As I sit here eating my waffles this Saturday morning, I’d like to offer up my opinions/review of the Grey’s Anatomy music event. I realize I’m a week late, but it took three times watching it before I was able to make up my mind about how I felt. The first time felt awkward, the second humorous, and the third made me like it enough to watch a fourth. (However, I’ve run out of friends who will willingly sit through it with me.) All of these mixed feelings made me curious to know what other viewers are thinking/saying about the episode. (I think all of the friends I watched with disliked it, but secretly loved it.)
Through my internet research, I found that the music event was the most watched episode of the season so far, with 12.7 million viewers, and apparently, throughout the hour, more and more people began to tune their televisions to ABC. Grey’s Anatomy took the number one spot for “most viewers of any other show on television” in the 9 o’clock slot on Thursday. It didn’t do as well as American Idol, though, which had 22 million viewers during the 8 o’clock slot. Polls and surveys show that fans think “The Story,” sung by Sara Ramirez, was the best performance of the show. “The Story” also broke the top 100 on itunes by the weekend. And Sara Ramirez’ solo album broke the top 30.
OK, enough of numbers. I totally understand why viewers are in love with “The Story.” It was an emotional performance that happened during Callie’s “awakening,” but it wasn’t my favorite. I really preferred “Universe and U,” sung by Jessica Capshaw and Sara Ramirez, originally by KT Tunstall. I have no explanation as to why I love it so much. Just do.
In all, my opinion is that the show would have been an awkward flop without Sara Ramirez. Her vocals were strong and her confidence was obvious. (No duh. She DID win a Tony award for her Broadway performance in Spamalot.) The other actors/characters weren’t HORRIBLE, some surprisingly good, but their awkwardness/discomfort with the singdancing was evident in their acting.
It was fun to watch and talk about. It was good promoting on the producers/creators part. It was a good way to win over some GLEE fans. But I think Grey’s Anatomy had better stick to giving a character cancer or making someone get hit by a truck next time they want to make a big fuss.
