Grey's Anatomy - Season 1

Boston Magazine?s most recent cover story profiled life as a 20-something doctor. Rather than headlining with attractive young doctors so many of us rush by early in the morning wondering if they own normal clothes, the mag resuscitated a head shot of darling Ellen Pompeo, Everett native and star of Grey?s Anatomy. Easily recognizable with a cutsieness of Renee Zellweger circa Jerry Maguire meets Haley J. Osment in 6th Sense, Pompeo has made a name for herself as America?s adorable, precious, completely floundering young surgeon. Good work Boston Mag, I bought a copy.

Currently in its second season, Grey?s Anatomy dominates ABC Sunday night 10pm time slot. Grey's Anatomy is actually the prodigious illustrated anatomy book that?s been around for decades. A cute little double entendre, in this case, Grey is Meredith Grey (Pompeo) an partial wunderkind, daughter of famous surgeon, and recently indoctrinated intern at Seattle Grace Hospital. And in case you were wondering of there are any sexy romantic lines in the story, they went and threw the word ?anatomy? in the title. True to form, we see at least 75% of Patrick Dempsey?s butt in the first minute of the pilot. It?s not dirty, it?s science.

There are many reasons to get hooked on this show, I?ll give you two. First they know high school stereotypes play out the rest of our lives. Not Another Teen Movie got it right: prom queen, everyday hero, bitchy untamed wildwoman, jock, hottie McDreamy, and the ambiguously gay best friend. They?re all here: 5 interns a few grumpy attendings, and some ego rock star residents. Mentionables include Sandra Oh (Sideways) as Christina, competitive intern fighting for shot to make it and to look tough all the time and Patrick Dempsey is the dreamy new head of brain surgery (don?t worry, he has some flaws).

Second, this is a show of surgeons and like any good anatomists, they know right how to get to our tear jerkers, funny bones, and heart strings. It is more than saving lives, it is telling a man not wanting Dr. Stevens (Katherine Heigl) to do his prostate operation because he?d rather not be emasculated by the woman he fantasized about her (she modeled to pay med school bills). It is the woman with the 80lb tumor overhearing Dr. Karev (Justin Chambers) talk about her grotesque lifestyle when he thought the mic to the MIR was off and she dies, heartbroken. It is the high school friend of Dr. Burke (Isaiah Washington) who comes in for stomach work, turns out to be hermaphroditic not to mention completely sterile, and yet his wife is pregnant. The main characters and the patients are incredibly developed, scared, needy, and richly textured. They are also people we can imagine being friends, or enemies with, in our lives.

Grey's Anatomy is a self-professed doctor drama slash comedy so we must compare it to ER and Scrubs (House is a little too noir to be in the same category). And truthfully Grey's has borrowed some material from both ER and Scrubs: the main character intern, the monologue, the tricky life and death situations that cause main characters to discover personal depth, the missed chance romances. But Grey?s Anatomy takes the best of both its predecessors and yet remains unique. It is a coming of age romantic comedy mixed with unpronounceable surgical words and realistic life or death situations. It is tense, unpredictable, funny, and at times, traumatic. They are just the sort of people you want to spend Sunday night with, or, with the DVD, any night.