TV Picks of the week: Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice

Season Six of Grey's Anatomy ended with a bang. Photo / Supplied

Writer Shonda Rhimes gave her characters an incredible shake-up when she wrote the shooting storyline into the final of Grey's Anatomy's sixth season.

Jesse Williams, who plays one of the series' relative newcomers, Dr Jackson Avery, says he felt the show hit rock bottom emotionally at the end of last year. "Everything was kind of shaken upside down, flipped on its head, and now we all have a chance to kind of start over ... We've been kind of through hell and back in some ways," he says.

Meanwhile, Kevin McKidd, who plays Dr Owen Hunt, was counting his lucky stars he survived to see another series.

"On one page it literally said, 'Owen gets shot.' And I'm like, 'Whoa.' Then it was like, 'Cristina says: Meredith, is Owen dead?' And then it was literally a page turn. That was the longest page turn I've ever had to do," he says.

His character will advance his relationship with Cristina, who he vowed was the love of his life during the siege in the season six finale. While Cristina has always made it clear she is not interested in children, Meredith and Derek (Ellen Pompeo and Patrick Dempsey) will reassess their stance on having children. Losing her baby on the same day as almost losing her man has given Meredith a new perspective, says Rhimes. Chandra Wilson says her character, Dr Miranda Bailey, has also taken a fresh look at her priorities and may warm to the idea of a new relationship as the season progresses.

"She's always got to have a little Nazi in her. I think ultimately that's what people like about Dr Bailey ... they can kind of depend on her being a little no-nonsense and telling people what to do. But as she, you know, calms down a little from the shooting at the hospital and relaxes a little bit more, I'm sure she'll want to open up to exploring romance again. But she has to regroup a lot," Wilson says.

Meanwhile, love is most certainly in the air on the show's spin-off, Private Practice, which begins its fourth season right after Grey's Anatomy.

Pete (Tim Daly) and Violet (Amy Brenneman) shock their colleagues by announcing that after fighting each other in court for child custody, they have decided not only to co-parent, but to also get married.

Now that Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh) has well and truly settled in LA, she grows closer to fellow doctor and long-time friend Sam (Taye Diggs) - a man with enough baggage to keep her on her toes.

Grey's Anatomy

When: Tuesday, 8.30pm
Where: TV2
What: Nothing is forever

Private Practice

When: Tuesday, 9.30pm
Where: TV2
What: Addison diaries, take four.

- TimeOut