Grey's Anatomy: The Marathon Continues (20x06)

Alright, let's dive in!

Cons:

A recurring and somewhat befuddling theme of more recent seasons of Grey's Anatomy is the attempt to address the completely horrifying way the medical education system operates. The fact that interns work eighty hour weeks and don't have time to eat or sleep has been part of the show from the beginning. But I struggle to understand what the show's... thesis is, here, if that makes sense. Is it a "back in my day we didn't complain about a little hard work" thing? Because I don't think so, that would be pretty out of character for this show. But then you've got Bailey giving everyone wellness bags that are full of band-aid solutions, and then later she sends Simone and Kwan home for griping about their low pay and long hours? But then I guess it's about how Bailey also needs a break or whatever. She says a thing about how the system is designed poorly and there's not a lot that can be done in the individual level. So is that the point? I don't know. It's just a little muddy.

Richard having a moment of fuzziness where he hesitates to step in... I really do feel like I'm on a merry-go-round with Richard as a character at this point. This one was kind of a fake-out, where it looked like Richard was going to choke up at the finish line but then he stepped in and was fine and saved a life. Are we going to keep dragging this out where he's unsure if he should still be actively practicing, so he takes an admin role? Have I not seen him go through that process more than once already? This man was talking about retirement towards the beginning of this show's runtime!

Grey's Anatomy: Never Felt So Alone (20x05)

Man, Nick sucks so much as a character I cannot believe.

Cons:

I'm going to be a broken record about Jo and Link, but wow, I don't care about their relationship. This pregnancy scare is a cheap way to introduce a shot of lightly-comedic drama into their honeymoon period and I'm bored to tears by all of it. It's a shame, because I actually think both actors are really charming and funny, and yet when they're playing off of each other in a scene, I feel absolutely nothing. The idea of going through a Jo/Link marriage and babies story just fills me with a sense of defeat and ennui. Alex Karev I miss you so much.

I feel like the takeaway from this episode is supposed to be that Meredith is being unreasonable about the Nick situation, but... nah. Nick is a boring lump of coal and Meredith has a lot of trauma around the death of loved ones, and Nick should have called sooner. I just wish that Meredith had been settled off-screen with a less annoying endgame love interest. It feels like we've lost our chance for Meredith to find a new forever person on screen, because Ellen Pompeo isn't interested in doing that anymore, and fair enough, but Nick? God, he sucks so hard.

Grey's Anatomy: Baby Can I Hold You (20x04)

It was lovely to see Arizona, but I kind of feel like her guest starring here was a bit of a waste, in some ways!

Cons:

This show is usually so good at fanservice, to the point where I find myself rolling my eyes sometimes at it... but damn it all to hell, I can't believe we got Arizona on our screens and nobody mentioned Callie or Sofia?? What the heck is that about! Not even a passing mention to give people hope that they ended up back together, even if they didn't want to confirm it?

This show has been playing chicken with the idea of Richard retiring for such a long time now that it really does get tiresome. We see that he gets frazzled in the OR and has to step out, but Teddy promises to have his back and tell him if he doesn't belong there anymore. I don't know, man, let the dude retire! I don't want to watch him dealing with his sobriety and his age and his career for the bajillionth time, actually.

Grey's Anatomy: Walk on the Ocean (20x03)

Man, lotsa juicy drama in this one.

Cons:

I thought Winston having a subplot about giving up on his marriage with Maggie was a little weird and unnecessary. I legit hadn't realized we were supposed to think they were still trying to work on their relationship. Maggie left him and Winston seemed pretty firm on what that meant. Or am I misremembering?

The main catastrophe of this episode features a man who gets extravagantly injured trying to imitate the jet-setting adventurous behavior of his wife's ex-husband, in order to prove to himself and to her that he's cool enough. I felt like thematically this was kind of basic and didn't really connect to the characters as much as I wanted, and then the poor wife at the end when she shows up and learns that her husband is dead... she wasn't the strongest actor, unfortunately. The crying needed some work.

Grey's Anatomy: Keep the Family Close (20x02)

"Discretion is my middle name. Actually, it's Elaine." Yasuda, I love you. Let's dive in!

Cons:

Schmitt and his patient Dante call it "The Great Bake-Off" instead of "The Great British Baking Show" or "The Great British Bake-Off" and I'd just like to lodge a complaint on that. What the hell? Who says that?

Link and Jo's subplot this week is about Link being more romantic and sentimental, and a somewhat joke-y exchange where Link is offended that Jo doesn't remember the details of how they met. In the end, Jo makes a romantic meal and lights candles to reinforce that she appreciates the romance in their relationship. There's nothing offensive about this necessarily, but it just feeds into the worst vibes I have about this pairing. It feels forced, it feels proscribed, it feels like they need to come up with over the top sappy moments to try and convince the audience that they're really in love. And I'm not convinced. I did kind of like the Amelia and Jo scene, though. I think it's sweet that Amelia clocked the relationship issue and took a risk by saying something.

Grey's Anatomy: We've Only Just Begun (20x01)

And we're back! Crazy that this is the 20th season. I saw that Station 19 is ending after this season, which means Grey's has a very solid chance of outlasting another spinoff! Let's dive right in.

Cons:

I am still repulsed by Jo and Link, I cannot help it. They just do absolutely nothing for me and it feels like such a forced, lazy writing choice. I think part of it is just that Jo and Alex, and Amelia and Link, both felt like real, organic, interesting romances to me that were earned over a long period of time, and this is just like... eh, throw the leftovers together I guess.

My Owen and Teddy dislike will never go away, but in this episode it wasn't so much that they annoyed me as that the storyline felt completely unnecessary? Teddy collapsing and needing emergency surgery and potentially dying felt like even more of a lazy tacked on drama for the cliffhanger last season than I'm used to with this show.

Bob's Burgers: Jade in the Shade (14x12)

This one was really cute! You know I love a good Louise-centric episode.

Cons:

I was wishing for a little bit more of a punchline with Cynthia and Logan being there. It was sort of funny to have them follow Linda and Louise, but the conclusion had nothing to do with them, just saw them fooled by Louise once and then sitting around eating raisins. I felt like there could have been more punch there, like maybe Logan realizes the deception and decides to go tell on Louise to Fischoeder, thus continuing their distaste for each other in future episodes due to the betrayal.

Bob's Burgers: Mission Impossi-Bob (14x11)

A very fun episode!

Cons:

I really have no complaints at all. I could have used even more fun weird times with the crazy bunker man, I wanted to know his whole deal. Maybe if Teddy keeps doing work for him, he'll come back later.

Pros:

The main plot features Bob going on a rescue mission to find Teddy, who has trapped himself in a panic room/safe thing that a wealthy client has asked him to help with. There's all this convoluted information presented to us over a series of phone calls with Teddy, whose phone is in danger of dying as he rambles on about seemingly irrelevant things in an attempt to explain to Bob how to find and rescue him.