Can there be another show so enamoured of season finales as Grey's Anatomy? Last season we had the mad gunman running through Seattle Grace, wiping out a whole herd of peripheral characters. So what would they serve up to top that? Well, it went totally in the opposite direction, instead of physical danger, we had almost everyone in some sort of mental, or moral, turmoil. Quite clever really and every bit as exciting. If you like Grey's Anatomy that is.
And there is the rub. A lot of viewers might have drifted away. The Grey's Anatomy of season seven is not the same as that of seasons one to four, it is much better. I felt when it started, it was a very self centred and almost arrogant, affair. There was too much emphasis on the titular dippy Meredith Grey,needy Izzy and dull George. The only character with any real umph was Christina nd for about three seasons it went on that way. testing everyone's patience (no pun intended)
But then it started to change, more characters were introduced and the show adopted a much more ensemble feel. But for me the real shift in gear came when Izzy (Katherine Heigl) left. The character was so needy and overly sentimental that she seemed to suck the air out of every episode. With her gone and the Meredith character reduced to fit into the ensemble, Grey's Anatomy gained pace and became a proper (well sort of) medical drama. OK, it's never going to be better than ER at its peak, but I'd bet it kills Holby. Think I've just damned Grey's Anatomy with faint praise there.
It still can err on the side of sentimentality and it's still wedded to endless, dour songs over the emotional moments (Elbow seem to be flavour of the month) but we can forgive that. Mainly because Grey's (as we like to call it, or do we?) is finally a show that seems comfortable with itself.
Over
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