Grey's Anatomy: Good or Bad?
The answer of course is bad.
The badness of Grey's Anatomy is its ability to cull so many different forms of badness into one really bad show. It's bad like The OC is bad, because of the awkward writing, all-too-quick wit and its status as a thinly disguised soap opera on at primetime hours. However, interestingly enough, Grey's Anatomy is able to draw from the badness of CSI as well. This factor being the unlikable characters and the ridiculous plot points throughout. Many people incorrectly cite House M.D. as being CSI-bad, whereas it is actually "later-years-of-The-X-Files-bad" (i.e. it's almost entirely boring but has weird characters and silly things happen every now and again).
Grey's Anatomy suffers from Boston Public syndrome. This is the problem where every terrible/intruiging thing that has happened in any high school ever, manages to happen in just one high school (or in this case, hospital). TV shows use this in an attempt to be socially conscious and insightful. It's a problem that many TV shows have trouble dealing with.
I've seen my fair share of the show Grey's Anatomy, even though I dislike it. "I-don't-like-it-but-I-still-watch-it-for-some-reason" is probably a large demographic for the show. This is especially true for any male that watches the show; they want to appear to be tough and manly, not like pussies who watch Grey's Anatomy. I'm not a regular viewer, but you can pretty much figure out what's been going on throughout the entire series after 5 minutes of any episode.
It's possible that the show has entirely unlikable characters on purpose, to have us relate to their flaws and then come to like them (i.e. The Sopranos, Curb Your Enthusiasm), but I don't believe this is true.
The show is aptly named, because there probably isn't a person on the show who hasn't seen Grey's anatomy. She has slept with just about every male character (that isn't black or the white guy who's a dick) and the show's only been on for like 2 and half years. Maybe I'm just a prude.
And hey, can we talk about that crazy blonde chick who Doctor-patient romance is always an exciting route to take in drama, and no one can blame them for their feelings... but killed her crippled boyfriend?! We can't blame them for their feelings for each other... but damn, bitch is crazy! She steals some sort of transplant from a more deserving patient and gives it to her man, but the harshness of the whole procedure kills the dude. Keep in mind that this most likely resulted in the death of the other patient as well. And you know what, this is fine. I have no problem with that storyline, it's good drama.
The problem however, lies in the fact that this girl still works at the hospital. Come on! I've been trying really hard to suspend disbelief after so many ridiculous situations throughout this show (e.g. a live bomb inside a man), but now I have to work extra hard to convince myself that through some loophole she wouldn't be in jail.
The problems continue when the head surgeon gets shot and then has some sort of nervous tic in his hand. Again, he's a surgeon, so he should probably tell someone so he doesn't, y'know, kill someone. Now, I'll give this man the benefit of the doubt, because I know nothing about his backstory. Let's assume that he didn't come from an affluent family that had a great deal of common sense. Let's assume that he wasn't actually smart enough to get into medical school and somehow faked his way into being head surgeon. Let's assume that he's a giant dumbass. Maybe that's why he didn't tell anyone about his little tic, and continued operating on a bunch of dudes. Even with all those excuses, after he got caught, he should've gotten fired.
So, the real problem with Grey's Anatomy is that no one gets fired.