'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

Sarah Drew, "Grey's Anatomy", "Glee", and Typecasting

Sarah Drew probably isn't someone you've heard of before. She's certainly not a household name. But she is someone who you'll be seeing a lot of this year. She's Dr. April Kepner on "Grey's Anatomy". Dr. Kepner is slightly nerdy, slightly childish, slightly whiny, and apparently a virgin. All of this is probably why I immediately recognized her when I was re-watching "Glee" last night. Sarah Drew (the actress who plays Kepner) was playing a nerdy, childish, whiny, definitely-a-virgin character named Suzy Pepper. Suzy was a student who had a massive crush on the teacher Will Schuster, and was competing with Rachel for his attention ("Glee" S1E10).

Drew is interesting because she graduated from a university (in my hometown!), and then almost immediately started doing voice-work and acting. In 2004, just two years after she graduated, she was in a 38 episode arc of "Everwood". She was also in 4 episodes of "Mad Men" and 2 episodes of "Private Practice". Her role on "Private Practice" is the most confusing, considering that the show often does crossover episodes with "Grey's", yet Drew plays different characters on the two shows.

All I can say is that Shonda Rhimes must really like Drew a lot. After her role on "Private Practice" Rhimes cast her in a new pilot ("Inside the Box") which never got the green light.

Another interesting tidbit is that Kepner's love interest on "Grey's" is played by Peter MacNicol. MacNicol appeared on the incredibly successful "Ally McBeal" as a character much like the one he plays on "Grey's": socially awkward and apparently appealing to attractive women (de Rossi played his love interest on "Ally").

So, are Kepner and MacNicol typecast at all? Possibly. But they're both appealing to watch, and so I don't think anyone will really care.