To an outsider, Grey’s Anatomy is an ensemble medical drama about the lives and loves of (good-looking) doctors at a prominent Seattle hospital told through the lens of surgeon Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) as she rises from intern to resident to attending. Real fans, however, know that Grey’s Anatomy is actually an emotional torture device overseen by the brilliant and sadistic Shonda Rhimes, an agonizing exercise in grief and loss delivered in weekly installments. Grey’s Anatomy is about all that makes us human: our blood, tissue, and bone as well as our hearts, souls, and minds.
Ranking all the seasons is sort of an impossible undertaking, since the dynamics and cast are always shifting. Heck, the name of the hospital changed from Seattle Grace to Seattle Grace Mercy West to Grey Sloan Memorial. There’s an argument to be made that everything before Derek (Patrick Dempsey) and Meredith get together for good is one show about falling in love with your married boss, everything during their marriage is another show, and everything post-Derek is a third thing altogether. And depending on a viewer’s loyalties—to a particular character or relationship—everyone has their own idea of when the show was at its “best” and “worst.”
With all that in mind, this is merely an attempt to corral the many, many, oh so many hours of Grey’s Anatomy into a ranking based on which plot lines felt the most random, forced, or arbitrary versus the ones that we simply couldn’t look away from. From worst to best…
Season Five
I have zero medical training, but this season made me scared for all of the hospital’s patients. What the hell are the doctors doing? Practicing medicine on each other just to be cool, getting hyper-competitive over surgery assignments, going out of their specialties to shake things up and try to boost their rating? This is the season that the ceiling collapses on someone in the middle of surgery. Sorry, but I can’t invest in any of the personal stuff unless I’m also confident that the sick people are receiving at least competent care.
Season Nine
Too sad! Pretty much only bad things happen to our main cast this season. Meanwhile, the season-long arc is about…buying the hospital. And lawsuits. And insurance loopholes. Hello, this is Grey’s Anatomy! Where are the sexy people in love triangles? I did not tune in to learn more about sitting on a board, sorry.
Season 15
The highlight of this season was the critically acclaimed “Silent All These Years,” which dealt with sexual abuse, domestic violence, and trauma. Which normally would gain it points, except that it was written by the serial liar Elisabeth Finch, who stole elements of the storyline from another writer. A dramatic tale worthy of Shonda!
Season 21
So far, a bit of a downer. Mer’s back, she’s in love with her boyfriend, she’s studying Alzheimer’s, Sophia Bush is making everyone question their sexuality…this should be steamy but it’s all about, like, feelings. And Molly’s amnesia, which…that’s the thing you do when you run out of ideas. And they did it so perfectly with Rebecca way back in the day—why even go there again?
Season 14
So many important plots that, incredibly, hadn’t been done before, most notably the DACA storyline and Paul, the abusive husband. Unfortunately I cannot forgive this season for saying Amelia had a brain tumor that changed her personality. That’s what writers do when they want characters to change their mind but can’t think of a reason (looking at you, Ally McBeal).
Season 11
Was anyone else just a little bit fed up with this season? We say goodbye to Derek even though we just said goodbye to Christina; Meredith gets a half-sister even though she already had a half-sister (RIP, Lexie). The acting is great, but it feels like the writers were kind of running out of organic ideas.
Season Seven
On the one hand, musical episode! On the other…musical episode?
Season 18
The return of Addison gave many OG fans closure, though the season overall suffers from some post-COVID weariness. After a year of Health Department press conferences and monitoring infection levels daily, it was hard to want to tune in to the goings-on at, of all places, the hospital.
Season 16
Sooooo many mixed emotions about Karev. It was a good send-off, but we’ll miss him, but this is the last season we have with him, but he’s going…but he’s gone.
Season 20
The new crop of docs are, as they say, cookin’ with gas, as Meredith’s absence gives the show room to fully flesh out new cast members and make the politics of the hospital interesting again. Watching Bailey go toe to toe with Catherine will never not get us jazzed up.
Season 13
For the first part of the season it’s all emotions, relationships, feelings. Then it’s about rapists, fires, and long-lost sisters coming back from the dead. Couldn’t they have mixed it up a bit? What about having some shocking twists in the beginning and the middle instead of all jam-packed at the end, making everything into a soap opera?
Season 10
Goodbye, Christina! The show gave her an appropriate season-long send-off, focusing on one of the best characters ever played by (no shade to anyone else) the most talented performer in the cast, Sandra Oh. Christina is Meredith’s other great love, and while their relationship wasn’t quite as dramatic as it was with Derek, it was no doubt as important. The show just wasn’t the same after Oh left.
Season 19
This was the payoff for sticking around. Meredith’s headed out and a new group of interns are headed in. It’s Grey’s 2.0, and not a moment too soon. New faces with new problems and new mistakes to make. New lessons to learn and new love and friendship situations to muddy up. Not that we’ll ever see George, Izzie, Burke, and the other OG gang truly replaced, but sometimes it’s good to get back to what made the show work: It’s hard to learn to be a doctor!
Season 12
The intrigue. Pregnant April fighting for the custody of her unborn child, Meredith slowly getting back on the dating scene, and some really juicy patients. Meredith and Amelia versus Penny. Relapsing alcoholics. We are finally back in that sweet spot.
Season Six
Talk about an emotional roller-coaster. Everyone is mourning George while Derek and Meredith can’t stop having sex, Mark’s got a daughter who herself is pregnant, and here come the Private Practice crossovers. Oh, and Meredith is pregnant too, which she finds out during an actual active shooter lockdown. It’s chaos!
Season 17
Many shows skipped over or touched lightly on the COVID pandemic. Some wove it into their storylines but kept their pace and tone consistent even as the world shifted dramatically. Grey’s is one of the very few to take the pandemic as a creative opportunity and run with it. This is the season where Meredith, suffering from the virus, falls into a coma and meets her dead friends and lovers on a beach that’s possibly in the afterlife, or perhaps her imagination.
It’s not exactly new territory. But it does show the wonderfully human spirit that still guides the show. Since it’s set at a hospital, Grey’s could have used a worldwide health care crisis as an excuse for even more drama and tension than usual. Instead, it took an opportunity to slow down, step back, and consider the loss of life that was on everyone’s minds. Even if this wasn’t executed perfectly, the season gets a zillion points just for trying.
Season Eight
Devastating, just devastating. Lexie and Mark have some of the best chemistry in the series, and who didn’t shed a tear for Burton? Yes, the plane crash in the finale is classic TV drama for the sake of drama, but at least it’s believable. Sadly, small aircrafts do tend to crash.
Season Four
The show was in transition, with Addison leaving (to star on her own show), Lexie arriving far before the writers knew what to do with her, and the on-again, off-again Meredith/Derek dynamic starting to wear thin. Much like George repeating his intern year, this season was kind of spinning its wheels.
Season One
Obviously, we all love the first season, where it all began. But since the show was a mid-season replacement, there are only nine episodes, so it’s hard to give this season as much credit as the others.
Season Three
The arrival of McSteamy! Despite the fact that it is, at this point, totally ridiculous that these characters are still interns (you’re supposed to be an intern for a year. Just a year!), most of the relationships work. Callie and George, for instance, don’t seem like they would get together…until they do, and then it’s like, of course they did.
Season Two
This season has what I consider to be the two best story arcs in Grey’s history, and neither of them involve Meredith’s relationship with Derek. This is the season of bomb squad and Izzie/Denny. Both stories get to the heart of what the series does best: young doctors putting themselves on the line for the sake of a patient, and for the sake of one another. Both stories are about love in the face of uncertainty and hope in the face of death. And both are self-contained, beautifully acted, and heartbreakingly written. Both are about flawed men with the best intentions who come into the hospital because something inside of them is broken or wrong, and the attempt to fix it draws in doctors, nurses, and of course, the audience. From the guest stars (Christina Ricci! Coach Taylor!) to the more lighthearted moments (who cut the LVAD wire?) to the little TV twists just for added fun (everyone in prom clothes!!!!), these are the storylines that made Grey’s Anatomy a phenomenon.
