This year marks the twentieth season of Grey’s
Anatomy’s run on ABC. Late this September we will mark another significant
milestone: the 30th anniversary of the debut of ER, NBC’s
landmark medical drama that changed TV forever.
I suspect the closer we get to the latter anniversary
the comparisons will be made more and more about these two dramas. The argument
will be made how Grey’s Anatomy could never have existed without ER, there
will be comparisons as to how the latter showed paved the way for the former
and how the difference between TV in the 1990s and today is one of the reasons
that Grey’s is going strong twenty years later.
All of them, however, miss the fundamental point, and
that is comparing Grey’s Anatomy and ER at any level is like
comparing apples with a wood carving of an orange.
I realize there are some apparent similarities: both
shows were hour long dramas that made their debuts at critical times for both
networks. Both shows would lead to revolutions in how television was made. Both
would launch many of the cast members to superstardom and both show would last
for remarkably long periods. All of
these things are facts but there are several critical flaws in arguing that the
two shows are similar and having watched much of both shows multiple times in
the past thirty years, I can tell you
that these two shows don’t exist in the same galaxy.
I’ve made no secret I loathe Shondaland and all her
subsidiaries; indeed, this column was going to be one deriding a recent
interview of hers. But I’ve already done that dozens of times before so I
didn’t want to trod old ground. So I thought a fairer way to do it would be to
modify an argument of Truffaut: the best way to criticize a TV show is with
another TV show. And the easiest way to critique not only Grey’s Anatomy but
all things Rhimes was to compare it to ER, which I spent too long
diminishing but realize is not only a masterpiece but has a better explanation
for what is wrong with Rhimes than any column I could ever write.
So this series of articles will be what amounts to a
compare and contrast between these two series: what made ER an
infinitely superior series to Grey’s on almost every level, why ER’s place
in the zeitgeist made a greater impact
and lasted for longer than Grey’s has, how the nature of the writing and
acting showed the critical difference between the series, and how the
characters and their respective fates demonstrate who Rhimes’ views basically
the entire world.
And the place to start is what is probably the
clearest dissonance in all of Rhimes’ series on network TV. The complete and utter
lack of professional and personal ethics
that all of her characters in all of her major series.
This has been one of the biggest problems I’ve had
throughout the work of Shondaland in the 2010s. It’s not just that her
characters have no morals – that hardly makes them unique in the age of Peak TV
– it’s that, unlike the criminals that make up the world of Breaking Bad or
the Russian sleepers on The Americans, they are aware of what they are
doing but have justified it out of some higher good. It’s a flawed construct,
to be sure, but the people around them are aware of these flaws and they are
constantly called on it.
The inhabitants of Shondaland by contrast are proud of
how they flaunt every major rule and standard of America and from beginning to
end of Rhimes’ series many, if not all of them, show neither guilt nor remorse
at any point. In Scandal, Olivia Pope before the series began engaged in
a conspiracy to rig a Presidential election because she believed he was the
better man for the country. The fact she was sleeping with him and got a
position of power didn’t seem to be a conflict of interest; she only left the
administration when people were killed as part of the coverup. Eventually she realized
that what she had done was wrong but justified that the truth could never be
exposed because it would ‘bring down the republic’ - a self-serving justification for the woman
who’d engaged in that fraud. Olivia Pope then spent the better part of the
series helping people of power and privilege keep what they had safe rather
than make any attempt to either burn the system down or even make things better
for people with her skin color or gender. It was only in the climax of the series
that she acknowledged that she and everyone she had associated with were ‘not
the heroes of the story, but the villains’ – and even then, it was only to save
the skins of her friends.
Even that limited moral awakening was more than we got
from Annalyse Keating in How to Get Away With Murder. While Olivia Pope
could at least justify her actions because she was playing in the biggest of
fields – D.C. – Annalyse’s actions from the start of the series were entirely
self-serving. In the first season her husband was murdered by the Keating Five
because they believed he had killed somebody. She helped cover it up, even
after they learned he was innocent. The woman who was suspected of committing
the murder was also innocent – it was actually one of Annalyse’s closest
lieutenants. Her other lieutenant then murdered that woman because she held her
accountable for everything that happened. Both of these people were innocent
bystanders yet a woman who had been sworn to uphold the criminal justice system
then spent the next five seasons making sure neither her nor her students were
touched by this. As a result, several innocent people – including Annalyse’s
clients – were either killed or framed for murder, multiple members of the
Keating Five died as collateral damage over the years, and countless lives were
ruined as a result. But at the end of the series, rather than face any
responsibility for the havoc that had been unleashed in her name, Annalyse was
as defiant as ever. In her closing speech in the series, she blamed the system
for what had happened rather than take any personal responsibility for the
murders and violence that had happened in her name.
I mention this not just to excoriate Rhimes (although
I never miss a chance to do so) but to mention that for all her argument that
the characters at the center of her works during the 2010s being groundbreakers
for African-American women, at their core all they were was just African-American
female versions of Walter White or Tony Soprano. That no one ever chose to call
her on this double standard speaks not only to how blindly devoted her fan-base
will be but because even before we met Olivia Pope, Shonda Rhimes had made it
very clear that in Shondaland, all the ethical guidelines that have been carved
in stone for generations at every level of our society are just guidelines that
not only can be broken when you feel like it, but you will feel no repercussions
for them, professionally and not even personally.
To demonstrate this, I’m going to go to ER. To be
clear, everyone who worked at County General knew that so many of the rules of
medicine were ridiculous and hurt more people than they helped. Throughout the
entire series, we would see almost every regular bend the rules slightly so
they could help their patients or their families. It was a difficult needle to
thread, but most of the staff knew how to do it and they were fully aware that there
were dangers involved.
The doctor who was the guiltiest of flouting the rules
at ER was Doug Ross, played by George Clooney in the role that made him a star. Ross was the most blatant womanizer
on the show and that had done much to damage his reputation among many of the
other attendings at the hospital. The difference was Ross was usually smart enough
not to flout the rules in the face of Cook County.
The bigger problem was that Ross, who was a
pediatrician, was willing to do anything for his patient, and that meant not just
bending the rules but coming as close as he could to breaking them. The example
that will work for comparisons sake will be in the first part of Season Two for
reasons which will soon become clear.
At this point Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards) had been
made an attending. He and Doug were best friends and their relationship had
been solid in Season 1. The moment Mark was in
a position of authority, their relationship was going to change. Greene
learned in the Season 2 premiere of the hostility towards Ross: his immediate
superior told him that when his fellowship came up for renewal in November, he
wasn’t going to sign off on it.
A few episodes later Ross was called in to deal with an
Asian mother whose toddler her son had been diagnosed with AIDS (Lucy Liu in
one of her first major roles). As her son worsened and didn’t respond to the
medication, Ross became increasingly aggressive. Greene questioned what he was
going to do. “I’m going to do whatever it takes to get this mother more time
with her kid,” he told him. Ross thought he was still speaking to his best
friend rather than his boss.
In the middle of the episode, as the treatment got
progressively worse, Greene finally told the mother what Ross had been withholding
from her: the seriousness of his condition and that his death was inevitable. When
Ross learned the truth he was apoplectic and Mark for going behind his back. Greene
told him: “You’re not helping her by telling her there will be a miracle!” Ross
shouted back: “If it were you kid, Mark, your daughter you would do anything
for a miracle!” That night Doug
commiserated with a third year medical student Harper Tracy and the next day
Mark found out they had spent the night together.
Mark was now angered with his friend on many levels,
not the least of which was Harper was dating Carter at the time. This was what
was going to be the nail in Ross’ coffin at County but rather than make a stink
about it they were just not going to renew his contract. However that night
Doug encountered a child who was trapped in a sewer and helped personally save
him (the classic ‘Hell or High Water) This made Ross a media hero and it put
the hospital staff in an awkward position. They were given no choice but to
rehire him and in a public ceremony. Ross, for the record, was planning to kiss
them all off in that ceremony (including Mark) but he thought better of it and
kept his job for the moment. Doug did learn his lesson and he mostly colored
within the lines for the next three seasons.
Now let’s compare this with what was the most
significant storyline with Grey’s Anatomy in Season 2: Denny Duquette
(Jeffrey Dean Morgan). I should mention that I was genuinely fond of the first
two seasons but the longer that Denny’s storyline went on, the more I truly
began to question what so many people were seeing in Grey’s Anatomy. It’s
a question I’m asking about the show nearly two decades later and about Shonda
Rhimes as a whole.
Because during the entire fifteen year run of ER, while
many doctors had close relationships with patients, some of which caused them
more trouble than others not once did anyone – attending, nurse, intern,
resident, - have anything resembling a romantic relationship with one. Showrunner
John Wells would do many things to go outside the reality of medicine several
times but neither he nor any of his writers ever tried to go this far. Grey’s
Anatomy also knew that this was the biggest ethical no-no in medicine – it was
mentioned by Izzie Stevens herself. Every intern was aware of it. His attending
physician was aware of it. Bailey (Chandra Wilson) who stomped down on her
interns when they even seemed to displease her knew about it. This went on for
weeks, possibly months. No one did anything. No one tried to even keep Stevens
away from Denny. When Stevens told Meredith – who was the daughter of a surgeon
and who knew the rules better than most – her answer was: “We can’t help
who we love.”
There’s a huge difference, as we all know, between
being in love with your attending, even if he’s a married man and a patient you
are treating. One is frowned upon, the other has the potential for so many
legal problems down the line.
Which is what happened. Izzie got so obsessed with
saving Denny’s life that when a heart did become available on UNOS she flew
with Burke to pick it up. Hahn was there as well because she also had a patient
who was just as in need as Denny was. (I’m going to get back to that.) That
patient was ahead of Denny on UNOS. However, he was ahead of Denny by seventeen seconds.
To be clear, this patient had been waiting as long as
Denny. The difference was, of course, Izzie
was in love with Denny and that reason was the justification she had for an
action that wasn’t just malpractice but criminal.
She decided to cut Denny’s L-Vat to make his case more
urgent. She hinted at this to Bailey and Burke. She did it in front of Karev.
She then engaged all four of her fellow interns in a conspiracy to cover it up.
So the man she loved could get a new heart.
To be clear the hospital found out about this, and
then circled the wagons to cover it up. This was par for the course; I don’t
blame them for this: when something this horrible happens to need to do damage
control and that means punishing the guilty parties. And their was punishment.
The five interns who had engaged in a conspiracy that could have led to the
death of a man, that defrauded UNOS, that could have destroyed Seattle Grace as
a hospital…
…was to host a prom. For the Chief of Staff’s niece.
Oh sure Izzie Stevens did confess and resign, you
know, after Denny died. But the next day everybody at the hospital was doing
everything in their power to make sure Stevens went back to her residency. Which
she did. She felt bad for a couple of days, maybe a week or so, but then she
went back to her residency. She felt guilty here and there, but there were no
ramifications.
By this point I think it’s clear that if Ross had
heard about this at any point he would have realized he’d spent his career at
the wrong hospital. “I try to keep an infant alive and I’m nearly fired. An
interns kills a patient she fell in love and the hospital not only covers it up
but welcomes her back with open arms!
Hello, Seattle!”
Oh and that patient I mentioned who was behind Denny
by seventeen seconds. We see him again in Season 5. He still hasn’t gotten his
transplant and has gotten significantly worse. Hahn, who didn’t know why her
patient lost the heart, learns about it from the Chief of Staff and is
justifiably enraged, and more so when he says: “it’s behind us.” Hahn’s
character was written out of the series on the next episode, so supposedly she
resigned in protest. But the hospital never faces the consequences. Rhimes
doesn’t care about them either, this is when Izzie starts seeing – and having
sex with – Denny. (I won’t bother as I might deal with this whole storyline in
a different article - or series.)
I think it was then I first understood what it took me
a while to put into words: Grey’s Anatomy is not a medical drama, merely
a drama set in a hospital. In that sense Scandal is a drama that is set
in DC but is not a political drama like The West Wing, How To Get Away With
Murder is a drama involving lawyers but is not a legal drama like The
Good Wife and Bridgerton is a drama set in the past but is not a
historical drama like The Gilded Age. Indeed to call them dramas is stretching
the term.
Grey’s Anatomy is
a soap opera, pure and simple. I really don’t know why it’s taken so long for
me to realize that because all of Rhimes’ shows are soap opera at their core:
the ridiculous plotting , the disregard for any rules and guidelines, willing
to sleep with anyone as long as you feel like it, marry and divorce at will –
sometimes to the same person multiple times – are all the trademarks of Dallas
or Melrose Place. Indeed, if these shows had borne the name of Aaron
Spelling or Darren Star, the idea that Grey’s or indeed any of the
stories in Shondaland were supposed to be taken seriously would not even be a
question. Certainly no one would have ever considered it in the same breath as ER
where everything is life and death, but the personal relationships always
come secondary to the action on the surgical table.
But because Peak TV has essentially forced us to argue
that even cheese has redemptive value and because Rhimes has never been willing
to acknowledge that any part of her shows are not realism at its core, the
public as a whole has essentially decided that Shondaland is not merely great
television but that Rhimes has been one of the great revolutionary forces in television.
That all she’s done is basically write the same show for twenty years on
multiple networks has been ignored even as the rest of TV has bemoaned the lack of originality – including
Rhimes – have argued about the lack of originality on TV over recent years.
All of that is absurd particularly in comparison with ER.
ER reinvented and revolutionized what not only the medical drama but that
TV drama could be. As I will write in later articles, ER was
groundbreaking in how it dealt not just with episodic storylines but how it
told stories over the course of not only an entire season, but in some cases
multiple seasons. It was always willing to experiment with the format of
network television in a way that few shows on TV had before. Many shows today
have taken on episodic models that ER introduced. And while it may have
run well past its expiration date – a tendency that to an extent almost every network
television show does – there was never a point watching that I thought ER had
jumped the shark. There were some seasons in the later years that were weaker
and some characters later on I didn’t think stood up to the original cast, but
the show itself always had a freshness and vitality to it that few series – not
just network dramas but even many cable and streaming series – had over an
extended period of their run.
As we will see by comparison, for all the arguments
that Grey’s Anatomy revitalized the genre and TV, it never broke the
same ground ER did or even met many of the goalposts that ER managed
to set in its original run. Whatever creative spark it had burned out very
early in its run and the show was running on fumes well before the time most
people thought it had been on the air too long. That it has managed to run as
long as it has says more about the nature of television today then it does
about its overall quality. As we shall see at a later article, ER decided
to end things on its own terms and chose to do so in a way that was final but
still open-ended. Grey’s Anatomy continues to exist purely because the
powers that be are afraid to pull the plug even though a DNR should have been
signed long ago.
Author’s Note: I feel obligated to apologize for some
of the rhetoric in this article. I have meant to be more measured in this piece
but those of you who know my writing are fully aware that Shonda Rhimes has the
innate ability to drive me to great furies. I will do my best to restrain it in
future articles but if you’ve been reading my work, you know that’s not
something I can guarantee. On the other hand, if you want to hear any anti-Shondaland
rhetoric even more than ER critical raves, you’re almost certain to get that.
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