#remember how the showrunners teased that the next season would be ‘groundbreaking’

[katherynefromphilly]

Hey Sherlock fans —

Remember how Martin “We’re-All-A-Bit-Bisexual-In-Real-Life” Freeman, playing Watson in the Sherlock “drunk scene”, ad-libbed the line “I don’t mind”, and meant it in a sexy way with Sherlock?

Remember that? Because I remembered it randomly this morning and got irritated all over again at What Could Have Been and also in fact What Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch Could Have Really Done With That Show.

[calzona-ga]

Warning: Spoiler alert! Do not proceed if you have not watched Thursday's 332nd episode of Grey's Anatomy, which officially makes it the longest-running primetime medical drama, surpassing ER.

Grey's Anatomy became the longest-running primetime TV medical drama Thursday by celebrating with a party, both on and off screen.

Abandoning tradition, ABC's crown jewel marked its milestone 332nd hour -- officially surpassing ER for the honor -- with a get-together that brought together the current ensemble, led by OGs Ellen Pompeo, Justin Chambers, Chandra Wilson and James Pickens Jr., to commemorate Catherine's (Debbie Allen) new lease on life following her successful cancer surgery. Unlike the majority (if not all) of Grey's' previous episodes, this one didn't feature any medicine or medical case, a decision showrunner Krista Vernoff, whose history with the show dates back to the groundbreaking 2005 pilot, said was intentional.

"It's pretty extraordinary, and a little surreal. ER is such a television legacy, and was such an extraordinary program. If ER didn't exist, Grey's wouldn't exist. So, we owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to ER, and to [executive producer] John Wells, and we are so grateful," Vernoff, who spent five seasons working alongside Wells on Shameless, told ET on Thursday of Grey's making history. "This is exciting and monumental and a little crazy, and we're all just sort of walking around here looking at each other like, 'What?'" (George Clooney, who played pediatrician Doug Ross on ER for the first five seasons, joked in February, "That's got to stop. We gotta go back and do more!")

And unlike the Grey's landmark 300th episode in its 14th season, which paid tributes to past cast members who have since departed, like Sandra Oh, T.R. Knight and Patrick Dempsey, hour 332 looked ahead at what's still to come for the doctors of Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. Because, as Vernoff said, "To celebrate how far we've come, and how far we have yet to go."

Following Thursday's historic Grey's TV moment, Vernoff jumped on the phone with ET to reflect on the lasting legacy of the ABC series and looks ahead at what's still to come, including Meredith and DeLuca's full-fledged romance, the unexpected arrival of DeLuca's father and what's next.

ET: Congratulations on making TV history! How did ER shape Grey's Anatomy into what it's become? Krista Vernoff: ER broke the mold for medical shows, and it was incredible, and it was dramatic, and it was just groundbreaking television for its time. And when we were in the writers' room in the early years of Grey's Anatomy, our conversations were often, how do we do it differently than ER? Like, we didn't want to be an ER copycat. How do we be in the hospital world and do it differently than ER? In the early years of the show we rarely brought in patients through the emergency room. They usually came in through surgical rounds.

We leaned, tonally, into romantic comedy, which I think was a part of [creator] Shonda [Rhimes]' pitch from the very beginning. As I recall, when she pitched the show, she said, "We have the drama and excitement of ER, but a tone that's all our own, with romance and humor in equal parts." We always, in television, build on each other's legacies. There was MASH, and then there was China Beach, and there were multiple shows in between, and there was ER, which really broke new ground. And Grey's Anatomy is... We all stand on each other's shoulders.

In approaching this particular episode, what did you want to accomplish or achieve with this hour that differentiated it from a typical episode of Grey's? With the 300th episode, we looked backward. It was a very nostalgic episode. It paid tribute to the whole length of the series. With this episode, we made the decision to look forward, and to celebrate how far we've come, and how far we have yet to go. And so, Bailey's speech to Catherine of "We don't know what the future holds, but no one ever knows what the future holds." People still love us, we're still here, and that's cause for celebration," was really the theme. We threw a party to celebrate this milestone. And we wanted to do something different than we had ever done before.

There was a lot of brainstorming, and what we came up with was we had never done an episode with no medicine. I think this episode is probably a little bewildering to watch after 15 seasons of Grey's Anatomy. You keep waiting for the medical crisis that never comes. That's how we decided to break new ground with this episode, while also emotionally laying the groundwork for the stories moving forward.

The episode did a good job of sprinkling in red herrings, especially with the arrival of Alex's mom, Helen Karev (guest star Lindsay Wagner). I thought something was actually wrong until it was revealed that, actually no, she was right about the fire. Thank you. And I have to say, Andy Reaser, who has been on the show for many years now, wrote this episode, and he did an amazing job with the question of, who started the fire and all the fire hazards and [having] a little bit of mystery -- a little bit of mislead. He did it beautifully. And Chandra Wilson, who directed it.

Speaking of looking ahead, it appears as though you're fully embracing the idea of Meredith and DeLuca. Is this the end of the love triangle with Link?The love triangle with Link is over.

Was it a surprise to you that we would be talking about Meredith and DeLuca in this way? It was a surprise. I think it was a surprise to Meredith, and that is what's so joyful in watching it, is how life surprises us all the time. Every idea that we have about our life and what's going to happen next, we're always wrong, and life comes in and surprises us. And DeLuca has come in and surprised Meredith, and put her. She's bewildered and delighted by this turn of events. And I think you see that all over her face. But the amount of smiling that we're seeing from Meredith is really a joy. Where does this leave Link? Is there another story involving him that has yet to be explored that you can tease? There is. Link has some of his... Some of the most exciting and delightful stuff I've seen this season is coming from Link in the coming episodes, but I don't want to tease what it is. I asked Giacomo Gianniotti recently whether he believed Meredith and DeLuca were endgame. What is your take? For sure. The one thing I know for sure is that I'm not going to comment on Meredith's endgame at this stage, and the reason for that is that there's no end in sight to this show. We are still delivering ABC's highest rating in the demographic. We are still their No. 1 drama in the age 18-to-49 demographic, 15 seasons in. So, I'm not building to the end of the series. I am looking forward, much as Bailey and Catherine's conversation mirrored. We don't know what life is going to bring us, and we are looking forward. And so, I'm not commenting on endgame because for me there's no end in sight. At the end of the episode, we met DeLuca's dad, Vicenzo (guest star Lorenzo Caccialanza), for the very first time, who called Andrew by his given Italian name, Andrea. How is the unexpected arrival of his dad going to shake things up? Dad brings drama. If Dad's wardrobe suggested anything, and the arrival, and the Italian that nobody understands -- including Meredith. Like, Meredith speaks a tiny little bit of Italian, Meredith took three years of Italian in undergrad. She didn't understand that conversation that they were having any more than any of the rest of us did, so when [DeLuca's] dad stepped out of that limo, everybody but people who are fluent in Italian were completely shocked. Dad brings drama, for sure, and that's all I'm going to say.

I do remember DeLuca mentioning that his dad was a renowned but corrupt surgeon in Italy who was mentally unstable, and he's not exactly what he was before. Is that what you're exploring in terms of his arrival?DeLuca's father has a history of mental illness and it's a complicated relationship for DeLuca. And yes, those are some of the themes we're looking at moving forward.

Amelia and Owen really went through a roller-coaster this episode. Amelia breaks up with Owen, and now they find themselves in a place where they may be co-parenting Leo. Is Leo the saving grace to their relationship? What are you setting up here? I don't want to tease what's happening moving forward, but I do want to say that I think that story was really beautifully told, and I think that we felt so much joy in the return of Leo to Owen and Amelia, and simultaneously this heartbreak of "Wow, they just broke up, like, what happens now?" And I think that Amelia had a real moment of clarity at the party when Meredith pointed out that Teddy has been a thing in Owen's life and will always be a thing in Owen's life. And she realized that it wasn't a love triangle so much as a circle that is making her dizzy, and she's stepped out of the circle. It will be really interesting to see what happens now that Leo's back.

Is Betty/Britney's story over? Are you satisfied with how that story wrapped up? Peyton Kennedy is an incredible young actress, and so, I don't know. I love her, and I love the character. I'll always call her Betty, because I think it's her preferred name. I love her, and I guess my hope for her is that she gets clean and sober, and finds some happiness back with her parents, who I do not think are bad people. But who knows?

And Teddy and Koracick. When did you get the idea to put them together? I'm really enjoying their dynamic and I didn't expect to. The idea emerged in the writers' room earlier this season, and you float test balloons with actors and their chemistry when you begin to build a thing. You put them in a scene or two together and see how it plays. And from the minute we put them next to each other at the table read we were like, Oh, that's happening. Koracick brings out a lightness in Teddy that is just a joy to see. He makes her laugh, and she deserves to laugh. I think she does the same for him. We've learned so much about his history as a character, and his personal pain, and it's really fun to see them bringing joy to each other.

Again, congrats on the milestone. It really doesn't seem like the show's going to ever really end.

[miss-musings]

Why I want to stop watching the Blacklist (a.k.a., A Rant by Me)

This used to be my favorite show. Hands down. I would legitimately schedule things around it; I would leave events early to make sure I could watch it live; I would post about it on Tumblr and read other people’s posts the rest of the evening; I would search through multiple review site’s posts the next day.

I loved the dynamic between Red and Liz. I loved the mysteries and the little morsels of answers that we would get. I loved how, in the S1 finale, it felt like no one was safe: Meera got killed; Harold got attacked and nearly killed; Tom was shot and left for dead.

But, over the past few seasons, this show has become the bane of my TV-watching experience.

(EDIT: this post, which quietly keeps gaining notes, was written post-S4, pre-S5. So, there’s still plenty of relevant things in the post, but just keep the timing in mind.)

I would watch it, sure. But that was because I didn’t want the folks on Tumblr spoiling it for me. It was because I thought we were finally getting answers – which is what they teased us with every other week – only to feel so disappointed.

This last year, I made reaction videos for a friend of mine for every single episode. You know what one of the most commonly said things in those videos is? “Well, at least next week’s preview looks good.” Only to be disappointed in that episode, and to say the same thing about next week’s preview, and the cycle repeated itself until we actually got a half-way decent episode (which was usually some kind of finale or premiere, because that’s the only time actual shit can happen – during Sweeps Week).

Over and over again, both online and in person, I compared this to those scenes in cartoons where someone puts a carrot on a fishing pole in front of a donkey, and the donkey runs so hard to reach the carrot, only to never get there.

That’s how this show has felt the past season or two.

It’s only a shadow of what it once was, and I’m tired of it. I wish I could stop watching it.

So many other people I follow on Tumblr have said they’ve either stopped or thought about stopping. By comparison, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad and the Walking Dead seemingly increase their viewership every season; the Blacklist has been NBC’s lowest-rated show in the demo for the last year, IIRC. The ratings for the Redemption spin-off were so low, the showrunners tried to pass it off as a one-off miniseries, when it was ALWAYS intended to be its own full-length show.

I understand that the show does well in DVR viewership numbers, and it was the most expensive TV show that Netflix had purchased when Season 1 was released.

But, this show continues to disappoint me. There’s hardly anything I like about it anymore. Hell, even James Spader, who’s a master at his craft, seems to be bored with it. His monologues are becoming more and more cliche, and even his amazing performances can’t save this dumpster-fire.

Its protagonist, Liz, is all over the fucking place in terms of characterization. First, she was naive and learned her “husband” had used and abused her. Then, she went to the dark side, chained him up on a boat and said she’d never forgive him for what he’d done. Then, she apparently forgave him, slept with him, had his kid, tried to remarry the guy, and then faked her death to get away with him and is now living her happy dream life with her little girl and her ‘perfect’ husband.

What happened to the dark, morally questionable, grungy Liz? What happened to the Liz who was jaded and afraid after being on the run for several weeks, or months?

She just settled down with a guy who she used to hate and she’s living the dream.

What in the literal fuck?

And, for all the time that has been invested in Liz, she has made little to no progress in her characterization these past few seasons. In fact, she’s done more of a 360. She’s right back where she started, more or less.

Why should the audience give a shit about her journey if she’s not making any progress? Why should we care that, halfway through this show, she has everything she’s ever wanted?

The side characters, like Aram, Samar, Ressler, Cooper and others are there just to serve the plot. Any time there’s a semblance of some character development or plot progression, the showrunners regress everyone back to Stage One so we can do it all over again. Aram and Samar look like they’re making progress in their possible romantic relationship? Fuck that, we’ve got to make sure Aram runs back to his abusive girlfriend and string this thing along another season! Remember when Ressler got shot, had prescription drug problems, and was in Narcotics Anonymous? Yeah, me neither.

Mr. Kaplan, who was best when she was on-screen to sass and help Reddington once every few episodes, gets pushed into the spotlight for some made-up bullshit reason that had never been discussed or hinted at previous to the “Mr. Kaplan used to work for Katarina Rostova” storyline. And while Susan Bloomaert is a fantastic and underrated actress and did her absolute best to make those scenes between her and Liz feel emotional, I didn’t really care about their dynamic at all because it felt so forced, underdeveloped, and out-of-nowhere.

Whereas the relationship that I care the MOST about – that between Red and Liz – that has been the most built-up and developed over the course of the show keeps getting thrown under the bus as Liz does the whole “love Red, hate Red, forgive Red” song-and-dance routine. She claims she agrees with Red when he tells her not to go back to Tom in Season 2… only to go back to Tom later in Season 2. She’s totally down with asking Red to help her whenever she’s a criminal on the run… but the minute her wedding gets shot up, she yells at him and says it’s his fault.

And now, as far as the Lizzington fans go, which I count myself as one of them, the show has written itself into a corner. Because all the amazing chemistry and romantic tropes throughout the show feel incredibly creepy now that Liz believes Red is her dad, regardless of whether he actually is or not. I don’t care how they try to pull themselves out of the ginormous hole they’ve dug for themselves on that one – why the hell would a woman ever end up with a guy that she once thought was her dad, even if it turned out he actually wasn’t?

And the only real way out of it is the Impostor Theory – a well-written and well-researched theory, but one that makes people have to do fucking mental gymnastics for it to work. You have to assume a lot of people like Naomi and Reddington’s former roommate from the Naval Academy who’s now an admiral, are in on it. Whereas dudes like Finch or the Director aren’t…

Don’t get me wrong; I think it’s a wonderful theory and it explains a lot. But, if it ends up being true, it means one of two things:

1) The writers didn’t plan this from the beginning and lucked their way into it

OR

2) The writers DID plan this from the beginning, which means they have the ability to be really good writers, but then they fell into all this other bullshit – like Liz’s weird arc and other things – which really means that they’re not that good of writers; they just had the one good idea.

And if the Impostor Theory DOESN’T end up being true, in some form or fashion, that means that Red really IS Liz’s dad, and this whole fucking show – Red’s entire characterization, his relationship and dynamic with her – has been a lie. Canon can be throw out the window to rot in the sewer and fuck itself in the interim, because the writers don’t even care any more.

Which, I realize is unfair, because I know there are hundreds of people who work really hard to make this show happen, and while it’s not, like, the worst show of all time, the fact that it had such potential and has fallen so far, almost makes it seem worse than a show that was so bad from the beginning I never invested time in it.

And what makes it even WORSE is that the showrunners continue to act like this is the most groundbreaking show on television, and put it on a pedestal On High, along with the likes of Game of Thrones, The Americans, and The Sopranos… you know, actually good shows.

That would be the equivalent of the Taken director demanding that his movie should’ve gotten an Oscar. It’s like, you know it was a fine movie, and I had a good time watching it, but like, bring yourself back down to earth. Taken is okay, but it is NOT Oscar-worthy material, so get off your high horse, dude.

I guess, if nothing else, it shows that the showrunners, writers and actors are so talented that they got me to invest in the show to the point where I can’t not watch it, even though it’s fallen so far and I feel like it’s nowhere near as good as it used to be. They hooked me and got me to care about these characters and their dynamics so much that, even though it frustrates me week in and week out, I will still keep watching it.

It’s just that, now, I might be doing it with a bottle of vodka, taking shots every time:

Red has a monologue that proves James Spader is too damn good for this show;

Liz is bitchy to Red for little to no reason, while continuing to be lovey-dovey with Tom;

Ressler survives a fight or car accident or some other action sequence with no injuries whatsoever;

Harry Lennix is completely underused as Harold Cooper in an episode, because he only tells his employees to do the obvious… and literally nothing else;

Samar and/or Aram take a step back from getting together, despite hints that they’ve liked each other since Season 2.

So, bottoms up, Blacklist fans!