That Bruce Jenner Interview

Bruce Jenner took what has been paparazzi fodder and ridicule for months, and made it real and human, in his interview with Diane Sawyer tonight.

I tuned in because this was a story we had not been privy too. While a part of the Kardashian reality debacle for 8 years, Bruce was always a supporting act, and never the star. And yet, as he said, he was the one with the story - the real story; a story that meant something to some people - to those people who try to navigate life with a lot of questions about themselves.

Gender confusion is still something many people grapple with. I grapple with it - not me not understanding whether I am man or woman. I am a woman and I am clear on that. But I never fully understood how others could not really share that sense of comprehension about themselves. There are a lot of things in this world that I do not necessarily agree with or fully understand. But what I do understand and appreciate is the ongoing quest to be happy. Happiness can sometimes seem so far out of reach - you seem to have to stretch just a little bit further to reach that fruit that is just, just out of reach. Living a life where it seems true happiness evades you is not really a life. Contemplating suicide, as he confesses he did, because you are in constant fear of what society will say or do, is not life. So when a guy feels he is happier living the rest of his life as a woman, after 65 years of living what he feels has been a pretence, then I am okay with that. Living half of a life is painful. It is empty. It is callous for us to ask anyone to do that. In the end, all any of us want is to be happy and for our loved ones to be happy - or at least that is what we should want.

I think Diane and Bruce handled the interview beautifully and brought it back really to the human condition, and made it less of a spectacle than has been made of it in the past several months. That people are harmed by others, or harm themselves because of their choice is very sad to me. The images were disturbing but hopefully there is just a little bit more understanding. Glad to see his children have been so supportive as it is clear they were his central concern. I don't agree they all had to be on-camera to prove their love for him. They are dealing with their own issues and fears I am sure. And also, I think the Kardashian girls recognised this was not their moment, but his (or at least I hope they were really being this generous). I appreciated that they were not there to bring it back to that circus level, but he could tell his story in his way, on his time, by himself.

I thought he was very brave and honest. I respect that it is a very private journey and so we did not need to see him as "her". I respect the way in which the 2-hr interview was conducted with it not being a tabloid-esque expose but a deep and meaningful, often touching, sometimes funny perspective from someone trying to come to terms with himself, and the challenges others like him face. I always felt a bit sorry for him on that silly reality show but he is a very brave guy and I give him a lot of respect for that.

I wish him the best.

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ABC's Scandal: Fixing the Tragic Life of Singles

Single politician Will Caldwell
and his fixee on ABC's Scandal
Photo credit: Danny Feld/ABC

So like a lot of people nowadays, I sat down with a wafer after Grey's Anatomy, and watched ABC's Scandal. While I am not about to start any arguments about the show, I do want to comment on one thing.

So one of the sub-plots last night was around a Kennedy-esque type candidate for Governor. A driven and committed guy, from the right family background, with the media darling looks. Only one problem - he's single!

So I chuckled throughout the storyline.

1. He's educated, rich, good looking, from one of those families you apparently want to marry into, but the only thing WRONG with him, is he is single. lol. Referring to yesterday's blog post, he is a male leftover, and in political circles, that is a sin! While it was good to see the single man getting abused last night, I am still in the corner of all single people, advocating that it is not a tragedy! Is it??

2. So he's educated, rich, good looking etc, with no wife, no girlfriend, no signs of a woman anywhere - just single and moving along with his little politics hobby, so guess what? He MUST be gay! Yep. Single and with no obvious signs of a relationship, so clearly, you're gay and in the closet. This is real though. This does not only play out on tv! Turns out the guy was not gay but instead just creeping with his sister-in-law for the past decade.

3. Olivia insists that if given ten years, she can get a gay president elected. A gay president with a partner! But not a SINGLE president - gay or otherwise. ROFL. I mean, is there no hope for the singleton?

In the end, things were so bad for this very openly single dude, that they resorted to finding him a fake wife. Yes...a fake wife! So not only does Olivia Pope fix political messes, but she fixes the tragic life of the singleton. The DC matchmaker if you will.

Do you need an Olivia Pope for your tragic single life?

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Sing A Song, Seattle Grace: Grey's Musical Event

Celebration! No class and Grey's Anatomy! Cheers!

So first, some good news. Yesterday I had my...wait for it...my last class. There was no celebration or champagne. It was a pretty dull class about corporate governance and having not slept the night before or eaten for that matter, I was not in a fun place. But my days of 5am wake up calls, and dashing for the 6.34 bus are over! Needless to say, the grandpappy of assignments still plagues my life - the dissertation and another minor annoyance better known as a mood board (yes, believe it...I have to do a MOOD BOARD!!). However, the end is nigh, peeps! The end is nigh!
And a bit of housekeeping. Click here, like it, that's all.

And now to the crux of the matter...

Sara Ramirez as Dr Calliope "Callie" Torres

I am not sure I have truly expressed how I feel about Grey's Anatomy on my blog. I have mentioned my love for the show in passing a couple times but in reality, I love it. Being in London, while a great experience on a lot of fronts, is a total Grey's buzzkill. Sadly, as with most of the American shows, the episodes are behind the US airings - 7 episodes behind. I can stream the episodes of course, but the fun was always in watching the show with friends via Facebook. There is a cult following on my friends' list and now they watch it without me and I have to catch up. And I just realised as well, that I am going to have to miss the awesome experience of watching the Grey's finale with friends as well.  The Grey's finales are usually epic and a must-see and had I used the grey matter that I have been putting to the test on assignments and exams, to plan my "vacation", I would have booked my flight after the finale. lol. Yes..it's that serious.

In any event, the Grey's musical event was tonight, or in my case, this morning (wow...it's 4am!), and I will admit, I had some serious misgivings about this. While I love a show trying new formats, I was not feeling a musical Grey's. I could not imagine my favourite surgeons singing, scalpels in hand. It sounded awful, mind numbing and annoying. So what did I think of it then?

Eric Dane as Dr Mark "McSteamy" Sloan

There were some brief nauseating musical moments like Owen's sudden outburst to calm the other attendings. Could have done without that. I thought sometimes the singing got in the way of the script. I must say, the singing was good but when I tune in to watch Grey's, I want the drama. If I wanted to watch tv musicals, I would watch Glee. It was just too much for me, for the most part. But to Shonda's credit, it did not overwhelm the story as much as I thought it would. It was woven in to the episode where it made sense and at least there was no dancing in the hallways of the hospital or anything. The Callie sequences were the ones that worked best and made the most sense and fed into the emotion of the episode. Not to mention Sara Ramirez's voice is beautiful. Amazing! Callie worked. She worked. Cro Magnon and Karev - not so much. lol. Kudos to McDreamy aka Patrick Dempsey for admitting he cannot sing and would not be singing. I could not have my image of him tainted by out of tune, no tonal quality squawking. I give the episode an 8 still - it was not that bad really. I survived.

*spoiler alert - stop if you don't want to know how it ended*

The episode itself was brilliant and of course, tear jerking and it was not even 2 minutes into the thing and I was beside myself. I kinda wish Callie had woken up with amnesia and forgotten she was in love with Arizona and then maybe see Mark and fall madly in love with him but no such luck. The Callie/Arizona wedding is looming. God. I feel it for poor Meredith though. And finally, the student is outshining the teacher and Dr Altman is suffering from Christina tabanca - I mean, first Christina took her man and now like she want to take the wuk too. Heifer. lol..

I am so glad it had a cliched tv end - with baby and mama alive. If the baby had gotten up and sang, it would have been the end for me though.

Let's hope they never do a musical Law and Order: SVU. I do not think I am ever going to be ready for a singing Det Stabler.

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The Finale that left us breathless...

I think I am all over the cybersphere with Grey's. It was just awesome awesome awesome.

My fab Facebook/BBM friends and fellow fanatics:

I have no words...no words after last night. Ok maybe just one...BRILLIANT!

It was just epic, just brilliant, the best in Primetime I have seen for a while. When Clark shot annoying Reed point blank I knew we had trouble.



All I could say is thank God meh heart strong eh!! from the beginning my jaw was on the floor, straight till the end
 
Such a great show! I am especially appreciative of the fact that there were no cliff-hangers - who hadda dead, dead and who hadda live, live.



This woman, Shonda Rhimes looking to kill people. I swear, if the earth had shook last night in Trinidad as it did in Costa Rica, I would have not been bothered cause I was right there at Seattle Grace, right with all of these amazing people. I am still stunned by its awesomeness and wow...I almost love this woman. - trininista

 
I posted my epic review of this epic episode this morning, after my local IP failed me last night because it was penned right after the show ended, such was the fabness!

Shonda, even with all the gore (I mean, damn...Reed's bullet to the head made me jump off the couch) kept the show's Greyness, with the relationships still being the focal point of all the drama. The relationship between Owen and Cris and Teddy and Owen's indecision and lunacy. The relationship between Cris and Mer, cause Mer told her first about being pregnant and even though she had just ended it with Owen, Cris was too happy for her friend and to be godmother if the worst should happen - which it almost did (damn you Shonda). The beginning of one love (Alex and Lexie) totally ending the hope for another love (Lexie and Mark, but not that I was hoping, just felt really bad for Markie). The love one woman has for the entire world and how it takes such a toll on HER emotions (Bailey). The lesbian love which seems destined to haunt us. The love between a man and a woman, so deep that not even death could tear them apart (Mer and McDreamy). The love of that guy, that father figure, that man who would not leave his troops behind, who would not retreat in defeat, who would risk his own life to ensure his hospital was safe and who without a doubt has the balls, the passion, the experience and the heart to get back his frickin job as Chief. My Chief!

We loved it, we shared in every jaw dropping, nail biting moment. If nothing else exciting were to happen this week, at least we would have Grey's Anatomy. Thank you Shonda. Thank you ABC! Still want you to keep Flash Forward but I will try not to push it.
Gotta love social networking and how it makes being a tv drama fan so much fun. But the real question now is, what do I do on Thursday nights until it comes back on in the fall? (scratches head)

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