Grey’s Anatomy isn’t just a TV drama, it’s a TV institution at this point. It’s been on for over two decades. It has created television milestones and raised an entire new generation of doctors. It may not be the Emmy darling that it was in its initial seasons, but it is still a respected (or at least, should-be-respected) broadcast juggernaut. But how does Grey’s continue to draw in an audience after 20 years?
The series is currently at a crossroads. Series star and former No. 1 on the call sheet Ellen Pompeo departed as a series regular halfway through Season 19 over two years ago. She still provides the episode bookend voiceovers and her character Meredith Grey feels like she’s in Seattle more than she’s not. Meredith leaving was a chance for Grey’s Anatomy to prove it has legs beyond its eponymous character, but the series hasn’t fully made that transition yet. But it should before it gets stuck in a rut.
Simply put, Grey’s Anatomy needs a new Meredith to propel it into a new chapter. It needs a new central character to propel the drama of the show. As it stands, the show is still co-dependent on Meredith, and when she’s not there, the drama is spread across a large cast that can make it feel unfocused and polarizing for fans, depending on who is taking up the screen time.
While the show has always been made of an incredible ensemble, Meredith carried the A-storyline for the majority of the show’s run so far. Her drama was the hospital’s drama and it is time for someone new to fill her shoes.
The Lingering Meredith Problem
Of course, it is hard to fill Meredith’s shoes when she’s still in them so much of the time. Pompeo reduced her episode count to five in Season 20, but that number went up to at least seven in Season 21. As previously mentioned, she’s still the voiceover welcoming and dismissing fans from every episode.
The voiceover presence is reinforced by Meredith’s continued relationship with Grey Sloan. Even though she moved to Boston with her family and love interest, Scott Speedman’s Nick, she still participates in research projects that take up major real-estate on the show. Meredith has already participated in a game-changing treatment for Parkinson’s disease and now she’s on her way to revolutionizing Alzheimer’s research.
She’s taking on the medicine world’s most debilitating degenerative diseases because Grey’s Anatomy has covered every personal storyline imaginable for Meredith Grey. She’s found love, lost love, found it again, and then watched that love die. She found herself and the courage to move on. She’s had three children over the course of the series and she’s the most awarded doctor in the Grey’s Anatomy universe.
There’s very little tread left on Meredith’s dramatic tires and for Grey’s Anatomy to continue on for another 20 seasons, or at least another five, it needs a new central focus that’s lived less TV life. And for that character to truly lead the vessel to new waters, Meredith needs a looser grip on the series and allow fans to move on.
Who Has the Gumption to be the New Meredith?
If Grey’s Anatomy manages to let go of Meredith, there’s still a question of who can step up. Meredith is out of blood relatives on the show – Lexie (Chyler Leigh) died in Season 8 and Maggie (Kelly McCreary) left the series shortly after Meredith moved to Boston. There’s still Meredith’s sister-in-law Amelia (Caterina Scorsone), but Shondaland gave the character her meatiest material on Private Practice. There’s not enough to mine there without undoing over a decade’s worth of character development.
Looking outside of the Grey family tree, there are few viable options in the already established main cast. It could have been Jo (Camilla Luddington) if Grey’s Anatomy started making the pivot after Alex (Justin Chambers) left in Season 16. However, she’s already rebounded from that failed marriage to have two kids, with two more on the way, with Atticus Lincoln (Chris Carmack). While Jo’s restarted residency gives her new ground to cover professionally, she’s settled down personally and Grey’s needs that soapy drama to maintain its addictive quality.
So we pivot to the new interns. This is the most interesting crop of newbies that Grey’s Anatomy has had since Jo’s intern class. The one with the deepest ties to Grey’s lore is Lucas Adams (Nico Terho), Derek (Patrick Dempsey) and Amelia’s nephew. He’s got the dark past and the chip on his shoulder to give Meredith a run for her money, but would Grey’s really put a man front and center? Shondaland has allowed men to coheadline a series – Peter Krause in The Catch and the male leads of Bridgerton – but the production company is proudly and historically female-centered. Allowing a man to take over the legacy of Meredith Grey could be considered insulting to the show’s DNA. By that measure, Henry Shum Jr.’s Blue is out of contention.
That leaves Simone (Alexis Floyd) and Jules (Adelaide Kane). Simone has been connected to the hospital since birth. Her mother died at Seattle Grace (as it was called then) while giving birth and now Simone is there as a first-year resident. She’s got a sordid past and her primary guardian also suffers from dementia, giving her a soul connection to Meredith. She’s a very viable candidate, but Grey’s needs to give her connections to more people at the hospital outside of her boyfriend, Lucas. She needs a specialty and character drive outside of her romantic storyline to maintain the empowering aspect of the show.
Jules is also an interesting choice. As a bisexual woman, it would put queerness in the spotlight of Grey’s in a way that it hasn’t been before. However, like Simone, the series has focused more on Jules’ personal life than who she is as a doctor. That’s not necessarily a deal breaker for either woman. The early seas ons of Grey’s
The Best Choice May Have Already Left the Show
The scary thought about Grey’s Anatomy having a next generation Meredith Grey is that the series may have already left the truly best candidate go already. Midori Francis played Mika Yasuda for two and a half seasons and left halfway through Season 21 after the death of Yasuda’s baby sister.
As her fellow interns stated when Mika was in a coma during her penultimate episode, she was the glue of their class, making her a natural leader like Meredith. Between her advocacy for better intern conditions and her sparking romance with Jules, Mika also had the right blend of balance between her personal storylines and professional to create a path to her becoming another hall of fame Grey Sloane doctor. To pour salt in the wound, Francis handed in an Emmy-worthy performance during her last two episodes that proved she had the chops to bring Grey’s Anatomy back into the prestige conversation.
Francis will now probably be cast in another buzzy premium cable or streaming series, and Grey’s will continue to plot on. The show needs to make a decision about the direction it wants to go on from now on, though, or it will spin its wheels in retreaded storylines without a true sense of direction. The potential is there for Grey’s to have another golden era, but it has to pick someone besides Meredith Grey to be on the poster. The ball is in the show’s court for it to choose the next Meredith Grey successor. Who do they think knows best how to save a life?
