Shondaland returns to Thursday nights this fall

Like every other teenage girl, I spent my summer catching up on all of my favorite shows on Netflix. On the top of my list were Shonda Rhimes’ “Grey’s Anatomy” and “How To Get Away With Murder.”

“Grey’s Anatomy”:

“Grey’s Anatomy” ended its 12th season with “Family Affair,” creator Shonda Rhimes tried to squeeze in as much drama as possible into 43 minutes–what else would we expect?

Amelia/Owen & Jackson/April:

Amelia Shepherd (Caterina Scorsone), after a teary scene in the bathroom and a flee to get a slurpee, weds Owen (Kevin McKidd). To further complicate things, April (Sarah Drew) and Jackson (Jesse Williams) have their daughter after an emergency C-section with no supplies performed in Meredith’s house by Ben (Jason George) who is still on probation.

In the coming season, I’m looking forward to seeing if Japril can reconcile their relationship for their new daughter and if Amelia and Owen’s marriage actually survives. I’m hopeful for Jackson and April, I’ve always been a fan of them together and I think the reasons for their divorce were petty on both ends. It’s Owen and Amelia that I’m skeptical of. Both Owen and Amelia have had serious commitment and relationship issues in the past, but I will admit I’m a little biased, because Cristina and Owen from the early days of “Grey’s,” and Amelia and James (Matt Long) from Shonda’s “Grey’s” spinoff “Private Practice” were some of my favorite pairings of all time.

Jo/Alex & Meredith/Maggie:

All this is happening while Jo (Camilla Luddington) reveals her secret to DeLuca (Giacomo Gianniotti). Viewers discover that Jo refused Alex’s(Justin Chambers) proposal because she is already married to an abusive man. Jo is drunk and DeLuca tries to take her home and put her in bed, but of course in classic “Grey’s” fashion, Alex sees and misconstrues DeLuca’s caring actions as Jo’s unfaithfulness. Before the wedding, Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) and Riggs (Martin Henderson) reminisce over last loves and discus their “friends with benefits” relationship. Maggie (Kelly McCreery) reveals to Meredith at the wedding that she has feelings for Riggs and thinks he reciprocates them (oh come on Shonda…).

I hope Shonda and her impeccable team of writers will salvage Maggie and Meredith’s relationship in the upcoming season, but if I’m being realistic, “Grey’s” rarely resolves conflict without a complete blowout first. Jo and Alex are a great example of this kind of explosion. Season 13 holds a lot of potential for growth in their relationship, because Jo has outed her secret, but Alex, knowing his character, will hold a grudge against Jo for what he thought he saw. Alex has shown great growth throughout the series, from the immature sexist intern of the first season to the seasoned doctor from season 12 that is ready to settle down and have kids, so for his sake I hope he can move past Jo’s secret and make it work with her. And for my own sake, I hope they make it because I’m really tired of Shonda ruining the lives of the original five interns (I mean, killing off George–major tears).  

Callie/Arizona:

In a conflict resolution more unlike Shonda than anything I’ve ever seen, Arizona (Jessica Capshaw) and Callie (Sara Ramirez) tie up their custody battle in a perfect happy ending, where they split time with their daughter and Callie gets to move to New York with her girlfriend Penny (Samantha Sloyan), setting up Sara Ramirez’s exit from the show.

Season 14?:

I think this upcoming season of “Grey’s Anatomy” has great potential, but I’m weary about it’s longevity because of the exodus of another one of it’s original characters (Arizona) this season. The show has already lost the majority of the original characters, and with the newest loss I can’t see man of the other originals staying for much longer.

“How To Get Away With Murder”:

The Keating Five & Annalise’s arrest warrant:

“How To Get Away With Murder” had an equally intense season finale. The Keating Five, Laurel (Karla Souza), Wes (Alfred Enoch), Connor (Jack Falahee), Michaela (Aja Naomi King) and Asher (Matt McGorry) are hiding out in Annalise’s house with Bonnie (Liza Weil) and Frank (Charlie Weber) because their fearless boss has disappeared. In a flashback, Frank reveals to Laurel that a woman bribed him to conspire against Annalise (Viola Davis) way back when he first started working for her. Oliver (Conrad Ricamora) hacks Annalise’s credit cards and discovers that she’s hiding out with her family in Memphis. Cut to Memphis where Annalise sees her father for the first time in years and she immediately leaves. The Keating Five then discover that there’s an arrest warrant out for Annalise.

Woah. That was intense. For this next season of “How To Get Away With Murder” the biggest questions are about Annalise. She’s been almost arrested about 5,000 times and with the ads about the season premiere with Annalise’s face and “killer” on them, it’s safe to say that one of Annalise’s thousands of illegal actions is going to catch up to her.

Is Frank next?:

Along with the question of Annalise, I’m looking forward to seeing what the writers do with Frank. Annalise alluded to Bonnie in the finale that “Frank needed to go.” Whether she meant that he needed to be fired or that he needed to die is up to interpretation. After his unexpected murder of Wallace Mahoney (Adam Arkin), I’m pretty sure Frank is going to be kicked to the curb, but knowing him, he’ll be back (like King George III– “Hamilton,” anyone?).

Will they or won’t they?:

The season finale left pretty much all of HTGAWM’s relationships in questions. Asher and Michaela are maybe a couple, Frank seems to be done with Laurel, although she is still latching on to him, and Oliver crushed Connor’s dreams of transferring out of Middleton without his knowledge. It seems as if Shonda left her characters’ relationships in quotes. I think a big part of the season premiere will be sorting out this mess.

Wes the huge mess:

As for Wes? He’s an all around mess. He discovered his real father and when he went to confront him, Frank shot his father in the head. That’s not the only thing in Wes’ life that’s a mess. His mom killed herself, Frank off’d his girlfriend and then discovered the truth about his father and his rape of his mother. Wes has not proven to be a very stable character in the past, so I’m not hopeful that he’ll deal with this in a healthy way in the coming season. I’m decently sure Wes is going to spew crazy out the wazoo this season.

New cast members?:

As Shonda’s infant show, I’m excited to see where “How To Get Away With Murder” will go in its third season. Maybe we’ll get some fresh blood in the cast, but as the title alludes, it will be only a few episodes before that same blood is spilled on the floor.
I’m a huge fan of all of Shonda’s shows, past (I’ve been re-watching “Private Practice”) and present (January s too long to wait for “Scandal”), but I think she went a little overboard with the crises in the season finales. I’m excited to see how the characters react this next season and to see if she tones it down in the future, but I seriously doubt it. “Grey’s Anatomy” and “How To Get Away With Murder” return September 22 at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m., respectively, on ABC.