random musings on pilot episodes
Jan. 23rd, 2022 12:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deird1I am, in retrospect, really impressed with the pilot episode of Grey's Anatomy.
Disney+ just suggested that I watch a show I've never heard of: Station 19. It was about firefighters, so I decided to give it a go. It wasn't until halfway through the pilot that I realised it was a Grey's Anatomy spin-off.
Grey's Anatomy has gone on for far too long, and is, by all accounts, not really worth watching anymore. But I watched the first few seasons, and still remember them fondly.
Anyway, back to Station 19.
Having watched the pilot, I can tell you that the characters include:
- the main character
- the main character's dad
- the main character's best friend
- the main character's ex-boyfriend from high-school
- the main character's ex-boyfriend from five minutes ago
- the sassy gay guy
- the guy who used to be a doctor
For the vast majority of the characters, all I know about their personalities is how they relate to the main character. And I know nothing whatsoever about her personality.
Whereas, when I had watched Grey's Anatomy's pilot, I could have told you that the characters were:
- the main character, whose mother was a kickass surgeon but now has Alzheimer's
- the competitive intern
- the pretty intern
- the nervous intern
- the arrogant intern
- "the Nazi", the no-nonsense boss of the interns
- the head of the hospital
- surgeon who just slept with the main character
- surgeon who picks on weak interns to keep the rest in line
Also, Grey's Anatomy manages to cram a ton of plot into that first episode. And Station 19 really doesn't. I honestly had to look it up and check that it was only 43 minutes, because there's so much episode in there.
Disney+ just suggested that I watch a show I've never heard of: Station 19. It was about firefighters, so I decided to give it a go. It wasn't until halfway through the pilot that I realised it was a Grey's Anatomy spin-off.
Grey's Anatomy has gone on for far too long, and is, by all accounts, not really worth watching anymore. But I watched the first few seasons, and still remember them fondly.
Anyway, back to Station 19.
Having watched the pilot, I can tell you that the characters include:
- the main character
- the main character's dad
- the main character's best friend
- the main character's ex-boyfriend from high-school
- the main character's ex-boyfriend from five minutes ago
- the sassy gay guy
- the guy who used to be a doctor
For the vast majority of the characters, all I know about their personalities is how they relate to the main character. And I know nothing whatsoever about her personality.
Whereas, when I had watched Grey's Anatomy's pilot, I could have told you that the characters were:
- the main character, whose mother was a kickass surgeon but now has Alzheimer's
- the competitive intern
- the pretty intern
- the nervous intern
- the arrogant intern
- "the Nazi", the no-nonsense boss of the interns
- the head of the hospital
- surgeon who just slept with the main character
- surgeon who picks on weak interns to keep the rest in line
Also, Grey's Anatomy manages to cram a ton of plot into that first episode. And Station 19 really doesn't. I honestly had to look it up and check that it was only 43 minutes, because there's so much episode in there.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-23 04:42 am (UTC)Think I meant to get Season 8, but was never able to find it separately; only as part of boxsets. I recall being very shocked that it was still going as it seemed to have run it's course with some very unfathomably absurd storylines; even for characters I didn't like ~ after watching Stargate all the way to the end I'd come to realise it really had nothing worth saying after season 4 and should have stopped watching then and began to learn to stop watching shows when they had begun to lose 'that magic ingredient'.
Differs from show to show but, if I was watching it now, I'd have stopped watching Buffy/Angel after S5/2, and I'm kinda glad that Firefly never got the chance to fall foul of that; fallen out of love with the movie somewhat though I love watching reactions to it. The Firefly pilot is probably the best one I have ever seen, and I wish they hadn't been forced to make The Train Job, which I would love a helluva lot more if it had not had to replay so much info from the pilot.
Of long running shows E.R. had the best pilot I think.
Star Trek is notorious, for me, for the awfulness of it's pilots; The Cage is one of my favourite episodes it feels like the pilot of a completely different show (naturally enough I suppose), as does the second pilot really.
Seen a lot of Station 19 clips in facebook, but they've never made me want to watch it, or return to Grey's Anatomy.
kerk
ps. Can't believe I forgot the pilot to Queer As Folk (US); tremendous and explosive and you get a real sense of all the main characters right from the off. Of course my second favourite character fades away after the first season (in the UK one she disappears altogether) and my favourite character doesn't appear until the second episode; same as my favourite character in Waverly Earp (though some insist on calling it Wynonna Earp ;-) )
no subject
Date: 2022-01-23 11:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-23 09:03 pm (UTC)Station 19 - amusingly enough kills off the ex-boyfriend cop and the father within the first two-three seasons. And pulls the main character into a different fire house, while pursuing the other characters separately. Also everyone who is romantically together in the first two-three seasons? Aren't now. It doesn't get better though - the writing is kind of weak, and my attention drifts during it. So, I wouldn't recommend it.
The writing on both Grey's and Station 19 isn't as good as it was in early Grey's and Scandal. And it's very paint-by-numbers soapy procedural.