Not Only Do I Still Watch Grey's Anatomy, I Also Listen to a Grey's Podcast
I still watch Grey’s Anatomy. I did a massive catch up in 2017 and then just kept watching. And now, in season 16, I look forward to it every week! I even started listening to a Grey’s podcast, Nicole’s Grey’s Anatomy, and it’s my new obsession.
Host Nicole Silverberg starts every episode by asking her guest to explain their Grey’s journey. I don’t believe anyone has said (yet!) that they started watching at the beginning and just kept watching till now. I mean, 16 seasons, it’s understandable that viewers would fall off at some point. But it’s interesting to see what makes people quit. Certain characters leaving, certain characters having sex with ghosts, there’s something for everyone to hate! I think I stopped watching because I went to college, and it was before Hulu and easy-access streaming. And then I came back because of easy-access streaming. Since listening to Nicole’s Grey’s Anatomy I have gone back and revisited some episodes, and that somehow transformed into just watching the whole series again. It’s on my TV as I type these very words.
One thing I really love about Nicole’s Grey’s Anatomy is that the host and guests talk with such respect about a show that SO MANY people make fun of. They talk about the writing, acting, and whole storylines with such admiration and understanding. It takes a lot more insight to say, compliment an acting choice by a performer on Grey’s Anatomy than to, I don’t know, make fun of Twilight.
At the end of most episodes, the guest and host perform what Nicole Silverberg has dubbed, “Shondalogues,” those classic speeches only Shonda Rhimes created characters can deliver. Sidenote: One of my complaints about the Shondaverse is that every one of her characters talks the same way, and I couldn’t explain it without mimicking it, and NOW I know what I was talking about was SHONDALOGUES! Anyway, Nicole plays a song from an EPIC list of music featured on Grey’s, and each person delivers their Shondalogue. Nicole tells nervous guests that once the music starts you will just go into a fugue state and a Shondalogue will flow through you, and after listening to many episodes I believe it. Each one is charming and ridiculous and funny and will give you more than a bit of second hand embarrassment.
Listening to Nicole’s Grey’s Anatomy makes you think about what topic YOU would like to discuss on the podcast. I would LOVE to talk about money. How much money to the doctors make? They talk about how they have “million dollar hands” and then they live with roommates? The OTHER thing I’m always wondering? What is the cleaning protocol for the on call rooms - where 20 people have sex every day. And so often their pagers go off post-coitus and they just… walk out. What about the next doctor who wants to bone in the on call room? What about a doctor who, shockingly, wants to sleep in there? It just seems very gross.
Because of this podcast, I have started re-watching Grey’s Anatomy, and I’m getting more out of it this second time around. I binged the series two years ago and just wanted to SEE IT, and now I’m actually watching and absorbing each little thing. i know what’s going to happen, so I can enjoy the ride. For example, Owen is awful, but when you rewatch you remember ALL the ways he is awful and… wow. He should not be raising a son!
