I don't know that I love this show--I'm not sure how--but I ran into a problem I didn't see coming. I started finding characters I liked.
I really liked Bailey, because awesome. She was the first and best and the love of my life.
Bailey's like what, five one, right? I can't really believe that, and it's a very weird thing, because even in scenes where the height difference is obvious, she always seemed huge and towering over everyone by sheer personality. I still can't quite see it no matter if she's staring up at someone; it doesn't even register. I feel like she's on a different show than the rest of the cast; her professionalism seems professional even when she's doing insane things, and oh my God, her expressions are amazing, and I could talk days about that, including when I became near-hysterical and almost cried when she was in labor and she just crumbled because all this shit in her life hit her at once and she just hit her limit and wanted to kill everyone for treating her like she was fragile and almost making her believe she was when she's not. (George was awesome there, and his taste in hopeless crushes is so much better here than pretty much anywhere else. I could love George just for that when he went in to talk to her and didn't act like her being pregnant made her stupid.)
Then I got hit with the twofer of Cristina and Izzy. I do not know why--I don't--because they're exact opposites, but I think part of it was Cristina's amazing hair and her brilliance and her give no fucks for anything but her career except OMG SURPISE EXCEPTIONS that hit her out of nowhere. And Izzy's throw down with Alex over the magazine shoot and stripping down in the locker room and how if she and Cristina went on a rampage they'd literally fuck everyone up (Izzy's "I will physically hurt you" while backing George up against the wall scared me, staring down at him with imminent violence in her eyes; hell yes back down from that).
Cristina especially fascinates me, because I never got the impression she was cold so much as utterly driven in her career to the exclusion of everything else in her personality. The show--in this one thing--or more likely the actress--managed to show how complicated she is as a person, and her surprising herself with her own compassion or empathy (with Izzy, with Meredith (gah), with even George, her complicated and difficult feelings for Burke) felt earned. I don't want her to be less driven, and I hate when that's supposed to be something to be mitigated in a woman by her OMG FEELINGS because driven and perfectionist means you can't also be in love or have friends or care about other things because women are like this or some shit. I like--and I do think this is the actress--that it's the opposite here. Cristina thinks that is true; the show seems to be saying you can be all those things at the same time and be even better because of it.
And then Alex--who I hated and I was convinced was a clone of a neaderthal without a soul--was in the operating room when that woman with the cataclysmic injuries had been five minutes flatline and he was watching the monitor of her fetus and hated it--hated it, so beneath him--until he couldnt' get Addison to come back in when the woman was crashing because she was in emergency surgery and suddenly was like "WAIT HOW LONG WAS SHE CRASHED FIVE MINUTES RIGHT LET ME DO A C-SECTION RIGHT NOW SHOW ME HOW" and omg Baileys' expression (how does she do that with just her eyes?????????) and showing him how and him doing CPR with one finger on the baby. I could dismiss most of his Izzy moments--even Neanderthals have occasional moments of weakness--but that just fuck you Alex.
I feel like I'm in a whole new world where I want Alex to really actually have a soul, marry Izzy, and he and Izzy and Cristina and Bailey go to another hospital for adventures because I just don't think we'll ever get rid of Meredith and her goddamn Ross (I literally don't care enough to remember his name without him and Burke being all manlove, so I call him Ross because Friends was influential in my twenties.) Maybe with George, because he's so clueless and ridic and his hair just makes me feel like he needs a good dom. He does so many things I like, and then there was Callie (I just don't even) and I get it was supposed to be rebound and this is a soap opera but Callie was fucking smoking hot, George!
Still hate: Meredith, Ross!Doctor, even the mention of John Winchester, wait, I mean Denny
Don't really care about: Lexie
Neutral on: everyone else
Sometimes like: Callie, George
Plotlines that I like(d):
This is the only time I like Meredith, literally; the plotline with her mother is amazing. It was a very cool female version of the father/son trope of this kind, and it actually plays out really well and how the repercussions still affect her as an adult. It haunts her, and lots of shows have a son whose failing to follow in the footsteps of a disappointed father (mother whatever), and here we see it work even better with women.
Cristina and Burke - okay, this is where I get torn, because on one hand, I love Cristina and if she wanted Burke, she should have Burke. I just didn't like Burke manipulating her and using their personal relationship events as blackmail to get professional favors and using their arguments to discipline Cristina by withdrawing those favors--it was the doctor version of refusing to have sex until someone gives in. That bothered me. On the other hand, I liked Cristina taking her time about how much she lets Burke in (moving in with him, his physical therapy, engagement) because every time she balked adn dug in her heels in, she didn't give in because FEELINGS. She thought about it, she took her time, she ignored his pressure, and when she decided he was right (or that he wasn't) she made her decision. I mostly liked their relationship as it showed Cristina learning more about herself and what she wanted, what she was willing to compromise on, and I love how Burke still haunted her even a season later because he affected her and changed her that much. And I like most of all that none of this compromised her goals and drive to be a great surgeon.
(The only other time I don't hate Meredith is her and Cristina as BFFs forever. Meredith's at her most likable with Cristina, and Meredith brings out all of Cristina's complexity and feelings.)
Alex and Izzie - this is fairly new, but Alex is showing more traits of humanity (grafted on during surgery I assume?) and Izzie's rage at him when he's a dick and calling him on it works for me (she could beat him up easy). Also--and I can't prove this, so it's my imagination--I sometimes suspect Alex growing into something not unlike a human being because of her.
Anything with Izzie and Cristina and Bailey - I really don't care, if they're involved, it's awesome.
Plotlines I hate hate hate:
Meredith and Doctor Ross. I not only don't care, I actively fast-forward through them. They do the same things over and over again and nothing changes. I honestly don't know why Meredith wants him--the only time I liked him was, again, his very professional and interesting relationship with Burke, which was also when Burke was at his best.
Meredith's mom's affair with the chief of surgery - GET OVER IT MEREDITH. JESUS. HE FUCKED YOUR MOM AND DIDN'T LEAVE HIS WIFE FOR HER. IT WASN'T ABOUT YOU. (Note: I do like how that affair, however, has also had lasting consequences on him, though, and it still haunts his relationship with his wife.)
Izzy and Denny - thank God he's dead. Seeing John Winchester constantly smiling despite his pain caused me indigestion every time.
Now secondary news. My middle sister gathered everyone together yesterday to tell us she's pregnant with her fourth kid, who is due in October. This is much funnier as my uncle was holding court very recently about how four kids in a family was far too many. As her last kid is eight months old, this is going to be a lot of diapers in one family soon.
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