It's official: our generation has a new "Friends," and there isn't a Central Perk in sight. Goodbye Ross and Rachel, hello Meredith and McDreamy. Call it what you will - a "Dawson's Creek" with blood or a George Clooney-era "ER" with a jolt of humor and compassion - but people are talking. "Grey's Anatomy" is on tap at Brown, settling into its place as the kind of "core curriculum" class folks only dream of. And at a time when "The OC" get-togethers are as commonplace as econ study parties, there is undeniably a rising viewing culture at Brown. What Monday bridge games are to my grandmother, weekly television shows are to us.
Just as we can all fondly recall the Donna and David years on "90210," the Soup Nazi on "Seinfeld" or Carrie getting dumped via a post-it note on "Sex and the City," talking about McDreamy and Meredith has become the language of 2006. Certainly, it's a language we can all understand.
Indeed, it seems that the entire campus has checked into Seattle's Grace Hospital on Sunday nights, falling head over heels into hospital beds (or lounge couches) to follow the exploits of its favorite new ensemble drama. Face it, if Facebook.com lists it as the second most popular television show for college students nationwide, right behind the College Hill stalwart "Family Guy," there has got to be something really special about it, right? Let's backtrack to a sunny day in San Diego, when I first set eyes on the newest fad.
Believe me, already an entertainment junkie myself at the time, used to picking up Us Weekly and In Touch at an unhealthy rate, I was as willing to get addicted to a new series as I would be for a weekend colonoscopy. But then it happened. Peer pressured into gathering around the living room television during the now hot 10 p.m. slot, I watched the mid-season recap. Ever since, "Grey's" has found a way into my heart...and, from the looks of it, half of the Monday morning Starbucks crowd's too. Even without a double espresso shot, everyone seems to have something to say regarding George sleeping with Meredith, Addison's poison oak episode or the fiancé who abandoned her husband before brain surgery the night before.
It's no coincidence that the show causes such serious discussion and yet such lighthearted excitement. Rather, it says something about the show's ability to help us see ourselves in it. Indeed, "Grey's" employs the wacky and dramatic - tell me you were not blown away by the two-part "Grey's" extravaganza after the Super Bowl. Seriously, the episodes had it all - an unexploded World War II bazooka inside a patient's chest, a neurosurgical miracle, the most triumphant birth since Sean Preston Federline and sex in a janitor's closet. What more could you want? But in all seriousness, it's really no wonder we find it so easy to identify with and care about its characters, as five competitive interns trying to succeed at school and stay human on little sleep hits pretty close to home.
But "Grey's," like "24" and "Lost," is more than just a great show in a nice time slot or a distraction from problem sets and essays. Especially at a university where it can seem like no one marches to the beat of the same drum, popular culture can bring us together on a level beyond discussing the wildly inflated Chinese food truck prices or how much we miss the donkey on the Sciences Library. And while we might think we're talking about Dr. Burke's relationship with Cristina, there is something so refreshing about applying what we've learned in class without having to write a research paper on it.
Popular culture is a way for us as Brown students to let go of the bazillion things we're doing all at once - my congrats go out to the organic chemistry students who tuned in even with the threat of an exam the next day - to connect to the outside world, to our friends at other schools and to society at large. Sure, it's not Darfur or the Danish cartoon controversy, but we've got 23 hours every day to think about that stuff, and I have little doubt that you'll see your share of opinions columns which deal with more pertinent, worldly matters than whether George finds love with the cute doctor who set his shoulder back in place.
But for now, I'd urge you to take 60 minutes out of your week and sit your in-shape butt down on the couch. Bring some friends over, pick up some hummus and pita chips and get ready to become versed in the language of "Grey's," Brown's newest, only and most enjoyable graduation requirement.
Courtney Jenkins '07 wants to show you her anatomy.
