20 Things Wrong With 'Grey's Anatomy' We All Choose To Ignore

Almost 15 seasons ago, Shonda Rhimes created a world of impeccable drama when she brought her hit medical drama, Grey's Anatomy, into our lives. We became enamored with the lives of Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey), and the medical powerhouses that surrounded them. Over the years, we watched love triangles while crying and cursing the heavens whenever Rhimes would rip a beloved character from our worlds with no warning.

But no matter how many times the writers hurt us, we keep coming back for more. Recently, they wrote off two beloved characters (but, thankfully, in great ways where the characters could possibly return) and while the show won't be the same without them, the show will always be a Thursday night staple in our lives.

That being said, there are some things that we tend to “overlook” when it comes to the show. Like unrealistic storylines. Or rushed storylines. Or introducing characters that should have never been a thing. Or putting two characters together who had no business being together. Or, heaven forbid, offing a character in a brutal way. Here are 20 things that were wrong with the show, but that we chose to ignore since it's one of our favorites.

20 No, Izzie And George Were Never Supposed To Be An Item

We get it, they were best friends, so why shouldn't they take it one step further and start a romance? However, the chemistry didn't seem to transfer over that well when show writers decided to pair off both Izzie (Katherine Heigl) and George (T.R. Knight) a few seasons into the show. To start, George had just married Dr. Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez) during a whirlwind storyline and Izzie had decided that she was jealous. When they finally ended up getting together, however, it was awkward and the writers seemed to figure it out a little too late. After that story fizzled, Knight's on-air time seemed to diminish.

19 Singing Doctors Should Have Never Been A Thing

Back in 2011, EVERYONE seemed to want to have a “musical” episode in their television series. From Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Scrubs, having a musical episode in a non-musical TV show seemed to be a thing to do during sweeps week. But when Grey's Anatomy attempted this after Callie and Arizona (Jessica Capshaw) were in a car accident and Callie's life hung in midair, it just fell flat. Everyone suddenly turned into “singers” (when the only one really is Ramirez, who has stage and vocal experience) and it just felt completely forced and just… well, awkward. Hopefully, the writers learned their lesson there.

18 Speaking Of Izzie And Alex… So She's Just Seriously Gone For Good Now?

Once upon a time, Izzie and Alex Karev (Justin Chambers) were an on again, off again thing. They had their ups and downs, the down mainly being Izzie's supposed terminal illness (stage four skin cancer). Both Meredith and Derek both graciously stepped aside and offered up their special wedding day so the weak Izzie could marry the reformed bad-boy Alex. But shortly afterward (after Izzie ended up living thanks to Derek saving her life), things started to fall apart for the couple. Izzie ended up ditching town (and not following up on her cancer treatments), only to pop up later down the road, wanting to get back together with Alex. It just was too much so she ended up being fired for good.

17 Hey, Stop Trying To Write Off Meredith Every Other Episode

Poor Meredith, she seems to have more lives than a cat. We probably have never seen a television show where the writers seem to love attempting to write off their main (not to mention title) character every five episodes. First and foremost, they first tried it when there was a live bomb in the hospital and Meredith was the one who everyone was worried about (rightfully - she literally had her hand on the bomb). This was followed by the drowning incident (where her heart literally stopped for 20 minutes while she was in the cold water) followed by a plane crash. And yes, there are way more in there (a patient with a medical problem attacking her… ANOTHER plane incident… an ambulance crash… jeez). Just give Mere a break, writers!

16 Do The Nurses Actually Work?

If you have any friends or family members that are actually nurses in real life, they'll be the first to tell you that usually Grey's gets it wrong when it comes to the workload the nurses on the show have. First of all, they pretty much say that the doctors are doing it all with little/to no help from the nurses. For example, it seems like it's the physicians performing all the tasks that nurses are supposed to do (distributing medications, drawing blood, monitoring the patients after surgery) and the nurses only pop up to make major storylines move along (remember Rose? Or Olivia? Sigh).

15 So We're Supposed To Forgive Cristina For Not Showing Up To Derek's Funeral?

Okay, Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh) was a MASSIVE part of Grey's since the conception and they built major storylines surrounding her close friendship with Meredith. I mean, she was her person. However, in the 10^th season, Cristina went off to work in Zurich, Switzerland and left the show and her bestie. Even though Cristina was living thousands of miles away from Meredith, it's mentioned that they still talk all the time. But when Derek perished in a car accident, Cristina couldn't find the time to come back in order to be there for Meredith? How are fans supposed to believe that? We didn't even get a passing explanation on why she wasn't there.

14 Let's Face It: Everyone Was Just Plain Mean To George

At the beginning of the show, T.R. Knight's George O'Malley was supposed to be a key player in the show and was one of their main characters. But right from the get-go, everyone pretty much dismissed him and was rather rude about his sensitive nature (except for Izzie, who quickly deemed him one of her favorite people). After so many seasons on the show, the character was written off in the most brutal way (hit by a bus) and even at his funeral, the characters couldn't even really take him seriously. Every now and then, his name was mentioned in passing with fondness, but the fondness was horribly absent whenever he was alive.

13 What's With All The Dating?

At one point in our lives, a majority of us have had jobs where we work with a lot of people or in a group. Think back to that time whether it was years ago or earlier today: how many of your coworkers are actually in a relationship with one or more people in your office? Seattle Grace Hospital might as well be Tinder for doctors. Co-workers switch up partners every episode and can't really stay faithful. I mean, I know this sometimes happens in real life, but on the show, it happens with almost every character and it happens ALL THE TIME. The divorce rate in Seattle on the show must be through the roof. It's a wonder a divorce lawyer isn't a main character yet.

12 The Entire Ghost Denny Storyline

Denny Duquette (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) was a beloved character in the Grey's Anatomy universe even though he was only on for a handful of episodes before his character was devastatingly written off. Denny's character was only around so he could add diminution to Izzie's character, we understand that, but usually, if an actor is good and he has some pretty solid chemistry with his co-star, writers tend to change up the storyline and keep him around. Not here. Instead, they wrote him off the show only to bring him back later as a hallucination that Izzie was having when she had cancer. It was odd, to say the least.

11 Meredith's Rotating Sisters

Don't get us wrong: we absolutely loved Lexie Grey (Chyler Leigh) and we absolutely love Maggie Pierce (Kelly McCreary) but what gives when it comes to Meredith's sisters. Early on, they introduced Lexie in a cool way (she was Meredith's half-sister) when she became an intern at Seattle Grace, but the writers decided to write her off in a plane crash a few seasons later. By the time they realized what they did when Cristina left too, they wrote up a bizarre storyline that introduced Maggie. Maggie is actually the product of Meredith's mom and Richard Webber's (James Pickens Jr.) love who was given up for adoption years before. It was all a little too “soap opera-ish”.

10 Let's Make One Thing Clear: Derek Wasn't Always As Sweet As He Seemed

Everyone's favorite super couple was Meredith and Derek - they made us believe in love and fairy tales. They had the chemistry, just that their timing always seemed slightly off. But the closer you look at their relationship, you'll realize that Derek wasn't exactly Mr. Nice Guy. He constantly blamed Meredith for his OWN mistakes, and would often cast her out in the cold when he was going through one of his “moods”. He called her some really horrible names after HIS wife came back to town and Meredith started dating again in order to get over him. He also put his work ahead of his family and was just downright mean to Meredith when it wasn't necessary. How are we supposed to forget that?

9 Amelia And Owen Shouldn't Have Gotten Together

Poor Owen: why did all the writers on the show assume that Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd) needed a love interest in order to make him, well, interesting? For starters, he was already interesting on his own (a former army surgeon who suffered from PTSD) and his relationship with Cristina was clearly reeking of chemistry, to begin with, so why spoil his character? After Cristina left, the writers tossed Amelia Shepherd (Caterina Scorsone) at Owen and expected the chemistry to be just as off the charts as it was with Cristina. But nope, the relationship fell flat on its face. And they still kept it going. But… why?

8 Rushing Storylines

We get it: some storylines don't always stick, but we all agree that they should be carefully dissolved instead of being rushed out the door. Like the George and Izzie thing? Felt way too rushed. Or when Maggie suddenly appeared? Or the Lexie and the Avery Jackson (Jesse Williams) storyline? And let's not fail to mention the Nathan Riggs (Martin Henderson)/Meredith thing that was quickly squashed with the sudden arrival of Owen's supposedly “dead” sister Megan Hunt (Abigail Spencer)? That was one rushed storyline that we can't really forgive, especially since they wrapped it up within a few episodes in order to write off Riggs after his chemistry with Meredith wasn't really taking off.

7 Bailey's Famous Disappearing OCD

Dr. Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson) is one of the hospital's most versatile surgeons who happens to be way ahead of the curve when it comes to her undeniable genius. But every doctor has bad days (and really bad days, in Bailey's circumstance), and Bailey was one of them. In one episode, Bailey lost three patients when she failed to follow protocol and ended up accidentally infecting her patients. After that, she got some serious OCD and refused to do any surgeries until she was positive she was “clean”. It was the subject of more than a few episodes and then once she got fully back into the OR, her OCD had suddenly disappeared. Yeah, that doesn't happen in real life.

6 Seattle Grace Is Basically One Huge Trap

Why, and we repeat, WHY would anyone want to work at this hospital? In the beginning, it ran like a well-oiled machine and death wasn't around every corner. And then, all of a sudden, bombs started happening, shootings started happening, fires and lockdowns started happening. Yet, despite all that, they say that the hospital is one of the best hospitals on the West Coast. How?? The turnover rate for doctors seems to be rather high because a majority of the doctors can't seem to stay alive. We also can't forget when they merged with Seattle West, only to off more than half the doctors that came in the merger. I mean, C'mon!

5 Are We Supposed To Forget How Insufferable April Was In The Beginning?

With that very merger, we were introduced to Dr. April Kepner (Sarah Drew) and right from the get-go, we knew there was something just so unforgivably insufferable about her. Not only did she have a brown nose, but she was also just plain rude and deceitful about it, especially when she went toe-to-toe with Lexie. Not only did audience members not really respond to her, but the surrounding characters couldn't' stand her. And then, after she was let go (some of us were happy about that) she was brought back and suddenly she was a brand new character. We actually LIKED her. They changed her personality in a way that wasn't too noticeable at first, but when we compared her character in the last season from when she first arrived, the changes were staggering.

4 Reappearing & Disappearing Interns

We get it: Seattle Grace (or whatever its' called now - Grey-Sloan Memorial?) is a teaching hospital. We knew that from episode one when the new interns were the main focus of the show. Of course, we got close with those first interns, so close in fact that we tend to toss away new interns (since the show commonly does this). The rotating interns can be dizzying at times since maybe one or two actually stick around for the long run. Some are written off with really cool storylines while the rest just sort of fade into the background before disappearing altogether. What's up with that?

3 What's Up With Meredith's Liver?

Early on in the series, we were introduced to Meredith's estranged father, Thatcher Grey (Jeff Perry), someone who she hasn't seen since she was a kid. He was remarried and had a brand new family (consisting of Lexie) and he was pretty much just cruel to her. He was also a recovering substance user who fell off the wagon when his wife died unexpectedly (and he blamed Meredith for it). Meredith ended up donating part of her liver to him for her sister's sake, but how was Meredith's liver healthy enough to actually do that? We all know she has a thing for tequila shots and seemed to down the stuff like water after hard days. Seems a little far fetched.

2 Kids Only Pop Up When The Storyline Deems Them Necessary

So many of the characters are parents on the show (or become parents later down the line) but we don't see these children very often unless the storyline deems them necessary. Sure, we know that doctors, especially surgeons, lead busy lives, but their children usually play a more active role in their worlds. The storyline where Meredith and Derek adopt Zola was a biggie, and while she would show up on a normal basis (like when Lexie would babysit her), her role seemed to dissipate after a season or two. Sure, she pops up every now and then (like when her father passes away), but she should have more of an active role.

1 The Entire LVAD Cutting Line

Denny was in desperate need of a new heart and a patient at Seattle Grace when Izzie fell head-over-heels in love with him and practically sacrificed her entire world to be with him. In order to rush Denny up to the top of the donor list so he could get a new heart to live, Izzie ended up cutting his LVAD wire in order to put him on the edge of death so he was sick enough to get moved to first on the list. That right there is the end of a medical career no matter how you slice it. Instead, Izzie got back into the surgical program after she eventually got over Denny's death. Would never have happened in real life. Izzie would've been done for in the medical world.

References: thehollywoodreporter.com, bustle.com, fortis.edu, buzzfeed.com