With fifteen seasons under its belt, Grey’s Anatomy has long cemented its place in the history of television. The was a massive success from 2005 to 2010, and even after it hasn’t remained the talk of the town, the show has remained on-air. Grey’s Anatomy was unlike already established medical dramas like ER in that it focused mainly on one person and then slowly moved around to others in her vicinity. The heart of the show, though, has remained with Meredith Grey and she is the main character through and through.
But the show has had a very wide range of characters for you to choose from and all these people have had storylines of their own. Most of the stories people have liked or disliked haven’t had anything to do with Meredith as the large ing cast has taken center stage on a variety of occasions. These storylines change as the characters change; the show has only four main characters from Season 1 remaining. With so many plotlines to choose from, fans have a lot of different opinions over which ones are best and which are worst. Make no mistake, though, there have been many bad stories on the show, although good ones have such a big impact that people are willing to forget the bad ones.
Still, it helps to recall the plotlines that you never really liked and compare how the show has changed because of those storylines. This is why we’ve compiled this list for you to choose from.
Here are 13 Storylines That Hurt Grey’s Anatomy (And 12 That Saved It).
Hurt: George and Meredith hooking up
In the first and second seasons, George was madly in love with Meredith. It got to the point that he looked to sweep in and play the hero for her when she was reeling from separation with Derek. George should’ve known there was no future with her at least during this time, but he still made a move and it resulted in an awful exchange that ended with Meredith crying and George walking out.
After this, the George and Meredith relationship was never like what it used to be. The former friendship was gone permanently.
Saved: Meredith and Derek fall in love
The show would never have worked out in the first place had the Meredith and Derek love story not been in place. It was the only storyline worth following in Season 1, and the huge blow up in success starting from Season 2 had been possible because people tuned into see what was up with these two.
Their romance was such that it lasted all the way till Season 11, and never got tiring even once. Had the actor not left the show, Meredith and Derek would still have been together.
Hurt: Meredith and Derek's unfaithful habits
Derek and Meredith’s love began technically because Derek was with someone else other than his wife, but the marriage was over already so it doesn’t count as being unfaithful. What did count as infidelity was when these two hooked up in the Season 2 finale.
Up until that point, their love was pure in a way that you wouldn’t consider them as bad people, but after they were involved in being unfaithful, a certain level of likability was taken away from them. It would’ve been better had Derek left Addison before this angle came to .
Saved: George becoming Preston's protege
George’s lack of success in surgery earlier on paved the way for ridicule, especially at the hands of Alex, but this was negated once he became an able doctor in stressful conditions. George was able to successfully complete surgery in an elevator, that was overlooked by Preston Burke.
Starting from then, Preston and George developed a teacher-student relationship and this was only made better thanks to the superb chemistry they had. It made us more invested in both George and Burke and gave the two characters someone to rely on.
Hurt: Preston Burke leaving
Due to an on-set altercation between actors, the Preston Burke character was written out at the end of Season 3. While it’s understandable why real-life events influenced the show, it still damaged Grey’s Anatomy just a bit.
The Preston Burke character was someone who was complex, and often, his stories involved a lot of twists and turns in both his personal life and life as a doctor. Burke leaving also thrust Cristina into unfamiliar territory and we were unsure what to make of her for all of Season 4.
Saved: Preston and Cristina complex love story
Unlike the other love stories going on, Cristina and Preston’s story was far more complex. It had to do with both characters being incredibly guarded in personality, and we saw each of them become different versions of themselves from Season 1 to Season 3.
Something always had to give for these two, and in the end, it appeared as if Preston had changed so much for Cristina only for her not to be as invested as he was. It was a fascinating display of character development that was bettered because of the chemistry between the two.
Hurt: Jane Doe storyline
Alex’s storylines had been flooded with Izzie by Season 3 and the show needed something different for him. And so, in came the Jane Doe storyline that stuck around for way too long. She was introduced near the end of Season 3 and remained till the end of Season 4.
The story was pretty lame as well with the Jane Doe character constantly changing her names and showing up with a different backstory. Alex also came across as some weirdo who was attracted to someone with severe mental illness.
Saved: Alex and Izzie first breakup
When Alex and Izzie first got together, it looked something of an opposites attracting situation. It was engaging to watch and the show ran with it for a while, but it was always going to blow up as Alex was never going to change so soon.
Ultimately, it helped the show because Izzie could move onto getting together with Denny and we saw the first instance where Alex took to actually caring about something other than physical pleasure as he began having unrequited feelings for Izzie.
Hurt: George and Izzie getting together
On the other end of the stick, we have the worst story Grey’s Anatomy has come up with. At the end of Season 3, the showrunner had the awful idea of having George be unfaithful to his wife with Izzie of all people. This was expanded upon in Season 4 and culminated with everyone coming to their senses, with the two never hooking up again.
After this angle was over, it was made to seem like George and Izzie had never been together at all. The bad thing was that these two were never really close after that.
Saved: Alex and Izzie getting together the second time
Like we mentioned before, Alex needed to grow up to deserve Izzie once more and that is exactly what he did. By this point, Izzie had also been immature with wanting to be with George and had finished things with him and was available.
We got the storyline where Izzie had cancer, but this brought out the best from Alex. He would become a doting love interest who ended up marrying a person that had a very minor shot at living. It showed us why Alex and Izzie is a love story people still talk about.
