The TV Zone

But here's my question: Was that REALLY a goodbye , like Jeffrey Dean Morgan's was a reasonably definite goodbye ("reasonably" - he WAS back last night after all.)

It was a turn-on-her-heels "I don't really know you at all" moment. And then, off into the shadows she went, presumably to...what? I'm not sure. But an absolute farewell?

Not really. In a way, it was a perfect ending, I suppose, for what was certainly was of the best "Grey's Anatomy" episodes ever put to film: That sense that it's not over until it's over, and even then... They saw dead people last night, lots of them, and the boundary between life and death wasn't much more than a very thin and mostly irrelevant line. (Unless, like that bereft man, trundling out the door after his wife's death, you were among the living. That scene inspired one of the most memorable lines ever written for this show: "We're born, live and die. Sometimes not in that order.")

But Erica Hahn's - and Brooke Smith's - departure was certainly well-done. Consider: She WAS in the right about Denny Duquette's transplant, and WAS right that it had been badly handled, and that Chief was as complicit as Izzy in the mess-up. It was a great closing scene, perfectly built to character - Erica Hahn's character - as a difficult, unyielding and uncompromising soul, AND someone who lately discovered her real sexuality. She was uncompromising about that too.

I'll miss Hahn - Brooke Smith - on this show. She was a hugely valuable addition when she arrived two seasons ago, and her character deserved better. Last night, as fine an episode as that was, felt incomplete, as though a vital character who suddenly added a whole new dimension was ripped from the screen. But that's death, TV-style.

What was so good about last night though? That "Grey's," which has struggled so badly and clumsily and foolishly at times last season (shortened though it was), re-located exactly the right voice and tone that made it a great show in the first place.

So, Mary McDonnell joins next week (and we'll have to pretend she's not Laura Roslin) and I guess all of this will explain who happens to Hahn...

Who is still, meanwhile, gone. So I guess this is what's meant by "bittersweet."

Grade: A

You, faithful reader, know that I've had my ups and downs with "Grey's Anatomy" - the latest down most recently Tuesday when Brooke Smith was fired (fired!) off the show because she played a lesbian character. Smith was fired but Shonda Rhimes pretended it was Just One of Those Things, but, hey, who wants to be known as a producer who KOW-TOWED to evil network overlords?

But in fact, Shonda has done at least one smart thing this season and that's add Kevin McKidd to the cast as the new surgeon who kills pigs and canoodles with Yang and gets into steely blue-eyed staring contests with Der and Sloan, or Mardere.

I like McKidd. I liked "Journeyman," too. And I thought he was great in "Rome" and (of course) "Trainspotting," which actually came out in the last century.

In any event, McKidd's people have got him talking to the press this week, and he - bless 'im - even consented to chat with little 'ol lowly 'Zone. Much to say about this fine new addition to "Grey's" - as you know, he's Scottish born and retains a nice, deep burr - but I'll let him do the talking.

Main points of our recent chat:

* There WILL be a "Rome" movie for theatrical release, which he's just confirmed with Bruno Heller. Heller, as "Rome" fans know, wrote much of the HBO series, but he's busy with a CBS hit right now, "The Mentalist," which he created. Says McKidd, there "will be a cinema release movie, and [we'll] bring back those [characters] together. He's been busy trying to work out the story and structure, [but] I talked to him and he's got the structure of the movie in his head...All the cast would come back [for it] in a heart beat." McKidd played Lucius Vorenus in "R," which ended its HBO run last year.

* McKidd's a busy guy - contracted for 13 episodes of "Grey" (just taped number 11) and he's in production on "Bunraku," with Demi Moore, Ron Perlman, Josh Hartnett, and Woody Harrelson.

* "Grey's" and ABC like his character so far, but hey! This is showbiz; they also liked Smith's. He doesn't REALLY kill pigs on "Grey's" - I jest - and the show did point out that those porcine stars from last week were in fact made of plastic and straw, so no animals were hurt.

Please go to the jump for more on McKidd...

Continue reading ""Grey's Anatomy:" Kevin McKidd" »

Well, I now see that Shonda Rhimes has released this statement to the press, which USA Today carried and where I've picked it up...

"Brooke Smith was obviously not fired for playing a lesbian. Clearly it's not an issue, as we have a lesbian character on the show — Calliope Torres.

"Sara Ramirez," she added, is an "incredible" actress and she wants to "play up her magic. Unfortunately, we did not find that the magic and chemistry with Brooke's character would sustain in the long run."

"I believe it belittles the relationship to simply replace Erica with 'another lesbian."

OK, dear reader, do you believe this? I don't. Foremost, Calliope - Calliope! - is bisexual and if she's strictly gay, than George - wouldn't HE be surprised?! - might have had a justification in his own mind to play footsies with Izzy; clearly he did not. In any event, that was never made clear to viewers, once - or at least that I can recall.

Second, of course it was an issue with the network. This sort of stuff is always an issue - just ask David Milch how many teeth he had to pull just to get the word "----hole" on "NYPD Blue." Networks are skittish. It's in their blood.

Third, if I were Shonda, I'd be the one to step up to the plate and take full blame for the ruination of this wonderful character. Erica Hahn, as I wrote below, is one of stellar characters in "Grey's" history, and the fact that the show drained her character of said magic and chemistry is the SHOW's fault, NOT, I repeat, NOT Brooke Smith's.

A shame.

The big TV news - besides that little thing called an "election" today - has to be what popped out of "EW" last night, where Brooke Smith announced that she had just been fired from "Grey's Anatomy."

Fired. Not just written out. But gone. Off the set. Good bye. Don't let the door hit you where doors hit people....

It was an amazing post, and here's what she told Michael Ausiello, who broke this: "I found out in mid-September soon after shooting the monologue that aired last week where Erica has the revelation that she's gay. They even came down and told me it was a great scene…one of the best they ever shot on the show. So I was really, really shocked. I was floored when they told me [I was being let go]. It was the last thing I expected. In fact, when they told me I asked, 'When is this happening?' And they said, 'The [next episode] is your last,' which is the one that airs this Thursday. So it was very sudden."

Now, which is the scene of which she speaks? You know - it was last week, where Erica and Callie are in bed, and Erica basically goes haywire, saying how that was the best, most awesome, most incredible, most -oh-my-GAWD,. flat out INSANE sex she ever had.

Then, she starts telling Callie about a time when she was a kid, and saw only green blobs,. went to the doctor, came back with glasses and realized - wow! - the green blobs were actually leaves on the trees. And Callie, oh, Calliecalliecalliecallie...YOU are my glasses. I am (she went to say) SO GAY SO GAY SO GAY.

You remember. How could you forget. Callie was embarrassed. She leaves. End of scene.

What was wrong with any of this - other than the fact that "Grey's" had suddenly morphed into "The L Word?" Smith, a very good actress, was fine. The scene was memorable. And, in fact, believable, rare for this show.

Then...about a million people wrote Disney and told the company that they will never, ever again take their children to Disneyworld EVER.

Oops. That's one little problem with graphic sex scenes and declarations of lesbian love on a show owned by a company which also owns huge family-oriented theme parks.

But WAIT, you say. "Desperate Housewives," "Brothers & Sisters" "Ugly Betty" "General Hospital" - to name four prominent ABC franchises that have or have had gay storylines. They didn't prompt cancellations. True, but...I submit that Callica had turned into something that even ABC had not bargained for, namely a highly charged sexual relationship between two women. This wasn't "The Ellen Show" or a quick lesbian smooch on "Roseanne."

This was sex, in a bed. Two women...

On American commercial TV, that's pure dynamite.

But I submit, there was a problem with Erica Hahn, and it's been the one I've had with her for the past season. When she joined full time back in '07 season - though I think she first came aboard in May of '06 - she was an amazing character and addition. Here was Dr. Erica Hahn - whom some of us remembered from "Silence of the Lambs:" This tough, brilliant, domineering woman. She was, for a singular moment, the only practicing adult in all of Seattle Grace. Her sexuality was, perhaps, ambiguous, but it was also irrelevant: While Meredere were doing their thing, and everyone else was an emotional basket case, here came Hahn: The one central figure who actually SEEMED like a surgeon, and BEHAVED like a surgeon. She abused Yang and Sloan with relish, and with that icy stare froze everyone in place.

Smith absolutely grounded the show the minute she came on screen, and she was a salvation for "Grey's," coming as she did in the wake of the Isaiah Washington fiasco.

(Irony alert! Washington is ousted because he slurs gays, and Brooke Smith is ousted because she PLAYS one...)

Then, Hahn grew a heart. She got soft. Like everyone else at Seattle Grace, she drank from the tainted water cooler, and got silly, fell in love, and became - just like everyone else - more intent on her personal life than her professional one.

It was a sad waste of a great character.

So...ABC may have ousted Smith because of the overt gay storyline. But the demolition of a once great character probably had something to do with this as well.

(Pix: Bob Damico/ ABC.)

Here's a stop-the-presses bulletin; Katherine Heigl has pulled herself out of Emmy contention because she thinks -- and I'm paraphrasing here -- she had bad material on "Grey's" Anatomy last season.

Now stop to consider that, and let's just add a few "!!!!'s" for good measure.

No one -- per my memory -- has ever pulled themselves outta Emmy because they blamed the writers. Ever. Sure -- Kelsey Grammer and others have pulled out (Candice Bergen, most notably) because they had the generosity of spirit to let someone else win for a change. But to pull yourself out because you hated the role??!!

Tom O'Neil, the guru of Emmyland and the Goldderby.com maestro -- has the scoop, and go there for the details. But Heigl tells him: "I did not feel that I was given the material this season to warrant an Emmy nomination and in an effort to maintain the integrity of the academy organization, I withdrew my name from contention. In addition, I did not want to potentially take away an opportunity from an actress who was given such materials."

Now my read: The next thing we hear is that Kate has, by mutual consent, decided to leave "Grey's" for a big screen career. It's a matter of time, friends. And out the door immediately after her: McDreamy.

Why did she claim to have bad material? Because she did. It was awful and "Grey's" and Shonda pretty near ruined her character last season. She actually has a point here.

We end the season on the subject of lips: Whose lips locked with whose, and why those lips locked and whether those lips will lock with someone else's next season or lock a little longer with the person whose lips they were already locked to.

Or whether, after the glow of finaletime wears off, the liplockers will wonder: What was the hell was I THINKING?

Lips on "Grey's" are no incidental characters, nosiree. This show is cast on the basis of lips and if your lips don't cut it, then try for some other show (say, "NCIS," where lip-locking is only incidental.) I'm not sure Hahn's lips necessarily cut the mustard, but they pretty much have to now, considering whose lips her lips are locked to.

Mer and Der, in the Dream House with A View of the World (still unbuilt, and I'm willing to bet, will remain unbuilt through next season too)? That's right - the most famous lips locked in the glow of perfectly arranged candles and (I don't know about you) but I'm glad there's never a drought in Seattle because (by God) I do believe Meredith would have been arrested for pulling the same stunt in (say) Los Angeles county.

Der had to run off to break the bad news to Rose. Here's the conversation: "Rose, I can't lock lips with you anymore because I just locked lips with Mer, and I can only lock lips with one woman at a time."

So can Torres - and what lockable lips she's got! Funny last scene, as the camera focuses onto Mark, his lips twitching. Here's what was going on in his mind: "I wonder what a three way lip lock would be like?"

Good old Mark. Always thinking about lips.

Lexie and George: They locked lips, though God knows whether Lexie was wondering whether she would have preferred to lock lips with Yang, who didn't force her to peel a banana. (Banana...hmmmmm.) Yang's suddenly being nice - and I honestly think she does "mean" better than "nice" - and so she deserves some lip-locking, but with who? (Miranda?)

Let's see...who else. Chief. Yes. Locked lips. Bailey? No locked lips. Dr. Wyatt. Ditto. Izzie and Karev? Locked, then unlocked.

I don't know about you, but I can hardly wait until next season. (Note to self: Buy chapstick.)

There was no bitterness when Isaiah Washington left "Grey's Anatomy" - and there's no water in the ocean and the moon is actually made of moldy green cheese. (Check it out...it's true..)

But still, viewers could be forgiven for doing a little doubletake a couple weeks ago when Cristina Yang walked by a bulletin board to glance at a pix of Preston Burke; I certainly did, and even backed up to take another look. Was it an obit? What WAS that? (Burke had been awarded something. He had the ol' characteristic blank look...)

It was all incredibly harmless, but now guess what? Washington has filed a complaint with the Screen Actors Guild over the shot! "They have the rights of the character to advance the story, but not the image," his lawyers told ABC's lawyers (according to the Hollywood Reporter.) Yes, IW wants a "financial settlement."

That's right - he deserves money for the emotional trauma this must have caused. May I suggest 34 cents?

After having, oh, 11 or so hours to sleep and think on it, I suppose I should be offering you some deep well-rubbed thoughts about the return of "Grey's Anatomy" - at least thoughts that should be at least as deep and well-rubbed as yours.

But the basic problem, I found, is that absence did not make the heart grow fonder. I think I hoped it would - that there would be some new-found poignancy in the sisterly ties of Meredith and Lexie, or that Derek and Rose would offer a new and intriguing wrinkle, or the bad taste of that misbegotten match of Izzie and George would be long gone, or that Cristina's profoundly comical neediness would be even more profoundly comical.

But no, absence did not make the heart grow fonder. Last night arrived with a tremendous load of backstory, though none of it particularly meaningful. We are all now required to care anew - and I don't know about you, but caring anew is gonna be hard work.

Again, after 11 (now nearly 12) hours, I think I've come to this conclusion: The magic's gone. It was a perfectly OK episode, but perfectly OK is hardly good enough - two months' absence should have offered something much much better. But the "Grey's" formula remains ironclad - that Meredith's inability to stitch her need for love with her need for career holds up a mirror to us (or at least 20 million female viewers), and the on-again/off-again with McDreamy is its reigning - and wrenching - metaphor.

But we know they're destined for each other's arms again, just as we know they're destined to separate again, or until he's off the show entirely for the big screen career. (Depends, I suppose, on how "Made of Honor" does.) It's an old story now. Terribly old. And I just...don't...care.

Yeah, sure, some funny "Housian" moments - when Mere throws up her arms like she's just scored one after diagnosing the guy's tumor. But of course, ultimately NOT funny. Even the humor of "the contest" seemed listless.

Something was missing before. Something still is. For want of a better word, let's just call it "heart."

Don't say we never did anything for you - although, after watching this video, you may come to the conclusion that we never did anything for you.

This is a strange video, but - depending on how desperate you are for diversion at this exact moment - maybe manna from heaven. (Thanks to tvtattle for locating.) Quick backstory: When the strike was in progress Shonda Rhimes got casts from her hit shows to agree to sing at a UCLA fundraiser (raising dough for struggling out-of-work writers.) An intriguing experiment, though (no surprise) Audra McDonald is probably the only one worth paying real money to see. (Sara Ramirez is a big stage talent, too, so, Sara as well.)

In any event, it took place Friday, and apparently someone in the audience held up their cell phone during the thing. Here it is, with fair warning: You haven't seen video this rocky since mom and dad took those old pictures of you jumping into the backyard pool.

“Lost” will have lots of company by April as new episodes return to ABC’s lineup for such faves as “Desperate Housewives” and “Ugly Betty.” In the midst of the post-strike shuffle, “Lost” will move back to 10 p.m. Thursday behind a returning “Grey’s Anatomy” – just in time for May’s Nielsen sweep (April 24 - May 21).

The network has announced the following fresh-episode dates:

“Samantha Who?” - Monday, April 7 at 9:30 p.m. (six new episodes)

“Boston Legal” - Tuesday, April 8 at 10 p.m. (six episodes)

“Desperate Housewives” - Sunday, April 13 at 9 p.m. (five episodes, plus two-hour finale)

“Brothers & Sisters” - Sunday, April 20 at 10 p.m. (four episodes)

“Ugly Betty” - Thursday, April 24 at 8 p.m. (five episodes)

“Grey’s Anatomy” - Thursday, April 24 at 9 p.m. (five episodes)

“Lost” - Thursday, April 24 move to 10 p.m. (five episodes)

Catch up to previous episodes at ABC's streaming media player.

What goes around comes around, and around...and around...and around...

Let's recap: Meredith and Derek are on the ropes again, Izzie's still dizzy, George still needs a back-bone, Sloan can't figure out Hahn who hates/loves him, while Yang desperately wants Hahn to like/love her (fat chance for either) and...

Take a deep breath...

Callie's got an issue with faith (after George, who wouldn't?) while Karev could be filling the space in Izzie's heart after the split with George, unless he ends up with Lexie, which is a distinct possibility, and...

another breath...

Derek and Rose are on again, and it's just a matter of time before Hahn and Sloan hit the hot sheets motel, proving that Hahn (in fact) is not gay (though perhaps bi-), and Miranda's marriage may or may not be on the rocks after her husband let the bookshelf fall on the baby.

Did I miss anything?

"Grey's Anatomy" returns after a longish strike-forced hiatus, and I'm left with the sense that the more things change around Seattle Grace, the more things r