The Decline of Grey's Anatomy

When Grey's Anatomy first premiered, it quickly became my favorite show. It had all the right elements. It was funny and also terribly sad and realistic at times. It had a huge talented cast. All the characters acted realistically. They represented all of us. It was easy to relate to one or more of the characters or to identify with a situation.

The first season was great. It was fun and a good way to get to know all the characters and develop the stories and relationships. It ended with a bang as it was revealed that McDreamy (Patrick Dempsey), who had been dating Meredith (Ellen Pompeo), was actually married. This shocker kept fans coming back for more. The second second season followed suit being even better than the first. The writers developed those stories with ease. Not to mention, the medical cases, which were always touching and engrossing always perfectly complemented the episodes.

During the second season, the show truly blew up, no pun intended. Especially with what fans commonly call the bomb episode which aired after the Super Bowl. In the two part episode, we followed the cast in a truly nerve-wracking day at Seattle Grace when a patient comes into the hospital with a bomb inside his chest cavity. This garnered a lot of new fans and was a wonderful delight for old fans. The second season was also memorable for the patient/doctor relationship between Izzie (Katherine Heigl) and the sweet, Denny, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Denny unfortunately died at the end of the season but the story line was great while it laster.

By the third season, the stories were starting to get weaker but it was still great. The stories by then had already become a little convoluted. And whereas previously even if you disagreed with the characters, you could still see their point of view, now the characters just acted stupidly in an obvious attempt to further the plot. The show definitely jumped the shark when Meredith almost drowns herself, and she "crossed over" where we got to see some of the show's casualties again, like Denny, the Dylan, the bomb squad guy and Doc, the dog. This was out of the blue and too strange. It was like the writers suddenly lost touch with their characters.

The third season marked several other problems with the show. This was when Addison (Kate Walsh) left to do Private Practice. Addison was one of the best characters on the show. She was poised and dignified, a great doctor, and she made mistakes just like everyone else. According to the Grey's Writers' Blog on ABC.com, they felt that Addison's story at Seattle Grace had ended. I'm sure doubling your income by expanding the franchise to a mediocre spinoff didn't hurt either.

Another major loss for the show was Dr. Burke, played by Isaiah Washington, who as we all know got written out of the show for conflicts with his cast mates. Of course, this is understandable but it was a big loss. My favorite couple, the most sane couple, on the show was Burke and Christina (Sandra Oh) and now that's over.

The show has continued to spiral out of control with George (T.R. Knight) getting married, a story line that most fans agree was a huge mistake. And it continues the pattern of behavior that no one can understand. The show has stopped being relatable. It has also mostly stopped being entertaining. The stories have all gotten repetitive and grating. It's hard to care about what happens between McDreamy and Meredith if they've broken up several times for no reason.

And if the character conflict wasn't bad enough, now the show's writers seem to be putting the medical stories on the back burner. They are always thrown together sloppily. They no longer fit in with the story as nicely and are usually hard to follow because they are so under-developed and truncated.

I hope the Writers' Strike gave the Grey's Anatomy writers some inspiration because the way the show is going, it's going to be as ridiculous and convoluted as your average daytime soap opera. And there's a reason why One Life to Live isn't on primetime.