Film Year: 2005
Genre: Drama
Director: Peter Horton
Starring: Ellen Pompeo, Sandra Oh, Katherine Heigl, Justin Chambers, T.R. Knight, Chandra Wilson, James Pickins Jr., Isaiah Washington, Patrick Dempsey
Rifftrax Year: 2007
Riffers: Michael J. Nelson, Bridget Nelson
The Episodes
My experience with Grey's Anatomy is limited. I'm familiar with the show in bits and pieces as I've seen random episodes but couldn't tell you anything about it. My mother is a medical drama freak dating back to being addicted to E.R. and Chicago Hope back in the 90's. She was always onboard with the latest one, though the only one that I myself ever got into with her was House. Grey's Anatomy is one of her "stories" that she catches every week. Apparently she is one of many who never misses an episode, because this show has lasted nearly two decades and is still running. I think the only medical dramas with a healthier run are soap operas like General Hospital, but that would be presuming soap operas are real television.
So after many years I'm in a position where I've cornered myself on this blog and have to go back to the beginning to see just what the hell this show is. Is it more than just doctors who have scandalous sex with other doctors and patients? I know Katherine Heigl is in it at the very least because she has been widely mocked since leaving it for a career as a film actress, which failed miserably. Don't worry, Katherine. You'll always have Bride of Chucky, which I'm sure is better than any episode of Grey's Anatomy.
So what is Grey's Anatomy about? Our main character is Meredith Grey, a member of a new group of interns at a hospital in Seattle. Not only that, she is also the daughter of one of the most well known surgeons in the city, but is trying to keep it on the down low to not seek favoritism. Complications are thrown her way where her handsome supervisor turns out to be a man she had a one-night stand with the night before her first shift. What are the odds! Episode one, A Hard Day's Night, shows Meredith and her fellow interns trying to survive their first shift at the hospital: working on diagnoses, assisting with surgery, and helping keep tabs on patients...none of which go well. The second episode, The First Cut is the Deepest, features Meredith watching over the severed penis of a rapist while also having concerns about a newborn baby's heart murmur. What does any of this have to do with her looking for a roommate? I have no idea.
Oh and she and Patrick Dempsey make out in the elevator. They're totally going to do it again before the end of the season!
I'm not going to lie and say it isn't interesting to go back to the beginning of this hit TV program that I'm only vaguely familiar with almost twenty years on. I didn't even know there was a premise to this other than "Sexy doctors do doctor things on the clock and sexy things off the clock and sometimes on the clock too (yeah baby)." I guess that's what it is now at the very least, but the premise of interns learning the ropes is kind of cute. The whole thrown-into-the-fire angle and learning the hard way makes for some solid drama at the very least. The humor of the greenhorns being driven back by the sternness of the veterans brings about an interesting tone. And in a hospital there are serious repercussions if one screws up, which makes their learning curve a big deal.
My vague interest is not sustainable though. Interns can't remain interns for twenty years. Meredith Grey has to become a full doctor at some point, and that does happen. What is the hook of later seasons? Seeing Meredith's career play out? I mean I guess that works, or at least it seems to be working. It's hard for this to not feel like a run-of-the-mill medical drama once you graduate from the amateur status though. But I'm not intimately familiar with how the series played out so I wouldn't know.
I didn't dislike the show. I enjoyed parts of it, while other parts felt static and by-the-numbers. I see why people took a shine to it, though it's immense success does make me wonder why this hospital drama in particular gained the traction it did. Is it because Ellen Pompeo keeps saying yes to the easy paycheck of playing Meredith Grey, which results in reliable ratings? E.R. can switch out George Clooney because it has no promises of anything other than the title, while it might be difficult to have Grey's Anatomy without Grey, just like it's pointless to continue House without House.
That's more speculation than an observation. I don't know why Grey's Anatomy was the hit it was nor do I have any idea why it's still running. I know my mom watches it every week and if she had her way it would continue for another twenty years. Grey's Anatomy can take comfort in knowing that it has at least one fan that is that devoted.
The Trax
Some new blood is entering the riffing ring! Mike's wife Bridget Nelson is here, and MSTies will remember her under her maiden name of Bridget Jones from back in the MST days which has since become the title of a Renee Zellweger romantic comedy franchise. As RiffTrax continued Bridget would team up with fellow lady MST castmate Mary Jo Pehl and start a series of must-see riffs by themselves. But here it's her and her husband watching a TV show that a husband and wife would watch when it's the wife's turn to pick the program, so it's oddly fitting her first riff is this one. Bridget even notes this might be the most "woman-y" show on television. Say what you will about it's lady appeal, but it's hard to believe this show steals that crown from Sex and the City.
To be blunt, I wasn't really looking forward to this one. I have zero interest in Grey's Anatomy and sitting through the episodes mostly confirms that it's very unlikely to be a bingewatch in my future. And as much as I like Bridget I wasn't sure how entertaining a riff of this show could make it. I don't know if it was low expectations but I actually found this riff pretty funny. Bridget is certainly having a blast, as she gets into that whole girly sassy persona that one would get into while watching a show like this, where they're clearly addicted but can't stop shittalking. There are also a lot of lines mocking TV melodrama in general, which is especially rousing if you remember the 2000's TV landscape.
"Hour 1? I hope Jack can find the terrorist!"
The highlight of this is during the "Previously on Grey's Anatomy" segment in episode two, where Mike, Bridget, and Disembodio put on a little performance of "Previously on RiffTrax" which had me in stitches. It's almost like a spiritual successor to the opening host segment of The Deadly Bees on MST3K ("Don't make me shoot you! Croooooooow!").
The saucy nature of the sexual tensions on the show also come under fire. Mike gives Patrick Dempsey a narcissism like no other, insisting that all bask in his handsomeness. There are some shots taken at Meredith's slight fauning over Dempsey, and her reluctance to admit that she's attracted to this handsome dude she's already had sex with but is trying to ignore. Bridget observes "I don't think she understands the concept of sleeping her way to the top."
It gets a little tiresome toward the end of the second episode. Grey's Anatomy isn't really all that fun to sit down and watch more than one episode of in one sitting and the riff experience follows suit. Luckily the Trax is split in two allowing one to watch the two episodes separately if one wishes. I might do that in the future, to see if the second half holds up better without having already sat through forty minutes prior already. Grey's Anatomy is a pretty fun one, though I'd confess it might just easily be skippable if the show isn't your bag. It's not my bag either but I'm glad I gave it a chance.
Good
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