Grey’s Anatomy can and should get messier without Meredith

The “Grey” in it Gray’s Anatomy officially hung up her scrubs. After 19 seasons, Ellen Pompeo left the series that shot her to stardom and made her one of TV’s highest-paid actresses, playing the titular “dark and curvy” surgical intern turned Chief of Surgery Meredith Gray. Pompeo’s Meredith has anchored the long-running ABC drama through love triangles, major disasters, and a revolving door of cast members. Meredith is literally the voice of the show, with a voiceover that guides viewers through the week’s themes, and her character has grown along with the audience over the show’s nearly two decades. Her exit raises the question: where can Gray’s Anatomy go from here?

Many will be calling for the show to end (or have already done so), and there’s certainly an argument that the series has overstayed its welcome, producing more bad seasons than good of late. But here’s the thing: when Gray’s Anatomy clap, it Real hits, and the show continues to play a vital role in society by treating topical stories with grace and heart. Only this season Gray’s Anatomy the reversal of addressed Roe against Wade with a devastating story about a woman’s ectopic pregnancy that required a life-saving medical abortion, which required her to cross state lines when doctors in her home state would not perform the procedure. Two seasons ago, the series produced a beautiful COVID-19 episode celebrating the many lives lost to the 2020 pandemic. Before that, it commented on domestic violence, same-sex marriage, mental health, drug use and addiction, and more . There is a place for everything under the Grays umbrella, and there’s still a need for storytelling – but there have to be big shifts in the show’s primary focus to keep it fresh.

The easy answer (and the one that seems to be exploring the writers’ room via Season 19’s new cast members) is to take the show back to its roots and put the spotlight back on the interns. When the series first aired in 2005, it was essentially a show about a group of misfits who all loved one thing: surgery. With them came baggage, from Meredith’s troubled relationship with her mother, Ellis Gray, to Izzie Stevens’ past work as a lingerie model who paid her medical school bills, to Cristina Yang’s abrasive personality and “no new friends” outlook. George O’Malley was too nice for the job, and Alex Karev had no way of sitting next to the bed. The characters felt alive and real, and their backstories and developed personalities added depth and intrigue to an otherwise mundane networking procedure.

The current season has tried to return to the essence of the show by introducing a new group of interns who compete for attention and chase perfection, but it lacks execution. Because it is Gray’s Anatomy, one of them must be related to a beloved character – this time Niko Terho steps in as Dr. Lucas Adams, who happens to be Derek and Amelia Shepherd’s cousin, a fact he desperately tries to keep a secret. In his cohort are Mika Yasuda (Midori Francis), who lives in her van; Benson “Blue” Kwan (Harry Shum Jr.), an older, mouthy intern; Simone Griffith (Alexis Floyd), a transfer trying to hide her past failures; and Jules Millin (Adelaide Kane), another bossy perfectionist.

The problem is that these little blurbs are literally all we know about these characters. (Honestly, I struggled to come up with a description for Jules because I don’t feel like I know anything about her, despite her being in seven hour-long episodes so far.) Lucas is about to to become a central figure as the newest character with previous ties to the hospital – just as Meredith was when she arrived as an intern and tried to prove herself as someone other than Ellis Grey’s daughter – but other than his successful lineage, what do we know more about him? There’s been very little character development to match Season 1’s in-house class highlights, despite that being in the show’s DNA.

At the moment the show is overcrowded. In its current state, it struggles to balance the new class with the old. Gray’s Anatomy has always been an ensemble, but the disparate storylines of legacy characters have lacked commitment and interest for some time. No one I know still watches Gray’s Anatomy (and yes, I do know a few!) Enjoy the storylines of Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd) or Teddy Altman (Kim Raver), who find their dysfunctional relationship and reused plot points tiresome. For a couple who do want them, they’ve never been more interesting. Maggie Pierce’s (Kelly McCreary) neuroticism can be annoying, especially as it destroys her marriage, Richard Webber’s (James Pickens Jr.) only role is to keep the lights on at the hospital, and while Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson ) is always a welcome presence, her recent stories (like experiencing a burnout) were only half explored.

Image: ABC

Image: ABC

Aside from writing these characters off, there should at least be a reduction in their screen time to make room for newer, fresher ideas. Having a younger cast in the show’s A-plots will bring back the playfulness of the earlier seasons, which seems to have been stifled by a main cast dealing with very real adult issues like childcare and work-life balance . Stable relationships and growing families are great for character development, but don’t always make for interesting TV, especially this far into the course of a show.

It seems that work has been done in recent seasons to reorient the interns, as the hospital sought to repair a reputation that had apparently taken a nosedive somewhere along the way. Top of mind for Webber and Bailey is the restoration of Gray Sloan Memorial Hospital as a premier teaching hospital with a world-class internship and residency program – but while the new faces at the hospital are just as cutthroat and high-performing as the ones we embarked on this journey in 2005 there is room for little else in their stories, and that level of perfection lacks intrigue.

The early days of Grays wouldn’t be the same without George’s near botched surgery that earned him the nickname “007”; Izzie wouldn’t be the legendary character she is without her cutting Denny’s LVAD wire in the name of love; Meredith’s ill-advised entanglement with her boss, Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey), sparked one of the greatest love stories ever. Watching the world-class surgeons of tomorrow make recognizable, human errors was the foundation of the show. Today’s interns are so focused on reaching the pinnacle of their careers, there’s no room for the messy and sexy drama that made the show so vibrant in the first place.

So bring back the steamy waiting room appointments and the OR flirtations and the complex, challenging surgeries that shape and build the new interns into the next generation of great surgeons. We want love triangles and illicit work affairs, and decision making fueled by immaturity and pure emotion. Without Meredith, it’s time to get messy again.