"Let's play a game of whose life sucks the most. I'll win. I always win." - Ellen Pompeo as Meredith Grey
Grey's Anatomy: The Complete Second Season DVD Review
By Jude Clement
Secondary infections caused by unsanitary conditions at hospitals have been the subject of many news exposés lately. Patients at Seattle Grace, however, shouldn't worry. As Grey's Anatomy: The Complete Second Season shows, their doctors are involved in enough soap and lather to disinfect ten hospitals.
As Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), Christina Yang (Arli$$' Sandra Oh), Isobel "Izzie" Stevens (Roswell's Katherine Heigl), George O'Malley (T.R. Knight), and Alex Karev (Justin Chambers) continue their runs as surgical interns at Seattle Grace, their lives become ever more complicated. Meredith tried to keep secret that her mother Ellis Grey (Kate Burton), a brilliant surgeon who once worked at Seattle Grace, is now suffering from early onset Alzheimer's and barely recognizes her daughter. The secret becomes impossible to keep in season two, leading Meredith to discover more about her mother's past than she ever anticipated. Meredith's affair with her new boss, Dr. Derek "McDreamy" Shepherd (Once and Again's Patrick Dempsey), comes to a shattering end when she meets Dr. Addison Shepherd (Kate Walsh), his wife. Christina has to learn to balance her tendency to be myopic about her career with her love for Dr. Preston Burke (Isaiah Washington), a hotshot heart surgeon. Against her better judgment, Izzie falls for loutish Alex. George still nurses a crush on Meredith, but eventually begins dating Dr. Callie Torres (As the World Turns' Sara Ramirez). As if their lives aren't complicated enough, Dr. Richard Webber (James Pickens, Jr.), the hospital's chief of surgery, has a tumor removed from his brain and their immediate supervisor, Dr. Miranda "The Nazi" Bailey (Chandra Wilson) is even grumpier than usual because she's pregnant.
In season two, most of the characters become even more sharply defined than they were in the first season. For example, we get to see the softer side of roué Alex. He might still be a pig, but the pain behind his behavior is more evident. When he confides to an abused kid that victims of abuse can take charge of their lives and become anything they want to be - including doctors - we understand that he is speaking from experience. It is also revealed that he failed his medical board exams. Unless he takes them again and passes, he will be kicked out of Seattle Grace. He tries to keep this a secret from the other interns - especially Izzie - because he doesn't want their sympathy. Knowing that he failed, though, shakes his confidence, leading to several big medical screw-ups.
It's hard not to feel sorry for Alex when Izzie, who he has come to genuinely love, begins to fall for a patient - heart transplant candidate Denny Duquette (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). As the season goes on, theirs becomes an increasingly complex (and immensely satisfying) love triangle. When Denny's heartbeat becomes irregular and he needs to be shocked with a defibrillator, Alex takes control of the paddles, motivated not by the possibility of saving Denny's life but by inflicting pain on the man with whom Izzie is obviously falling in love.
The season's other main love triangle - the one between Meredith, Derek, and Addison - is far less interesting. Meredith spends much of the season being wishy-washy. McDreamy proves himself to be far from dreamy, committing to Addison but refusing to completely let go of Meredith. Addison starts out as an unsympathetic harridan, but thanks to Derek's crummy behavior, it is hard not to feel sorry for her. When, in the final moments of the season-ender, it appears that Meredith has to choose between McDreary...uh, McDreamy...and Finn Dandridge (Chris O'Donnell), the sensitive veterinarian she's been dating, the choice seems obvious: pick the vet!
Relationships aren't the only focus of Grey's Anatomy. The season's most talked-about episodes are probably "It's the End of the World" and "As We Know It," the explosive two-part event that premiered after the Super Bowl. Christina Ricci guest stars as a paramedic who arrives in the E.R. with her hand in a patient's chest wound to stop his bleeding. As it turns out, the patient is a military enthusiast who likes to build homemade weapons, and his wound was caused by an unexploded bazooka shell. If Ricci moves her hand, the device might explode, killing her and destroying half of the hospital. The bomb squad, led by Kyle Chandler (Early Edition), is called in to help diffuse the situation. These episodes are tense and exciting, even if the events and consequences that take place in them seem to be forgotten in subsequent weeks.
Season two also includes the usual mixture of interesting and unusual medical cases. A man swallows ten Judy doll heads because...well...he enjoys it when they exit his body. They have to be surgically removed, however, after they become stuck. Another man watches porn to release endorphins, thus relieving his chronic pain. After a horrifying train accident, two strangers are impaled on a metal pole. A writer decides that the novel he's been working on for years is so crappy he needs to eat it, thus letting it fulfill its destiny. A woman has a "happy tumor" that releases so much serotonin she becomes preternaturally thrilled with even the most mundane of life's events.
Again this season, the series is sometimes a bit too obvious in trying to draw parallels between the doctors and their patients. One patient, for example, literally suffers from a "broken heart." Not exactly subtle. The super-sized number of episodes in season two can be wearying after a while, especially if watched in succession. The wispy, mopey pop music used in the series is also grating but, to be fair, since two soundtracks have already been released, someone obviously appreciates it. Still, these are relatively minor complaints about a series that rarely fails to entertain.
Season two features enough familiar faces to fill an entire hospital. These include Loretta Devine (Boston Public), Mimi Kennedy (Homefront), Monica Keena (Undeclared), Reni Santoni (Seinfeld), George Dzunza (Law & Order), Curtis Armstrong (Moonlighting), Timothy Bottoms (That's My Bush!), Rosanna Arquette, Jenny O'Hara (The Facts of Life), Helen Slater (Supergirl), Donovan Leitch, Carole Cook (The Lucy Show), Betty Garrett (Laverne & Shirley), June Lockhart (Lost in Space), Leisha Hailey (The L Word), Eric Dane (Charmed), Natalie Cole, Mary Kay Place (Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman), Mare Winningham (The Brotherhood of Poland, NH), Laurie Metcalf (Roseanne), Jeff Perry (Nash Bridges), Jean Louisa Kelly (Yes, Dear), Jayne Brook (Chicago Hope), and Frances Fisher.
The twenty-six episodes that make up Grey's Anatomy: The Complete Second Season are divided onto six discs. The discs are housed in a foldout case decorated with publicity photos and production stills. The six discs attach to three panels - each of the panels hold two discs one on top of the other in a figure eight pattern. Another panel of the foldout case includes a folder which contains an episode guide. The case slides into a cardboard sleeve.
The menus are simple and functional. Viewers can play all of a disc's episodes or choose an individual one. The episodes are divided into chapters, but there are no scene selection menus.
