Last night, Grey’s Anatomy said goodbye to Cristina Yang, played by the brilliant Sandra Oh (who is still inexplicably without an Emmy). Showing Cristina move on to a more-fulfilling role at a hospital in Switzerland, it was a thoughtful exit worthy of the actress and her hugely popular character. There’s very little that could’ve been done to make it better, except for one thing.
It should’ve been part of the series finale.
No one likes to see their favorite TV shows end. It’s like a death in the family, because the audience grows to love and care about the people they see on screen every week. Honestly, if I had my way back in 2004, Friends would still be on today.
Thankfully, it ended before the dreaded happens: it wears out its welcome. That’s happening to Grey’s Anatomy, and it was very obvious on this season finale. Meredith and Derek were fighting again, April and Jackson were boringly happy again and, in the cliffhanger, the new head of heart surgery was revealed to be Meredith’s half-sister and Richard’s long-lost daughter. Doesn’t that sound familiar? It should, since we already did this storyline with Lexie Grey, and she got killed off in a plane crash. The only loose end that really seemed interesting was Cristina leaving Alex her hospital shares, putting him in direct contention with his former mentor Bailey. Even that story doesn’t feel necessary enough for another season, though.
Grey’s Anatomy is a great show that has made its mark on television. At the very least it made Shonda Rhimes the most powerful woman in television. However, it is time for the show to go on to the big television network in the sky. With Yang gone, another original character is gone, arguably the most important one, leaving the main cast filled with faces a lot less interesting than what we started with (hell, the only original interns left are Meredith and Alex). The stories are also beginning to wear thin, a downward slide I noticed with the plane crash that killed Lexie and Mark. It comes with TV age; there are only so many hospital mergers and disasters you can craft before it starts to lose its narrative impact after awhile.
I really can only see Grey’s Anatomy lasting one more season, and that’s fine. Shonda has three shows on ABC for next season, and I’m sure she would like to nurture How To Get Away With Murder and fix Scandal, so let her put Grey’s out to pasture. It’s not worth it to watch such an amazing series suffer because people didn’t know when to quit. It’s time to say goodbye to Seattle Grace. Or is it Seattle Grace Mercy West. No, it’s Grey Sloan Memorial.
See my point?
