'Grey's Anatomy,' 'Private Practice' are adrift
THE MONITOR
T.R. Knight, beware. Semi-public rumblings about one's desire to be freed from under the firm press of "Grey's Anatomy" creator Shonda Rhimes' thumb have a way of not ending so well. Witness the case of Katherine Heigl, who moped about the lack of quality material the show was providing her and was subsequently punished with scenes requiring her character, Izzie Stevens, to have loud orgasms while copulating with the oddly manipulative ghost of her late love, Denny Duquette (Jeffrey Dean Morgan).
"You want an Emmy-worthy arc?" Rhimes seems to be saying. "Act this!"
In the case of Knight's George O'Malley, who has been debased in countless ways since the beginning of the series in 2005 -- a fitful, badly ending sexual encounter with Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo); having to repeat his intern year -- the options for continued embarrassment are multiple. (That is, if he even gets a chance: Last month, US Weekly noted that George had appeared on screen for only 38 minutes during the first 10 episodes this season.) He's already missed out on his shot with Lexie Grey (Chyler Leigh). Perhaps he'll be forced to reunite with his ex-wife, Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez), herself fresh off an unresolved, and unexplained, lesbian relationship with Erica Hahn (Brooke Smith), a plot turn snipped short before it could generate heat.
Such are just a few of the problems bedeviling the onetime juggernaut "Grey's Anatomy" (ABC, 9 p.m. Thursdays), now floundering in its fifth season. In truth, the show lost its mooring two years ago, after Meredith's near-death by drowning, but this season has been dizzying, careening like a pinball from one unlikely plot turn to the next, and the continued degradation of characters who, for years, had been etched with careful precision.
Maybe Rhimes and her team are stretched too thin. This week, "Grey's" will be coupled with its spinoff, "Private Practice," and which in its second season still hasn't found its motivation, on Thursday nights. But two shows in free fall make for a difficult pairing and might only bring each other down.
