Plenty of Grey Area

Well, AJ, what were you expecting?

I watched the season finale of "Grey's Anatomy" last night. Here's the thing about the show… it's not great by any means, but here's where I give the show it's due respect -- as preposterous as some of the actual events that take place may be, at least it stays true to the internal logic of its own universe. It's a melodramatic medical drama, and doesn't try to be anything more.

Case in point, as you may have seen in the previews for the finale, a shooter is loose in the hospital and people will die! Now, at first I thought this was a bit over-the-top, but we learn early on that the shooter in question is an elderly, grieving widower who sued the hospital after they pulled the plug on his wife. He's been on the show a few times this season, and therefore, his motivation for the killing spree is at least plausible. Had it simply been some random act of violence, then I would have cried foul. 

Unfortunately, because we know far too much about the contracts of the stars of our television shows today, we can't truly be surprised when it comes down to which characters will be killed. Going in, both my wife and I correctly predicted that the "pixie" and the "arrogant jerk" would be the likely body count, and even though two of the big stars were indeed struck down by bullets and required emergency surgeries, they both pulled through with flying colors. No need to change the opening credits for next season. Now, if Katherine Heigl hadn't already been written off the show, her character would surely have been added to the death count - but we also would not have been surprised in the least.

While I cannot stand Ellen Pompeo in the slightest, there certainly is a ton of solid acting on the show. Sandra Oh and Chandra Wilson are more than deserving of the Emmy nominations they've earned over the years. But as for the quality of the writing in terms of plot? It's just laughable.

Gimme a rewrite - STAT!

A shooter is on the loose in the hospital, and fairly early on, the police are called in and they set up a SWAT team outside and the hospital is placed in lockdown - which of course, means nobody can get in or out. In spite of this, the only real defense against someone entering the hospital is apparently, "Hey, you! Get back here!" as twice characters we know simply enter past the line of police simply because they need to be inside for scenes later on in the episode. 

This old man then takes a leisurely stroll throughout the hospital for the next two hours, killing people willy-nilly. The police know who he is and that he is acting alone, since the doctors are all over the calling of 911 on their cellphones. The climactic scene at the end of the first hour comes as the gunman stares down Dr. McDreamy, the man he blames for his wife's death. They are standing on a walkway between two wings of the hospital in front of nothing but glass windows. How lame must the sniper presence be to not be in position at this point to take the old man down? 

Nope, no open shot here.

Fine, McDreamy gets shot and the old man wanders around some more and in one of the most puzzling maneuvers of all time, ends up in the operating room with a gun at the head of the doctor attempting to save McDreamy's life. How he got there, I do not know as there seemed to be only one entrance into said room, and two other characters were sitting in front of what should have been the only door in and they never saw him. 

OK, I don't watch shows like this expecting LOST, but come on, guys. At least work a little bit harder at the realism. When the octogenarian assassin suddenly starts to bend the rules of physics on your little hospital soap, you really drop the ball. 

Just saying.