You’re talking about yourself again

Posted by Maggie November 6th, 2006 at 10:04am In Grey's Anatomy Guilty Pleasures

I finally got around to watching last week's Grey's Anatomy yesterday. Lots has been said about this show's general suckiness/addictiveness, but I think I've finally figured out exactly what bugs me the most about the show.

No, it's not the voice overs, which I just tune out.

No, it's not Meredith's whining and indecisiveness, which has never really bothered me, because I kind of like angst. 

No, it's not the circular monologues: "You freak me out. I think about us, and… it's scary. You. Me. We've never been able to make it work, and I wonder why. Is it me? Seriously? But I learned today that is me. Just not in the way you think. You know? You. Freak. Me. Out." Those I just find funny, now.

I'll tell you what it is: it's that the characters are absolutely incapable of talking about anyone other than themselves. Even when they're saving people's lives, everything they say out loud to their patients is actually about their own situation.

Izzy counseling the girl with the burns to get help; "you're not crazy": she's talking about herself. Christina comforting the patient's wife about her sacrifices: talking about herself. Etc. Etc. And that's only from last week.

It's not even the idea that they all have cases that mirror their own lives — I'm fine with that; that's the whole premise of the show. It's just that every single conversation any of them has is so full of dramatic irony, it's like they're not even talking to the people in front of them. They're in their own little worlds, learning life lessons.

Learn your life lessons on your own time, people. Or at least quietly. Not in front of the poor sick people.