darkxtwisty

The show was its best in seasons 1-4 when EVERYTHING funneled through Meredith.

Give all the characters a connection to Meredith, and they all will have screen time. Simple.

posterity

Who cares how much they are paid? No offense but the notion is comical. Them being paid the highest is merely because when the series began, they were the lead characters and naturally since they received the most airtime, people were drawn to their characters. Therefore they are paid the highest.

However as the series progressed, their popularity went down online. I don't think how much anyone is paid is proportional to their likeability but merely reflects how long they have been on the show.

At this point its an ensemble show and a lot of people could not give a flying fig about MerDer, so to them it might not be so apparent that the show should focus on Meredith. Besides, when it does, she comes off obnoxiously, as she did when she was sharing scenes with Alex. Sometimes less is more.

darkxtwisty

Online popularity means squat. Not everyone who watches the show goes online to talk about it. Most MerDer fans have stopped watching the show in recent years because of the lack of focus on them.

posterity

Scroll back to read. Why would I bring it up if it wasn't brought up beforehand?

I am just saying the argument that they are paid the highest for a reason is neither here not there. It really has no relevance to which characters receive more attention. Justin is paid more than Kelly (Maggie) but she receives more focus and airtime at this point.

darkxtwisty

Ellen is and always will be the lead. That's all I'm saying.

The show is at its best when she's in the center of it all. She's grown more than any other character on the show, she has the richest background, and is by far the most compelling character on the show. She is the show. She puts the GREY in Grey's Anatomy. No Meredith, no Grey's.

posterity

I believe she has the richest background because they focused on her but IMO her growing the most/the most compelling is subjective. But this isn't even my point because I don't really watch for her character so I can't really make any claim. I might even overlook some of the details in her scenes consequentially.

I just don't think anyone can claim the show is best for all when it focuses from her perspective because that would depend on who you are referring to. If you take a look at some threads, you might find a different perspective. People watch for different reasons and continuously giving centric episodes after centric episodes only exposes the fact that they tried too hard to overexpose certain characters, which won't make them endearing to those who don't care for such characters.

I understand that not every character can be featured each episode due to the cast size, but they don't need to focus on the SAME characters week after week as if they are the reasons why EVERYONE tunes in.

darkxtwisty

I don't believe the writers should allow fans to dictate the storylines. Too many shows fall into that trap thanks to social media and it being so easy to connect with fans, it is insufferable. The writers really owe the fans nothing other than a compelling storyline. For me, I don't watch a show if I'm not invested in the main characters, because I can't handle not getting a good dose of my favorite characters. It's rare that I connect with a character that's not a main player. April and Jackson are supporting actors, so it's expected that they'll remain in the background.

Every writer, whether they will admit it or not, has their favorite characters, and it's always blatant when you read between the lines. Shonda's favorite characters are Meredith, Callie, and Cristina. Now that Crisitna's gone, the focus shifts heavily to Meredith and Callie. She also soft spot for Derek, because even when he's an ass, he always has to redeem himself. You don't see Arizona being redeemed at any point, likely because Shonda just doesn't care about her. Her newest favorite character is Maggie -- aka the biggest Mary Sue on television right now.

megmilli

This impending break has me watching a lot of old episodes and I recently rewatched the one where Derek got rid of Isaac's inoperable tumor (the one on the wall in their bedroom). Derek refused to give up until he figured it out. He even got everyone around him to help when he went against the chief.

The reason I'm thinking about it is, Derek just seems to have given up on DC. It was take the job or not, nothing in between. The Derek at operated on Isaac would have argued a bit harder for other possibilities IMO.

In my dream world Owen takes over the Admin in DC and maybe works in the VA. Derek does the research that he seems to love. Amelia runs the day to day of Neuro and helps with the kids since Meredith will be making huge strides on her project now that she isn't arguing with Derek, April (post baby) takes over Owen's trauma surgeon responsibilities, Bailey is Chief (like Richard groomed her to be, Stephanie is her lackey (rumor was that Stephanie get more responsibilities).

An in my REAL dream, the opening in the ER (the admin part only) is taken over by James Peterson from LA. And he and Amelia live in the trailer that leaves them close enough to still take care of the kids.

How Arizona fits in post Geena Davis leaving is something I just can't fit into any scenario that I can imagine. And Callie and Alex seem happy where they are.

Spirit of the Radio

Totally agree. The more they paint Callie as the victim, the less I am interested in her story. In this episode alone, she got support from Meredith, Derek and Owen, while AZ got yelled at by one of the only people consistently in her corner (not totally without cause, IMO, but still.) She seemed happiest with April until Callie came in and gave her a hard time. This is what, the 3rd or 4th time we have seen the "Callie Gets Her Groove Back" story, so I am much, much more interested in what, if anything, they do with Arizona.

As for Meredith, I have always enjoyed her character, even if lately she is being treated much more like one of the "good" characters whose actions always get handwaved away and who can act callously with no repurcussions at all. I agree that she should be the person that most people have a connection to, but at this point there are way too many characters for everyone's story to come from her perspective. It was one thing when the 5 original interns were there and they all had shared experiences, but that just isn't the case anymore. As I said, she has always been one of my favorites, but if the show were to continue to be primarily about her and her struggle with Derek, Amelia and Maggie, for example, I don't think I will keep watching. Its just not that interesting to me.

I feel like if the writers insist on having 35-40 characters, then they need to do a better job of balancing out the storylines. This seems to be a season of experimentation, so I guess I will save my final verdict for the end, but so far it really isn't working for me.

posterity

The thing that makes me cringe the most when characters like Amelia receive so much airtime is that well, many people did not watch PP so she is on the same league as Maggie in the sense that she is a newbie being shoved down our throats.

But primarily speaking, I don't even see the justification for that since she is not building any relationship with Meredith, nor do we see them showing any bond she might have with her brother Derek. She's just there being obnoxiously overexposed and gobbling up airtime.

darkxtwisty

Amelia has barely received any airtime, so I don't know what show you're watching. She's been used primarily as much-needed comic relief. Caterina said she has scenes with Meredith coming up. And again, choosing not to watch PP is your choice. There's no excuse not to watch it IMO. It's a great show, so it's your loss. Amelia has implied she and Meredith have bonded. She's been used as a bridge between Meredith and Maggie.

gladluvgrey

i honestly was bored in most parts of this episode, I even passed the first 15 minutes on the phone talking to a friend. Epsiode wasnt that bad in showing the real problem since CA decided to be togeher but as it had been a thing going around forever, kinda not interested...the final scene though was finally right in what they should do.

Callie has always being victimized, since S2 when she was with George so it's not new that she is still in that position. Az is like the boy in this equation, as all the boys in this show, you wont get to see at all her POV or see it fragmented so it's harder to gauge what exactly is going on with her. Anyway, at the end, you see how the experience of not being with Callie for 30 days put her in perspective even if a little bit late.

As for all the characters being glued to Meredith, I dont think that's necesarily literal but I do believe the show HAVE to go through her POV and have her being somehow the glue of the show. it worked better that way until S7 when things shifted and a lot of people stopped watching...or in S10 that the whole season felt like a disjointled jumble without cohesiveness. I do understand that new characters will be added to the show because that's how it worked and that's how life work so I dont really mind anymore that fact, what I mind is how the new characters take on screen time (aka Maggie or the new interns last season)...anyway, even if I hate the newbies taking up screentime, I do understand why they are doing the centric episodes this season, weather the needed or not, is a way to focus people in one thing at a time and maybe help the viewers get what happened instead of having it all scattered in severals episodes. The show is in the 11 seasons, a lot had happened, storylines might not be fresh anynore but they need to make it fresher, so it's a tool. It's work for the show though as rating as being pretty much stable even with the new time slot.

Then what the show it should be about? Because honestly that's what is the more interesting about Meredith this season, considering last season was barely about her and everything about Cristina, and Cristina and Owen, or the eternal issue with religion in the April Jackson
relationship, that I found really boring.

WalaBridget

There should be an Ameila centric she's more interesting

ModernDayJackieO

I think that what this show needs is better writing period. And if Shonda only wants to write for 5 characters then she should let go of everyone else or knock them down to recurring. The first few seasons of greys were successful imo because they didn't focus on just writing couples. they wrote interesting characters and their relationships were just and extension of that, not the main focus. justmy2cents

megmilli

It's probably just wishful thinking but I'm wondering if episode 7 mght be close to that. If Amelia can be introduced and we can understand her relationship with Derek more, and how similar she is to Meredith IMO, then they can have her take a back seat for the rest of the season (although I personally would love to see more of her). Derek and Meredith aren't even talking, and her character can be used to help them understand each other. If Amelia hadn't 'meddled' Derek wouldn't have found out about Maggie and she would have left. I think Meredith would have felt badly about that (for Richard's sake). Now Derek is going overboard, IMO, and planning this dinner. My hope is that Amelia's comic relief will help out there. And I also think that Meredith will find out that Amelia has been sticking up to Derek for her.

But anything that comes out about Amelia in 11x07 can't be bad enough to hurt her relationship with Derek too much (hopefully make it stronger) because Amelia is bringing the kids out for pizza in 11x08. And I definitely think that what comes out will start her bonding with Meredith more. Meredith will see that Amelia isn't the same as the rest of the Shepherd sisters. She's dark and twisty like Meredith.