Labels

-books -dates -Lists -Movies -Music -musicals and broadway 24 30 Rock 666 Park Avenue Alcatraz Alias America's Next Top Model American Horror Story American Idol Americans Are You There Chelsea? Arrested Development Arrow Awake Awkward Bates Motel Being Human Ben and Kate Bent Best Friends Forever Better with You Big Bang Theory Big Brother Big C Big Love Blue Bloods Boardwalk Empire Body of Proof Bones Borgias Boss Breaking Bad Breaking In Breaking Pointe Bridge Bunheads Camelot Carrie Diaries Charlie's Angels Chicago Code Chicago Fire Chuck Community Continuum Copper Cougar Town Cult Dark Tower Deception Defenders Degrassi Dexter Doctor Who Dollhouse Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 Downton Abbey Elementary Emily Owens MD Enlightened Episodes Event Fall Falling Skies Family Tree Felicity Finder Firefly Following Fosters Freaks and Geeks Friday Night Lights Friends Fringe Game of Thrones GCB Gifted Man Gilmore GIrls Girls Glee Glee Project Good Wife Gossip Girl Grey's Anatomy Grimm Hannibal Happy Endings Harry Potter Hart of Dixie Hawaii Five-O Hell on Wheels Hellcats Hemlock Grove Heroes Homeland House House of Cards House of Lies How I Met Your Mother How to Be a Gentleman How to Live with Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life) I Hate My Teenage Daughter In Treatment Intervention Jane by Design Jersey Shore Justified Last Man Standing Last Resort Life Unexpected Lone Star Longmire LOST Louie Lying Game Mad Men Make it or Break it Man Up Mindy Project Missing Mockingbird Lane Modern Family Mr Selfridge Napoleon Dynamite Nashville New Girl New Normal Nikita Nine Lives of Chloe King No Ordinary Family Off the Map Office Once Upon a Time Originals Outlaw Outsourced Pan Am Parenthood Parks and Recreation Perfect Couples Person of Interest Playboy Club Pretty Little Liars Prime Suspect Psych Raising Hope Real Housewives of New Jersey Revenge Revolution Ringer Rob Rookie Blue Running Wilde Saving Hope Scandal Scrubs Secret Circle Secret Life of the American Teenager Sex and the City Shameless Sherlock Smash So You Think You Can Dance Sons of Anarchy South Park Southland Suburgatory Supernatural Switched at Birth Teen Wolf Terra Nova The Fall The Fosters The Killing The River The Voice Touch true blood Twisted Two and a Half Men Two Broke Girls Under the Dome Unforgettable United States of Tara Up All Night V Vampire Diaries Veep Vegas Veronica Mars Walking Dead Web Therapy Weeds White Collar Whitney Whole Truth Wilfred Work It X-Factor X-Files Zero Hour

Friday, April 1, 2011

Grey's Anatomy - Musical Episode review "The Song Beneath the Song"

BAH HAHAHAHA

Actually, it wasn’t that bad. The musical element worked fine. We accepted the explanation. We could see how it could have been emotional, if there had been more dialogue and better songs. Let’s break down what worked and what didn’t on the Grey’s Anatomy musical episode. Shonda Rhimes said she would like to do another musical episode. This is what she needs to fix.

The Good: Chyler Leigh was surprisingly good. Sara Ramirez was unsurprisingly good. Her cover of “The Story” was the best musical moment here, and probably the strongest part emotionally. The plot was also fine. The baby was a little gross-looking, but that’s what you get when you don’t wear your seatbelt, right? We loved Cristina one-upping Teddy. Thus begins what we will call The Teddy’s Ego storyline. We also loved Mark and Arizona finding some common ground through the struggle.

Plus, the voices sounded really raw, which means that they laid off the autotune. Glee, take note.

The Fixable: The worst things about this effort were the song choices. “How to Save a Life” was ok, but it didn’t sound that great. If it weren’t for the TRAGEDY, the sex sequence and the cute song accompanying it would have worked. Take a note from Glee: What works in a dramatic musical episode? Big, loud, aggressive numbers and powerful ballads. Not hippie, tuneless indie music.

Grey’s has had so much good music on the show. We can’t believe the songs they picked. The K.T. Tunstall one was especially boring. If it had just had the three songs mentioned, plus Lexie Grey’s “Breathe,” it would have been perfect. You should only use up time with songs if they are good. Also, the singing stopped drama from building. There should have been a few more scenes with talking to BUILD the tension and emotion that they were singing about. The songs should have been the catharsis.

We are ticked at Justin Chambers (Alex Karev) for not singing more. Apparently, he lied about not being able to sing, so there was no time to incorporate his voice into more of the episode. Did he take himself too seriously to participate?

Kevin McKidd (Owen Hunt) had a voice that couldn’t decide if it was for rock, Broadway, or light opera. But hey, major props for effort/balls. The singing was decent. Much better than any of the guys in the Mamma Mia movie. His character was the LEAST likely of the guys to burst into song, in our opinion, since it’s such a serious character. But it looks like he was the only guy willing to really try. He directed an episode earlier this season, and now he did this. That actor seems down for anything. After all the complaining snots in the acting world, it’s nice to see someone who isn’t a prima donna.

And no McDreamy singing? What?!! No balls. Sara Ramirez needs to be on belt-mode when she sings. When she uses her quiet voice, it’s a little breath-y. Bailey wasn’t as good as we expected either.

Hey, at least they didn’t bring back Dead Denny and the ghost of Mandy Moore to do a number, right?

And were you not entertained?

Episode grade: B- for quality, A for effort

7 comments:

  1. Personally, I felt that this episode was seriously awkward, perhaps the most awkward in the Grey’s canon, which is saying something. I totally agree with all your suggestions, btw. “Not hippie, tuneless indie music.” Heh.

    I don’t blame the actors for the episode’s inherent awkwardness: Sara Ramirez was fantastic (and her hair looked amazing). I also loved Meredith’s breakdown in the elevator. No, I blame Shonda Rhimes for not realizing that this was a stupid idea for a melodramatic nighttime soap (#ProducerEgoTripsThatOnlyHurtYourActors). It was just so self-conscious! Ugh.

    What do you guys think of the Lexie-Avery (“Lavery”? “Axie”? Definitely Axie!) thing? I’ve made my peace with the demise of Lexie-Mark, but I have some irrational dislike of Avery that I can’t put my finger on. He’s pretty, yes, but he seems kind of vapid. Something about that “relationship” isn’t clicking for me.

    Speaking of which: Bailey and that nurse, that’s awkward and implausible in every way, yes?

    On a positive note: yay for Calzona! They’re my favs ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh yeah, it was super awkward. We cringed. But that kind of humor makes a killing with some people. Just ask anyone who watches The Office. Yeah, yeah, it was supposed to be emotional, not awkward/funny. But the entertainment factor was still there. And we expected it to be a lot MORE awkward.

    We think it's about time Avery got some. We think if they are going to keep him around, they'd better put him in the story more. We don't think Avery seems vapid, but he does seem dumb, in that he always says the wrong thing and pulls the wrong move out of his pocket. Unwise.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It wasn't that bad?! Oh, it was that bad. It was such a trainwreck. I just couldn't look away! I'm just glad it's over.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hahahaha shonda rhimes has already said she wants to do it again

    ReplyDelete
  5. omg, i counldnt beleive my eyes/ears, i had no idea it was going to be a musical when i watched it so it shocked me, its going to be hard to watch the next episode and look at the charactors the same way lmao, why the hell did they do a musical, i was cringing the whole time, i loved all their voices but seriously? it was awful, it was surposed to be a sad, emotional episode but when they are all singing, its hard not to laugh, and if all the good doctors are in the room with callie, what about the other patients hahaha it was interesting to watch ><

    ReplyDelete
  6. If she does another one, it will prove that she doesn't give a darn about feedback from her fans. And also that she's insane. You should have seen the nasty things people were saying on twitter.

    ReplyDelete
  7. anonymous- we wondered how people who weren't expecting it would react. But we thought very few people would be surprised. It was advertised like crazy! And we warned everyone here. We were cringing too.

    Mrs. Potts- It does seem like everyone hated it! Call us sick, but we enjoy a good trainwreck. At least it wasn't boring. We didn't love it, but it wasn't something the show can't survive. We can see Shonda wanting to prove it was a good idea by trying to do it again and making it a success.

    ReplyDelete