Grey's Anatomy (or the unexpected virtue of fangirling)

One fateful day on Netflix, my sister and I were looking for something new to watch together, having just finished two animes and the sitcom How I met your Mother. We then stumbled across something that looked interesting on the recommended for you list called Grey's Anatomy. We decided that it would be okay to try it, and we were at season two before the end of the week. There are ten seasons up on Netflix, and the eleventh is currently airing. The rest of this blog post will contain spoilers, you have been warned.

Wow those are a lot of scrubs

This is a pretty great show, and coming from someone who is not a big fan of realistic fiction, I liked it. My knowledge of tumors and how to read a MRI has improved indefinitely. It starts with Meredith Grey and the four other interns assigned to Miranda Bailey as they start their year of internship and the subsequent four years as residents. Meredith's best friend is Cristina Yang a extremely competitive heart surgeon, and the other interns are Alex Kerev, the guy who has the worst human skills ever, Isobel (Izzy) Stevens, the girl who got through medical school by modeling, and George O'Malley, who was basically a human Bambi. In a later season Seattle Grace merges with Mercy West hospital and April Kepner and Jackson Avery are introduced to the group. George also dies in a bus crash after pushing a stranger out of the way and Izzy is diagnosed with cancer.

The Attendings that teach them are Derek Shepard, Meredith's boyfriend (later husband) and top neurologist in the country,  Preston Berek, Cristina's boyfriend, who leaves after Cristina freaks out at their wedding (heart), Addison Montgomery Derek's wife(ob/gyn),  Mark Sloan the reason Addison and Derek split up (plastics). After the first season we are also introduced to Arizona Robins (pediatrics), Callie Torrez who marries George, divorces him, and marries Arizona (orthopedics), Miranda Bailey who is like their mom (General), Owen Hunt an ex-military surgeon (trauma) and the chief of surgery Richard Webber who is like a grandpa (general). Teddy Altman is the heart surgeon that replaces Berek.

The first five seasons are sort of less intense, Meredith reconnects with her dad and his family, including her half sister Lexi a surgical student a year younger than her at Seattle Grace who has an identical memory and the average relationship drama you would expect from such a show. Then there are about five minutes where things are okay before the end of season 5 when things looked good, and then George was hit by a bus, Izzy's heart stopped, and all at once, every season finally got a little worse. There is a shooting and Derek, Lexi, and Richard are the targets, Derek's Alzheimer's research is ruined, and the doctors are in a plane crash that kills Lexi and Mark and causes terrible areophobia for most of the rest of the doctors. Basically every tragedy less than a meteor hitting the hospital has happened, but I am only on season eight, so the meteor strike might still happen.

Despite the occasional trama drama combo it is a engaging story that is fun to watch.