Grey’s Anatomy is one of the most popular and longest-running television shows of all time. The ABC medical drama started airing in 2005 and continues producing new seasons to this day. Next up is Grey’s Anatomy season 20, though that’s been delayed due to the writer’s strike.
Throughout the years, we’ve seen dozens of characters come and go, as is expected when you have a show that’s been going for more than 400 episodes, a feat so rare only a handful of other series have gotten anywhere close to that number.
Not only did Grey’s Anatomy become a behemoth of a show in its own right, it also spawned multiple copycats and spinoffs, like Private Practice and the ongoing Station 19, while also helping to make creator Shonda Rhimes a household name.
When you have a series that’s been on the air for as long as Grey’s Anatomy has (18 years!), you know there are bound to be many dissenting opinions and discourse about its numerous storylines, characters, and relationships. We’re recounting ten things no one wants to admit about the beloved series.
10. Owen Hunt should have been killed off by now
I think a lot of Grey’s Anatomy fans agree that while Kevin McKidd is plenty endearing as an actor, Owen Hunt is by and large one of the worst characters on the show. Maybe that hatred wouldn’t have festered if he only stayed for a season or two, but while his initial introduction as a trauma surgeon was exciting, he quickly fell out of favor due to his controlling antics, his jealousy, and the fact he always seems to be at the scene of the crime when it comes to cheating or being the “other man.”
Personally, I’ve never gotten over him trying to force Cristina into having a baby and the infamous moment he says, “you killed our baby!” when she had an abortion. That man has been trying to procreate since he got to Seattle, pressuring Amelia almost immediately after Cristina and him broke up. He’s a menace and his near-death experiences just need to become full-death write-offs at this point.
9. George O’Malley wasn’t the nice guy everyone pretends he was
The way George treated Meredith was crazy. He’s a typical “nice guy,” in that he felt his kindess and friendship toward Meredith entitled him to her. His jealousy when she would date other guys wasn’t a cute or endearing trait whatsoever. Then there’s the way he treated Callie, cheating on her with Izzie and feeling minimal remorse for it.
But the cherry on top of it all is definitely how things went down between George and Meredith when they almost slept together. For starters, Meredith was clearly very upset (and drunk) that night, so the fact George took advantage of her was awful. It’s not just his fault, the show’s writing at that time did no favors to the storyline.
I was never a fan of how Meredith’s friends tried to make the entire situation seem like it was her fault, like she owed George an apology when instead of comforting his friend, he got pissed off and moody when she changed her mind (which she is perfectly entitled to do), and that’s without getting into the ethics of consent in that situation given that George was sober and Meredith wasn’t.
8. None of Cristina Yang’s love interests were good enough for her
Let’s be real, Cristina Yang was a star and the romances the show put her in tended to hold her back more often than not. Her and Burke were complicated enough as it is and Burke always seemed to want Cristina to be someone that she wasn’t.
The same thing happened with Owen. Overall, Cristina never had a satisfying love interest on the show. It would have been nice to see her with a very independent and supportive husband, maybe someone who wasn’t a surgeon, though intellectually stimulating and able to keep up with her. She needed someone who could take a backseat to her career and be happy waiting in the wings.
7. The way Alex Karev was written off was a slap in the face to fans
I can’t think about the way Grey’s Anatomy wrote Alex Karev off the show without getting upset. For starters, I can fully admit I am a fan of Alex and Jo’s relationship, but I also loved Alex and watching his character arc throughout the show. I know the writers were put in a difficult place with actor Justin Chambers departing on short-notice, but this is the one instance where I honestly would have preferred they killed him off.
The idea of Alex abandoning his wife after they just spent significant time working through shared issues and trauma is baffling to me. Not only that, but the randomness of making Izzie have Alex’s kids somewhere else and Alex just dropping everything to be with her is incredibly unrealistic. If they didn’t want to kill him off, they could have at least made it so Jo and Alex went long-distance for a while as Alex went to live with his mom or something and then realized their relationship wasn’t working and ended things.
They could have done that without Chambers being present. It might not have been the most satisfying way to end their relationship, but it would have been leagues better than what we got and still left the door open for him to return some day.
6. The April and Jackson relationship drama dragged the show down
Besides Owen and Teddy’s non-stop drama, April and Jackson are another couple who felt like they were dragging the show down. I didn’t particularly like either character, but April in particular got rather irritating after a while. I know people are diehard fans of this ship, but for many, their on-again-off-again relationship was an absolute drag.
5. The COVID-centric season was easily the worst of the show
I understand that Grey’s Anatomy has always tried to factor in real-world events into the show to mix things up and keep it timely. However, most fans concur that the “COVID season” was one of the show’s worst.
Sure, it was fun to see some of the older fan-favorite characters return in Meredith’s imaginary beach landscape, but overall, the COVID-centric season just felt like a depressing slog during a time when we were already dealing with it in real life and would have preferred an escape.
4. Meredith Grey is no longer essential to the show
I know that a lot of people will vehemently disagree with me because without Meredith, there is no longer a “Grey” on Grey’s Anatomy, but I also believe that Ellen Pompeo has been more or less phoning it in for a few seasons now.
No shade to Ellen because I love her and doing a series for almost two decades is surely exhausting, but I think Grey’s Anatomy has moved beyond Meredith’s story. It helps that season 19 helped inject some new life into the show with the introduction of the latest crop of interns.
3. Meredith should have remained single after Derek
Meredith and Derek were not a perfect couple by any means, but they definitely had the most chemistry out of all of Meredith’s relationships. After that, none of the relationships Meredith got into felt right. If she had off-the-charts chemistry with another actor, I would have been fully supportive, but the show couldn’t recapture the magic of “MerDer” once Derek was gone.
Meredith being single was a far more interesting arc and really let her character grow and blossom. In many ways, Meredith’s character progression improved significantly for a few seasons after Derek was no longer on the show. It was great to see her on her own and focused on her kids and career. I would have rather just seen more of than having the romantic angle forced back into her storyline.
2. Mark and Callie had one of the best and most supportive friendships on the show
When discussing friendships on Grey’s Anatomy, most people remember the magic of, well, M.A.G.I.C. and the early days of our favorite characters being interns. Cristina and Meredith are also, undeniably, one of the most iconic television friendships of all time. One friendship that gets underrepresented is that between Mark and Callie. I mean they even had a kid together!
Through everything, Mark was always a constant pillar of support for Callie and vice versa. They were hilarious together and Mark was one of the first people to help Callie come to terms with her bisexuality. When Mark died, I was less sad about the end of “Slexie” and more so about the end of his and Callie’s friendship.
1. Grey’s Anatomy should probably have ended a long time ago
As much as we all love Grey’s Anatomy and will likely continue tuning into the show until the very end, I think most of us fans can still admit the show might have been better had it wrapped up a long time ago.
I can’t say I know the exact time it should have ended, maybe before Cristina left, but the long-running medical drama has proven to be unbeatable and has held strong in the ratings even when linear television is all but dying off. I will say, as I mentioned earlier, the latest season has helped inject some new blood into the show and proven there are more stories to tell. Still, as the series continues, it seems like there tend to be more misses than there are hits.
