Shonda Rhimes is the mind behind two big hit shows on ABC: Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice. Both of these shows had emotionally charged season finales that involved prominent character deaths. Grey’s was a bit more traumatic beacause it involved a gunman terrorizing the hospital and a number of big characters getting seriously wounded. After watching both finales, I was excited for the season premieres to witness the fallout from all the chaos. I wouldn’t say I was disappointed, because I enjoyed both premieres, but they were definitely not what I was expecting.
About a month ago, maybe more, it was announced that both Grey’s and Private Practice were going to have weddings take place in their season premieres. My immediate reaction was a combination of “what?” “who?” and “why?”. Based on the occurences on their respective finales, having two characters get married seemed so far-fetched. It came to light that the characters getting married were Christina and Owen on Grey’s and Pete and Violet on Private Practice. Personally, I thought it made sesnse for Pete and Violet to get married – not necessarily so soon after they got back together, but it definitely made sense. I was incredibly wary of Christina and Owen. They’re relationship has been incredibly rocky, and I honestly never really felt like they were going to last.
On the Grey’s premiere, it was revealed that a substatial amount of time had passed since the gunman terrorized the hospital. We were shown how the characters coped with the trauma immediately after the event through occasional flashbacks. Overall, I thought it was a really strong episode. It’s gotten a lot of criticism, but I thought it was well written and was a fantastic way to show the characters dealing with their emotions and post-traumatic stress disorder. I still didn’t understand how Owen and Christina were going to get married amidst all the chaos. Then it was revealed that Owen apparently proposed to Christina as a way of calming and reassuring her as she was dealing with her PTSD. She didn’t even say “yes” when he asked her – she said “thank you” over and over. Then she went into obssessive Christina mode scouring through bridal magazines as a way of escaping from all the real life stress. I have fears that this marriage could crash and burn. For Christina’s sake I hope it doesn’t after everything that happened with Burke.
The Private Practice premiere was similar to the Grey’s premiere in that a lot of time had passed since the events of the finale. There weren’t any flashbacks to fill us in though. Addison and Sam’s attempt at a relationship seems to have failed, but we’re not quite sure why. Yet at the end of the episode, they seem to get back together and try for a relationship. This raises the question, why did they need to have them not work out at all if it was going last just for the episode? Pete and Violet’s wedding seemed much more believable than the Christina-Owen one, but I have similar fears for them. They sort of rushed into the whole thing hoping that it would bring some stability to their world. That being said, I think they have better chance of making it than Christina and Owen.
Despite my misgivings towards the weddings, I felt that both shows created a lot of intrigue for their respective seasons. It’s obvious that we were not necessarily supposed to feel good about the marriages and I’m sure they will cause drama throughout the season. I’d like to see Meredith and Derek’s relationship find some stability, but that’s clearly going to be an uphill battle with him going in and out of jail for his adrenaline junky speeding. This could cause major problems for Derek the way that Richard’s drinking did for him . I’d also like to see Addison find some measure of happiness from Sam. The two of them are great together and Addison has really been through the ringer in terms of guys. Either way, I love both these shows and will stick with them to see what happens – for better or for worse.