In the USA, Grey’s Anatomy has started its 20th season and is clinging to the familiar in panic at the start. But how is Ellen Pompeo, of all people, supposed to get over the departure of Ellen Pompeo?
Grey’s Anatomy had to cut back on many fronts last year: first Meredith actress Ellen Pompeo left the series, then season 20 couldn’t return in the fall due to the Hollywood strike, the spin-off Seattle Firefighters ended after season 7 and now we’re only getting a shortened season with 10 episodes. So how did the series kick off its new season in the US last night? The short answer is: pretty desperately.
Warning, spoilers for the start of Season 20 follow
Ellen Pompeo as a fire extinguisher: Grey’s Anatomy brings Meredith Grey back as if nothing had happened
Following the loss of longtime lead Krista Vernoff, Meg Marinis takes the reins as the new series helmer in season 20. She has been with Grey’s Anatomy for a long time as a hard worker behind the scenes and has worked her way up from production assistant to scriptwriter and now showrunner. That means she knows her way around the Seattle hospital, but she’s certainly aware of the crisis the show is in after the dramatic end of season 19. But how can the crisis of a Grey’s Anatomy be tackled without Ellen Pompeo? Apparently with Ellen Pompeo.
(Grey’s Anatomy still belongs to Meredith Grey in season 20)
Thanks to THR, it’s been known for some time that Grey’s Anatomy season 20 will bring back the Meredith actress in at least 4 of the 10 episodes. So there will be no real farewell to the main character. In this way, the disappointed fans are satisfied and Ellen Pompeo continues to rule “her” series as a permanent guest star who just pops in from Boston. And that won’t stop any time soon, when season 20 gives her an innovative, potentially reputation-damaging Alzheimer’s research storyline right at the beginning.
Meredith’s presence is best demonstrated in a scene in which the visiting doctor is asked to help out in an operation and Dr. Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson) rushes ahead into the operating room. Her old mentor has to remind her that Meredith is only supposed to assist. But the message is clear: as long as Dr. Grey is in the spotlight, Dr. Bailey cannot shine. Yet she has just won the prestigious Catherine Avery Award. As the most loyal cast member with the most episode appearances (426, just like James Pickens Jr.), she deserves the leading position anyway
Ellen Pompeo’s return in season 20 may be the cardiac massage that’s supposed to keep Grey’s Anatomy going. But this season opener feels uncomfortably like resuscitating a frozen corpse. It’s as if the show is trying to take back fatal decisions, or at least make us forget about them. It doesn’t manage to look forward, even though this seemed within reach at the beginning of last season with a slew of new cast members. Now, however, a backward trend runs through the entire start of season 20.
Between tradition and a fresh start: Grey’s Anatomy is stuck at the start of season 20
The first episode of season 20 is ironically entitled “We’ve Only Just Begun”. After a series run of 19 years, this sounds like a steep thesis, but at the same time it shows the dilemma Grey’s Anatomy is in: retaining tired fans and yet renewing itself.
A self-driving car perfectly embodies this as a metaphor in this first episode: the modern vehicle rams into an ambulance due to a technical error. Again and again and again. Of course, while two doctors are trapped inside trying to save a patient. The car is a technological innovation that highlights the pitfalls of change – which is why Grey’s Anatomy prefers to stick to the old familiar
(Grey’s Anatomy the young doctors in season 20 are allowed to stay)
So, in keeping with Meredith’s performance, everything stays the same: residents Griffith (Alexis Floyd), Kwan (Harry Shum Jr.), Millin (Adelaide Kane), Yasuda (Midori Francis) and Adams (Niko Terho) are threatened with expulsion after their patient deaths, but in the end they are all allowed to stay. Dr. Teddy Altman’s (Kim Raver) life hangs by a thread due to a dental complication after the last season cliffhanger, but she wakes up again at the end. Jo (Camilla Luddington) and Link (Chris Carmack) provide the necessary dose of positive emotion, and alcoholic Dr. Webber once again makes the decision to turn away from alcohol. The return of Arizona (Jessica Capshaw), announced by TVLine for season 20, also strikes the same old chord.
By the time Dr. Bailey explains to Meredith that she once started out as a disastrous doctor and ends up taking over the guidance of the new generation of doctors with the words “I have five rules”, we have returned to season 1. And to the realization that Grey’s Anatomy season 20 offers us a desperate regurgitation of what we’ve seen here countless times before. But by now it’s a recipe for success that tastes like bitter medicine.
