ellenpompeo

Season six of Grey's Anatomy is going to be odd. Getting past the fact that T.R. Knight isn't coming back, Ellen Pompeo is pregnant. Shonda Rhimes has mentioned that Meredith will not get pregnant to coincide with Ellen so we'll either get How I Met Your Mother-esque bump hiding, or Meredith will disappear for a while.

The only Grey left is Lexie Grey, Meredith's half-sister. Although her relationship with Mark is interesting to watch, could she carry the show's title albeit temporarily?

I appreciate a show that takes the time to have decently written dialogue, well timed music cues, and good use of set. A show like Grey's Anatomy needs a 100th episode celebration every week. When a show actually uses characters correctly, it can succeed.

I appreciate that this episode had characters that normally don't interact interacting. Seeing Mark/Meredith, Derek/Izzie, Lexie/George all interacting made me realize that the hospital is smaller than one thinks. You work with these people, you think you'd talk to them once in a while.

Clearly, the wedding was going to take a left turn. I was happy to see that the stress of work didn't affect anyone and they were all happily attending the wedding. So does every wedding end with sex after attending?

EW.com's Michael Ausiello posted this blind item yesterday: "A major female character on a popular and highly rated hour-long drama series will learn that she's pregnant next month."

Other tidbits: The expectant character isn't thrilled to be pregnant. The timing, both personally and professionally, is really bad. The baby daddy's going through some stuff. And the bun in her oven may have company.

Ok, let's speculate here. My first thought is that it's Meredith Grey on Grey's Anatomy, since her real-life alter-ego Ellen Pompeo actually IS pregnant. But the timing isn't all that bad. She and Derek are getting married. They can use a distraction with Izzie's cancer taking center stage. And although he's had some issues, Derek seems to have pulled it together.

(S05E20) "Someone will be singing 'Wind Beneath My Freaking Wings'" - Meredith

Why does ABC have to mention that Grey's Anatomy has some of the best storylines on television? If that is true, that must mean that Private Practice has the worst. The episode was good, but the long wait got me jaded.

The show does better when Meredith isn't the center of the show. Even with her as the narrator, she succeeded only as a model for Izzie and a mediator between Derek and Mark. Speaking of which, Lexie was hysterical the whole episode. I thought it was so obscene that she kept eating something different in every shot that she was in. Sure they mentioned that she broke out, but couldn't the makeup team add a lump or two? I didn't see one thing wrong with her face.

Is it just me or there seems to be a baby boom in Hollywood this TV season? This is probably the 73rd post we've written here at TV Squad this year about a TV actress being pregnant, wondering how it will affect the show she stars in.

When the two lead actresses of How I Met Your Mother announced they were pregnant, the writers decided not to write the pregnancies in and go for the "hiding the belly under big clothes or things" option instead. They even shot the season finale months before they would have usually done so they could have the two actresses in reasonable shape.

People announced that Grey's Anatomy lead actress Ellen Pompeo is pregnant with her first child, while reminding us that Chyler Leigh, who plays Pompeo's half-sister, is due in May. We know that Shonda Rhimes decided not to have Lexie be pregnant but what about Meredith?

Warning! The rest of this post contains spoilers about upcoming episodes.

(S05E19) After the commercials continued to mention how wonderful Grey's Anatomy was going to be, I was brainwashed. This episode had to be good. For me, it delivered. In the first five minutes, we were given Owen's PTSD situation and it set the tone for the rest of the episode. Then we get the wonderful voiceovers from Alex, a good change from Meredith.

There were definitely serious tear inducing moments, along with two really funny situations. We also had a believable patient. When does this hospital get normal patients? Probably when they went down a few ranks. More thoughts and analysis after the jump.

(S05E17) "There's no fixing you. You're a lemon." - Derek

It's official: I'm an emotional loser. After two weeks without my weekly Medical/High School drama, Grey's is back and even more dramatic than I remember. Has Grey's Anatomy been this good in a while? I always thought that with such a big ensemble cast, the show was bound to have loose ends. With this episode, it seems as though each character is what I remember from the first two seasons.

With no big guest stars this week, the characters developed amongst themselves. I appreciate the return of the Meredith/Christina friendship, now back at full strength, but why does it seem like when Meredith solves one thing, another falls apart? She suffers from the Chaos theory.

Could Meredith be getting another half-sibling on Grey's Anatomy? According to Entertainment Weekly's Mike Ausiello, it's very likely.

In his latest installment of Ausiello TV, he notes that late last year, executive producer Shonda Rhimes began quietly looking for a male actor to play a mysterious new recurring role. The person had to be both bi-racial and in his late 20's.

Although we won't know for sure until next season, it seems likely that the character might be the product of the affair between Meredith's mother and the Chief, as their affair was 20-some years ago.

A few other things spring to mind:

Do doctors really sleep around this much? I mean, we know that Sloan, Callie, Izzie, and all the rest of the staff currently employed at Seattle Grace have bedded down pretty much everyone on the show. But apparently, that was happening 20 years ago, as well.

(S05E16) "In Human please Doctor Yang." - Doctor Campbell

When I learned a few weeks back that Faye Dunaway was going to guest star this week, I was a tiny bit worried at what her role would be since Grey's Anatomy has not been very good lately at introducing new characters and Dunaway deserves better. Luckily for her, the role of Doctor Margaret Campbell was introduced with some humor and her presence helped Cristina become a better doctor while touching the topic of when doctors should retire.

(S05E15) "I need you to be a God." - Addison to Derek

The Private Practice/Grey's Anatomy crossover reached its peak this week with a two-hour event. Both episodes were so action packed, thanks to patients Jen and Archer who were part of the two episodes, that this week you not only get a review for the Grey's Anatomy installment but also one for the Private Practice episode.

So let's get to it, shall we?

(S05E14) "Use it wisely." - Owen to Mark about.... well... you know!

Fun fact: The day following the airing of "Stairway to Heaven," the top Google searches where for expressions like "penile fracture" and "broken penis." Thankfully, after getting treatment and not using his tool for a few days, Mark is back in shape! I must admit seeing Owen and Mark quickly enter and exit the exam room to check on it was probably the most hilarious scene of the week. Yes, in my book it was funnier than those scenes with the man who had something (why couldn't they tell us what in the end?!?) lodged in his behind. It wouldn't surprise me if people research that latter case on Google today to find answers as to what was lodged where it didn't belong!

(S05E13) "We're doctors, Grey. We're not executioners." - Bailey

Life wasn't easy for some of the Seattle Grace staff this week on Grey's Anatomy as they had to decide if they were doctors or executioners. For some, the choice was clear (Shepard is a doctor) while for others (Meredith and Bailey) they wondered if they should be executioners at least this one time. No matter what side they were on, one thing is sure: the Seattle Grace doctors offered us one hell (or heaven?) of an episode this week!

(S05E10) Before I even start this review, I've got to vent about the absurd amount of commercials during this episode of Grey's Anatomy. Is it always this bad and I just haven't noticed? Are there always ads every two minutes or so? I found it extremely distracting to be constantly interrupted, especially when there were so many storylines going on tonight.

And we did have a lot to keep track of: Dr. Dixon's appearance, the Izzie / Denny / Alex love triangle, who would be awarded the first solo surgery, Callie's and Sadie's flirting, the medical cases of the week, Yang and Hunt, Sloan and Little Grey, Bailey and Sloan ... I can barely keep track of them all.

Let's break down this episode after the break and try to make some sense of "All By Myself."

Hahn is out and Hunt is in! An ABC representative confirmed to People that Scottish actor Kevin McKidd, who recently starred in the canceled-too-soon Journeyman, has been upped to series regular on Grey's Anatomy.

When it was announced that McKidd was in talks to appear on Grey's Anatomy this fall as Major Owen Hunt, a military doctor, it was also mentioned that the stint was to be a recurring one that could be upped to a regular one if the audience responded well to the character.

Looks like the audience will get more screen time for McMajor!

"The pager is sacred. Sacred sparkle." -- Izzie

A sparkly pager, some quick-drying cement, and a field of candles all play into tonight's 2-hour episode -- the Season Four finale of Grey's Anatomy. Has it really been only four seasons? Because it seems like so much more.

Anyway, tonight we learn a little more about some of the interns' history. For one thing, via a therapy session (and why can't I have Amy Madigan as my therapist?), we learn that young Meredith saw her mom slit her wrists, then had to wait for her to pass out before calling 911.

Meredith says her mom wanted to die, but by the end of the episode, she figures out that she really didn't want to die. Being a brilliant surgeon, her mom would have known the faster road to death entailed slitting her carotid artery.