Monday, January 30, 2012

What if 'Grey's Anatomy' was 'Webber's Anatomy?'

What if Grey's Anatomy's lead character wasn't Meredith Grey, but instead, was Meredith . . . Webber?

What if Meredith and Alex were a couple? If Ellis and Richard got married? If Callie and Owen got married and had three kids, the children for which Owen has been pining? If Derek and Addison didn't divorce but instead stayed together and Addison was pregnant with Derek's baby?

This week's Grey's Anatomy takes a little spin down the road of "what if. . ." And this spin seems promising.

What if Richard had left Adele for Ellis and became the loving father Meredith has always craved, instead of one who was AWOL from her life, was an alcoholic and who was verbally abusive to Meredith? What if Ellis never got Alzheimer's and was a loving, supportive mother instead of one who always criticized her daughter and who cared more about surgeries than her kid? How would all of this have affected the dark and twisty Meredith Grey we've come to know and love for eight seasons? Would she have turned out to be a different person?

Every character has had his or her life story changed in some fashion -- some greatly, others not so much. Based on the 10-minute excerpt that ABC has released, this episode appears to be shaping up to be an It's a Wonderful Life kind of look at how everybody's life affects others tremendously, whether we realize it or not. But instead of George Bailey being shown by an angel-in-training what the world would've been like had he never been born, we get to see what Seattle Gracers would've been like had they made different choices and/or had their life's circumstances be altered.

I'm hopeful that the full episode will be as fun as the clip.

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