1. science
2. medicine
3. physiology

 Jones 1 Mary Jones Mr. Terrell UCA Writing 1310 27 April 2015 Grey’s Anatomy Every Thursday at 7 o’clock, I close myself off from the outside world and enter into the world of Grey­Sloan Memorial Hospital to engage in the lives of the dramatic and emotional doctors. Believe it or not, things weren’t always this way. I’ve always known about Grey’s Anatomy, but it never really interested me since most of the people who I knew watched the show were a lot older than me, i.e., 30 year old mothers. I also secretly thought it would be too artificial and corny for my tastes. But, as more and more of my friends began watching the show and talking about it as if nothing else mattered to them besides this character or that, I decided to ease my curiosity and see what the show was all about. I first watched the series on Netflix and was immediately hooked by the storylines and the strong emotional connections that came so easily. After a few weekends and a couple binge watching sessions, I had seen every episode of Grey’s Anatomy. Shameful, I know….. but totally worth it. No other show had been able to evoke such a strong emotional connection from me. While watching the show, I found myself rooting for certain people to end up together, and silently hoping the characters I didn’t like would be killed off. This type of strong audience reaction from me and many other people reinforces the assumption that Grey’s Anatomy is the prime melodrama. Jones 2 Shonda Rhimes, the creator of Grey’s Anatomy, wanted to make a new show with strong character stories that she would want to watch. She was inspired by her time as a candy striper to write a hospital drama and thus, Grey’s Anatomy was created (Ryan). Grey’s Anatomy premiered on March 27, 2005, to a hefty audience of over 16 million people (Weekly). The show follows Dr. Meredith Grey as she faces life as a surgical intern along with her colleagues Dr. Cristina Yang, Dr. Izzie Stevens, Dr. George O’Malley, and Dr. Alex Karev. The five of them group together after they are all assigned to Dr. Miranda Bailey who is also referred to as “The Nazi” due to her demanding and harsh attitude. On the first day, Dr. Bailey assigns Meredith to the service of the new “dreamy” neurosurgeon Dr. Derek Shepherd who also happens to be the guy Meredith kicked out of her house after a one night stand earlier in the morning. After they recover from this rocky start, Meredith and Derek’s relationship takes a very prominent role in the show and still continues to be one of the prime hooks of emotional connection. From the very first episode, Shonda and her team of writers hit the ground running, to create a show filled with diverse characters who face a multitude of trials such as unplanned pregnancy, bomb threats, and train crashes. They also write many character deaths, in fact, they write so many character deaths that it’s a wonder how everyone survived the first two seasons. All these things combined make Grey’s Anatomy a show that many people tune in to watch every week and one of the most prominent and successful melodramas. A melodrama is defined as a “drama in which many exciting events happen and the characters have very strong or exaggerated emotions,” (Melodrama). Obviously, Jones 3 emotional connection is one of the main criteria for what constitutes a good melodrama, but other important factors also allow a melodrama to rise above the rest. There is a certain standard of writing and storyline quality that makes a show succeed. The writing has to be creative; no audience wants to watch the same thing happen over and over. The writing also must be able to form a cohesion among the storylines which also must be well­paced and capable of thriving against the other stories going on. In addition to strong emotional connection, quality of writing, and pace/amount of storylines, character relations and verisimilitude also carry a lot of weight in the world of good melodramas. Characters must be able to form substantial relationships with each other both romantically and platonically before the audience can connect with them and say “I want to have that type of relationship too,”. Once all of these things are achieved and perfected, a show must also be aware of its verisimilitude. Melodramas are extremely susceptible to over exaggerating their stories and authenticity, and many shows fail to put the extra effort into making their show factually correct. It is possible for a melodrama to excel in all of these areas but it will never reach the audience size and success that Grey’s Anatomy has without the emotional connection that keeps people coming back week after week. Emotional connection allows the audience to form a bond with the characters and even makes them feel like they are a part of the show. The audience wants to watch their favorite character fall in love or achieve some personal success, so they watch every week waiting in anticipation for that to happen. Since the characters of Greys Anatomy go through some of the same struggles that the audience does while accepting their vulnerability, it is Jones 4 easier to connect with them than characters of other shows. The main example of this is Meredith and Derek’s relationship, especially in season 2. After Derek’s wife comes back in the finale of season 1, Meredith is left to pick up the shattered pieces of her heart while still trying to battle the feelings she has for Derek. Throughout the entire second season, the audience gets to experience both Meredith and Derek’s apprehensions and desires of being together. When they actually get together, it was almost as if the whole audience erupted in excitement and got to breathe a sigh of relief because the couple they were connected to was finally happy. Todd VanDerWerff, a TV critic for the A.V. club, points out that this type of “swooning romanticism” while “embracing ...deeply earnest, intensely felt romance” is what makes the relationships in the show so spectacular and easy to connect to (VanDerWerff). While emotions are a huge, integral part of a great melodrama, they would essentially be nothing without the writing which gives them their strength. The main writers of the show are Shonda Rhimes, Krista Vernoff, and Mark Wilding, and let me tell you, they are not shy about their writing, at all (“Grey’s”). They approach the show with seemingly unrestrained creativity and write some of the most shocking and unexpected events on television. In almost every season premiere or finale, the writers come up with the most unpredictable events to keep the show new and fresh. In fact, Christopher Monfette, a critic for IGN, claimed that the writing in season two “expertly wove….complex relationships, whimsical banter and challenging life­lessons­ all to a montage­fetish, indie­rock soundtrack,” (Monfette). But while the writing of the show has had some obvious success, it has also gone through some pitfalls. As the writers try to Jones 5 pile on the drama to keep the show interesting, it often times leaves the audience scrounging for a breath of fresh air. The writers often put themselves in a tough spot after an exciting dramatic moment when they have to somehow provide a resolution back to the status quo. For example, when Izzie irresponsibly cut off a patient's life support and quit the program, she was invited back with seemingly little punishment. The writers downplayed her actions to get her back in the hospital and continue with the show (VanDerWerff). The writers excel in writing dramatic events so well that it can eventually be counterintuitive when things get too dramatic and they can’t provide a relief. The show can also get a bit overwhelming when the pace and amount of storylines is off balance. Things can easily become overdramatic when big events are moving too fast and the audience isn’t granted enough time to fully connect with what is going on. For instance, when Meredith almost died in season three, the event played out over 3 episodes, but when her sister Lexie actually died, she was only given about 3 minutes. Her death came so suddenly that many viewers, myself included, didn’t believe she was actually dead. In its height of popularity, Grey’s Anatomy was guilty of being paced too fast, but it seems as if now, it is paced too slow. In the latest episode, the most dramatic event was Derek not answering his cell phone and a patient losing her ability to play golf. This same boring storyline would have fizzled out and died if it was placed during one of the busiest seasons like two or seven. Often times the amount of storylines can cause things to be overwhelming as well. When too many stories are fighting for attention it’s hard to connect to one at all. The emotional connection that Jones 6 melodramas thrive on can’t be experienced if the audience it too busy trying to decide what they want. However, when the balance of pace and amount of storylines is met, Grey’s Anatomy is a powerhouse. One example of this is the finale of season 2. Everyones story for the season was coming to a dramatic close which made it feel fast paced, but each storyline got their own moment for the audience to savor and enjoy. The design of the show with main character storylines along with patient storylines within each episode keeps the show fresh and also gives it the longevity it has used to reach 11 seasons. Another reason Grey’s Anatomy has lasted this long is its arsenal of dynamic and strong characters. The women of Grey’s Anatomy take the predominant role and are the driving force of the show. When creating the strong characters of Meredith, Cristina, and Miranda, Shonda Rhimes realized that on TV most women were being written as “fantasies” and she wanted to change that by writing about what “​
women are really like…. flawed, nasty, strong, good,” (Ryan). This type of realism and authenticity helps the audience connect to the characters. The relations between the characters also play a prominent role in controlling the show and the most significant one is the relationship between Meredith and Cristina. Throughout the show they have been given many nicknames such as the Twisted Sisters and most notably they refer to each other as their “person”. The great thing about this honest and genuine relationship is that they break away from the norm. They forgive each other for everything, and when they fight, it’s not over petty things but over things that really matter (Highfill). They are also eachothers support system when they go through difficult times, often referred to by Jones 7 them as the “dark and twistys”. Meredith and Cristina also help each other grow as people and develop as characters from easily depressed and rebellious interns into confident, strong, and brave attending surgeons. Up until season 10 when Cristina left the show, their relationship is what many people loved about Grey’s Anatomy. In addition to strong characters, a melodrama must also have verisimilitude. A show has to be believable and factually correct for it to avoid the ever­so­common “eye roll” factor whenever something seems fabricated or just flat out bogus. Despite exaggerating the proper etiquette in the hospital workplace, Grey’s Anatomy excels at being factually correct with all the medical jargon and technical vocabulary. In fact, the Grey’s Anatomy team regularly consults doctors to get a detailed explanation of medical information that they plan to use such as testing for Alzheimer's disease and genome sequencing (Malamut). Every time I watch the show I feel like I learn something new whether it be about a teratoma or about arterial transplantation. Even though the medical knowledge is believable, sometimes the storylines are obviously not. Most doctors don’t experience a plane crash and a hospital shooting in their lifetime and they definitely don’t resurrect from the dead after drowning, but all of those things have happened to Meredith. The show is undeniably wild, but for the most part it presents practical and believable storylines about human life and the unapologetic determination of the doctors. Grey’s Anatomy is exactly what a melodrama should be. It has the strong characters and storylines that make it easy to emotionally connect to and it has a devoted fanbase that comes back each and every week to get involved with show. Sure Jones 8 it’s gotten weaker in its eleventh season in terms of pace and writing but for what it’s worth, Grey’s Anatomy has had a spectacular run. The show has suffered some terrible blows such as integral characters leaving and behind the scenes drama with actors, but still ended up being one of the most popular and well loved TV melodramas. Jones 9 Works Cited "Grey's Anatomy." ​
TVGuide.com​
. CBS Interactive, n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2015. Highfill, Samantha. "'Grey's Anatomy': Mer and Cristina Are the Best Female Friends on TV." ​
EW.com​
. Entertainment Weekly, 18 Jan. 2015. Web. 21 Apr. 2015. Malamut, Melissa. "The Science Behind Grey's Anatomy." ​
Boston Magazine​
. Metrocorp, 3 Oct. 2013. Web. 21 Apr. 2015. "Melodrama." ​
Merriam­Webster​
. Merriam­Webster, n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2015. Monfette, Christopher. "Grey's Anatomy: Season 3 Review." ​
IGN​
. Ziff Davis, 15 June 2007. Web. 21 Apr. 2015. Ryan, Maureen. "Shonda Rhimes, Creator of 'Grey's Anatomy' and a Chicagoan of the Year." ​
The Watcher​
. Chicago Tribune, 21 Dec. 2005. Web. 19 Apr. 2015. VanDerWerff, Todd. "Sure, Grey's Anatomy Was a Big Hit, but Was It Good TV?" ​
∙ 100 Episodes ∙ The A.V. Club​
. The Onion, 24 June 2013. Web. 21 Apr. 2015. "Weekly Program Rankings 3/21/05 ­ 3/27/05." ​
Medianet​
. American Broadcasting Company, 29 Mar. 2005. Web. 19 Apr. 2015.