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Grey’s Anatomy has jumped the shark

I doubt I’m the first to say it, but I think it’s becoming more and mor evident: Grey’s Anatomy has officially jumped the shark.

For the record, I still watch the show.  I absolutely loved the show previously, and if the writers can create brilliance for one season, I’m sure they can do it again.  They just haven’t. 

This whole thread with Meredith’s falling into the water while saving some lives is what decided it for me.  I won’t go into spoilerish details, but I think it marks a clear “jump the shark” moment.

Before a show can jump the shark, though, it has to hit a period of stagnation.  And Grey’s has done that.  For example:

• The characters used to have interesting relationships amongst each other and their residents.  Now?  It’s gone pure soap opera.  Everyone has paired off.  George and Callie with the most sudden marriage ever, Burke proposing to Christina out of the blue, Meredith and McDreamy Shepherd, Izzy and the late Denny, and now even Addison and Alex.  Apparently at this hospital, every high ranking medical surgeon has to be in a relationship with an intern.  And not just any intern, but an intern from one little group of interns.  Whatever.  Next thing you know, the chief and Bailey will hook up.  Actually, he’s divorced now… ugh.  I hope Shonda Rhimes doesn’t read this.
• Speaking of Bailey, she used to be a totally badass resident that took no gruff from anyone.  A sort of Dr. Cox-from Scrubs character.  And then, out of nowhere, they completely emasculated her.  And then they tried to make her tough again by getting her this free clinic.  It took her a total of five minutes to get a free clinic approved by medical higher-ups.  Five minutes!  It wasn’t even the entire episode!  Since when do hospitals hand free clinics to RESIDENTS?  She’s not even an attending!
• There are too many contrived “touching” moments.  Like Izzy’s speech at the end of episode 2 of the ferry-disaster trilogy.  It was poorly written, poorly delivered (not that she had a chance given what she was working with), and just a mess.  She starts rambling about everything, even telling George getting married was a bad idea.  This from a woman who married a patient that she had never seen outside of a hospital bed.  I could understand it if it was supposed to be some sort of ironic moment, but it was delivered and written with such sincerity that I just don’t believe it to be intended to be ironic.  Just… bad.
• Alex used to be hardnosed, troublemaking brash kid that wants to get rich in plastics.  That provided an interesting foil to the other “straight arrow” characters.  But we’re not even through season two and he’s turned into a boy scout, spending most of his time with neo-natal and infants.  I’m all for character development, but not that FAST.  Make us see him grow over time — not just wake up one day and be like, whoa, that OBG is a hot, and hey, kids are special.  His transformation from selfish kid to model citizen took all of three episodes.  And now he’s even getting all romantic with Addison.  And not hook up romantic, like one would expect from Alex, but romantic romantic.  Whatever.  There’s enough of that with McDreamy and Meredith and George and Callie and Christina and Burke.  Don’t give me more of the same.
• Speaking of Christina, they’ve turned her one dimensional too — selfish doctor-witch.  She can’t go five minutes in an episode without being all mad that she’s not personally performing the world’s first albino-tiger-to-human liver transplant.  She used to be a cool, driven character.  Now she’s just jumped her own personal shark.
• George and Callie happened too fast.  I can’t even remember what George was like before Callie, but it wasn’t this.  I thought he was annoying when he was pining over Meredith — boy was I wrong.  He used to be my favorite character — now I think about changing the channel to check Sportscenter when he comes on.  I thought the episodes with him and his father were good episodes — it showed an angry, terse side that emerged under the extreme duress of his father’s illness.  But in the span of about 5 episodes it seems like he went from being mad at Meredith for crying while he did things with her, hooking up with Callie, breaking up with Callie, and marrying Callie.  That didn’t even take a full season!

I could go on and on, but I have to get to my theory of why this happened.  My theory?  I think the writers have gotten full of themselves, particularly Shonda Rhimes.

I read the Grey’s Writers’ blog, which is what lead me to this conclusion.  Read the posts from Shonda Rhimes.  Maybe I’m looking too much into it, but to me, it screams out “I’m patting myself on the back and am way too proud of myself and my writing.”  She should be proud of it, of course — she wrote one of the most popular TV shows in the country that doesn’t star people making asses of themselves hoping to land a record contract.  But not TOO proud.  There’s a fine line.  Am I the only one that gets that sense from reading that blog?

I am going to watch Grey’s again this week, but I’m TiVoing the Friday repeats these days.  Thursday night goes to NBC, now.  At the start of the season, I struggled in deciding whether to watch Scrubs or Grey’s Anatomy, since they’re head to head.  And while Scrubs isn’t having its best season ever, it easily trumps this season of Grey’s Anatomy.

Of course, with all the negativity I just spewed about Grey’s Anatomy, it could still turn itself around.  Like I said, Shonda Rhimes has written some incredible episodes — and there’s no reason she can’t do it again.  I’d love to see it happen.

Mon February 26th, 2007 11:22 pm

Filed under Televsion