Grey's Anatomy: what's the deal?

[Banshee16]

Wait. There is a character named Grey in the show? And the show is called Grey's Anatomy? I thought it was just a comedy named after a popular textbook. I will avoid this forever.

It's a double-entendre. I'm sure it was done this way on purpose.

It's not bad. My wife loves it....it's not nearly as grim as ER...it has its moments, but it's not top of the list of shows I want to watch.

Banshee

 

[LightPhoenix]

The first season of this show is pretty good - I thought it was well written and witty, even if the title character is by far the weakest part. Everyone else makes up for it, especially Dr. Bailey. I have to also admit I'm a sucker for the juxtaposition in the first act, making Meredith basically a stereotypical guy with regards to sex and Dr. Shepherd a stereotypical girl. The first bit of the second season is pretty good too.

Then something went wrong. The destruction of Izzie Stevens. Well, her character at least. Even during that downward trend though, there was some decent story. One in particular stands out in my mind (spoilers in case:

Spoiler

After Izzie cuts the LVAD wire, and everyone covers for her... specifically the scenes with the Chief interrogating them

). I thought this would be a cool foreshadow of something from the very first episode.

Enter the third season. Someone, maybe everyone, went completely batcrap loony. Any sort of realism and consequence was completely tossed straight out the window. The show took a sharp downhill turn. I stopped watching.

 

[Morrus]

Also- didn't you notice? Every show is a soap now- Thats Joss Whedon's contribution to TV. He realised that if you format a show like a soap opera, people watch it like a soap opera. BSG, Lost, Alias, 24, even the new Dr. Who to some extent- all draw on what the soap operas have been doing for years to maintain viewership. Granted the plots are better and not so pure-relationship, but it is definately there.

I'm not familiar with the show, but I'm getting the impression you're presenting this as a criticism (although the Joss Whedon credit is a bit behind the times).

Is that bad thing? Granted, mosts soaps are dull to us. But if a soap is good, it's good. The "soap" characteristic isn't bad in itself - it lends cohesivenes, characterization and continuity to a show, all of which I [at least] view as positive things.

 

[Felon]

I'm not familiar with the show, but I'm getting the impression you're presenting this as a criticism (although the Joss Whedon credit is a bit behind the times).

Is that bad thing? Granted, mosts soaps are dull to us. But if a soap is good, it's good. The "soap" characteristic isn't bad in itself - it lends cohesivenes, characterization and continuity to a show, all of which I [at least] view as positive things.

That's a fair assessment. Often when people use "soap opera" in a pejorative sense, it's in reference to blatantly convoluted plot contrivances. In this case, I refer to the cloying "I-want-you-and-you-want-me-but-I'm-arbitrarily-going-to-act-like-I-really-don't-like-you" contrivance, which is a pretty artificial way to generate sexual tension between two people who could easily hook up. Women fall for it. Guys, OTOH, fall for every episode of Dukes of Hazard ending with a car chase.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

That's a fair assessment. Often when people use "soap opera" in a pejorative sense, it's in reference to blatantly convoluted plot contrivances. In this case, I refer to the cloying "I-want-you-and-you-want-me-but-I'm-arbitrarily-going-to-act-like-I-really-don't-like-you" contrivance, which is a pretty artificial way to generate sexual tension between two people who could easily hook up. Women fall for it. Guys, OTOH, fall for every episode of Dukes of Hazard ending with a car chase.

#
I think a space battle will work, too (for guys).

 

[Vocenoctum]

Enter the third season. Someone, maybe everyone, went completely batcrap loony. Any sort of realism and consequence was completely tossed straight out the window. The show took a sharp downhill turn. I stopped watching.

I watch House, and the stuff with the cop trying to prosecute House really broke the show for me. It was just a bit too ludicrous for me. I still watched, and it's improved since, but the new episodes don't really entertain me as much as the first season did.

 

[LightPhoenix]

I watch House, and the stuff with the cop trying to prosecute House really broke the show for me. It was just a bit too ludicrous for me. I still watched, and it's improved since, but the new episodes don't really entertain me as much as the first season did.

I'm not a huge fan of House, because it's incredibly formulaic. Which is probably why I liked the fourth season - "the numbers" made it a lot of interesting, injected a bit of needed change. I still don't get how

Spoiler

Chase is magically a surgeon

though. The teaser for the rest of the season bored me though, because it felt like more of the same, with new people.

Having worked in a hospital, and having discussed it to death, it's generally agreed that the show that comes closest to the way it really is is Scrubs. That's not to say Scrubs is at all realistic, but if you scale back the characatures a bit, it's pretty close.

 

[Vocenoctum]

I'm not a huge fan of House, because it's incredibly formulaic. Which is probably why I liked the fourth season - "the numbers" made it a lot of interesting, injected a bit of needed change. I still don't get how

Spoiler

Chase is magically a surgeon

though. The teaser for the rest of the season bored me though, because it felt like more of the same, with new people.

It's formulaic for sure, but at least it's relatively fun about it. That may also be part of why it's gotten old, the formula.

Having worked in a hospital, and having discussed it to death, it's generally agreed that the show that comes closest to the way it really is is Scrubs. That's not to say Scrubs is at all realistic, but if you scale back the characatures a bit, it's pretty close.

Sure, I watch Scrubs also, though I've never been a big fan of hospital shows.

 

[Felon]

I'm not a huge fan of House, because it's incredibly formulaic. Which is probably why I liked the fourth season - "the numbers" made it a lot of interesting, injected a bit of needed change. I still don't get how

Spoiler

Chase is magically a surgeon

though. The teaser for the rest of the season bored me though, because it felt like more of the same, with new people.

Yep, the medicine in House is painfully formulaic. And the "start the treatment" bit at the end (like the treatment is something you can get out of a vending machine) makes it pretty unrealistic. But House always has good lines.

Having worked in a hospital, and having discussed it to death, it's generally agreed that the show that comes closest to the way it really is is Scrubs. That's not to say Scrubs is at all realistic, but if you scale back the characatures a bit, it's pretty close.

Well, if you men that hospitals are mostly full of old people desperately trying to maintain that final toehold on life, then yeah Scrubs kind of beat the others to the punch.