By Michelle Lerner

The biggest problem with GREY’S ANATOMY is that the writers feel like they constantly need to one-up themselves. For example, last season, George lost his father, slept with Izzie, and failed his intern exam. Meredith, the Grey of the title, not only lost her mother AND her stepmother, she almost died herself. And Burke ran out on Yang. And Karev fell in love with a pregnant amnesiac. Yeah, that’s a lot of lost parents even in a world of constantly heightened reality.

But one-upping, whether it be in the strangeness of the medical cases or in the interpersonal melodrama, does not necessarily make for better or more interesting television. The beauty of the show the first season was that it moved rather slowly, at least compared to now. The characters are all so self aware that when they sat around navel gazing it felt a little like real life. Add a dash of soapy surprise, like a never mentioned ex-wife, and you’ve got yourself a hit.

But tonight’s season premiere contained enough drama to fill an entire season on any other show, like say, that ole reliable E.R.  George has to start from scratch as first year intern, and it’s unclear whether his new cohorts realized he’s done this all before. Meredith and Yang wonder about seeing the loves they have left and been left by for the first time in seventeen days, and Izzie makes a weird speech about being Bambi to George. Same ole, same ole. One would think that the massive injection of new interns might add a little heat, but I have a feeling they are not there to round out the missing cast members. With the exception of Lexie, Meredith’s long lost half sister and Derek Shepard target.


The medical stuff, which when it works can really work, tips the show on its side tonight like a bloated whale. The writers went for whimsy over substance, trying to cram as many wacky cases in as they could. So we get a single pregnant woman who’s arm is severed in a car accident and who is afraid to be alone. This is kind of played for laughs, which made me rather uncomfortable. We also get a man who is D.O.A, and begins to cough just after his time of death is called. It turns out his head has been internally decapitated. Yikes, right? His chance at survival is slim, but of course he lives, if only to prove to Cristina that she has feelings too.  And we also get a man with pica, who eats all the clamps and cotton balls and even some suturing scissors. When they cut him open they find lots and lots of change. His whole point is to give Karev something to do and the Chief a place where Bailey can’t leave, so he can talk to her.

These stories might have a little more resonance if the writers picked one, or maybe two, and spent some time with the plot instead of rushing through it. I knew they were going for cheap easy tears with the broken head guy and his family. He has almost no chance of making it through the surgery, can only communicate by blinking, once for yes, twice for no. But he loves his family and tells them so by blinking three times. Trembling, his adorable tiny daughter stops the nurses as they are wheeling him to surgery and blinks three times at him. Oy. I rolled my eyes instead of wiping them.

Meredith helps Sloan reattach the pregnant lady’s arm, and delivers the best line of the night. “It’s better to feel successful and be alone then feel like a failure in a relationship.” Fair enough. It’s funny, I never used to like Meredith, but when she’s not off drowning, she’s become the enigmatic core of the show. The best moment tonight was when Lexie, the sister, and Shepard, the part time lover, called out for her at the same moment. With the sort of withering look only a cool and distant big sister can muster, she headed straight for the man candy. That’s the GREY’S I want to see more of!! The sexy one! Not the talky “we save deer” one!


Huh? I’m getting there. I’ll be honest. I’m as addicted to GREY’S as the next person. But that’s because when it’s good, it’s really good. Exciting, emotional, awkward, and sexy. But when it’s off, it’s really off. And that’s where the deer comes in. Izzie saves a deer because a little boy asks her to. Her new interns think she’s crazy. But we covered this last season!!!!! She’s not crazy; she just cares a lot! Can we move on yet? That’s how I feel about the whole show. Let’s just move on! I am sure Addison and Burke would agree.