Grey's Anatomy is "a winner," raves the New York Daily News. Both a critical hit and fan favorite, season one bursts onto the television landscape with gripping plot lines, a sensational soundtrack and hot stars, including Ellen Pompeo, Patrick Dempsey, and Sandra Oh. Now you can experience all the drama, romance and excitement of Grey's Anatomy from the very beginning.

Meet Meredith Grey, a brilliant first-year surgical intern at Seattle Grace Hospital. Together with her fellow residents in training, Meredith navigates her way through the daily traumas and social landmines of life inside the hospital and out in the real world. Grey's Anatomy is a smart and witty look at young people struggling to be doctors and doctors struggling to stay human.

CRITIQUE

You’ve probably heard your friends and many critics claiming Grey’s Anatomy is an addictive show. Well, I’m here to tell you they are right on the money. The show follows several interns as they adjust to hectic schedules and work, long nights and personal dilemmas at the Seattle Grace Hospital. There are many hospital/doctor shows available to watch, but none are currently as engaging and entertaining as Grey’s Anatomy. Most important of all, the writers tell interesting stories that affect the characters and leave the viewer emotionally invested in the proceedings. In addition to the writing, the acting, directing, cinematography and music are all very much solid. The only small gripe I have is that some of the sets don’t exactly look like a hospital, at least the one’s I’ve seen personally. There’s no reason for me to get into the plotlines of the first season because it would spoil the drama and some of the surprises. This freshman drama is very well worth watching and comes highly recommended. If only the season had more than nine episodes… but there is always the second season (which was given a full episode order of some 22 episodes) to look forward to on DVD sometime late summer this year.

Disc 1:

A Hard Day's Night

The First Cut is the Deepest

Winning a Battle, Losing the War

No Man's Land

Shake Your Groove Thing

Disc 2:

If Tomorrow Never Comes

The Self-Destruct Button

Save Me

Who's Zoomin' Who?

THE VIDEO

Disney presents Grey’s Anatomy in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. Colors are vibrant and fairly crisp, with good saturation and detail. A few images appear a bit soft, but there are no other flaws. Optional subtitles include English and Spanish.

THE AUDIO

Disney presents Grey’s Anatomy in English 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround. Dialogue is clear and easy to understand, as are the songs and the sound effects. Overall, it’s a pretty standard but effective audio presentation.

THE EXTRAS

There are two audio commentaries on the pilot episode. First up is creator Shonda Rhimes and director Peter Horton who discuss the episode in detail offering solid and interesting information. The second track features actors Sandra Oh, Katherine Heigl and T.R. Knight, and while it’s refreshing to hear actors on a commentary, these people don’t really know what makes one interesting as they laugh and offer random bits that aren’t that informative.

Under the Knife: Behind the Scenes of Grey's Anatomy is an 11-minute featurette that goes behind the scenes of the show featuring interviews with the cast and crew. It’s not the most revealing look, but it gets the job done for anyone who wants a peek behind the curtain (or “under the knife” in this case) of the show.

Anatomy of a Pilot features all of the deleted material from the pilot episode. Nearly 12 minutes of footage is collected in this extra which is accompanied by optional commentary with Rhimes and Horton.

Dissecting Grey's Anatomy: Unaired Scenes is a collection of five deleted scenes from three episodes running five minutes in length.

The Alternate Main Title sequence varies from the one they used in terms of showing more sex-related images. It runs for 32 seconds.

The Avant-Garde Trailer is a 2-minute montage of black-and-white images cut to a hip song. It’s good to see once, but I’m a bit puzzled about this extra.

Lastly there are several previews of other TV on DVD releases from Disney.

FINAL THOUGHT

Mad props go out to Grey’s Anatomy for being an interesting, heartwarming and character-driven medical drama featuring very good acting and top-notch writing.