Being part long running TV shows allowed her to showcase her different acting talents. For example, in Grey's Anatomy, after the (spoiler alert) plane crash where she lost her shoe and had to hear another character get eaten by wolves she had to show how traumatised she was and as her character went mute for a period of time all this had to be done through just body language.
In Season 9 episode 2, after the crash, it is Sandra Oh’s job to narrate what happened to them as the audience doesn’t explicitly see most of the events. Sandra Oh is being washed in the bath by her then boyfriend and she hasn’t yet spoken but this is when she starts. Her monologue is dead panned with little to no expression on her face as she tells the most horrendous story.
The way she says this lacks expression but it just shows how thoroughly traumatised her character is. In juxtaposition to this traumatised, hard-faced character in season 7 episode 9 she is bartending and getting on very well with the customers and so Sandra Oh has to become a talkative, excitable party girl character which just shows the range she can easily do, even within the same TV show.
In Killing Eve, Oh took a serious TV show about being stalked and turned it into something with great dramatic comedy and made an entire generation root for the stalker and stalker to get together, showing just how good she is at getting the audience on side.
Finally, The Chair- a more nuance TV show, showcases what it’s like to be a woman of colour in a position of power. Oh is able to explore how a working single mum may navigate this and emotionally explores the pitfalls and high points of it. The show is really about the present moment, how to live right now with all the things that everyone is going through and Oh's acting ability as always, reinforces just that.
