When the show has been running for almost 20 years, the audience can cut it some slack if it doesn’t deliver as well as it used to. Sometimes it’s acceptable to recycle some long-forgotten storylines, sometimes it’s okay to be lazy with your writing, as long as it doesn’t affect any major characters.
What is not okay, however, is to push one storyline throughout the entire series with only one character not fitting into it. For Grey’s Anatomy, that narrative is about growing families and having children.
Although the show has survived for a long time without criticism on this issue because of the character of Cristina Yang, who was, among other things, a very outspoken childfree woman, it’s getting harder with each passing season.
And it’s not because the show is necessarily pushing some kind of agenda, but rather because of some very poor writing practices, including the use of children as plot devices. Unfortunately, since Cristina, there has only been one person who didn’t want children at all and said so out loud Arizona Robbins.
However, her wishes were never granted as she ended up being a parent to her partner’s daughter, Sofia. Although she grew to love her family, Arizona could never be called a good representation of a childless person.
Every time a female character gets stuck in a loop and nothing exciting happens in her life, the writers’ minds seem to go in only one direction. Unwanted pregnancies, tragic miscarriages, and adoption struggles.
The show has it all, but only half the time they work for the plot. Of course, male characters without children don’t get the same treatment, or the same plot filler, which is even more upsetting to viewers.
Realistically, with all the pressures that Grey’s Anatomy doctors, nurses, and interns face in their jobs, there’s very little time left to start a family. But women are almost expected to juggle both, just like in real life.
If you want to see if Grey’s Anatomy will continue to mindlessly use children to give adult characters some problems to work through and then never remember, you can tune in to ABC for the upcoming season 20 of the show.
