It’s not hard to see why Grey’s Anatomy is one of primetime’s top dramas. Chocked pack with emotional authenticity, a cast of characters that can carry their McOwn while being tightly bound into a package of thematic brilliance–no, it’s not hard at all.
This week’s theme, ‘Time’–was a brilliant starting point for the new season. Last season left us with a lot of unanswered questions, lots of decisions made rashly without taking the time to think them through. Meredith and Derek’s time apart pushed them to sleep together, Callie defied time by prematurely blurting the big ILY to George, and Izzy hurriedly cut Denny’s LVAT cord to prolong his time on earth.
The season premiere was about slowing down that time–about understanding the fleeting decisions we make cause consequences that don’t clear quickly, and of course to make us aware, that you know, time exists and we need to make the best of it.
Izzy played the centre of this lesson; every time someone plastered them self on the floor next to her, they were forced to come to grips with her stagnant reality (and position), forced to slow their quick-paced intern lives to make sense of the decisions made (or avoided) in haste. Derek and George were in the same position, only locked up in a quarantine that ironically ended up preventing them not from disease, but their own fleeting waste of precious seconds. Telling someone you love them, making an important choice, or empowering someone else to live–all of these decisions are made in timeframe that can’t be rushed.
And with the same time that caused us to falter, we grow and heal, and shed our pretty pink prom dresses—eventually falling back into our usual ways, hopefully more astute and aware than we were before. That is, growing beyond the over-eager college grad phase, moving past tragic losses, beyond the ‘dark and twisty’ feelings, or the picture-perfect images of the ‘Derek & Addison’ days.
We all grow past them, with time. And I’m sure Grey’s will savour every second of it this season.
Just watch, it’s going to happen–soon-ish.
