ABC’s new digital series Grey’s Anatomy: B-Team is fun and entertaining, but its short episodes are a big flaw.
You may or may not know that ABC released a six-episode digital series titled Grey’s Anatomy: B-Team on January 11. The network announced the digital series the same day they made it available for streaming. Though, I haven’t seen much buzz about it on the web. This is unfortunate because the series is actually great and really fun to watch. Especially for viewers that might miss the days of watching Meredith and her friends scrambling around as interns.
Grey’s Anatomy: B-Team focuses on the new interns’ first day at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, as they get used to working with surgeons while Chief Bailey keeps a close eye on them. The newbies mistakenly all believe that they’ll get the shot at going into the operating room which makes them ultra competitive as well as a little pig-headed.
The digital series starts the interns: Dahlia Qadri (played by Sophia Taylor Ali), Levi Schmitt (played by Jake Borelli), Casey Parker (played by Alex Blue Davis), Taryn Helm (played by Jaicy Elliot), Vik Roy (played by Rushi Kota), and Sam Bello (played by Jeanine Mason).
But there are also appearances from some of the more veteran Grey’s Anatomy characters including Alex Karev, Maggie Pierce, Owen Hunt, Richard Webber, and Miranda Bailey. They make the series feel more connected to the TV series, while still allowing the interns to shine.
What I loved about Grey’s Anatomy: B-Team was that it gave us a better look into the interns’ roles at the hospitals, something we don’t get to see much of on the TV series. More time goes to the attending and residents, which makes sense since the fans are coming back each week to see where their favorite characters are.
And yet, there’s still something magical about the feeling of seeing the interns and all of the issues they also have to deal with. They bring something fresh to the table and keep things interesting for the rest of the hospital.
The first episode showed Bailey giving the interns their instructions for the day, and the rest of the episodes followed one or two of the interns as they shadowed their assigned resident or attending. In episode 2, Levi and Sam competed for one of Alex’s young patients.
In episode 3, Vik turned the charm up way too high and ended up panicking when Maggie’s patient needed help the most. Episode 4 saw Dahlia impressing Weber, until she showed her obsession with Meredith. Casey and Taryn fought to help Owen with patients in episode 5. And the last episode of the series had the interns comparing notes from their first days.
Though I like the premise of the digital series and think it’s a great addition to the Grey’s Anatomy universe, the major problem with these is that they’re way too short. Each episode is right around 2 and a half minutes, that’s it! They were fun and entertaining, but took literally no time to get through them all. It’s great seeing more of the interns, but fans don’t really get to learn that much more about them.
I would love to see ABC expand upon the first six episodes and add on some more that have longer lengths. I can’t even go into too much detail in this review about the series because it would be so easy to give everything away!
All I can say is that this series is definitely worth checking out, but don’t expect the episodes to go into too much depth due to their shortness. It’s great for if you have a few minutes to spare but not a ton of time to watch a full episode of a TV show.