(S04E15) "Tell her... tell her the train is leaving the station and she better get on it... yeah." - Webber

I don't know what to think anymore. You know, at the end of Grey's Anatomy when you see the title card for Shonda Rhimes' production company? Have you noticed what it is? Shondaland? It's a roller coaster. How appropriate. I mean, don't get me wrong. Even though I feel like everything on TV is still getting sort of a free pass to some extent due to post writer's strike "hey, at least it's new" syndrome, this was actually a great episode... for the most part. Which I suppose could be interpreted as getting a free pass due to "hey, at least there was a lesbian kiss" syndrome.

Gallery: Grey's Anatomy: Losing My Mind

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(S04E14) "Hey, everything I did was consensual. In fact, some of 'em even begged for it." - Sloan

I'm gonna start at the end. Why? Because I loved it. More often than not Grey's Anatomy gets awfully convoluted; full of itself even. It makes me just want to yell at the TV and scream, "Get to the point already!" Then Dr. Wyatt did just that. She cut the crap! She finally came out and made an obvious statement. We don't get those too often on Grey's. It was refreshing. Makes me feel like I'm not crazy.

Gallery: Grey's Anatomy: The Becoming

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(S04E13) "It's like I never left." - Addison

She's baaaaaack. The triumphant return of Addison. And yes I do mean triumphant - this was arguably the best episode of the season and it's funny if you think about it. Had the WGA Strike not happened, Private Practice wouldn't have gotten shelved until the fall season (only 9 season one eps aired), and Kate Walsh wouldn't have had all that free time to guest star. With her return came the Grey's Anatomy I remember. Snappy dialogue, good character development, and lots of laughs. Despite the annoying recurrence of all the cases eerily mirroring what's going on in their respective doctors' lives, I loved this episode.

Gallery: Grey's Anatomy: Pieces of My Heart

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(S04E12) "C'mon, lady on the streets, tramp in the sheets. Am I right?" - Sloan

Hey! Remember this show? Grey's Anatomy hasn't had a new episode since January 10th. So naturally, I was pumped for this one. In fairness, though, I've felt that way about anything new since the writer's strike. Bit of a mixed bag here. Part of me loved it because like I said, it was new. But at the same time, the episode was still laden with far too much of the excessive over-dramatic crap that's plagued most of this season. At the most basic level, this show works. But Shonda Rhimes and Co. love to push it and the problem is that they're not always headed in the right direction.

Gallery: Grey's Anatomy: Where The Wild Things Are

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(S04E11) "Call me when she codes." - Hahn

The power of healing. Does it work? Perhaps. I think it went a little too far when everyone who "the healing lady" touched got better, but I prefer to play the skeptic and Hahn's line did it for me. You're a kook and I'll be back when you're on the verge of death.

Healing took center stage in this episode though. Along with redemption, lying, cheating, and neglect. Just like every other episode of Grey's Anatomy. To be honest, I was really pumped for this one. We've been reading for months about this Bailey narrated episode (she really didn't have much to say), but once it got going I found it a little stale. Maybe it's because it's been over a month since the last episode and the story wasn't exactly fresh in my mind. Maybe it's because this is the last pre-WGA Strike episode. Or maybe it's because I'm finding myself less and less drawn to these characters. Either way, I hope this forced time off gives the show a chance re-invent itself.

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(S04E10) "Dr. Hahn. Shut-up." - Meredith

The final pre-strike episode of Grey's Anatomy. Well... technically, there's one more that's been shot (the infamous Bailey narrated episode), but who knows when that'll air. January if we're lucky. Maybe February. Anyway, I liked this one a lot. It definitely made up for last week's mediocre first half. It was hectic and tense despite the fact that you could see most of it coming a mile away. Fortunately, so many things came together... actually, I should say "fell apart."

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Tonight at 10, the annual Barbara Walters special The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2007 aired on ABC. And on the same day, Walters says that she's tired of celebrity interviews. She says that she's "not going after the tabloid stuff" and "It's a different climate now and 20/20 and the other magazines are focused on the big celebrities. I didn't want to keep doing that, I have been doing it for years." That's why people like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton aren't part of the list.

Or could it be that on no planet at any time would these two people be considered even remotely "fascinating?"

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(S04E09) "No one ever better call me Nazi again." - Bailey

Nothing says Happy Thanksgiving like white supremacy and ambulance accidents! OK... well, not really. But that's what we got as Grey's Anatomy slowly winds down to its final pre-WGA Strike episodes. There are only two more in the can and production on the show has been shut down. The resolution to this "event" airs in two weeks and S04E11 currently has no airdate scheduled, though I'm guessing that ABC will save it until after the New Year. Now you'll notice that I put quotes around event. Did it really feel like one? I know the mold for a big episode of Grey's Anatomy usually involves something that crashes or explodes, but this felt more like a regular episode to me. However, as forced and predictable as the cliffhangers were, I am excited to find out the resolutions.

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(S04E08) "You want me to fake a heart attack? I do a great fake heart attack." - Sloan

Oh my god, me writing this is like totally like a term paper! Hellooo stereotypes and clichés! Who thought of this idea? Let's compare the show to high school? Cliques, cheerleaders, nerds, best friends, secrets, sex, and jocks. Weren't these types of comparisons blatantly obvious without all the teeny-boppers running around? The only thing that was missing was a prom... wait, that already happened. It got to the point where I was yelling at the TV, "Ooh ooh, this is gonna be a principal's office joke!" And it was. However, if you can look past the high school level writing that went into this episode, it was actually pretty good.

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(S04E07) "You know you need it." - Alex

I just don't know what to say anymore. No other show on TV leaves me with such a mixed bag of emotions in quite the same way as Grey's Anatomy does. That's ironic, you realize, because the end result is something I can't fully distinguish as enjoyable or painful... so I go ahead and watch it anyway. I know I've said it before, but the title makes absolutely no sense because the show has almost nothing to do with Meredith at this point. What we've got here is this dramatic anomaly caught somewhere in between St. Elsewhere at its best (for quirkiness) and ER at its worst (for dramatic cheese), with some storylines about face-lift grandmas and chronically constipated men who have sex.

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(S04E06) "Are you two... a couple?" - Hahn

I think we might have finally reached a turning point for Grey's Anatomy. This wasn't the best episode, but it set up a lot of things that I think the show desperately needed. The most noticeable difference? The addition of Dr. Hahn. She's added a fresh voice to the Seattle Grace staff and her presence has given life to a simmering feud between Cristina and Izzie which I can't wait to see unfold. We saw some great development from the ongoing saga that is Derek and Meredith, Lexie became more than just "the other Grey," and George and Izzie finally hit a roadblock.

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(S04E05) "Get it? He's trick-or-treating. For ears."- Meredith

She's baaaack! Ugh... before I even get to you know who, let me just say a thing or two about theme episodes. I hate 'em. Halloween. Christmas. National Bologna Day. I don't care what's being celebrated. I hate that simply because of the season, good shows are forced to come up with ridiculous episodes that too often suck. That being said, this one wasn't so bad. It was far less Halloween-y than the previews led us to believe.

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• Katherine Heigl is endorsing a new line of medical scrubs.
  
• Zachary Quinto of Heroes has his own real-life "evil army".
  
• Germany has their share of bad talk-show decisions, too.
  

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(S04E03) "I'm young. I'm a fetus." - Derek

Here we go again. A great episode last week and then we get hit with this weird pile of mush. This wasn't the worst hour Grey's has given us, but it certainly wasn't the best. The whole episode was peppered with some very good moments along with some really bad ones. It's that inconsistency that I find annoying and it's one of the same issues that plagued the show last season. Is it too much to ask for two or three really good episodes in a row before we get a clunker? The truth does sting and the fact of that matter is, Grey's Anatomy is not as good as it once was.

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(S04E02) "Simple question Lexie. Are you an idiot or a stalker?" - Meredith

Well that certainly made up for last week's crappy excuse for a season premiere. It actually felt like old school Grey's Anatomy. The pacing was frantic, the dialogue was snappy, and nothing was overly dramatic or cheesy. Everything was just even for a change. Well... almost everything. I can't stand George and Izzie. Yes folks, Gizzie makes me sick. It's awkward and makes me cringe. I see Gizzie getting all kissy-kissy and I make the same face that I make when I see an overweight person at the mall food-court, shoving fries into their mouth. It disturbs me, but at the same time, I accept it because I know they can't help it. George and Izzie just can't help it either and now they're evolving. George wants to tell Callie! It's like watching a new technology develop. I've seen the future. Gizzie is dead. Behold: iGeorge.

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(S04E01) "I have five rules. Memorize them. Rule number one. Don't bother sucking up. I already hate you. That's not going to change." - Cristina

It's baaaack. OK, brief moment of excitement gone. Were you as unimpressed by this as I was? Look... it wasn't bad, but for a season premiere, that was pretty weak. It felt awkward and out of place, like no one knew where they were supposed to be. Stylistically, maybe that was the point. But it didn't translate for me. I love Grey's Anatomy. It's the Top Gun of TV shows. Everybody likes it. At this point though, going into the fourth season we all know the potential of this show and what it's capable of. I guess I just expected more and maybe that's my own fault for setting the bar too high. Call me crazy, but the losses of Burke and Addison and the addition of fifteen (George doesn't count) new socially inept interns didn't cut it for me.

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I got another letter from an eager TV fan looking for information last week,

Tracy writes:
"In the late ninties their was a tv show on (upn?) about a bunch of high school students who attended highschool on a cruise ship while traveling the world.
I thought Kathrine Hiegl and or Ryan Gosling (possibly Ben Foster) were on it but none of their IMDB credits list it. Any clue what the show was called or who really was on it?"

Well, Tracy, I'm not sure about Katherine Heigl but Ryan Gosling was definitely on a show you described called Breaker High.

On to this week's question...

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(S03E25) For all the negative stuff that's been said about Grey's Anatomy this season, I think they turned out a pretty solid season finale. It made sense, stories ended logically, and let's be honest - it was way better than last season's "prom in a hospital" mess. All the bases were covered. The exams, the wedding, the Meredith/McDreamy relationship status, and the race for chief. Of course the one thing on everyone's mind (the identity of Derek's flirtatious bar encounter) was revealed too. I'm not overly obsessed with what happens next. It was just a comfortable ending with some questions that I'm in no rush to get answers to. I like where that leaves us though because it means we can start fresh in the fourth season and hopefully leave behind some of the things that made this season so lackluster.

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