Grey’s Anatomy – Complete Sixth Season (A J!-ENT DVD Review)

September 3, 2010 by Dennis Amith 

A magnificent, dramatic heartfelt season with a tragic, shocking season finale that will shock “Grey’s Anatomy” fans to the core.  If you are a fan of the series, this DVD set is highly recommended!

Images courtesy of © abc studios. All Rights Reserved.

DVD TITLE: Grey’s Anatomy – Complete Sixth Season – More Moments

SERIES DATE: 2009-2010

DURATION: 24 Episodes (1032 Minutes)

DVD INFORMATION: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, Spanish and French Subtitles, Widescreen (1:78:1) – Enhanced for 16×9 Televisions

COMPANY: abc studios

RATED: TV 14 DSLV

RELEASE DATE: September 14, 2010

Created by Shonda Rhimes

Directed by Rob Corn, Jessica Yu and Randall Zisk

Written by Shonda Rhimes, Krista Vernoff, Stacy McKee, Tony Phelan, Joan Rater, Mark Wilding, Debora Cahn, Zoanne Clack, Allan Heinberg, Jenna Bans, William Harper and Peter Nowalk

Executive Producer: Betsy Beers, Shonda Rhimes, Krista Vernoff

Co-Executive Producer: Mark Wilding, Tony Phelan, Joan Rater

Producer: Tammy Ann Casper, Rob Corn, Linda Klein, Zoanne Clack

Consulting Producer: Debora Cahn

Supervising Producer: Jenna Bans

Associate Producer: Chris Van Dusen

Music by Danny Lux

Cinematography by Herbert Davis

Edited by Edward Ornelas, Susan Vaill, David Greenspan

Casting by John Brace, Linda Lowy, Will Stewart

Production Design by Donald Lee Harris

Set Decoration by Nicole Cramer

Costume Design by Mimi Melgaard

Starring:

Ellen Pompeo as Dr. Meredith Grey

Patrick Dempsey as Dr. Derek Shepherd

Sandra Oh as Dr. Cristina Yang

Katherine Heigl as Dr. Isobel ‘Izzie’ Stevens

Eric Dane as Dr. Mark Sloan

Justin Chambers as Dr. Alex Karev

Chandra Wilson as Dr. Miranda Bailey

James Pickens Jr. as Dr. Richard Webber

Sara Ramirez as Dr. Callie Torres

Kevin McKidd as Dr. Owen Hunt

Jessica Capshaw as Dr. Arizona Robbins

Chyler Leigh as Dr. Lexie Grey

Kim Raver as Dr. Teddy Altman

Kate Walsh as Dr. Addison Montgomery-Shepherd

Jesse Williams as Dr. Jackson Avery

Sarah Drew as Dr. April Kepner

Robert Baker as Dr. Charles Percy

Norah Zehetner as Dr. Reed Adamson

Life takes commitment. As much as things have changed, good and bad, for the doctors at Seattle Grace, they’re now faced with the challenge of how willing they are to commit – to their careers, to love, to friendships, to the choices they make. And they will start to realize they have to deal with their lives to understand what matters most to them and how commitment helps define who they are.

In 2005, “Grey’s Anatomy” became a critically acclaimed television series that would become ABC’s top rated dramas and winner of two Emmy and Golden Globe Awards.

Created by Shonda Rhimes (“Private Practice”), the drama series revolves around a group of interns and their experience at Seattle Grace Hospital. As well, as a few of the other doctors of the hospital. Throughout the first five seasons, we see these interns become residents and experience relationship problems and also the stress and challenges they face as resident doctors.  The last season was a bit more dramatic as love was lost, love was found and we saw one of the main characters battling cancer, while another dies in a tragic accident.

Season six features a merger between Seattle Grace and Mercy West and this season introduces us to new doctors and characters who will have an impact on the current main characters.

The characters of “Grey’s Anatomy” Season 6 include:

Dr. Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo, “Daredevil”, “Old School”) - A resident surgeon Seattle’s Grace Hospital who is now married to Dr. Derek Shepherd. Best friends with Dr. Cristina Yang.

Dr. Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey, “The Practice”, “Made of Honor”, “The Practice”, “Freedom Writers”) - The head of neurosurgery and was married to Dr. Addison Montgomery (“Private Practice”) who had an affair with his friend Dr. Mark Sloan. He is now married to Dr. Meredith Grey. Known as “McDreamy” to the Dr. Meredith Grey and her friends.

Dr. Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh, “Blindness”, “Arli$$”, “Sideways”) - A resident surgeon at Seattle’s Grace Hospital and a best friend of Dr. Meredith Grey, not afraid of confessing her emotions to her friends.  She is currently dating Dr. Owen Hunt.  She wants to have more hands on experience as a cardiac surgeon.

Dr. Isobel “Izzie” Stevens (Katherine Heigl, “27 Date”, “Roswell”, “Knocked Up”) – A resident surgeon at Seattle Grace Hospital and is married to Dr. Alex Karev.  She is recovering from cancer.

Dr. Alex Karev (Justin Chambers, “Lakeview Terrace”, “Cold Case”, “The Wedding Planner”) - A doctor at Seattle’s Grace Hospital. Abrasive towards the new interns and is married to Dr. Isobel Stevens.

Dr. Mark Sloan (Eric Dane, “Marley & Me”, “X-Men: The Last Stand”, “Charmed”) - Once a best friend (and almost like family) to Dr. Derek Shepherd but had an affair with Derek’s wife, and definitely help lead towards their divorce. Specializes in plastic surgery and often looked at as arrogant. Has had sexual relations with many women and is now dating Dr. Lexie Grace. Known to the female doctors as “McSteamy”.

Dr. Lexie Grey (Chyler Leigh, “The Practice”, “Girls Club, “That ’80s Show”) – Dr. Meredith Grey’s sister (both are not really close to each other).   Trying to learn and strives to learn everything from the doctors at Seattle Grace Hospital and known for her photographic memory. Has had a sexual relationship with Dr. Alex Karev and is now dating Dr. Sloan.

Dr. Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez, “Baseball Wives”, “Chicago”) – A former chief resident at Seattle Grace Hospital and an orthopedic surgeon. Was married with Dr. George O’Malley. Later, she has a sexual relationship with Dr. Mark Sloan (in order to prove to herself that she is heterosexual) but is now starting to understand her feelings that she is a lesbian and exploring her relationship with Dr. Arizona Robbins.  Currently, roommates with Dr. Yang.

Dr. Arizona Robbins (Jessica Capshaw, “The Practice”) – Head of Pediatric Surgery and has a relationship with Dr. Torres.

Dr. Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson, “Philadelphia”) - A resident surgeon in charge of five interns (now residents). Known for her tough love and blunt comments.

Dr. Richard Webber (James Picken’s Jr., “Curb Your Enthusiasm, “The Lyon’s Den”, “Six Feet Under”) - The Chief of Surgery at Seattle Grace Hospital. In earlier seasons, it is learned that he had an affair with Meredith’s mother and is like a father figure to her.  Because of Seattle Grace’s ranking starts to suffer, he enforces tough rules on his doctors and is a recovering alcoholic.

Dr. Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd, “Journeyman”, “Rome”) – Head of the trauma surgery and boyfriend of Cristina Yang.  Dr. Hunt is recovering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder suffered while serving in Iraq.

Dr. Teddy Altman (Kim Raver, “24″, “Lipstick Jungle”, “Third Watch”) - Head of Cardiothoracic Surgery and served in Iraq with Dr. Hunt.  She loves Owen and she is coming between Dr. Hunt and and Dr. Yang.

Dr. Jackson Avery (Jesse Williams, “Beyond the Break”) – A surgical resident from Mercy West Hospital who joins Seattle Grace after the merger.  The grandson of the famous surgeon Dr. Harper Avery who has a crush on Cristina.

Dr. Reed Adamson (Norah Zehetner, “Heroes”, “Mad Men”) - A surgical resident from Mercy West Hospital who joins Seattle Grace after the merger and is attracted to Alex.

Dr. Charles Percy (Robert Baker, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”, “Leatherheads”) – A surgical resident from Mercy West Hospital who joins Seattle Grace after the merger.

Dr. April Kepner (Sarah Drew, “Mad Men”) – A surgical resident from Mercy West Hospital who joins Seattle Grace after the merger.

“Grey’s Anatomy – Complete Sixth Season” features 24 episodes on six discs. Here is a basic summary of each episode (Spoilerless summaries):

DISC: 1

• EPISODE 103- Good Mourning – The staff mourn the death of Dr. O’Malley.  The board is wanting Dr. Shepherd to replace Dr. Webber for Chief of Surgery at Grace Hospital.
• EPISODE 104 – Goodbye – Dr. Webber must decide if he wants to fight for his job or retire.  Meanwhile, Dr. Lexie Grey and Dr. Robbins try to deal with their patients.  Meanwhile, the doctors at Grace Hospital are in for a major surprise.
• EPISODE 105 – (I Always Feel Like) Somebody’s Watchin’ Me – The merger between Mercy and Grace Hospital has affected everyone and everyone is scared of losing their job and whatever cutbacks may happen to various departments.  The crew brace for the first round of job cuts.
• EPISODE 106 – Tainted Obligation – Grace and Lexie’s father comes to the hospital and is very sick.  As Lexie will do all she can to save her father, Grace acts as if she could care less, but she may be the only person that can save his life.

DISC 2:

• EPISODE 107 – Invasion – The new doctors from Mercy Hospital move into Seattle Grace, meanwhile one of the Seattle Grace’s doctors is fired and Callie’s father brings a priest to intervene on his daughter turning lesbian.
• EPISODE 108 – I Saw What I Saw – Something went bad in the ER that left a woman who was doing OK but died.  All doctors are being interviewed by Dr. Webber and hospital admin. to find out who is at fault.
• EPISODE 109 – Give Peace a Chance – Dr. Shepherd is asked by his friend to take out a tumor from his spinal cord.  It’s a major surgery in which Dr. Webber told him to not operate.  Will Shepherd defy the chief?
• EPISODE 110 – Invest in Love – Arizona is taking care of a patient (a prodigy) who has a sickness with no cure and the parents are wanting to donate $25 million to the hospital.  With Seattle Grace hurting for money, the Chief expects Arizona to do all she can in order to get the money for the hospital.  But Arizona does not believe surgery can save the young boy.

DISC 3:

• EPISODE 111 – New History – Izzie returns to Seattle, Meredith returns back to work and Dr. Teddy Altman joins Seattle Grace and happens to be a very close friend of Dr. Hunt and Cristina is not happy about it.
• EPISODE 112 – Holidaze – The holiday’s have passed and Miranda receives a visit from her father, who disapproves of her life choices.  Meanwhile, everyone is dealing with their personal issues during the holidays.
• EPISODE 113 – Blink -  Addison returns to Seattle Grace to help with Mark’s pregnant daughter.  Lexie meanwhile is concerned about her relationship with Mark and Meredith is concerned of how close Alex is getting with Dr. Adamson.
• EPISODE 114 – I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked – Derek finds out about the chief’s drinking problem and wants to tell the board but Meredith tries to prevent him from doing so.    Izzie returns again after being gone for a period of time.

DISC 4:

• EPISODE 115 – State of Love and Trust - Derek becomes interim chief, meanwhile bad blood between Teddy and Cristina begins to heighten.
• EPISODE 116 – Valentine’s Day Massacre – Derek continues to struggle as interim chief and the doctors have to deal with the fallout after a roof of a popular restaurant collapses.
• EPISODE 117 – The Time Warp – The doctors remember stories in regards to their past.
• EPISODE 118 – Perfect Little Accident – Tensions begin to heighten between Derek and Richard after Dr. Harper Avery has an unusual surgical request.

DISC 5:

• EPISODE 119 – Push - A patient needs a complex surgical procedure and Derek chooses Dr. Hunt over Dr. Webber.
• EPISODE 120 – Suicide is Painless – Teddy has a patient who wants to end treatment and her life and she turns to Dr. Hunt for help.
• EPISODE 121 – Sympathy for the Parents - Alex hopes for Bailey to approve his younger brother’s hernia repair via pro bono, meanwhile Alex’s past is revealed.
• EPISODE 122 – Hook, Line and Sinner – Callie wants to adopt a child but Arizona doesn’t feel the same way.  Meanwhile, Teddy is fighting to keep her job at Seattle Grace.

DISC 6:

• EPISODE 123 – How Insensitive – Bailey gets the medical team ready for mandatory sensitivity training.  Meanwhile, Calle and Arizona are heading towards a rough patch in their relationship.
• EPISODE 124 – Shiny Happy People - Meredith suspects Owen of not being faithful to Cristina and tells her about it.  Meanwhile Alex deals with a troubled teenage patient (played by Demi Lovato)
• EPISODE 125 – Sanctuary – The first hour of the season finale, Meredith receives life changing news.  Meanwhile, a disgruntled man who’s wife has died is now wanting to revenge and goes on a shooting spree inside Seattle Grace Hospital. (Special guest: Mandy Moore)
• EPISODE 126 – Death and All His Friends – The second hour of the season finale.   Seattle Grace goes through a major crisis in which a few of the doctors will not survive  and having to perform surgery on their friends while a gunman is on the loose. (Special guest: Mandy Moore)

NOTE: On “Grey’s Anatomy – Complete Sixth Season”, there is an extended episode of the season finale “Episode 126 – Death and All His Friends”.

VIDEO:

“Grey’s Anatomy – Complete Sixth Season” is presented in Widescreen (1:78:1) – Enhanced for 16×9 televisions. When it comes to television drama series, “Grey’s Anatomy” is one of ABC’s highly rated dramas that although filmed in a hospital setting.  The cinematography for the final episode was excellent.   For the most part, the series looks good on DVD, nice good closeups and skintones are natural and during low light scenes, I didn’t see any major noise or compression artifacts. For the most part, the sixth season does look very good on DVD.

It’s important to note that since the release of the fifth season of “Grey’s Anatomy”, that season received a Blu-ray release and more than likely, there will be a Blu-ray release for this sixth season.  For those who want better picture quality and lossless audio, I recommend the Blu-ray release.

AUDIO:

As for audio, the series is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and the series is primarily dialogue and music driven. Dialogue is clear and understandable, while the music has always played a major part for the series and definitely enhances certain scenes.  I did notice more surround usage in the final two episodes.  From the sirens, gun shots, crowd ambiance being utilized through the surround channels.

The show is presented in English SDH, Spanish and French subtitles.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Grey’s Anatomy – Complete Sixth Season” includes the following special features:

DISC 4:

• Seattle Grace: On Call -  Featuring all six web episodes of “Seattle Grace: On Call” (about five minutes long for each web episode) that were shown on abc.com.  A short series featuring a documentary on the interns Steve, Megan, Ryan, Pierce and Graciella at Seattle Grace and a few of the new residents (Reed and Charles) that transferred to Seattle Grace from Mercy West Hospital and Dr. Owen Hunt all hanging out at the local bar hangout with Joe the Bartender.
• The Making of Seattle Grace: On Call – (2:30) Featuring the making of “Seattle Grace: On Call” and interviews with the cast and crew.
  

DISC 5:

• Chandra Wilson: Anatomy of a Talent - (13:11) Chandra Wilson (who plays Dr. Miranda Bailey) is the first of the main talent to direct episodes for the show.  The show creators and talent, including Chandra Wilson talks about how she became a director and certain parts of the episodes that she directed.
• Dissecting Grey’s Anatomy: Unaired Scenes – The following are a total of nine deleted scenes from various episodes.
• In Stitches: Outtakes – (2:13) Outtakes from the sixth season of “Grey’s Anatomy”.
• Extended Scenes – Extended scenes for “The Time Warp”, “Nervous Callie” and “Sad State of Affairs”.

DISC 6:

• Extended episode of “Episode 126 – Death and All His Friends” – (Duration for this extended episode is 1:01:16, the original episode is 42:58) This extended episode features more dialogue, especially the scenes that include Dr. Webber, especially an extended scene with Lexie, Dr. Altman and Dr. Sloan with Dr. Karev in an ambulance, emotional scenes with Lexie and Dr. Sloan and additional scenes that include the police.

EXTRAS:

“Grey’s Anatomy – Complete Sixth Season” comes with a slip case.

I admit that I was critical and harsh of the fifth season of “Grey’s Anatomy” and just felt the show was heading downhill through the first half and the season managed to pick up during the second half.  So much was focused on the problems on the set with Katherine Heigl and T.R. Knight.  And eventually, we know how things have ended up in the season finale.

With last season focusing on Izzie’s cancer, her relationship with Alex and problems in the relationship between Meredith and Derek and dealing with Callie and Lexie’s personal issues… I felt that with the sixth season “Grey’s Anatomy” is desperately needing to step things up with the writing as I have felt needed to interject some new blood, new energy before the storylines focusing on these characters becomes overly stale.

And sure enough, the writers have achieved that with the sixth season.  The merger between Seattle Grace and Mercy West was probably the best thing to happen with this show because we have new characters.  Also, we have stories focusing on Derek and Richard’s troubles, we get to see more of Arizona (especially Arizona and Callie), the introduction of Teddy and most importantly, the introduction to the new residents coming from Mercy West.  These four characters have brought some new life to the series and I was really rooting for them because I can see potential storylines that can come from these new characters.  I felt “Grey’s Anatomy” had new energy, new life and I’m stoked about the series all over again.

That was until the shocking season finale.

All I can say is… “Wow!”.  Although we have seen a similar type of storyline on “ER” several years ago, it’s a big gamble as you don’t know who is going to be killed off.  But suffice to say, this season finale was a major success and the writer’s have crafted one of the most impressive season finale’s in a drama series within the last decade.  A fantastic way to end the season and at the same time, a bit bittersweet as some characters that may have grown on us will not be back due to the tragic season finale.

Needless to say, “Grey’s Anatomy” writers really did a fantastic job with this season.  I felt the fifth season, although good, was in somewhat of a slump and I have to admit, the season opener of the sixth season, wasn’t all that great either.  But as the episodes progressed and seeing how these newer characters were integrated into show, I definitely saw the potential, almost like “Grey’s Anatomy” reborn and seeing its greatness return to television.

As for this DVD set, there are a good amount of special features including the web episodes of “Seattle Grace: On Call”, deleted scenes, a featurette on Chandra Wilson as a director and the extended episode of the season finale.

With that being said, there’s not much I can say badly about “Grey’s Anatomy – Complete Sixth Season”.  It was well conceived this season, the acting was very well-done (and I can understand some hardcore fans feeling that their original characters were not utilized as much as previous seasons but with more characters, the series needed new energy and these newer characters provided that) and overall, it was a solid season that literally ended with a bang.

If you are a fan of the series, “Grey’s Anatomy – Complete Sixth Season” is definitely recommended!

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