ER & Grey's Anatomy: GI Joe, Anatomy Jane and Bionic Ray

Reviewing the two Thursday medical shows together seems to be working, so spoilers for "Grey's Anatomy" and then "ER" coming up just as soon as I find some unkosher animals to stab...

You know "Grey's Anatomy" is getting it right right these days where they feature an episode where Izzie is freaking out about the health of animals and it doesn't bother me.

Of course, Kevin McKidd getting all stabby with the pigs fit better in a medical context than Izzie playing amateur veterinarian with that deer last season. But beyond that, I think the show's achieving a very nice balance of comedy and pathos, of having characters do and say wacky things without undermining them.

I'm glad to have McKidd back, and to see his conflict with McDreamy and McSteamy get resolved in a shockingly adult manner, not only for this show, but for any medical show. On "ER" (which I'll get to in a minute), it usually takes the hot-headed newbie at least a half a season, if not several seasons, before he starts seeing eye to eye with the longtime regulars; here they came to an understanding by the end of the hour.

And I'm surprised by how much I'm enjoying Callie and Erica's girl-on-girl angst. Though it was obviously conceived in order to give those two actresses something to do, it turned out to be something good to do. Everytime I think that story's in danger of taking a stupid turn, we get a moment like Erica's speech about getting glasses (very fine work by Brooke Smith), or McSteamy turning out to be useful for something other than sex, or Erica not flipping out at learning that Callie had been sleeping with McSteamy to calm herself.

And, of course, any episode that gives Chandra Wilson and James Pickens a lot of meaty material, both together and apart, is okay in my book.

As for "ER," not one of the better ones this season in my book. Since I watched very little of the Shane West era, the return of Ray didn't mean a whole lot for me. (Also, I could have done without the constant full-body camera pans down to show his various artificial legs. We get it: modern special effects are really awesome!)

I'm also getting impatient waiting for Dr. Banfield to reveal her deep dark secret and then have her predestined mellowing out. Since she's only going to be on the show for one season (and a slightly abbreviated one, at that), they can't play out her character arc at the same pace they did with, say, Pratt or Dr. Aussie. (Who I totally don't buy as a good guy, all of a sudden. They should have let him stay a bastard, Romano-style.)

Sam becoming the latest "ER" nurse (or hospital show nurse in general) to get frustrated at being treated like a second-class citizen when she knows more than half the doctors was also not very inspired.

Ah, well. I assume a lot of my Banfield problems will be resolved in the much-hyped Dr. Greene flashback episode we're getting in a couple of weeks. But if they decide to kill Mark again in that episode, I am going to lodge a formal complaint.

What did everybody else think?

Sons of Anarchy, "Hell Followed": Burning love

Spoilers for Wednesday night's "Sons of Anarchy" coming up just as soon as I toke up...

"Hell Followed" was, by design, an aftermath episode, and so it wasn't as intense as the events of last week's "The Pull." But there was still a lot of fascinating stuff going on, as characters shifted their loyalties, made new alliances, or simply went back to old ones.

Tara finds herself back in the ring of fire with Jax, and admits for the first time that she returned to Charming because she knew he could save her from Kohn. Opie tries to get back into the club full-time but realizes he's lost the ability to kill in cold blood (particularly such a harmless-looking civilian). Clay cuts a deal with the head of the Mayans that brings peace at a heavy price for the Mayans -- and, in between negotiating, proves that while he may be old, he still has enough punches left in his right hand to show Darby who's the man. (Old man fights are almost always awesome -- see also Tigh vs. Adama last season on "Battlestar Galactica" -- and I loved the moment when Darby admitted he had asked a stupid question.) And Jax throws himself much deeper into the violence side of SAMCRO, but still can't bring himself to get rid of his dad's manuscript.

It was another winner for a show that is definitely living up to the potential it didn't quite achieve in the early episodes. I'm trying to figure out whether this is a situation like "The Wire," where the first few hours had to lay on so much exposition to set up what's happening now, or if Kurt Sutter and company just needed a while to figure out how best to use characters like Clay and Jax. (Gemma's the only character who didn't need improving from the jump.) Either way, it's a hell of a show now.

A few small touches I liked:

• Juice, who gets dumped on by the others almost as much as Half-Sack, is so grateful to get praise from Tara for saving the Irishman's life.

• Bobby lies to Clay about what happened with the hit, which is going to lead to a problem for either Bobby or Opie (or both) down the road.

• The Mayan leader profusely thanks his son for making the gun deal with SAMCRO possible, right before he knows his boy's about to be shivved.

What did everybody else think?

Fox cancels 'King of the Hill'... a year from now

Fox has ordered another season of "King of the Hill" past this one, but because of the long lead time for animation, they've already said that next season will be the final one. Now, Fox has said previous "KOTH" seasons would be the end and then reneged, so there's always a chance that there could be a reprieve here. Still, the show's been on for a long time (it debuted during my first season as a TV critic, '96-'97), and while I loved it for a long time, I have to admit that most of the episodes these days sit on my DVR, unwatched, until I delete them to clear up some hard drive space.