Grey's Anatomy and the Addison Show

Grey's Anatomy is one of the few shows I watch almost every week. My wife tends to control the tube, either that or Katie is watching Boobah. I enjoy Grey's style and think the writers are top notch. Tonight they attempted a spin-off.

I'll give them kudos for the way they introduced it. They wove the new Addison Montgomery Show in with a normal episode of Grey's almost guaranteeing that the Grey's audience would watch it. I'm very curious to see if this format came from the shows creators or from ABC marketing people.

I wonder this mostly because...

1. They achieved a higher viewership than if it had been a separate show


2. The extended show ran conveniently into ER's timeslot, while it was having a "special" episode


3. But they did it at the expense of the normal episode's narrative

The flow for this weeks Grey's Anatomy episode was almost completely destroyed by the pilot thingie. It made all the intense emotional moments seem stupid and out of place. Here's Addison running around in the California sun... oh, let's skip back real quick so Meredith's step-mom can kick the bucket for no apparent reason. The absurdity of the back and forth really highlighted some problems in the current Grey's plot lines.

If the writers don't get a bit more creative, and a little less cruel to its characters... the show is in for trouble. Let's get back to some troubles with the Addison Show...

Why California?

She's from New York, right? That would be an alright place to have the show. How about sticking her in the country a la Doc Hollywood or something. Perhaps send her to Boston, Phoenix, Austin, or anywhere but... California. Honestly, how many shows are set in the golden state? Every time you turn around there's another show like the OC.

And what was the show about anyway. At Seattle Grace we see doctors helping the sick and injured... this new show, tentatively called Private Practice from what I hear, seems to be about trying to help crazy Los Angeles people... be just a tad less crazy. I get the relationship cliches they set up, and they seem fine. All the actors are very good... but it seems so blah.

I was actually expecting Addison to be pregnant and the show being how she would grow in this new situation. Addison is a great character that they could have done something with, but it looks like that's not what we're meant to see.

I just hope that on the DVD for this season they split the two apart... maybe even leaving Addison's adventure as part of the bonus features. Cause it really ruined the normal episode, and I'd love to see it again sans Addison.