First off, there's family history. Most alcoholics either have a genetic predisposition to alcoholism, or blame it on a really shitty environment growing up. Meredith is so special she needs both. Her father's involvement in the show is two fold. Thatcher either shows up to A, rub it in/apologize for the fact he was not around much. B, and more importantly, to be a drunken asshole and embarrass his daughter and himself. He obviously fills our genetic portion. Meredith's resistance toward the end of the last season to acknowledge his attempts at recovery just set us up for her own collapse, where Thatcher will come in with experience and wisdom to get Meredith through her alkie-crisis.
Then of course, there's the infamous Ellis Grey.
Not since Mommie Dearest has one woman caused inflicted more emotional damage on the world than Ellis Grey. She cheated on her husband, which along with being totally career obsessed drove daddy Thatcher away.( ps Ellis and Thatcher? can we get some real names for these people.) She proceeded to neglect her daughter and refuse her husband the right to see their child, making sure she had NO parent who cared for her well-being. After a nice bout of Alzheimer's, her mother miraculously wakes up and is totally lucid, and delivers possibly the greatest moment in this show EVER. She decides that since Meredith hasn't taken over the world yet she sucks and calls her a disappointment. Some day I hope my mother comes back to life after a debilitating coma or the like and says something as devastating, but I fear this will never happen. The fact that her mother refers to her as a "force of nature" makes me thing she's in on my perfect storm theory.
Speaking of stress- bitch works in a hospital. Not a normal "my leg broke" hospital. Not even a "semi-serious surgery every so often hospital". No, she works in a "There's an active bomb in my chest" kinda hospital. The amount of actual death and disease drama that goes on is almost as much as the emotional bullshit drama that she adds to her life by being fucking crazy. How does Meredith deal with stress? With straight tequila shots, no salt no lime. In a recent episode, Meredeth's fiancee, aka McDreamy aka Patrick Dempsey, basically mutilates a patient's brain before he kills her. He then tries to beat the shit out of his best friend. How does Meredith deal with this? she brings him home, takes out the tequila, and they go shot for shot in COMPLETE SILENCE.
Merideth's romantic relationships also follow in the same vein. How she met McDreamy and how she spent her last night before her residency are wrapped up into one nice little flashback of her ordering shots of tequila at the bar...alone. I mean, her next day is her first day of her residency but does that stop her from drinking till she feels pretty? No. It's amazing to note the lines "I'm always sorry in the morning." and "I don't have a story. I'm just a girl in a bar". The ease in which she delivers them makes one think she's gotten more than her fair share of free drinks out of those two lines alone. When she and her boyfriend break up for the first time she, to quote wikipedia, " gets drunk and has sex with George, only to cry in the middle of the encounter." I'm pretty sure every episode of Intervention I've ever seen with a female alcoholic had her sleeping with alot of gross guys on accident and then crying about it. While Meredeth's drunk goggles are pretty decent since hey, George may be whiny but he's not pour bleach in the eyes kind of ugly, They're also fictional. If it were real life, she would have probably slept with half of Seattle by now, and not the pretty ones.
Alcoholism doesn't effect just the alcoholic either. It effects everyone around them... but mainly, it effects Christina Yang. Here's a photo of Sandra Oh from before she really started spending her life putting up with Meredith Grey's bullshit.
And here is a screenshot from this year's season finale.
Obviously- it's a problem that's effecting us all. Everyone except for Shonda Rhimes that is. She's been throwing horrible plot points into the show for the last two years and then pretending they never happened once the audience reacts badly (remember that fun time George and Izzie dated for a bit? either do they). I cannot understand why Rhimes would have such an story arch that would take up at least of season of Meredith's crying and just let it sit there. I can only hope that she reads this and gets on it, mainly because I really want to see Meredith fall asleep in a puddle of her on vomit at the hospital's grounds while they play a soft ballad by the band Stars.
My thoughts exactly. I see you wrote this post ten years ago, but it still rings true.
ReplyDeleteI discovered the Grey's Anatomy series just last year, and bought the entire series on DVD (1-14), so it's fresh in my mind - and, where Meredith is concerned, there hasn't been any growth, nor has anyone acknowledged she's an alcoholic. She has three children by now, and yet the alcoholism has graduated from shots, to drinking tequila straight from the bottle, and no-one is commenting on it. She's surrounded by enablers, who seem to like the fact that she's an emotional wreck, and, instead of strengthening their boundaries with her (like me in my younger days, Meredith doesn't know the meaning of boundaries), they just let her break them down. After all, *everything* is about Meredith.
I don't even get the Meredith & Derek 'great love' thing. They were toxic as a couple. Meredith was a mess, and Derek wanted to 'fix' her (read, control her). I wish Shonda would write in some growth for Meredith, or at least have her confronted on her drinking and behaviour. She definitely needs help, but like a true narcissist, doesn't think *she* has a problem (Mer, that is - not Shonda).
Of course, it all makes for addictive drama, but I know one thing for sure - I would never want anyone in that hospital operating on as much as my little toe! They're all narcissists, with some extra personality disorders and addiction problems thrown in for good measure. Oh, the drama, lol!!!