Thursday, March 15, 2012

Grey's Anatomy: Graduation Times and Cristina and Owen's Rough Patch

TV Guide has published a longer interview with Grey's Anatomy boss Shonda Rhimes where she talks about Cristina, Alex and Meredith exchanging their light blue scrubs for the dark blue ones and graduating to become attendings by the end of the season and why Cristina and Owen are going through a rough patch. Here is a excerpt from the interview:


Cristina, Meredith and Alex graduate 

Speaking of, the original interns are in their final year of residency. Will their transition be a major part of the last few episodes? 
Rhimes: Yeah, it really is and we've been feeling it in the writers' room. As we read the scripts, there's a strong sense of nostalgia because it really is an end of an era for these characters and that's a milestone for us. They're finishing their residency, they're going to be Attendings. I suppose you could keep them as residents forever but that just didn't feel right in terms of what we wanted to do.

The alt-reality episode was a good way to call back to a lot of those moments from the past seasons. Will there be more of those moments? 
Rhimes: Yeah, I think there's a little bit of that. There are people coming full circle and it's really the time to look at them, see how they've grown and how they've changed from the people that we first met.

On Cristina and Owen

Not everyone can get a happy ending. Why did you choose Cristina and Owen to be the couple that hit the most rough patches? 

Rhimes: That's interesting. I guess I don't look at it that way, like I'm not trying to make Cristina and Owen hit rough patches because not everyone can get a happy ending. I really look at the characters and think, "What is the journey that they're on? What do they still have left to learn? What struggles are they still juggling?" I try to look at them as people and it feels to me like Cristina still has a lot of unresolved issues. And more importantly, she's in love with a person who has some unresolved issues with her as well. 
But, to me, Cristina Yang is an extraordinarily gifted surgeon first before she's anything else. While she's expanded and grown in a lot of areas, that is still who she is and she fully expects and believes that if Owen's going to be in love with her, he's a man who's got to be in love with an extraordinarily gifted surgeon first and deal with all that comes with that.

You've really gut-punched the audience a couple times this season with them. 
Rhimes: I know, and I'm not really trying to. It truly isn't about playing with the audience. It really is about this journey for these characters and how to keep it honest. Sandra [Oh] and Kevin [McKidd] have been really engaged and they have to spend a lot of time together talking about this stuff. You have big arguments in terms of what we're going to do, because we all feel really passionately that they can all come to an agreement. After eight seasons to have a cast that's not phoning it in, it's the most exciting thing in the world.
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