BREAKING DOWN THE SEASON

So the new seasons of all the shows have kept me busy off late. Here’s what I think of how they’re getting along... (Please leave your comments telling me what you’re liking or disliking about the current seasons; I’d love to know what you think)

Grey’s Anatomy

WHAT I LOVE With the new season, of course there’s the whole thing about the shootout that ended the previous season, and I’m loving everything about how most characters are recovering from the devastation. However, what I’m loving most is combined evolution of the characters. They have all been to hell and back, together, so their bond appears deeper, and that’s been brought out really well. Even the former Mercy West residents, Jackson and April seem to be more a part of the group, and I’m liking their evolution together.  

WHAT I DON’T The road that Christina Yang has gone down after the incident; I just feel like there isn’t enough consistency. Agreed that there had to be a lot of darkness that came with her being held at gunpoint, while she was trying to save Derek Shepherd’s life. But since then, even as she has been scared in the OR, detached from medicine, and had issues with being called a hero, she seemed fine work-wise when she finally seemed more like a doctor during the documentary episode, and then working beautifully on a case after that. A recovery seemed to be taking place, but her quitting after that seems to make no sense. We all know that she’ll be back, so her quitting seems to be just something shock-worthy, gasp-inducing and gimmicky. I hope they deal with it well.

Desperate Housewives

WHAT I LOVE Paul Young’s return! In a very obvious way, the show’s gone back to its roots—the story of the Youngs, which got all us fans hooked onto the show in S1. And I’m enjoying Mark Moses back on Wisteria Lane. He does such a fabulous job with the character, and he brings out the eeriness in Paul in an almost chilling way. I do have an idea as to what his plan is, for which he’s going around trying to buy everyone’s houses on the street, but I’ll just keep the suspense alive here. I know I’m holding my breath to see him executing his plan.

WHAT I DON’T Again, I’m going to go with the gimmicks here. When the season began, Felicia Tillman was put away in prison, and she said she had a plan for Paul, and that she had a street full of friends to help her execute it. I just hope they do something with that, and don’t just leave it as a gimmick. I really want to see them have a major face-off; she was the reason he spent ten years in prison. I also want to see Zach Young come back. We all know that Paul has major unfinished business there!

House MD 

WHAT I LOVE The execution and evolution of House and Cuddy’s relationship. What began with them becoming each other’s weakness on the professional front went on to them confronting each other, on how they could let each other into their lives. Of course, his ways of working include lying to her and going behind her back, doing unethical stuff. That had to come in the way of their relationship, and it has! That’s what I’m loving. I want to see what kind of a challenge that will pose for them.

WHAT I DON’T The way they’re dealing with Olivia Wilde’s absence from the show. First of all, I don’t see why they have to have a fourth person on the team (House worked with a team of three for the first three seasons). Second of all, I’m not liking this hiring and firing of temps one bit, especially the last episode I watched, where Amber Tamblyn was being hired and fired as quickly as House was breathing in and out! That was not even funny, so it was rather pointless!

Gossip Girl

WHAT I LOVE A strong central storyline this season. While Juliet Sharpe seemed like a rather inconsequential character in the beginning, she got interesting when she went to meet her brother Ben in prison, and even more interesting, when she took money from Colin Forrester. I’m hooked on this season to find out her what she and Ben have against Serena Van der Woodsen. I just hope they don’t disappoint. I was afraid the storyline would fall flat after the (fantastic) taking down of Juliet, by the four Upper-Eastsiders, S, B, Chuck and Nate, but her new alliance with Vanessa and Little J is keeping me hooked!

WHAT I DON’T The Blair and Chuck drama. It started with some massive intensity in Paris, Chuck became a changed person, then he declared war on her, and then they called a truce. Till then, it was interesting. After that, not so much! They call a truce, they sign a treaty, then they suspect each other, then they start having meaningless sex, then they decide to be friends, and then they kiss and go upstairs to have passionate sex, and then I was rolling my eyes! I mean, they have taken the characters’ vulnerability to a level, where I’m not even interested in knowing what those two do with each other. I really don’t care what Chuck and Blair decide to be to each other anymore!

Brothers & Sisters

WHAT I LOVE The unfolding of the characters’ stories after the accident. I was a little uncertain about the one-year leap, but the writers played that out really well, bringing a whole new meaning to the characters. From Sarah’s insecurity of her relationship, to Kitty finding a way to let Robert go, to Nora trying to find a purpose in life, to Justin growing up emotionally, to Holly’s illness, and to Kevin and Scotty’s relationship evolving; this season has a lot of substance in terms of character development.

WHAT I DON’T Now I love that Sarah and Luc are engaged and all, but for him to just drop his modelling career, seems a little too convenient. It’s as though, they wrote a modelling career for the character just to make Sarah insecure, and for them to make a commitment. If they had decided to make him a model, the least they could have done was played it out for it to have made a difference to the show; I mean there are simpler ways of making a couple realise that they want to make a commitment! And with Kevin and Scotty, I do like the new angle to their relationship—Scotty being unfaithful—it brought out some intense drama and brilliance in Matthew Rhys’ performance even. But a part of me thinks it was just to give them more of a story this season; they really could have played out the matter of them trying to have children a little more before forcing this angle in!