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Tuesday, Nov 10, 2009
In its first half-season -- and surprise finale -- "Grey's Anatomy" shows "ER" how to maintain a healthy medical drama.
May 23, 2005 | Which of the following four plotlines involving our eternally dewy and luminous heroine, Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), do you think was most important in the first, very promising, half-season of "Grey's Anatomy"?
A) Meredith's coping with the hospitalization of her mother -- a successful surgeon -- for Alzheimer's, just as she begins her own surgical residency.
B) Her realization that a one-night stand is actually her new boss, Dr. Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey, looking five weeks older than when he starred in 1987's "Can't Buy Me Love").
C) Her post-surgical freakout when she believes her fingernail punctured her glove -- and possibly a heart she was holding, just before it was transplanted.
D) Her tireless search for the perfect scrunchy to hold back those silken locks.
Anyone who has watched the series and doesn't harbor a deeply misguided crush on Dempsey can tell you that it's the actual medical dramas that are the heart of "Anatomy," and therefore the correct answer is "C." Unless, of course, that person is a writer or producer for "ER," the hospital show against which all others must now be measured, and the one that has strayed so far from its original success that it seems as confused as Dr. Carter (Noah Wyle) did 10 years ago when he first ambled into County General.
Back then, "ER" understood what "Grey's Anatomy" demonstrates so well now: A great hospital drama revolves around the realistic life-and-death decisions the characters have to make. That's especially true when they focus on scarily young interns -- like Grey and her fellow plebes, and Carter, way back when -- so naive and lacking in confidence they act as if they couldn't work a TiVo much less open a central line. The terrifying truth about all medical care -- that it's reliant on human judgment, vulnerable to human error -- animates these shows. Who could forget that excruciatingly memorable episode from "ER's" first season, when Dr. Greene (Anthony Edwards) misdiagnoses a pregnant woman's condition; we all learned the meaning of a medical term called "preeclampsia" and watched the prolonged disaster that followed. What made that episode so harrowing wasn't just the then-novel jittery camerawork and breakneck pacing, but the way it portrayed how the best-trained and most promising of young doctors could make a minor error that led to tragedy.
Early "ER" benefited from a particularly impressive cast and well-cut characters whose personal lives enhanced our interest in them. The self-doubting Dr. Lewis (the underrated Sherry Stringfield) was the product of a boozed-up family of low expectations; the charming Dr. Ross (George Clooney) was a womanizer with commitment issues. But it's a delicate balance, being a hospital drama staffed with intriguing doctors rather than a nighttime version of "General Hospital." So far, "Grey's Anatomy" appears to have figured out just the right combination -- even if its season finale came awfully close to forgetting it.
We first learned Sunday night that Dr. O'Malley (T.R. Knight), the stout-hearted Samwise Gamgee of the show, has picked up syphilis from his sweet new girlfriend, who may be the hospital's Typhoid Mary -- a sort of show in-joke, since we already know several of the doctors are hooking up on the sly. That includes Dr. Yang (the great Sandra Oh), who after sleeping with Dr. Burke (Isaiah Washington) becomes pregnant and appears to be scheduling an abortion from her cellphone at work. But because the procedure is actually delayed until next season, and she has a meaningfully warm exchange with Burke (they coyly reassure each other they don't have to be tested for the syph -- romantic!), the writers seem to be keeping that resolution up in the air. And then there's our Meredith.
The season started out with Meredith rolling out of bed on her first day of work, mumbling apologies to her dimpled conquest from the night before, then arriving to her new job in time to see him again, and learn that he's her boss.
As played by Pompeo, an actress whose skin is so translucent she threatens to completely disappear at any moment, Grey is a tough but emotional type: smart and confident, but needy and hungry for validation. She's a classic good girl, a people pleaser, who is also trying to figure out the riddle of adulthood: how to be happy. Shepherd makes her happy, so she stays with him, even after everyone tells her to stop, after she faces the bitter recrimination from her jealous fellow interns and new best friends, after her other supervisors haze her. [Warning, spoiler alert.]
