The How vs. The Why

Grey’s Anatomy is terrible. From every single angle, it is objectively bad. There isn’t a single character that’s legitimately likeable. When presented with the chance to protect their careers, their hearts, hell, their own personal safety, the characters always decide on the obviously wrong option, often while other characters point out to them how obviously wrong that option is. And don’t get me started on the hospital protocol and medical procedures; my working theory is that the consultant hired to oversee that aspect of production was just some guy who went to the E.R. for a headache one time and who is really good at remembering things he kind of overheard in the next cubicle.

But despite all this, despite the fact that the CPR performed would kill someone quicker than saving them, despite the fact that McDreamy gave off big, shiny red color guard flags embroidered with HE’S MARRIED in glittering thread all through that first season, despite the fact that season three should have opened with Izzy facing homicide charges, I am addicted to this show.

I don’t know how it happened. The best way I could explain it is to steal a quote from Community: “What? You fall into it.”

I’ve been thinking about that quote, issued by Annie when she joined Abed’s obsession with Cougar Town. Grey’s Anatomy is something I’ve fallen into, without logic or reason. It’s everything I dislike in stories, but I can’t stop watching. And that has truly helped me to understand the popularity of other objectively bad things. While I walked around for a long time thinking, “How could anyone like A Court of Thorns and Roses?” or “How could anyone possibly enjoy reading Fifty Shades of Grey?” I kind of get it, now.

Note, though, that I understand how people like those things. Not why. The why of the massive popularity of unforgivably awful things like Zodiac Academy or The Mister still eludes me, but honestly? So does my enjoyment of Grey’s Anatomy. I am routinely outraged by the events in the show. McDreamy, why did you take Meredith’s panties home? Why is Addison costumed and styled like a Disney villain on her day off throughout the first half of season two? Is there a reason that Izzy was not immediately arrested and charged with first degree murder after the events of season two? But I’m not hate watching. I’m obsessed. I’m fully immersed in the ridiculous drama of a hospital where a surgeon just moved in and made a hip little apartment with nobody noticing. I’m actively rooting for Meredith Grey, easily the worst, weakest, most indecisive main character on any television show in the history of the medium. And I’m so attracted to Derek Shepherd, a guy whose man-pain drives him to hateful behavior toward the woman he rejected.

I know how I can like this show: it clearly fulfills some need in my brain. It’s that simple. Something in me needs this, even though it’s bad. That need overrides my ability to be critical or accept criticism of the show, even while I’m being critical of and receiving other people’s criticisms of it. It’s the why that eludes me.

I understand how someone can like A Court of Thorns and Roses while they insist that they recognize that the writing is bad and the characters are insufferable. I understand how. Now, I can’t understand how they excuse the many problematic elements of it, or why they defend it and even try to elevate it as a shining example of diversity and high literature. I will never argue that Grey’s Anatomy is a flawless classic, a template for all other shows to follow in its wake. But at least now I have an understanding of what people mean when they say they “turn their brain off” to enjoy media. I understand how they get locked into something that they know in their heart is just bad.

It doesn’t bring me a lot of comfort to understand the how and not the why, but hey.

Comfort is what binge watching Grey’s Anatomy is for.