Grey's Anatomy Casting Thoughts
Feb. 25th, 2020 09:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iariaOn the ongoing casting situation:
This whole Justin Chambers/Alex thing is really frustrating and a little upsetting. I feel a lot of sympathy for the show runners but I'm annoyed at how this is all playing out. From what I've read Chambers filmed the 300th episode then took a pre-requested break from the show which had been written in. Except then for whatever reason he decided he didn't want to return and quit the show. Which... ?? He can do that? Isn't he under contract for the entire season? So clearly that's put the show in a very difficult position. Now they have to write an exit without actually having the character on screen and this is Alex who is one of the original cast, who is a major character with major ties to the other main characters. It was honestly a very shitty and unprofessional thing for Chambers to do.
But, while I get why the PTB might be flailing to figure this out, the show hasn't been dealing with it well. Making it this big mystery with Alex basically ignoring Jo and Meredith is not sitting well. Especially him basically ignoring Jo sucks because it feels like a massive regression of the character. Season 16 Alex wouldn't do that to Jo, wtf? I'm very irritated that the show has had Meredith paying basically no attention to him being gone, that also reads false to me.
Now of course is the question of how the hell they're going to write him out? A part of me wishes Chambers had made this decision at the beginning of the season because it was almost the perfect set up to write Alex off - fired, marriage to Jo failing. Instead he's disappeared and it's so very ???? I really, really hope they don't kill him off. It would make me too sad, I don't want them to do that to Meredith (and Jo) and a part of me hopes Chambers will return. I just would really hate if they killed him off. I would also really hate if he actually did/was cheating on Jo, even if it was say Izzie. Just no.
Before he left he and Jo were in a good place so how the hell do they deal with that when Jo is still on the show? Without making Alex looking terrible? All I can think of other than death is for there to be something medically wrong with Alex, like say he's started showing symptoms of schizophrenia and that's what sent him to his mom or he had a break while in Iowa with her. It would be a deeply sad way to write him off the show but it wouldn't undue his character development.
Ideally I'd like him to be written out by having Cristina to offer him a job now that he is once again jobless and for him to decide to take it with I guess him and Jo breaking up off-screen and then him going off to Switzerland. The idea of him and Cristina working together would makes me very happy even if it doesn't effectively solve the Jo situation. But then we could occasionally have Mere texting with them and it'd be great.
Meanwhile Meredith and Jo lean on each other and either Jo becomes Mere's new Person or Jo becomes one of the Sisters and either way Mere and Jo give each other support over Alex leaving their lives.
Maybe the explanation can be Alex's mother taking a turn for the worst (or Alex) and Cristina's hospital has a new treatment so he (or they) move to Switzerland. Perhaps he and Jo can try a long-distance thing?
+ Also this whole thing makes me extra bitter about the fact that Meredith and Alex basically only interacted in like one episode this entire season. As the a final episode between their characters onscreen him defending and supporting her so passionately it was great but it doesn't change them not interacting for so long before that.
+ Oh, also, I'm wondering if him leaving changed the course of the whole Pac North storyline? It's a pretty big change so I'm guessing probably not? But either way I have to say I'm really disappointed where they went with that. I loved the idea of the show splitting between the two hospitals and various characters going over (Meredith should have joined Alex and Richard) and it's a shame they dumped it so quickly.
This whole Justin Chambers/Alex thing is really frustrating and a little upsetting. I feel a lot of sympathy for the show runners but I'm annoyed at how this is all playing out. From what I've read Chambers filmed the 300th episode then took a pre-requested break from the show which had been written in. Except then for whatever reason he decided he didn't want to return and quit the show. Which... ?? He can do that? Isn't he under contract for the entire season? So clearly that's put the show in a very difficult position. Now they have to write an exit without actually having the character on screen and this is Alex who is one of the original cast, who is a major character with major ties to the other main characters. It was honestly a very shitty and unprofessional thing for Chambers to do.
But, while I get why the PTB might be flailing to figure this out, the show hasn't been dealing with it well. Making it this big mystery with Alex basically ignoring Jo and Meredith is not sitting well. Especially him basically ignoring Jo sucks because it feels like a massive regression of the character. Season 16 Alex wouldn't do that to Jo, wtf? I'm very irritated that the show has had Meredith paying basically no attention to him being gone, that also reads false to me.
Now of course is the question of how the hell they're going to write him out? A part of me wishes Chambers had made this decision at the beginning of the season because it was almost the perfect set up to write Alex off - fired, marriage to Jo failing. Instead he's disappeared and it's so very ???? I really, really hope they don't kill him off. It would make me too sad, I don't want them to do that to Meredith (and Jo) and a part of me hopes Chambers will return. I just would really hate if they killed him off. I would also really hate if he actually did/was cheating on Jo, even if it was say Izzie. Just no.
Before he left he and Jo were in a good place so how the hell do they deal with that when Jo is still on the show? Without making Alex looking terrible? All I can think of other than death is for there to be something medically wrong with Alex, like say he's started showing symptoms of schizophrenia and that's what sent him to his mom or he had a break while in Iowa with her. It would be a deeply sad way to write him off the show but it wouldn't undue his character development.
Ideally I'd like him to be written out by having Cristina to offer him a job now that he is once again jobless and for him to decide to take it with I guess him and Jo breaking up off-screen and then him going off to Switzerland. The idea of him and Cristina working together would makes me very happy even if it doesn't effectively solve the Jo situation. But then we could occasionally have Mere texting with them and it'd be great.
Meanwhile Meredith and Jo lean on each other and either Jo becomes Mere's new Person or Jo becomes one of the Sisters and either way Mere and Jo give each other support over Alex leaving their lives.
Maybe the explanation can be Alex's mother taking a turn for the worst (or Alex) and Cristina's hospital has a new treatment so he (or they) move to Switzerland. Perhaps he and Jo can try a long-distance thing?
+ Also this whole thing makes me extra bitter about the fact that Meredith and Alex basically only interacted in like one episode this entire season. As the a final episode between their characters onscreen him defending and supporting her so passionately it was great but it doesn't change them not interacting for so long before that.
+ Oh, also, I'm wondering if him leaving changed the course of the whole Pac North storyline? It's a pretty big change so I'm guessing probably not? But either way I have to say I'm really disappointed where they went with that. I loved the idea of the show splitting between the two hospitals and various characters going over (Meredith should have joined Alex and Richard) and it's a shame they dumped it so quickly.
