Aftermath Chat: Grey’s Anatomy Super Bowl Arc vs. Ferry Boat Arc
It’s clear that Shonda, ABC, and the rest of the people involved with Grey’s Anatomy put a whole lot of effort (and money!) into topping last year’s Super Bowl/bomb arc.
Do you think they succeeded? Based on ratings, certainly, but did this year’s 3-episode arc meet your expectations?
I’ve been trying to come up with ways they might attempt to top this year. A five episode arc? A whole city in peril? They could do a whole Heroes crossover and have someone blow up Seattle …
Hm, nevermind. lol.
I just hope they don’t try to kill off Meredith again. I think they’ve exhausted that plotline a bit.
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36 opinions for Aftermath Chat: Grey’s Anatomy Super Bowl Arc vs. Ferry Boat Arc
Nikki
Feb 22, 2007 at 7:49 pm
Grey’s Anatomy deff succeeded!!! Hands down. I couldn’t stop watching and I couldn’t wait for the next Thursday to come so I could see what was next. I’m so glad Meridith is still alive. And seeing Denny again was nice.
Jessica
Feb 22, 2007 at 8:01 pm
Richard tonight, said “This is Ellis Grey’s daughter…this is my…”
I’m telling you, she’s Richard’s daughter!
Dorothy
Feb 22, 2007 at 10:36 pm
This was a horrible episode. Yeah, I’m glad Meridith is alive and all, but this was entirely too unrealistic. I believe in miracles and God, but God was nowhere in the storyline, and frankly, there’s no way (as a medical professional) I can believe that Meridith could have come back after more than 1 hour of being dead (try more like 3, given how long the plot seemed to be drawn out), and start talking in full coherent sentences to Christina. Sure, I’m happy she’s alive, and I realize this isn’t a medical show per se, but CAN I GET A LITTLE REALISM HERE PEOPLE? Meridith should be cognitively impaired. I’d even be ok with moderate brain damage, but there’s no way she could be in perfect health after that incident. Perhaps if she were a child (whose brains are extremely maleable and plastic, and who therefore can “miraculously” recover from catastrophic brain injury), but not as an adult. Sorry for my cynicism, but this really ruined the show for me.
emma
Feb 23, 2007 at 4:51 am
That episode was awful. Denny and Dylan having that stupid fake macho fight in the afterlife, “You wanna go right now, let’s go man,” — I couldn’t believe the writers inflicted that on two fine actors.
I didn’t care so much about Mer being out for an hour or more before coming back, that didn’t bother me as much as Cristina coming back and saying Try Again and then the Attendings all, “Well, yeah, maybe we can try again.” and then the heart starts beating on cue. UGH!
And then they yank the breathing tube and everyone leaves the room after 2 or 3 heartbeats! Why? She drowned! She had water damage to her lungs, possible neurological damage, her organs were all barely starting to function and some of them might not have - and they all gave her 3 heartbeats and then said Yay and left the room? Ridiculous.
And then she looks normal and has a normal voice, no pain, just sleepiness, la la la. I couldn’t believe they put that out there, it was so incredibly dumb.
I have some really die hard Grey’s fan friends and they didn’t even get their moment to cry until Denny passed Izzy in the hall. That was the only good moment in the episode.
They didn’t even make Mer’s moment with Ellis in the afterlife interesting. Just a “You are not ordinary!” and a hug, and Meredith’s dark and twisty issues suddenly clear. I’m not ordinary, yay! Now I can really live! Oh good grief.
I’m so disappointed in the writers. I can’t believe the cheese they served us. They are so creative and this is what they came up with - I can’t believe they did that. What a waste.
Jenn
Feb 23, 2007 at 7:27 am
Best Part was Denny and Izzy… that was incrediable. Over all they did what they needed too. People watched and couldn’t wait for Thursday!
Okay, so the drowing miracle was far fetched in medical terms- but seriously, seriously… do you REALLY want to watch TV for reality?? You get far too much of that on the news.
The heart beat “on cue” was more of Mer not giving up. Remember the whole theory is in that stage of “limbo” she had a decision. She could fight, and try to live and struggle and define herself or she could let herself give up and die.
He was a pretty poignant moment in the plot really. After so much drama- it was nice to see a good sensitive storyline.
The mom somehow understood what McDreamy said and it showed in the afterlife… she may have passed, but her daughter needed to go on.
However, I am curious where that leaves the Chief. He was at a loss in the end.
Speaking of endings… Addison in a spin off sounds like a short lived show. I wouldn’t watch it. I like Addison on Grey’s don’t get me wrong… but I am not interested in her life and times solely.
emma
Feb 23, 2007 at 8:04 am
No, I understood the overblown symbolism very well. And I don’t expect a tv show to be absolultely real - but I also don’t want it to be so ridiculously fake that I’m laughing when they are going for sadness.
They did a great disservice to the fine actors they have by putting them through those clunking scenes.
Anyway, there are now entire articles popping up about it - a money and finance blog just started talking about the possibility of advertiser loss after this disaster.
Jenn
Feb 23, 2007 at 8:40 am
The only disaster was having nothing around the episode worth watching. I had already seen the previous week’s episode and would rather have view Ugly Betty. Then, to follow it with an Oscar preview was a bit absurd.
Blog or no blog, the hit show’s popularity is not going anywhere due to the more sensitive nature of this weeks episode. Understanding the symbolism is where the show skips over the “laughability” factor.
So you didn’t like it, you mean to say this ruins your entire Grey’s experience? Better find a new band wagon to jump on I guess.
emma
Feb 23, 2007 at 8:50 am
Band wagon? Strange, I didn’t think watching a TV show constituted a band wagon.
I don’t believe it is the blog that will bring the show down. The bad writing will. The blogs out there are just the first signs of the fan base disappearing. It’s happened to plenty of other previously good shows - it’s not so impossible to believe that people stop watching once it looses its appeal.
I think it’s sad because Grey’s used to be a great show.
Kathy
Feb 23, 2007 at 10:18 am
I’m a huge Grey’s fan, but I too was disappointed in last night’s show. I never had a doubt from the beginning that Mere would survive the fall into the water. But coming back, after being “dead” for hours, was a little unreal. And then, she has all her faculties, memory, speech and everything is fine seems very unreal. And when everyone left the room, after pulling out her breathing tube, it just all seemed so planned. I think the audience is smarter than that and wished for a better realistic outcome. All in all, I was a little disappointed, even though it was good, I think it could have been better.
Susan
Feb 23, 2007 at 11:36 am
I think we are all in agreement. Smart people watch Grey’s Anatomy. No it doesn’t have to be “True Life in the ER” but come on- a few heart beats and then she is extubated and off cardio-pulmonary bypass. At least make her in a coma or sick as stink for an episode with everyone dealing with their own mortality. If she is back in scrubs next week and fine, I will be upset. All we are asking for is good writing and realistic story lines.
Jenn
Feb 23, 2007 at 12:18 pm
Realistic? What television show is truly realistic that isn’t like American Idol, and Survivor?
I think I go back to Mer’s overature throughout the show- miracles happen, not always when they should, and not always with explanation.
The show didn’t lose its crediability for me on that one episode- I agree if she is back scrubs next week with no passing of time (which occasionally the show will skip a week, sometimes it starts up just where it left off) then I will have a little issue with her miraculous recovery. Until then, it was a unique reunion of characters past.
Dorothy
Feb 23, 2007 at 1:01 pm
Emma, Kathy and Susan, I’m in total agreement. Just a tiny bit of realism…. and no, I don’t watch tv for its realism (even most reality tv isn’t “real”), but when a show like Grey’s pretends to care about medical realism (even going so far as to post on abc.com a “did you know” section that discusses the medical conditions in given episodes), and then does this, it’s disappointing.
emma
Feb 23, 2007 at 1:31 pm
I don’t need it to be so real that it’s boring. I just want to get sucked into whatever alternate reality they create for me and be engrossed in that world for 42 minutes. I don’t believe it’s real, I’m just not constantly reminded that it’s fake.
That’s why we appreciate good actors, right? Because they allow us to believe on a shallow level that they’re really happy/sad/angry/in love. For the duration of the movie, you feel what they’re feeling and it affects you.
But last night I kept getting reminded that GA was completely fake and contrived, over and over. You shouldn’t WANT your mind to compile a list of the things that are wrong, inconsistent, cheesy or impossible in real life - but when they start adding up it gets so frustrating that it’s what your mind naturally does.
West Wing - west wing was realistic enough for me to be engrossed for 45 minutes at a go. Sometimes I had “that would never happen” moments, but they happened far enough apart that they could fade before the next one would come along.
Anyway, I also thought the story line of this arc was really awful, beyond any individual scene.
Though Sandra Oh was given some great scenes.
Ashley
Feb 23, 2007 at 2:53 pm
Yeah, the show was a little bit unrealistic, but still what show isn’t?
I realize this was a little over the top realistic, but i’m sure the writers will come up with something better.
Holtwick08
Feb 23, 2007 at 3:03 pm
Emma, don’t you think you’re bring a little too nit-picky and over-dramatic? Just hearing about someone “laughing” sounds a little ridiculous and over-the-top to me.
Kay
Feb 23, 2007 at 3:51 pm
I kept wishing Mer would go with the guys. That was just stupid and over dramatic. I love this show, but lately it has been failing. I think Izzie is over the top and I would love to see Cristina get a bigger part. Bailey is my favorite and I love Addison and those are two reasons I will continue to watch, but after the big build up and waiting for the big finale, I was looking at the clock to see how much longer this nonsense was going to continue. I wish that the writers would realize that we all love GA and that we are intelligent people who look forward to our “fix” every week and take the writing back to where it was in the beginning of the show when it was great.
Susan
Feb 23, 2007 at 5:18 pm
I am a neonatal nurse practitioner. I am amused at Addison’s ability to be an OB/GYN, pediatrician, neonatologist, surgeon. I have dealt with it. The fact that every attending is capable of doing any surgery is unrealistic(what plastic surgeon AKA McSteamy would know how to do neurosurgery and bore holes in the head of a trauma victim-NONE). The thing I like/liked about Grey’s Anatomy was that the stories although unrealistic at times made you forgive and forget some of those shortcomings. The mixture of drama, soap opera, comedy made it interesting.
I was drawn into the story these last three episodes but what is upsetting is the ending of this last show. The struggle to save Meredith and then two seconds later she is okay, talking, “spooning” with McDreamy as the show ends. All the build up and then it drops you flat.
My hope is that the coming episodes tie this all together and give the “drowning on dry land” episodes some validity.
I stopped watching ER a long time ago because I couldn’t stand the medical inaccuracy. I hope Grey’s doesn’t disappoint me the same way.
Tiffers
Feb 23, 2007 at 6:04 pm
You know i also work in the medical field and this past episod was a little far fetched but that doesnt mean that greys anatomy is snowballing down hill. I mean come on i think this is the only comment bored where there is more bashing than anything get over it, i thought it was a great episode for the simple fact that it tied a little reality with a little miracle, which do happen. i thought it was good to tie in the limbo a lot of people believe in that. so i dont know take the show as it is a drama, soap opera not discovery medicine if you want to watch “real” life medical watch that if not then quit nit pickin evey series has an off day
by the way is this a 5 series arc?? because i didnt see scenes for next week and i heard the series was over???
Ashley
Feb 23, 2007 at 6:27 pm
I agree with “Tiffers” everything she said was just how i feel about this whole situation. It’s a little ridiculous that everybody’s bashing the show because of this. She’s right, miracles DO happen. They couldn’t just kill Meredith off because she’s the star of the show. Maybe, they shouldn’t have put her in this position to begin with but they did, and they were stuck.
march 15th is when the show plays new episodes again.
Jenn
Feb 23, 2007 at 8:30 pm
Touche Ashley and Tiffers! Well said!
Susan
Feb 24, 2007 at 5:41 am
Point Taken. I was a Grey’s Fan last month. I am still a Grey’s Fan today and I will still be waiting and watching for the next new episode. I thought this was a site to share frustrations over the show. I am not a writer, producer, or in any way involved in the entertainment industry but if they would like a medical professional to help with story lines, I will volunteer. Days with McDreamy and McSteamy would be a sacrifice but I will suck it up and do it:-) Thanks for all the comments.
emily
Feb 24, 2007 at 10:12 am
Addison spin off would ruin the show!!!!
Johna
Feb 24, 2007 at 10:33 am
im really suprised that everyone didn’t like it that much. I thought it was really good. ok so maybe Meredith coming back to life so fast was a little cliche, but how else were they suppposed to bring her back. I read about hypothermia and it says that they can’t declare you dead until you
are warm. i guess it is kinda like you body is frozen and so it is not all that unlikely that you wake up and you are ok. As far as what the chief said about how this was Ellis Grey’s little girl and then he said “she’s my…” If you listen to the podcast on Itunes, Shonda Rhimes and Betsey Beers talk about how even though Meredith is accually related to the Chief, he feels as though he is kinda like her step dad. Because after Thatcher left he was kinda like a dad to
Meredith. Now that Ellis is gone and he is getting a divorce it is like Meredith is his only family that he has left. I also feel that he is a little protective of her and that is partially why when he first found out about Mer and Derek he was upset. Because it was like his step daughter. Also when he was talking to Ellis about the life they could have had together when she was lucid, he said, and Merideth would have need a brother or sister. Anyway I think it was a great episode.
Ashley
Feb 24, 2007 at 10:41 am
I think the Chief was being protective of Meredith when her and Derek were together again because he didn’t want to see what he sees as a “daughter figure” getting hurt again. But, I don’t think he has anything to worry about anymore because I think Derek really cares for her for real now.
Hmm… so the race is heating up for chief. I think Baileys got a shot now, what do you guys think?
roxy
Feb 24, 2007 at 5:12 pm
idk i have mixed feelings about this episode
i found myself laughing at moments that were supposed to be sad just because they were SO CLICHE
but then i thought the whole idea was kind of creative
b/c seriously we all knew that mer wasnt going to be killed off
i thought it was the best way to bring her back
however it was so unrealistic and kind of bothered me
i agree when people said she should atleast be in a coma or something
but mcdreamy was sooo sweet
Jenn
Feb 24, 2007 at 5:23 pm
What if in the next episode they find she has no memory of anything… you never know, there could be a spin yet. She didn’t say much, Sandra Oh and Mc Dreamy had more to say then Mer.
Ultimately it was nice to have some Denny closure with Izzy.
As was said by Susan, I am a Greys fan today and tomorrow as I will be next month as well.
As for Bailey- I think she has a serious shot at Chief.
emma
Feb 25, 2007 at 4:02 am
“Just hearing about someone “laughing” sounds a little ridiculous and over-the-top to me.”
Laughing at something funny is over the top?
Though crying at badly written scenes is completely normal I imagine. LOL! (whoops, there I go again with the lol - very over the top of me)
PS, this isn’t the only comment board where there is “more” bashing. This board and Shonda’s are the only ones where fans haven’t said they are disappointed.
Jenn
Feb 25, 2007 at 9:21 am
Emma, this is a board where everyone is entitled to have their own opinions and share them. (yourself included)
While maybe this is not your favorite episode, there are many people who truly enjoyed it.
Your tone in poking fun at individual posters is a bit juvenile. We have your point, you don’t like it. That being said, are you through with bashing those of us who did?
Brittany
Feb 25, 2007 at 4:16 pm
I am a nurse, and I could not believe the inaccuracy of this show. I know you have to be warm and dead. Meredith almost died, well she was dead. And then they heated her up, and she lived. But even after they warmed her up, she was still on bypass for a long time w/ no heart activity. Great..but they would NEVER extubate her that quickly after a 4+ hour code like that. And the fact that she talked..totally unrealistic. I would expect some kind of neurologic deficit. And she’s just back to being normal Mer. In real life, she would have stayed intubated and been transferred to the ICU. I had no clue how’d they bring her back, but medically speaking, this seemed really unrealistic. I enjoyed the episode but had trouble not pointing out all of the inaccuracies.
Holtwick08
Feb 25, 2007 at 6:02 pm
Brittany, the storyline of Grey’s is frequently inaccurate. It’s a TV Drama. It’s for a story, entertainment, and ratings. If we wanted to watch real medicine, we’d all watch something like “Untold Stories of the ER” or something like that. However, Grey’s is just so much more interesting. I know many medical professionals who simply don’t watch Grey’s because it upsets them. A lot of us love the show because of the characters, first and foremost. I personally feel like I actually KNOW them. Hearing about all of the little medical inaccuracies are just a buzz kill, and it’s really un-necessary to point them out, especially after so many others before you have already done so. We know it’s not real: it’s a TV show. Again, if we wanted real medicine, we would seek out other shows that can offer us that. But since we don’t want that, we watch Grey’s. And most of us are all perfectly content and happy with doing just that, inaccuracies and all.
And I second Jenn…Emma, is all that REALLY necessary?? And I didn’t laugh or get angry at your little swipe. I just gave it a nice eye roll and wrote it off as childish.
GO GREY’S!!!
Jenn
Feb 25, 2007 at 6:43 pm
Holtwick08
YES, precisely!! That was well said. I appreciate what those with a medical background are saying, but I agree. This is TV… it is not real. I watch because I am engaged in the characters, their trials, tribulations, and so forth. Every show I have ever enjoyed I am sure I could sit back and rip apart, but for what purpose? Wouldn’t that take the fun out of watching in the first place?
I adore Greys, I love the story twist, and the nature of the dramatic lives of these interns and MDs… I am going to continue tuning in for a long time to come regardless of how realistic any one scene may be.
Call me an optimist, but I like the idea of “some kind of miracle” one that defies odds and reminds us they DO exist.
Shame on all of us for become far too cynical that we can’t remember to a more innocent time where this sort of idea still existed.
I second Holtwick- GO GREYS!
Ria
Feb 26, 2007 at 2:34 am
The episode was okay, not my favorite but I still like the show. Good to see Addison step up and try to help that was big of her.
Bailey would make the best chief, because everyone else has so much other crazy going on.
Izzy and Denny was sweet, wish that he had lived.
Anybody know why Izzy didn’t keep some of the money to one day give her daughter if she wanted to go to medical school or to get her(Izzy) own place.
Give George and Cali some money to move out. They need to move out!!!!
Dorothy
Feb 26, 2007 at 11:16 am
I’m still a fan too. FYI, I don’t think that pointing out GA’s medical innacuracies is incongruent with being a fan. I’m still going to watch, but I’m still going to be disappointed when things get REALLY unrealistic (I personally think that there’s a curve to how much fiction I can handle for the sake of drama).
Tiff
Feb 27, 2007 at 7:35 am
You know, people who are in water as cold as the Sound, can be dead for a few hours and be revived…that’s the thing about certain types of hypothermia, like what Meredith said. This is why they so do not assume someone is dead if they are THAT blue and don’t have a heartbeat…something about their metabolism perserving their organs and stuff. Yeah, I read.
I think Shonda and her team did a great job…it was different, yes. But I liked it. I’m also really deep about the afterlife and I like how Shonda made Denny and Bonnie in a sort of purgatory, b/c they missed the people they left behind so much (something merideth would be in). This episode made me think…which is hard to do, b/c tv is so stupid these days.
I also think the spoiler that says, “Derek treats a patient near and dear to him”, that has to be Merideth. You know, she seems fine, but something else may go wrong…you never know.
My only regret about this episode I have is the fact that I was in Seattle when they are filming the ferry boat thing and I didn’t see it. THAT makes ME want to jump into the freezing Puget Sound….but I would quickly swim out b/c around there, that water is GROSS!
P.S. Does anyone else here hate the whip Callie has over poor George and just HATE her in general?
Wendy
Mar 12, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Dorothy,
And others who felt this storyline was unrealistic. Three words, MAMMALIAN DIVING RESPONSE. People in cold water drowning can be revived as Meredith was. I have seen it happen in waters in northern Alaska. The only problem, I think, was that the script did not bring out this medical possibility. They need a screenwriter like me who used to be an RN. “ER”’s stories have, from the beginning, been medically accurate, even though the writers sometimes created situations that wouldn’t have happened in an Emergency Room, i.e. in the real world, patients would have been transferred to another hospital unit.
Lilimayhem
Mar 13, 2007 at 12:41 pm
I liked the 3 episodes story arc…well,I simply sat on the edge of my seat the entire 3 episodes but once it was finished I was like…whaaaat? I feel like these 3 episodes were outside of Grey’s anatomy, while I was watching I suddenly wondered if I was watching a show on Sci-fi channel and thought it was my favorite show. Dont get my wrong, it’s not that I found the episodes unrealistic, I do believe that one can survive what Mer went throught and all we’ve seen. What annoyed me was the whole, Mer is in another dimension thing. It was nothing like I had seen on Grey’s anatomy. And yes I do like to be surprise but when I watch a comedy I dont want to see horror, and when I watch a show that’s suppose to be «real life» I dont want to see ghost passing by living people and feeling each other (though It was cute) and I dont want to see another dimension. I felt like the writers tried too much…
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