You Watch That Show? Why?

The Grey's Anatomy season finale just aired last week. It was a good season. It's hard for me to tell people I like that show. I mostly don't care, but people really hate that show. I get the most puzzling looks from people whenever I mention it, so I just stay mute about the show usually. I really think it's a good show though. And it gets much more flak than it deserves.

It's kind of a continuation of my growing appreciation for fiction. You ever heard someone say, real condescendingly, something like "I don't read fiction. I'm more of a non-fiction type person. There's so much to learn about the world; why should I waste time reading made up stories." I know about it because that's what I used to think.

We say that about books, but we'd never say the same thing about tv or movies. There are many stories that we've heard that have taught us more about life than any textbook or instructional manual. No one can say that the Godfather didn't reveal truths about human nature. Or that Shawshank Redemption can't teach a lot about life. These are vastly made up, fictional, make-believe stories, that absolutely tell nothing but the hard truth. I have found great value in fiction lately.


Grey's Anatomy is largely a fictional world. But the tendencies of human nature are intact. And when the show really does it well, they end up revealing more about true life than the best documentaries I've ever seen.

Okay so they lay it on real thick sometimes. And it does get way too syrupy sometimes. And yes, the Izzy Stephens character has the weakest story lines and makes the show very hard to enjoy sometimes. I know, I know, it can be real corny sometimes. But I think the occasional corniness is well worth sitting through because of when they do it right. When they line up the stories, the images, the music, and the characters together perfectly, the show is unlike any other that I've ever seen.


I've had an experience with that show that I've never had with any other. The particular show had some theme: guilt, forgiveness, or something like that. They set it up nicely. They started driving the point really well. They flipped it around and looked at it from a few different angles. Then they drove it some more. And at one point, I couldn't believe that i was watching something that good. My eyes and ears couldn't believe that a tv show could talk about a certain subject so well.


I never really care about the shows I watch. They're just shows to me. But I have spent many nights thinking some questions that were brought up in Grey's. You can't just watch it and turn away and forget about it. There are questions that the show asks you that you sometimes don't have the answer to. It forced me to think many times about what I really believe about the way things should be. I appreciate the show for that. It has challenged me to think about some serious shit. What other show does that? Seriously think about what show forces anyone to maybe rethink their reality on a weekly basis? I can't think of any other, and until then I'll keep enjoying my show.