Living with Coffee Machine fear

Ok, so I like to watch Grey’s Anatomy. I don’t know why, I guess the developing careers of the individual are interesting, the ups and downs of the relationships, the humour, and sometimes even the philosophy. Don’t get me wrong, there are episodes I can’t stand, like the musical episode… actually I stopped watching the show entirely after that one and only recently went and got myself caught up. So what’s the big deal with the show? Well, it’s a medical drama where the actual medical parts are well done. There seemed to be quite a few of these popping up at some point over the last few years but the genre has been around for much longer Here’s my list of medical dramas I’ve either watched or just heard of but was never interested in:

• General Hospital – Never seen it, but hard not to have heard of it 
• M*A*S*H – Also, how could I not have heard of this, not really all medical drama but components of it, I didn’t watch it religiously but I used to watch it whenever reruns were found. 
• Quincy M.E. – Heard of, never watched 
• ER – maybe watched an episode… I think it was the one where the guy who was afraid of helicopters was finally killed by a helicopter falling on him just outside of the hospital, fucking writers… 
• Scrubs – loved this show, not so much drama as comedy but there are thing to be resolved/overcome every episode. 
• House – still watching, I love Hugh Laurie and his supporting cast have such a variety of a characters and side-stories, House’s sense of humour and constant rebellion make for a great watch. I wonder how much longer they can keep this show interesting. 
• Nurse Jackie – I watched part of the first season, I’ve always intended on picking this one back up but will take a bit of effort. 

So as you can see I’m no expert but there are a few points of interest that came up in a recent episode. So I’ll quickly summarize the episode (season 8, episode 16):

• ER emergency with exploding espresso machine hurting two people 
• Adele’s Alzheimer’s is full blown, she needs special care 
• Derek Shepherd is suspicious of race related issues and his new African daughter 
• Dr. Avery reveals he’s still in love with Lexie 
• Other dramatic stuff that has little to do with what I want to talk about. 

Let’s start with Adele’s Alzheimer’s: This is a tragic happening to our favorite Good Wife, Adele Webber. The only thing I found hard to swallow was that Adele basically experienced her first symptoms of Alzheimer’s exactly one year before this episode aired (with potentially other issues arising off screen beforehand). I don’t know much about it but it seems to take years for it to develop to the stage where Adele’s is. Not only that but her case is rare in that she’s so young so she has a form of early onset, highly volatile Alzheimer’s that we have to watch Richard suffer through. Not sure why this had to happen so quickly in the series, ah well.

Derek Shepherd’s black baby. Ok, I actually enjoyed how they handled the idea of white Shepherd having a black baby. I don’t think there is anything wrong with this, adoption is a great alternative especially when unable to have your own children, but I did think some watchers out there might feel the need to troll and spread messages of disgust and hatred. So, Derek assuming the same thing, confronted one of the women about her quizzical looks only to find out he was just doing his baby’s hair wrong. It was a clever way of broaching the subject and dismissing it as an non-conflict with some simple humour.

Avery has had feelings for Lexie for some time but it hasn’t been talked about since Avery decided to focus on his work more than his love life. In this episode it is revealed that his feelings are still very much alive but suppressed and making him sexually frustrated. All of this is “blah,” not much that I care about but the way Sloan finds out is just hilarious. He actively tries to get his student laid by asking around for him, trying to convince Dr. Kepner that she might want to become more than just study buddies, a different kind of buddy. The acting chemistry for Sarah Drew and Eric Dane in this scene alone makes up for some of the poorer writing in previous episodes.

The espresso machine explodes, covering a guy’s face with shrapnel and hurting the lady barista as well. The story around this is a bit sad, guy likes barista, barista has no idea who guy is. What I’m worried about is how they chose to have a coffee making device explode. I found some articles about other situations where this has actually happened, so it’s not something complete fictitious and was serious when it happened here. I was hoping to say, “This could never happen and the show is creating a form of wariness unnecessarily” but now that I know it can/has happen(ed) I’m afraid I’ll be a bit more tense when picking up my morning coffee.

A bit more on an Grey's Anatomy ongoing theme tomorrow.