Must see TV

Let me preface this by saying I know its television.

I know that what I see in a TV show is not the real thing.

I know that Grey’s Anatomy is not a show about real doctors in a real world. I get it. I’m not an idiot.

But in the way that art imitates life; in the way that you can recognize love in the relationship between two characters on screen; in the way that tensions found between a character’s problems can feel like ours; in the way that you can understand the complexities of fictitious people with virtually no back story; we are able to see truths just about anywhere.

And it doesn’t take great art. It is most stunning in our masterpieces, of course, but what isn’t? We are able to see ourselves or the world in a Kelly Clarkson song as we do in Waiting for Godot.

But Grey’s Anatomy has things to say about doctors. In tonight’s season finale, we learn that George gets to take the test again. The test he failed in last season’s finale. The one he took after his Dad died.

It isn’t that I expect others to cut him some slack (though I do [this is a show about extraordinarily compassionate doctors, after all]) as much as it is about decency, fairness, and true scientific reasoning. If the profession wanted the most passionate, driven, dependable, talented, and skilled doctors they could find, they wouldn’t be afraid of seeing themselves as susceptible to the weaknesses of the human condition. Because that is the doctor’s blind spot, isn’t it? That notion that he or she is deserving of the same respect they give out (or lack there of).

We strive to push our doctors to the verge of the breaking point and pretend that we are making the ones that don’t collapse stronger and the ones that do, well…they must be the runts of the litter anyway. It is the same idea as keeping a prisoner awake for 30-40 hours, torturing them half of that time, and expecting the words to come out of them to be useful. It is the same idea as making standardized testing so important that kids are willing to plagiarize and cheat without conscience to get the scores that will get them into Mommy and Daddy’s favorite college. Could it be that the medical system has an incredible flaw in its fundamental logic?

Yes, it is just TV, but sometimes I wonder.