TVSquad

The "Ask TV Squad" column, published every Wednesday, answers your questions about current and past TV shows, as well as about the celebrities appearing on TV. Every week, I will pick a question (or more) sent to us and provide answers in the column. If your question is not picked for a column, it may be answered in a subsequent column or in TV Squad's APB Podcast.

To submit questions to the "Ask TV Squad" column, you can post them below in comments or email them to asktvsquad@gmail.com.

This week, I answer questions about Chuck, Katherine Heigl, and where to legally watch shows online for the U.S. and Canada.

Let me take that one step further -- Grey's Anatomy is great without Izzie or Meredith.

For the first time since the announcement of her temporary departure from the show, Katherine Heigl wasn't in this past week's episode of Grey's Anatomy and Ellen Pompeo, who's on maternity leave, was only featured in two very brief scenes that book-ended the hour.

The episode expertly blended the Seattle Grace docs with the Mercy Westers and featured a very cool Rashomon-esque story (CSI did the same thing a few years ago).

(S06E05) We've finally reached the big merger episode of Grey's Anatomy. The orange doctors of Mercy West have invaded Seattle Grace Hospital. I can't get warmed up to all of the new characters that this show is shoving down my throat in one episode. All of them seem too pushy in a place where they're foreigners. If the show wants me to warm up to these Mercy West characters, they shouldn't act like dumb jocks or pushy girls with low self esteem.

In the end, the only losers are the patients that were being fought over. All of them went through hell because of the competition.

With Grey's Anatomy and its spin-off Private Practice starting new seasons, I decided to refresh my brain with the previous seasons of these two ABC shows. So this week's Jane After Dark was all about the dreamy doctors.

I've been on board with Private Practice since the beginning, and was especially interested to see what happened with Violet and her baby in the season three premiere. Happy ending there, thank goodness! And while Grey's Anatomy has certainly ebbed and flowed since it began in 2005, I've stuck with it because I've grown to love the dysfunctional characters with all their baggage. It makes my life seem just that much better.

Grey's Anatomy, Season Five

There were parts of this season that drove me a little nuts, like Izzie having "mind-boggling sex" with dead Denny. That whole storyline made me want to jump off a roof, but there were plenty of highlights to the season, as well...

(S06E03) The paranoia kicked in on Grey's Anatomy with the fears of merging with Mercy West. Everyone was on pins and needles wondering whether or not they would get cut. Tonight's episode focused mostly on Lexie and Christina's reactions on how to guarantee themselves positions in Seattle Grace. I still don't see why they were worried because they are good at what they do and even if they got cut, they could easily find jobs.

We also see how much of a loving husband Alex is, being concerned for his wife's health and making sure that she takes her medications.

When Mary Richards burst out laughing at Chuckles the Clown's funeral, I could totally understand that. She's mortified, of course, and when the minister says it's ok, that laughter is what Chuckles would have wanted, Mary starts sobbing. It seemed both funny and realistic.

I was trying to decide if the laughing scene at George's funeral in this week's Grey's Anatomy was realistic, and I guess it is. No one really knows how grief will affect someone, and laughter is as good as any method of handling grief.

I mean, the whole thing was sort of crazy -- that George would be hit by a bus while saving someone. And then that "someone" would be crying more than anyone else at the funeral. No doubt, she was filled with guilt and grief over the whole thing.

If only it were permanent. (Commence booing and hissing at your leisure.)

Turns out that Meredith Grey's temporary departure from Grey's Anatomy this coming sixth season (Ellen Pompeo is going out on maternity leave) won't be the only character taking leave from the halls of Seattle Grace. Katherine Heigl's chock-full-o'-cancer Izzie Stevens will be going MIA for a few episodes as well.

If you're like me, the how and why doesn't really matter because this is just delightful news (my dislike for Heigl and her outbursts is no secret), but the details and spoilers are after the jump if you really want to know.

With a month to go, the news about T.R. Knight leaving Grey's Anatomy finally comes to the forefront with one of the first previews for the sixth season. The preview spends the first 15 seconds at the end of season five, so fans only get 15 juicy seconds of new clips.

The clip is nothing out of the ordinary for Grey's viewers: flashes of white, screaming people's names, faces of panic and running around. The big fans can dissect each scene and realize that there isn't much to analyze.

Here's hoping that the preview actually takes place in the first ten minutes of the show. If I get a lot of unnecessary George flashback for the first hour, I will have to find something to gag myself with.

I realize that celebrities don't always have an easy time of it. They're hounded by photographers, work crazy hours, spend time away from their families while on location, and never know when their current gig might end through no fault of their own.

But, you know what? The rest of us don't have an easy time of it either. Sure, most of us don't have photographers hounding us at every turn, but we work crazy hours, spend time away from our families working, and never know when OUR current gigs might end through no fault of our own.

So it always drives me a little batty when celebrities whine about having to work long hours and such, like Katherine Heigl did on the Late Show with David Letterman and other talk shows -- especially since the aforementioned long day was the direct result of accommodating her schedule while promoting her new film The Ugly Truth.

ABC president Steve McPherson just finished holding court at his network's executive session. Not much in the way of news came up, but when an astute critic -- namely me -- brought up Katherine Heigl's latest foot-in-mouth incident, McPherson didn't mince words.

He called the Grey's star's remarks -- where she complained on several talk shows about her 17-hour first day back on the set, a day that supposedly was created to accommodate her promotional schedule for The Ugly Truth -- "unfortunate." He continued: "It is what it is. People are going to choose to behave the way they behave." He felt especially bad for the show's behind-the-scenes crew, who also put in those long hours without complaint; "It's really hard for the people busting their tails every day to hear that (from Heigl)." He later said that "I'm not going to try to explain someone else's behavior," and repeated the word "unfortunate" once again.

Shooting of Season 6 of Grey's Anatomy has already begun which means only one thing: spoilers are leaking to the web!

Are Izzie and George dead of alive? Will Meredith be pregnant since actress Ellen Pompeo is? Who is returning to the show? Are they introducing new characters? These questions and more are answered in this Grey's Anatomy update!

Warning! Spoilers coming up.

This season's Grey's Anatomy ended on quite a tense note, with both George and Izzie's lives hanging in the balance. Izzie, of course, had been battling cancer for most of the season, while George was hit and then dragged down the street by a bus after pushing a young woman out of the way. The episode ended with both characters flat-lining, leaving fans to agonize for months over who survives. Now, however, it looks as though we may have an answer.

Both of the actors in question, Katherine Heigl and T.R. Knight, have made no secret of their displeasure with the show and their respective storylines as of late. Heigl pulled her name out of Emmy consideration last year, while Knight reportedly asked to be let out of his contract this past December. The behind-the-scenes grumbling has led to a great deal of speculation about who may live and who may die, but now E! Online's Marc Malkin is reporting that he knows the fate of at least one of those two characters.