Welcome to our Grey's Anatomy Forum!

[Lesa]

The premiere was every bit as good as I expected.

Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) is the daughter of a once great surgeon, and has some pretty big shoes to fill.

Highlight spoilers to read:
On her first day as an intern, she's taking care of one of Dr. Shepherd's young female patients. Grey gets a 911 on her pager and rushes to the girl's room, only to discover that the girl was faking because she was bored and wanted Grey to keep her company. Later on that day, she gets another 911 on her pager, and this time Grey takes her time getting to the girl's room, only to find the girl having violent seizures and doctors are all around her. They turn to her and ask what she wants to do, but she's taken so off-guard that she freezes. The girl flat-lines, Grey snaps out of her confused state and shocks her back to life with the paddles. After the girl is stable, she goes outside and pukes. Spotting fellow intern, Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh) on her way back inside, she tells her not to tell anyone (after all, we can't have the daughter of a surgical legend puking under pressure, lol).

Later: Dr. Shepherd, not knowing why the young girl is having seizures, announces to the whole group of interns that he wants their help in figuring out what is causing them. To make sure they work hard at the task, he promises that the person who figures it out will get to be there for the surgery. Cristina, wanting to be the one to attend, approaches Meredith Gray, saying they should team up, figure it out, and have a 50/50 chance of attending the surgery. Meredith says she doesn't want to attend, because she slept with Shepherd and doesn't want to have anything to do with him. They come up with a theory on the girl that turns out to be right, Shepherd chooses Meredith, and instead of declining, she ends up attending the surgery. Cristina is visibly upset, but gets over it eventually.

After the surgery, Meredith confesses to Shepherd what a high it is to be standing over someone as their life is being saved, stating she doesn't understand why anyone would want to use drugs.

In another, unrelated case, Meredith puts a cocky doctor in his place and gets him taken off of one of his cases, because he was too lazy to make an informed diagnosis, and she seemed to know more than he did about his own patient.

Grey's Anatomy is a good drama with humorous wit, great acting, and characters with depth, and I highly recommend it to anyone.

Welcome to our Grey's Anatomy forum!

[TED]

Ok, so here I go nitpicking again, just bear with me. first of all, a surgeon is not going to admit a patient, the attending physician does that, surgeons don't even see a patient unless they're admitted for surgery. Also, as I understand it, attending physicians and surgeons don't get along very well and therefore don't make an effort to work together, of course, I never did understand this animosity that they are supposed to have for one another, so maybe this is a myth that is perpetuated by medical shows, I know ER focuses on this issue a lot, and they always seem to be trying to find ways for characters to have confrontation for the sake of drama.

At any rate, back to my "slamming", neurosurgery is not something that an intern would ever even have an opportunity to scrub in for, and about that surgery, I thought that when it comes to problems with the brain, surgery is the last resort, not the first thing you try. Speaking of what interns are allowed to do, well, they're certainly not allowed to to any kind of surgery on their first day, at that point, it's doubtful whether they would even get to suture after the surgery is finished. One more thing then I'll quit griping, a few years ago, they didn't have any restrictions about intern working hours, but recently they passed regulations that limit the length of time hospitals can make them work, so the shows writers aren't up to date on the issue.

Alright, that said, I really like the show, I've gotten to where I can just relax and look at inconsistancies like the ones I've just pointed out, as artistic license for the sake of drama. The fact is, you have to, or you'll never enjoy any TV show, and especially not one like this, and that would be too bad because inconsistancies aside, what we have here, is a really likeable cast, my favorites being Sandra Oh and Ellen Pompeo, Sandra definitely fits the part of an aggresive, smart, dedicated surgery intern, of course, some would argue that she's the stereotypical overachieving asian, but that's just not the case, anyone in her position is an overachiever, that's what you have to be to get to where she's at.

I wasn't sure about Ellen at first, I thought she was too underconfident to be where she's at, until she recited The Five W's at the end of the ep and impressed the attending, and at the same time embarassing Justin Chambers character, because it's something that every medical student should know. At that point, she became convincing in her role, because you finally saw that ability to take charge come out in her, and you see that she belongs where she is on her own merit and not because of who her mother is. All the characters are believable in that respect, the show captures the mindset that surgeons, or surgeons to be, have, like the fact that they've got the talent, and they know it, and they're ready to use it, they're go getters and they thrive under pressure.

Sure, they have their doubts, they're human, but when the chips are down, they prove that they came to play. In summation, I like medical dramas, I watch them all, and I think this one could quickly become my favorite, especially given that House is already going in the wrong direction, focusing more and more on a trivial dispute with the hospital administrator, instead of the drama of life and death, and given the fact that ER went in the wrong direction a long time ago, focusing more on shock value than the human aspect of it.

TED

[Lesa]

I agree that it was pretty bad that they let "007" assist in a surgery on his first day as an intern, just so some doctor can what? Keep everyone in line? At what cost? Putting a patient's life at risk at the hands of someone who obviously isn't ready? That definitely had to be artistic license, because I can't see a real doctor doing something like that with that kind of risk.

As for Meredith, it so far looks like she'd be better as an advisor than a surgeon, because she's great under pressure when someone else makes the final decision, while she hesitates when it's all up to her. But it was her first day, after all, so I have no doubt she'll get over it before too long, and become a great surgeon in the end.

[pterion]

This is the worst medical show EVER!!

Eloquent Dude you made some interesting points but I have to disagree with you on some issues.

1. Attending physicians are surgeons. Attending physicians are ob/ gyn docs. Attending physicians are peds docs. The term attending physician just mean you are on staff at a hospital. The totem pole goes: intern, resident, chief resident, staff (attending), chief/chairman of a department (who still are attendings).

2. Surgeons do see patients even though they might not need surgery. They don't only see surgery patient. They do get consulted on many issues that I won't go into.

3. Neurosurgery is something an intern does have an opportunity to scurb in on. I'm a 4th yr med student that just matched into neurosurgery and I've been scrubbing on cases since my 2nd year of med school. Also when the surgery interns rotate through neurosurgery at my insitution they do get the chance to scrub.

4. "I thought that when it comes to problems with the brain, surgery is the last resort, not the first thing you try." The girl had a bleeding anerysum. She needed surgery/intervention to fix the problem. There was nothing else to do. You can't take the wait and see approach on that.

Look this show does a horrible job of portraying life as an intern and the way hospitals (especially the surgery department) operate. I really don't see what direction this show is going. The producers are doing everything in their power to make Dr. Grey seem like the ultimate intern. The Five W's is something every med student knows and it was ashame to portray any intern that wasn't thinking about that with a patient with a post-op fever. Especially, since the patient can have a pulmonary embolism which is always a concern. I hope ABC improves the writing on this show because to my friends and me in the medical field we just laugh at the mistakes and portrayals. It's really frustrating to watch.

I hope this post didn't read as a mean one. Eloquent Dude it not my intention to be mean or malicious towards you or your opinions.

[Joxcenia]

Welcome To Whoosh!

Pterion!!!

[Lesa]

Welcome to Whoosh!, Pterion! I can totally understand where you're coming from. When I see a show or movie that incorrectly portrays things that I seem to know more about than the producers/writers do, I just want to call them and say, "That's not right, this is how it is..."   Based on your post, it seems that Grey's Anatomy needs to hire some experts on the subject, the way that Trek consulted with folks from NASA. Hopefully they've gotten enough letters from people who know better, and will do just that. Until then, I'll try not to store anything they say or do in my brain for any future reference, so as to not put my life in jeopardy.

Hey, maybe you can be our resident expert, to set us straight on mistakes they make. That is, unless you don't want to watch this show again, which I could understand under the circumstances.

Other than the mistakes, do you see any redeeming qualities in this show? I'll still be watching it for the characters and witty dialog.

[TED]

Hey Pterion, no, I'm not offended at all, in fact, I appreciate your setting me straight on the technical issues concerning the show, I'm a bit of a tech head and I'm always paying attention to issues such as logistics and technical accuracies in order to judge how clever or knowledgable the writers are, so your post has been helpful. I can certainly understand where you're coming from when you say that the show is frustrating to watch, I'm an artist, and whenever I see a show that depicts my profession, I usually have the same reaction you're having here, because it's very rare that I see one that depicts my profession accurately whatsoever. However, I've realized that I need to lighten up, when it comes to nitpicking shows, concerning their technical accuracy, because I've learned that there isn't a TV show on the air that is technically accurate, so if I were to base my decision concerning whether or not I'm going to watch a show, on the technical merit, or how logistically correct it is, then I obviously wouldn't be watching TV, heh.

My favorite shows are still the ones that are more technically accurate of course, but I've learned to give a show credit for more than just the technical merit, after all, it's fiction, it's supposed to be entertainment, it's not supposed to be like real life, it's supposed to be an escape from real life. So like I said, technical merit aside, or lack there of I guess I should say, I like the show for the sake of it's drama. I think that the direction it's going in is simply to depict this group of interns who are working against the odds and striving to become what they've always wanted to be, and dealing with the challenges that come along with that, and I think they do a good job of it for the most part. I too, could do without Grey being the typical virtuoso, it didn't look like they were going to do that at first, but they did. Nevertheless, It's something that everyone who's reaching for their life's goal can identify with, and for those who aren't, it's still really entertaining where it's comic value is concerned. Now, being a big fan of these medical dramas, and having the opportunity to talk to someone who has actually been there and done it, I have to ask, what is the most memorable case you've scrubbed in on?

TED

[louie]

I like Grey's anatomy. I have never been addicted to a medical shows like this. Season 2 is almost upon me where i am.