Witz Pickz: Grey's Anatomy...aaaand Punching Myself In the Face

It couldn't have come to this-- I'm still young, I have my strength and my hea-- well, I have some strength and perseverance. But listen, when you're home, unemployed for longer than a couple weeks, television becomes your best friend. And when you don't get any channels on your television, DVD's become your best friend. And when you don't have a job to PAY for the DVD's (see how that works?), the LIBRARY becomes your mistress. Which is a long way of saying, "it's not my fault that despite my promises to never ever ever watch the show that is crappy and miserable and etc etc ended up in my car, then my apartment, and ultimately on my television."

I have watched the first two seasons of Grey's Anatomy and am currently doing whatever I can to see the third. And here's the thing-- it's NOT GOOD. IT'S NOT! AND EVERYONE SAYS THIS! Everyone says that Grey's is trash, but they can't stop watching it and it's true! It started out good, it really did-- the characters were new and interesting, medical things happened, and they got me all choked up in that "Seriously? This is what I'm finally gonna get choked up over? Not the cat dying? Not genocides in Africa?" kind of way.

But it has gone downhill. I watched as it slowly evolved from a PEOPLE drama/comedy to a RELATIONSHIP drama/comedy. Where open ended plotlines turned into redundant cycles of behavior. They sold out the men for the women, and it probably worked-- but I hate it. And possibly due to that fact, or perhaps independent of it, here is the biggest problem with the show: Very few of the main characters are likeable. Oh, they might have started likeable, but they have long since lost their charm. Izzie? She justifies everything by the fact that she came from nothing, worked hard to get to where she is despite being hot, and therefore can break every hospital regulation ever, including some very serious ones and get away with it, because she's a good person at heart, only she's confused. I want her in a jail cell next to the crack dealer with the same situation-- or let the crack dealer out, but come on! Then ya got Sandra Oh's character, who is really enjoyable when she shows emotions besides frustration and uptightedness, only that's her schtick. Patrick Dempsy aka McDreamy is a total douchebag who isn't charming or cute (basing this on other girls' opinions, too) when he's tormenting Meredith and acting like a self-involved prick with expectations that he deserves everything and everyone to like him. Then there's Meredith. I don't want to say that Meredith is the least likeable main character in the history of television, but she makes Al Bundy look like Bill Cosby. She's constantly complaining, whining, focusing on her problems, creating drama, cuckolding (FINALLY GOT TO USE IT!), bitching, moaning, getting her way, getting breaks and advantages over the other interns because of all these things, and she's not even attractive. She looks like she has ghosts in her, and those ghosts need to eat a little more food and maybe she'd stop complaining all the time. Are we supposed to care about Meredith? Do you? I'm watching because I have too much invested to quit-- I'll finish up season 3 and then turn it over to Private Practice where one of only three enjoyable characters on the show will be starring-- Addison Montgomery Shepperd-- McDreamy's wife who looks and acts like Felicity Huffman only she's ACTUALLY very attractive whereas Aaron Sorkin just wanted us all to believe she was very attractive in Sports Night, much in the same way he wanted us to BELIEVE that Harriet Hayes was some kind of comedic genius in Studio 60. Anyway, AMS (which sounds like a disease, but is just abbrev. for Addison Etc Etc...which is an abbreviation for Montgomery Shepperd), is a great character who actually has several emotions and can play all of them well. I doubt her show will be any good, but whatever, what do I have to do, right? The other characters on Grey's who provide some semblance of enjoyment are George O'Malley, the quirky, uncomfortable intern, and Alex Carev, the asshole intern with a heart of malleable silver. They both show an acting range and have some depth as characters other than "I'm hot, but used to be trashy!" or "I'm not hot, but everyone loves me." It baffles me that so many of the supporting cast was nominated or won awards.

So yeah, that's my Grey's Anatomy explanation. I'm not saying don't watch the show, I'm just saying be prepared. And be prepared to say you won't watch the show, and then will watch the show when circumstances arise. It did give us phrases such as, "Bomb in the body cavity" which is nice, and there are a lot of cameos via patients.

I Will Never Ever Ever Watch Desperate Housewives...Until I Do,
Witz

P.S. This corresponds to a book I just started called "Everything Bad For You Is Good," by Steven Johnson. I don't know enough about it to discuss, but will tell you about it in a future post. It essentially says that all the crappy culture that we think is making us dumber, is actually effecting us in ways that make us smarter-- I just don't know why yet.