonized over the decision. Now, while I think we're pretty much all in agreement that she made the wrong choice, that doesn't mean that she's going to be a bad mother. Umm, Derek? Teaching your kids that decisions are hard and there isn't always an easy answer isn't exactly bad parenting.

And what I really don't understand is Meredith's reaction to their discovery: 'I can't tell you anything because if I don't tell you whose drugs I switched than it won't invalidate the trial'. Well, that would sort of make sense if this was a blind-trial (for those of you who aren't researchers...a blind-trial is when the physician administering the drug has no idea if it is a placebo or the real deal. This is helpful because later when he examines the patient and writes whether or not the 'drug' is working he is not biased by the knowledge that the patient did or did not receive the real drug). But we know for a fact that it wasn't a blind trial! Every time Derek administers the meds Meredith opens the envelope, everyone holds their breath, and then Derek reads whether he is administering the real deal or not. Which calls to question, who the hell designed this research study? Yes, I understand the random selection of who is receiving the drug so that personal favors/the person who 'needs' the drug more etc. don't play a role. But, honestly, if the study isn't blind I'm not sure how they can truly measure the progress of their participants. Sorry for that medical researcher's rant. Maybe ABC should hire me so that we can have a real discussion about how to conduct clinical trials! Also, Derek shouldn't be so upset at Meredith because his whole trial isn't valid anyway.