The Season of Reinvention

Buena Vista Home Entertainment Disney–ABC Domestic Television, Warner Bros. Television Distribution, 20th Century Fox Television

Finally headlong into Fall TV, I’m inspired by this season of reinvention – from Meredith Grey dusting herself off, to Damon going solo, to Ryan Murphy shaking off Glee. And I’ve been working on a reinvention of my own.

Does reinvention require a new Meredith Grey haircut? No. Unfortunately, it also comes without an Alexandra Parsavas soundtrack nor swift time jump. How I would LOVE a swift time jump. Mine has been slow, and much less glamorous. My season cliff-hanger was to Rx or not to Rx. Fans were stunned. I decided, however, that I needed to take the chemicals away, not add more. I decided, the chemicals in my food may be having an effect on the chemicals in my brain. With the threat of the Rx closing in, I decided to go vegan.

I wish my reinvention looked like this: Scream Queen’s Hester ditching her back-brace for a glamorous KKT insta-makeover, forevermore known as Chanel #6. Stepping down the staircase of the sorority house, the newly dubbed Chanel #6 glittered with grace, stunning her fellow pledges and sisters, all to a kicky, ‘80s new-wave soundtrack.

Instead, my reinvention looks like this: Felicity and crew cramming for finals in Season 1, with Noel on the verge of a beet-induced breakdown, all to the merriest-making holiday album ever, Ella Wishes You A Swinging Christmas. Sans cocktail-worthy soundtrack, my cram session includes studying menus, wandering farmers markets, breaking up with coffee and dabbling in meditation. With food as an integral part of culture, going vegan is a significant, emotional change. It affects nearly every choice throughout the day and becomes a hotbed for conversations and questions among friends, family and even strangers. It's actually a good exercise in standing up for myself. But with no grand Chanel #6 staircase reveal moment, I had to find other ways to motivate. Fortunately, the resources and motivation are out there. This collection also proves that just as I can fangirl Must-See TV, I can also fangirl these vegan-fueled champions:

•   RICH ROLL is at the helm of keeping me inspired and motivated. His guests of paradigm breakers join him for conversations that average about two hours. They're all fascinating, educational and surprisingly calming. The story of his journey, Finding Ultra, was the catalyst. He narrates the Audible version of his book and has just released a new cookbook and lifestyle manifesto with his wife Julie Piatt, The Plant Power Way.

•   THE FOOD BABE A guest of the RRP, Vani Hari is the Food Babe who investigates the harmful ingredients in our food and fearlessly stands up to the big corporations to affect change. She has gathered an amazing wealth of knowledge to share.

•   FULLY RAW KRISTINA A guest of the RRP, Kristina Carillo-Bucaram believes in the power of beautifully, colorful and alive – not cooked – food. I should have gotten down with her a long time ago - would have saved me from many, many kitchen disasters. In addition to a ton of recipe videos, she also runs the Rawfully Organic Co-Op in Houston, adding one, big mark to the PROs list should I ever want to move to Houston.

•   HEADSPACE APP It's founder was also a guest on the RRP. How does one meditate? By taking the 10 minutes for 10 days challenge. I'm up to 20 but have recently stumbled. Plus I keep asking myself, am I doing this right? I guess like making the shift in food, you just have to have faith and pick yourself back up.

• DOCUMENTARIES ON NETFLIX Thank you Netflix for helping to keep me inspired, motivated and informed. Here's a few that I found particularly impactful in my explorations:
FORKS OVER KNIVES This documentary focuses on the impact processed foods has had on our health including obesity and diabetes.
FOOD INC. This oscar-nominated documentary focuses on the food industry's harmful effects on our health, our ethics, and the environment.
COWSPIRACY This documentary focuses on how factory farming is decimating the planet's natural resources and why no one is wiling to talk about it.
GMO OMG This documentary examines the risk of GMOS and follows one father's search for answers to the question, 'What are we feeding our families?' 
FED UP Examining childhood obesity, this documentary actually made my chest hot with anger about how our food system is betraying our children.

Without these amazing resources, my reinvention progress would look like this: Vampire Diaries’ Damon Salvatore day-drinking for the next twenty-two thousand days, give or take. Though my beverage, my vice of choice, would be coffee. Maybe Irish coffee.

I started this journey in the battle for my brain, and that is still my top motivation, but everyday, I continue to realize that going vegan is a greater call to action and it represents the person I am and want to be. When it comes to animals, our fellow occupants, I am a compassionate person and when it comes to our environment, I want to know I did everything I could to support the earth, not just watch our home and land deteriorate.

Mother of Reinvention: Madonna has made a career out of reinvention. But there's another trailblazer who deserves recognition in this conversation, Lisa Simpson. After 27 seasons of setting off the 'Independent Thought Alarm', Lisa Simpson, bucking Homer and the rest of her family to go vegetarian, has been leading her own charge. She proved you can go your own way no matter how long the previous path has been paved. At 4’5, Lisa Simpson stands pretty damn tall and is inspiring me to stand even taller.

The Fills Are Alive...

Warner Bros. Television Distribution, Buena Vista Home Entertainment Disney–ABC Domestic Television

As I impatiently wait in the purgatory that is the pre-Fall TV season, I decided it's about time I sent an 'Elevator Love Letter' to Alexandra Patsavas. Music supervisor extraordinaire, Alexandra has selected, mixed and supervised tracks of some of the most beloved TV shows. With The OC, she led the trend for the return of music promotion through TV integration. The OC's theme song, California by Phantom Planet, made it impossible to get through the opening credits without singing at the top of my lungs. And while Seth Cohen was dubbed uncool, his love for Death Cab absolutely was. 

With the first six seasons of Grey's Anatomy, Alexandra had music lovers clamoring to itunes immediately after each episode. Tracks from Grey's Season's 1 and 2 swung so hard, they still sting so good. She dropped the gauntlet and set the tone with the pilot's opening track 'Portions for Foxes' by Rilo Kiley. That was the beginning of the long tracklist synonymous with Grey's Anatomy, rising well beyond the background and soundtrack of the show. Listed below are some of the early favorites 1. because I can't control myself and 2. because with these particular tracks, it's almost impossible to separate them from the show.
‘Somewhere Only We Know’ Keane
‘You Wouldn’t Like Me’  and ‘Where Does the Good Go’ Tegan and Sara
‘Sunday’ Sia
‘Breathe’ Anna Nalick
‘How to Save a Life’ The Fray
‘Chasing Cars’ Snow Patrol
'Break Me Out' The Rescues (this live performance is way sweet too)

Alexandra even featured a Taylor Swift track before she went pop. And that's only Grey's! F me, Gossip Girl! Again, with the pilot's opening track – gauntlet dropped, tone set with Peter Bjorn and John's 'Young Folks.' Like Grey's, there are far too many excellent tracks to list, I can only scratch the surface, otherwise I'll go so deep, I'll dig a tunnel right out of the Internet. Here's a few highlights:
‘What Comes Around’ Justin Timberlake
‘You’re a Wolf’ Sea Wolf
‘Rolling in the Deep’ Adele
‘We Are Young’ Fun

Alexandra took her love of music and turned it into her own firm, Chop Shop Supervision, later leveling up to her own music label, Chop Shop Records. She's supervised music for movies including The Twilight Series, Hunger Games, and Perks of Being a Wallflower. And for a slew of other TV shows including Mad Men, Selfie, Scandal, iZombie, and Chuck. Her IMDB page reads like a dream resume.

In the very simplest of terms, Alexandra made a career out of fangirling music. Fucking awesome. Meanwhile, my fangirling efforts – including a long history of camping overnight for concert tickets or hands shaking over the keyboards for the clock to strike ten – still takes the form of drawing hearts and stars, making over-earnest proclamations and nicknaming favorite rock heroes – Jackie Jack, Ry Ry, and Dave. You know, Alexandra, we all show our love of music in different ways. But sending a love letter for all the ways you've shared your love with us.

Shonda, I Love You, But You’re Bringing Me Down

Buena Vista Home Entertainment Disney–ABC Domestic Television

Okay, so here’s the deal. I have had long, going on eleven-year, relationship with Shonda Rhimes. There is much love, admiration and respect. While I skipped Private Practice, I did indulge in Scandal. For the first season, I got swept up in the white hatting of it all. But as the second season wore on, each of the characters became more and more unredeemable. I had to phase it out. Still, I caught the premiere of How To Get Away with Murder. The series STARTED with nearly every character being unredeemable. 

I'm going to take a beat here and backtrack for a sec. In 1999, the world was introduced to Tony Soprano, ushering in a new dawn of antiheroes. Ever since, a myriad of antiheroes including Dexter Morgan, Walter White, Don Drapper, and Jax Teller have followed suit. They have compelling storylines and as content moves to premium channels, the flexibility to go darker and more violent is ripe for the taking. But starting with all unredeemable characters, creating worlds where every character is an antihero, feels empty and un-relatable.

This Spring, since the fallout of killing off a certain beloved Grey’s Anatomy character, Shonda's been talking a lot about what it takes to keep a good show going – obviously, she would know. Killing off characters is part of the deal. Additionally, part of the deal was Meredith falling in love and getting her happy ending. Shonda didn’t want to break that deal with a divorce storyline. And I get it, but here’s my counter, when I signed onto Grey’s, it was a balance of irreverent and funny friendships and relationships, with the struggles of accomplishing a life or death job. That no longer describes the Grey’s of today. Grey's today is heavy and sad, and the relationships are few because so many have been killed off. It’s actually hard to re-watch seasons (normally a favorite pastime) because to re-watch is to go through all the central characters that have been killed off. Characters make jokes like, 'don’t die' and two seasons later, they do just that. While antiheroes are hard to relate to, so are Shonda’s epic disasters and death tolls at the end of each season. Grey's is now a series of land minds with no escapism in sight. 

I don't need rainbows and superheroes. I just want a version of reality that's skewed without being tragic. I support you, Shonda, I just gotta ask, 'where did the good go?'

We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together

Buena Vista Home Entertainment Disney–ABC Domestic Television

I have now broken up with Grey's Anatomy three times. The pictures above do not represent those three times, instead they represent happier times before our break-ups.

Break-Up One: Story-lines revolving around cancer Izzy and worse, post-cancer Izzy (not to mention post-Denny Izzy) for the simple reason of too much Izzy.
Break-Up Two: Lexi and Mark not only dying, but prior to their last episode, unrequited.
Break-Up Three: Derek dying. Actually, that's not true. I've been out on the additional cast members this whole season – Derek's sister, Meredith's sister, Gina Davis – none really resonate. Meanwhile Meredith deals with the general heaviness of life and marriage, with no escapism for me in sight. Derek's death just gave solid reason for this latest break-up.  

Maybe I'll be back or maybe I'll find another medical series to fill the Seattle Grace void. I've dallied around with other shows, there was doctors in the jungle (Off the Map), nurses from Iraq (Mercy), doctors on motorcycles (Night Shift), and doctors with voice overs (Emily Owens MD). Maybe one of the Fall 2015 shows will deliver. Though, I've already ruled out Heartbreaker, a show about a heart transplant surgeon. The title is too saccharine for my taste. That leaves me with one other potential rebound – I'm looking at you, Chicago Med.