Thanks Chief
. She was so animated in this week's episode
.
Overall, I have to say "Brave New World" is the first episode from season five that is truly my favorite. Now don't get me wrong I did enjoy "Here Comes The Flood" and the premiere, however; I had more fun as a viewer with this episode. "Brave New World" had the essentials of a great GA episode: focus on the original interns, comedy, interactions, angst, friendship, competition, and tension. All the pieces that made GA were in this episode. Some of my favorite highlights from the episode were:
Izzie/Alex & Derek - Even though this portion of the episode was one of my favorite highights I have to say I had mixed emotions about it.
The BadImmaturity - Every person in this subplot arc expressed immaturity from Izzie's temper tantrums to Derek's insecurity. In the ABC GA's Panel a few weeks back the immaturity of the characters was discussed(well it was discussed in my chat room). These characters are either over or close to 30s year old, and they are now residents. They shouldn't be behaving like this anymore. While a part of me loves it since it's classic GA another part of me is annoyed by it since I want to see a bit more maturity. Has to be some type of medium
.
Derek - Worst Attending Mentor Ever
. While he was in the right to reprimand Alex and Izzie for their behavior, because let's face it they were acting immature, however, as a teacher Derek also handled the situation wrongly and hypocritically(as previously stated in my sneak peek post). The moment Derek knew Alex lied about the patient should have been the moment he should have took Alex off the case no if's, and's, or but's. Far as I remember the patient didn't request Karev at all, so it shouldn't have been out of Derek's hands then. As the situation between Alex and Izzie increased so did Derek's lack of control of the situation. Derek basically allowed the situation to get out of hand because he did nothing about it until he lost complete, utter control. He didn't listen nor care to find out what exactly happened in regards to the patient stealing. If a teacher doesn't listen nor care about their students to some degree, then it's going to reflect terriblely on the teacher IMO. Alex and Izzie should have handled themselves better, but so should have Derek. Derek was definitely not an innocent attending in all of this.
Alex - Most of his part in the storyline is self-explantory due to terrible behavior, but what takes the cake is his excuse for being mean to Izzie. After Alex explained himself I automatically thought that he needed several sessions with Dr. Wyatt
(granted all the characters do by now lol). While it does explain his behavior in this situation, however; it doesn't mesh with what we already know and seen of Alex Karev. Since the beginning Alex has been callous, mean-spirited, and etc not only to Izzie, but to so many characters on the show. We are in the fifth season, so I'm merely seeing his explaination/apology in regards to his recent behavior. The thing is Alex tends to act very meanly because that's what his character does. That's how he is anyways
. So his explain and/or apology to Izzie didn't do much for me due to his character traits. Sure Alex apologized which is a progressive step for Alex's character, but going through four seasons of this it didn't exactly cut it for me. Don't get me wrong Alex has his moments when he's sweet and kind, but overall that's not in his overall nature.
As stated at the end of last season I don't exactly feel for his character, but for me to even jump onto the bandwagon of Alex/Izzie again, or even tolerate Alex Karev again the writers are going to have to redeem him in my eyes. The writers are going to have to show me, as a viewer, progression, treating not only Izzie well but people around him well, and etc. I just honestly need to see some positives. A. Lot. Of. Positives.
That said I can still appreciate Alex/Izzie storyline because it's wondeful acting material for both Katherine and Justin, and thus giving great amount of screentime for Katherine/Izzie
.
The GoodImmaturity - There are two sides to every coin lol. Granted Alex and Izzie were just downright immature, but it was still so freakin' amusing and funny to watch
. Plus I was glad that Izzie was able to get back her surgery and patient because he was rightfully hers. Alex needed to learn that lesson. Sometimes you have to get down and dirty to prove a point because Alex just continued to push the envelope. You could tell Alex wasn't going to stop until Izzie put her foot down, and she did just that. It was definitely immature, but for GA characters it had to be done or Alex simply would continue on with his abuse. Katherine was just great in the comedy scenes, and it brought about some great interaction moments with the other characters.
Izzie's Smackdown - The moment many of us have waited for
. This has to be one of my favorite smackdowns on the show because it was perfectly led up to and worded. Izzie had valid reasons to be pissed at Alex, and to get him back for what he did to her. Her smackdown was right up with her S1 smackdowns in the locker room and O.R.
. The moments Izzie was pissed off were so interesting to watch since they were either funny or tense. Katherine just hit out of the park.
In relation to Izzie's character I enjoyed her scenes with the patient's wife. The part where they grabbed each other's arm was so sweet.
Derek - Now I'm obiviously not a Derek fan, however; there was on scene I did enjoy with his character: the teaser scene. That scene between Derek and Izzie was so funny even though Derek could have just came out with a robe on since Izzie knocked lol. Patrick and Katherine did a wonderful job with their comedy scene and angst-tension scenes. The way they bounce off each other is interesting to watch.
George & Duncan - I've been wondering when George would get his chance to shine since it seemed like they were backburning him. George was very endearing and sweet with Duncan, and T.R. just has this natural chemistry with the little boy who played Duncan. Their scenes together were very memorable, and I'm glad to see George finally become a resident because his repeated-intern storyline just went nowhere lol
.
"Magical World" aka Dermatology - When I read about this place in the sides I thought it would be uber-lame. It didn't seem appealing on paper, however; the characters of Cristina, Izzie, Mer, and George just brought this whole other world to life. I loved how the original interns looked at the Dermatology residents as if they were in a zoo exhibit
. They were just completely intrigued by this whole other world. The reactions of each member of the Original Interns when they walked into the place were priceless
. I loved how Cristina found the place because she had to pass by yelling Chief(seriously his yelling is uber-annoying this season), pissed off Izzie(she was funny in this moment), and Bailey commanding attention. As she passed by all this tense-angered moments with people she knew she found the Magical World where everything is slow, relaxing, and bright and shiney lol. It was a great to see the parallels.
The scenes in the Magical World were my favorite because you can see the natural chemistry between Katherine, Sandra, Ellen, and T.R. The way they bounce off each other was awesome, and classic GA. I loved how we finally got our first Gizzie friendship moment of the season
. I've been dying for a Gizzie moment and the one they showed was awesome. I loved their talk about the wild west salon(classic Gizzie), and how supportive he was of Izzie getting back her surgery/patient. I also loved that we got the GA Girls together again for an episode. I always loved when they put those three together.
McStizzie - We got to two McStizzie scenes
. I loved that Mark tries to mentor the interns his own way. He's always been 50-50 on the success of his mentoring, but at least he tries more compared to the other attendings. I always loved the mentor scenes between Izzie and Mark.
Like I said this episode was definitely one of my favorites from S5
.
QUOTE(lilkatie79 @ Oct 17 2008, 06:19 AM)
I think Deborah Kahn (sp?) wrote(?), and this week's epi,
I believe Deborah wrote this episode
. Too bad her writer's blog wasn't too thrilling
.
QUOTE
Katherine reminded me why I enjoy watching her so much in everything she does - she has such a genuine quality in her acting.
ITA
. One of the reasons I enjoy watching Izzie's character is because you can watch Katherine act all over the place in the emotional spectrum, and she acts each emotional point to a tee. I really enjoyed Katherine's acting in this episode. She was funny, tough, endearing, animated, and this episode you can definitely notice Katherine's various voice volumes(soft, funny, and badass). Every scene she was in she did something new. For an example, when Duncan and George went into the wrong O.R.(great moment in the episode
) the reaction of Izzie was so funny due to her eye movements
. While Derek and Mark was just frozen at seeing a little boy exit their O.R. quickly Izzie was stunned and looked to her attendings with a WTF look
. Another facial expression was Izzie's reaction to entering the Magical World
.
QUOTE
One thing that kind of irked me though was the fact they we were supposed to care about the little body Duncan and how he was afraid, yet we see Meredith so carelessly lying about knowing his surgical procedure and doing it for the first time that day. It just seemed so irresponsible and made me think about how residents at my local hospitals practice procedures pre-surgery.
I have to admit it irked me too because in this episode we actually knew the patient. We watched how Duncan interacted with George and the other doctors in the hospital. It didn't mesh well with Meredith's lying cardio problem because of the amount of screentime and endearing moments Duncan had. That stated Hahn's physical threat also annoyed me because it was so gosh darn graphic
. She could have reprimanded Meredith another way, so how I'm a bit curious on how Hahn will react to Izzie's LVAD incident reveal in 5.07. I would imagine Hahn being uber-pissed at her especially since Hahn has showed a tiny bit of fondness towards Izzie last season.
.
