About last night...

Despite my excitement that Grey's Anatomy is back, I can't let that overshadow my disappointment with last night's season premiere. Overall, the episode was uneven. I understand that it's been four months since the last new episode, but I felt like I was watching a recap episode. None of the storylines were really advanced beyond were we left off in May. I get it, we pick up just hours after last season ended, but why? Couldn't we have a few days, a week, or month in between to see the growth and development of the characters in the interim? It felt stale. First of all, those flashbacks. I'm sorry, but Grey's is not Lost (and that's a good thing.) The flashbacks seemed kind of random and for me, didn't add much to the story. It's not as important to me how the interns all met, just that they met. It doesn’t really help me understand any better the relationship between Derek and Addison to see what happened the night he walked in on her having sex with his best friend. She cheated...end of story. I particularly did not like the flashback to when Christina introduced herself to Burke for the first time. If that were me, there would be no way I'd end up with him. He treated her so coldly and with such disinterest. But now, they're in a relationship? Too cold and hot for my taste. Izzy was still pining away for Denny. OK, Denny died. Right. So, now what? Is lying on the bathroom floor going to help? No, not really. I was really surprised by Izzy's behavior last night. She's always been the most pro-active of the interns but she stalled last night. Maybe the old Izzy will be back next week, because she did finally peel herself off the floor and say "I'm ready." Finally...it took you a whole hour to realize that. One of the reasons ER began to flounder was because the focus shifted from the emergency room to the private lives of the characters. Grey's always seemed to maintain a fine balance between both, but that was broken last night, since most of the action took place in Meredith's house. Why weren't Meredith or Christina on duty? There was an outbreak of the flu/plague at the hospital, yet they're sitting shiva at home. Also, this whole "outbreak of the plague" was handled all wrong. Once again, where was the urgency? It's the freaking plague, people. I would have rather seen the interns running around the hospital working on that than hanging around the house making sandwiches and lying on the bathroom floor. One last thing that bothered me...the complete randomness of the chief's wife showing up, all out of the blue, with an ultimatum to choose her or the hospital. She said she made an appointment because she had something important to tell him. What...are you pregnant? got cancer? No, she wants him to retire. It felt completely out of place.

About Addison...the woman we all want to hate but just can't, because she tops Meredith anyday, despite cheating on McDreamy. I have a nagging suspicion that this abandoned baby storyline will reverberate throughout the season. I sensed Addison's baby hunger, but I don't think that McDreamy is going to fulfill that need in her. (Or, going on a longshot here...perhaps she's already been pregnant and lost the baby. Call me crazy, but it seems plausible. And no, the baby's father was NOT McDreamy!).

There were some things to like though, namely Callie. I'm glad she's going to be a regular on the show because there's a lot about her to love. She had the best lines last night: "I'm a total freak. I'm that girl in the back of the class who eats her hair.”; “I'm gonna leave the room for a long period of time for no reason whatsoever.” ; and the killer..."This is 7th grade but with scalpels." Chandra Wilson was robbed, robbed I tell you, of an Emmy. Last night was enough to (hopefully) guarantee her a win for next year. The vulnerability the usually tough Nazi/Bailey showed last night was the best acting of the night. I teared up slightly when she identified Denny's body and whispered to him, "I'm sorry." But the tears really came down when she tried to comfort a distraught Omar when his wife died, asking him to put his hand on hers through the glass panel on the door. Steve Harris' performance last night was so raw. Interesting how the two people who lost loved ones reacted so differently last night...Izzy on the bathroom floor and Omar crying, ranting and hyperventilating.

Grey's is still #1 in my book, so I'm not ready to give up. I know it will get even better as the season progresses. I'll treat last night's episode as Part I to a two-parter that will conclude next week and hope that once we get all this old stuff out of the way, we can move on with these characters. Stay tuned...

Six Degrees looks very promising. I like the direction the show is going in, the pacing works and the characters are believable. I'm glad Carlos is leading the show. His sweet, wide-eyed optimism is encouraging. I've been a fan of Jay Hernandez for a long time, ever since I saw him in the fantastic movie "Crazy/Beautiful" with Kirsten Dunst. I'm intrigued by how these characters' lives will intersect and I can't wait to get to know them better. There seems to be a lot of mystery brewing within each character and if the writing and acting continue to hold up, it will be a very compelling show. Why is Mae on the run? From her parents? Who is the guy giving her advice on the phone? At first, I thought that Laura's husband was still in Iraq, but when she rewound the tape, it became brutally apparent that he really won't be coming back. I think Whitney will learn a tough lesson about love with her boyfriend who just so happens to have a profile on a dating website - trust, that's happened to a LOT of women, you'd be surprised. I hope Damien doesn't succumb to a clichéd illegal lifestyle to pay off his debts but I hope his brother, played by Michael K. Williams, will be a recurring character. I'll be watching....stay tuned...