What I like about Grey’s Anatomy is its psychological plausibility. I hate shows based on the philosophy of “just because” where nobody tries to provide any explanation for what the characters do or feel.

Meredith is constantly depressed and suicidal because her mother never wanted her. She tries to get symbolically unborn by drowning, which stands for a return to the womb. This happens because her mother says she’s ordinary, which might seem like an insignificant thing to those who don’t understand how the human psyche works.

Only when her mother dies and Meredith fantasizes a symbolic acceptance by the mother can she continue to live. Meredith undergoes psychoanalysis and becomes a lot more resilient than Christina, who is from a much better family.

Christina becomes an instant slave to any man who looks at her kindly because her father died when she was a kid. She is emotionally and socially frozen at the age when her father died.

The only thing that makes no sense is Bailey’s unabiding popularity with beautiful men. It’s not entirely impossible that a short, fat, dumpy woman with bad skin and sparse hair would attract crowds of tall, beautiful, adoring, kind men with large salaries. But that woman needs either to be a sexual femme fatale (which Bailey, with her limited sexual experience and anorgasmy until her mid-thirties doesn’t have) or a woman who lights up the sun with her enveloping warmth (which Bailey definitely isn’t) or a deeply nurturing, motherly type (which she also definitely isn’t.)

12 responses to “Grey’s Anatomy”

  1. The Dark Avenger Avatar
    The Dark Avenger

    It’s in the same universe where funny, lumpy middle-aged guys have good-looking, funny, always-suffering beautiful wives, like in a lot of sitcoms these days.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar

      One wife, ok. But several equally beautiful women one after another?

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    2. Mike Avatar

      Hey, it does happen in real life, too! I’m a lumpy, funny-looking, close-to-middle-age guy who somehow or other has always been lucky enough to be with exceedingly beautiful, funny, ridiculously smart women my entire life.

      I don’t know how I do it, but damn, I am not about to start questioning it. They should make a TV show about all this. It’d have violence, sex, Lynchian weirdness, terrible puns — you know, all the good stuff. 😉

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      1. Clarissa Avatar

        Compared to Bailey, you are an Adonis with a phenomenal personality.

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  2. The Dark Avenger Avatar
    The Dark Avenger

    That as well.

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  3. Cristina Avatar
    Cristina

    Bailey shares physical traits with the creator of the series, so perhaps that explains it.


    https://polldaddy.com/js/rating/rating.js

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    1. Clarissa Avatar

      That’s what I suspected! That’s she’s a fantasy of one of the makers of the show. Nothing else made sense.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Shakti Avatar
        Shakti

        It’s a change from the usual showrunner Mary Sues that appear in tv and films. :-p

        Shondaland shows tend to be addictive nonsense for the first few seasons and then fly off the rails for the rest of their run, way past the point the story should end.

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        1. Clarissa Avatar

          I’m on season 9, and it’s still great.

          What you say was true for Scandal, though. What else did she make?

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          1. Shakti Avatar
            Shakti

            I watched How to Get Away With Murder which is produced by Shondaland, but is written by Peter Nowalk.
            Even seeing Viola Davis get to play off actresses like Liza Weil and Cicely Tyson wasn’t enough to sustain my interest in the absolutely bananas plot. I never watched Private Practice or The Catch or Station 19 (another Grey’s Anatomy spinoff). She’s only the showrunner for Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy, her production company handles the rest.

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    2. cliff arroyo Avatar

      “Bailey shares physical traits with the creator of the series”
      My girl Shonda? Now I might have to watch this show (I love the Shonda Rhimes’…. aesthetic, silly and unbelievable but tremendous fun).
      ” a fantasy of one of the makers of the show”
      aka a Mary Sue…

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      1. Clarissa Avatar

        Do you like Scandal? N is a huge fan. I watched it to but I think the admiral was grievously miscast and that spoiled the enjoyment for me.

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A conservative literary critic and college professor