Grey's Anatomy/Headscratchers

• So, has Seattle Grace simply stopped performing cardiothoracic surgeries? After Dr Burke left, Dr Dixon didn't take the position of Head of Cardiothoracics, and now Christina is putting in penile implants while whining that there is no cardio God to learn from. Surely heart surgery is a major part of any hospital's workload, but we're given no hint of who is performing them, or why Christina isn't assisting them.
  • Didn't Hahn replace Burke?
    • She did for a while, but left Seattle Grace in season 5. In the beginning of season 6, there is no Head of Cardio as far as I know.
      • There's a new one now I forget her name
      • That would be Dr Teddy Altman
• Izzie's crying... it annoys me
• Seriously, how many tragedies can happen to one person in a space of six years? Pretty much everybody has it hard, but Meredith and Izzy are the worst offenders here. It's definitely not realistic and it's not moving nor dramatic anymore. Now it's just like "Gee, I wonder what kind of terrible event will happen to Meredith today"? Even her friggin dog have died!
  • Even worse when you realize it's only actually been around 2 years. (seasons 1-3 were all their intern year, and if you look closely you'll notice that seasons change based on this, and that holidays aren't repeated in this time.) The number of major catastrophes that have happened at that hospital- Cut LVAD wires, Bombs, Ferry Boat crashes, Crashed ambulances, Flooded pipes, Interns cutting each other open, and finally a crazed gunman on the loose- I probably would have run far far faaar away by now.
  • Not speaking as to the improbability of major catastrophes happening to one hospital, personal tragedies can stack up. To recap my year: dead dog, father diagnosed with cancer, miscarriage, father died, other dog got cancer, another miscarriage, best friend died. So, y'know, shit happens.
  • And I lost my dad, grandmother, dog (the day after my dad died, seriously) and a couple of fish in the space of ONE MONTH. So it definitely can happen.
• The Shonda Rhimes school of TV writing: Crap out a script, and when it comes up short, have a character repeat their line over and over again every scene.
• The fact that every single episode needs to have a one-in-a-million case, cutting-edge procedure or major catastrophe (or preferrably any combination of the three). ER, Scrubs and even House do a wonderful job of having interesting, moving episodes without having super-duper-special things happening every week. It's as if the writers know that their characters aren't interesting enough and their writing isn't good enough to produce compelling episodes without something really outrageous happening.
  • In addition, it bugs me that none of the attendings can be simply decent, good or even great at their job. They have to be the best in their particular field at all times. Seattle Grace has the best pediatric surgeon, neuro surgeon, cardio-thoracic surgeon, plastic surgeon, trauma surgeon and orthopedic surgeon in the entire universe. With all that awesomeness and all those "this procedure has only been done once before in the world and I am one of few surgeons on the globe qualified to do it" operations how is it that the characters are also worried because Seattle Grace's ranking has dropped?
• I can understand Gary Clark's motivation at seeking revenge (well, actually... no, I can't. He was needlessly excessive and broad in his violence, supposedly directed at one man he held personally responsible); what I can't understand at all is his wife's original doctors never properly explaining what a Do Not Resuscitate order covers. He seemed to be under the assumption that his wife only wanted to be taken off life support if she was on it due to complications from her illness. That's not how DNRs work. At any time for the rest of her life (or until she signed something revoking her standing DNR), any medical professional treating her would have to respect the order she signed. The fact that her husband didn't understand his wife's own wishes is more his own fault than any doctor's.
• Can someone please explain the merger to me? Ok, so: Chief Weber is being fired/demoted because Seattle Grace's ranking has dropped. So he therefore arranges a merger with Grace and Mercy West. It's unclear what this is supposed to achieve. They don't seem to need the money; we are told that revenues are up except for elective procedures, the clinic is turning a profit, and in any event I'm not sure how the merger would save money. Further more, money wasn't an issue so much as prestige; would adding (say) the #20 program to the #12 program up the rating, rather than drive it towards the average of the two? This is further compounded by the Chief demanding that Derek not remove the perfect tumor from the MRI guy, even though he urged Baily to remove another inoperable tumor because doing so would help the ratings. The entire arc doesn't make a lick of sense to me.
• Also, doesn't Chief of Surgery just mean "in charge of the surgeons"? The way they talk, it makes it sound like he's the Chief of Medicine. It's a surgeon's show, I know, but there are other departments in the hospital.
• How do these people keep their jobs? If my coworkers or I acted anything like these guys we would be fired. Don't get me wrong - I love the show. It's just that everyone acts like they're ten years old instead of adults. Most normal businesses wouldn't put up with that crap for ten minutes.
  • Meredith should have lost her license for tampering with the drug trial. Instead she got fired and acted like she had been wronged. Somehow Webber managed to take the fall for the whole thing saying Mere was covering for him even though Alex testified that he saw Meredith switching the drugs, and Webber isn't fired. Talk about ultimate job security.
• Where did Owen's PTSD go? I know there was a big thing about him getting over it, but you don't GET over PTSD, you just learn to live with it. There should still be some signs, and I can't see ANY in Season Eight.
• Really, Teddy? You hate Owen because he, and I paraphrase, "put the needs of your hospital before the needs of my husband"? He's Chief of Surgery, it's his job to make these decisions, he gets paid to put the needs of his hospital first. And you yourself admitted that Henry was a dead man walking and that nothing more could've been done. So you're going to turn on your best friend, and tell him that he's a bad person and deserves to die... because... he's good at his job??