When it was introduced that Gray’s Anatomy and Station 19 had been switching time slots, in part to facilitate more crossovers, I’ll admit I groaned. I even did it in print. Like many a Gray’s viewer, I felt like I wasn’t being invited or inspired to tune in to its spinoff a lot as I used to be being compelled. Making issues worse, my response to the little little bit of Station 19 that I’d already seen (again in Season 1) had been, at finest, lukewarm.
However I’m as comfortable as a firefighter on a pole day to now have hose to down my outrage, as a result of someplace alongside the road — maybe when Gray’s showrunner Krista Vernoff took over the offshoot? — the present caught hearth. So after I restarted watching with the Season three premiere, lest I miss some key Gray’s plot level, I kinda dug it (fact be advised, minus the “kinda”).
At first I believed possibly I used to be simply having fun with it extra nowadays since, between Station 19 samplings, Gray’s had tricked me into attending to know and adore a few the spinoff’s first-responders: charisma machine Barrett Doss’ Vic (who’s executed wonders for Jackson post-the Maggie debacle) and Okieriete Onaodowan’s Dean (who’s as lovable as a teddy bear with biceps the scale of soccer balls). That isn’t why I’m instantly so sizzling for the sequence, although. No less than it’s not the solely cause.
Tepid storylines just like the Jack/Andy/Ryan triangle are useless and buried (as is Ryan). Of their place are plots that blaze extra intensely, just like the thwarted attraction between Andy and Sullivan (which permits Jaina Lee Ortiz and Boris Kodjoe to set off smoke alarms each time their characters commerce glances), and Jack’s ill-advised fling together with his nemesis’ spouse. And the upcoming demise of Andy’s father, the firehouse’s revered former captain, guarantees to be a three-Kleenex affair, particularly if Andy learns beforehand that Pruitt referred to as Ryan residence to Seattle and his early grave.
Heck, the present has even discovered the way to play Danielle Savre’s freshly-promoted Maya as a hard-ass as a substitute of hard-to-like; her budding flirtation with Gray’s Carina is bound to additional assist in that regard. And if the sequence are going to proceed to romantically intersect — and why wouldn’t they? — possibly Jay Hayden’s candy, steady Travis will be the man who helps Gray’s Levi choose up the items when his relationship with Nico finishes collapsing? (As massive a “Schmico” booster as I’m, the writing is on the wall the place their future is anxious, wouldn’t you agree?)
However I digress. I try this after I’m enthusiastic, and, to my nice shock, I am keen about Station 19. A lot in order that, bizarre because it feels, I nearly wish to say because of ABC for strong-arming me into watching it once more. You had been proper, I used to be fallacious — it’s gotten not merely higher than it was; attractive, zippy, humorous and heartfelt as it’s, it’s simply plain good.
THE TVLINE BOTTOM LINE: Having gone from a flicker to a four-alarm hearth between Seasons 1 and three, Station 19 deserves a re-assessment.