Dead Denny just one symptom of ‘Grey's’ woes

Not to be forgotten is the “ending” to the abortive romance between Callie and Hahn, which started with a kiss in last season’s finale and presented the possibility of an actual adult romance between interesting and strong women. Things began to go awry when a potentially funny sideline about Callie seeking sex advice from Sloan turned salacious and uncomfortably specific. Suddenly, with no plausible buildup, Hahn and her portrayer Brooke Smith disappeared entirely — from the romance, from the hospital, and from the show, among rumors that ABC blinked at the lesbian storyline.

The obligation of a drama is to be a good drama, not necessarily to serve social purposes. But when your show is as high-profile as “Grey’s,” and when that show has a history of losing Isaiah Washington, who never recovered after uttering an alleged on-set homophobic slur (and then re-uttering it at the Golden Globes in a rather horrifying attempt to be funny), you have to treat your first major gay relationship with a modicum of care, and the show didn’t. Choosing not to pursue the story is fine; banishing a character into a parking lot as if it’s a “Twilight Zone” cornfield is not.

As was the case when Heigl complained about the writing, the handling of the Callie/Hahn story seemed to foster bad feelings behind the scenes. When Patrick Dempsey was asked to comment on Smith’s departure during an appearance on “Ellen,” he pulled out a paper and read what he said was a network-provided response, dripping contempt from every word.

There’s more. T.R. Knight, who has played George since the series pilot, is widely reported to be negotiating an exit from the show — not an unreasonable decision, given that George has done nothing this season except sit by while Lexie looks at him moony-eyed. And even that story seems abandoned now that she’s chasing Sloan.

Glimmers of hope
Ultimately, the problem lies in the writing. The actors still work together well, and some of the characters have deep reserves of possibility. Chandra Wilson as Bailey is still one of the finest and funniest actresses on television, and Eric Dane as Sloan is an underappreciated comedian who plays a delightful winking lech and shouldn’t be stuck acting like a genuinely predatory lech.

If these poor choices are ratings stunts, they’re not working. Viewers have left since last year, and they’ve left since the start of the season.

But all is not yet lost. There are glimmers of hope when the show focuses on the fundamentals of the relationships it’s taken care to build — Meredith and Cristina’s friendship; the residents’ ever-prickly relationship with Bailey and her similarly complex interaction with the Chief. Even romantically, if Izzie weren’t distracted by Denny’s ghost, there would be some appeal in the way Alex has finally started trying to pull himself together and be a potentially good boyfriend to her — a glimmer of growth that has been lost in the Dead Denny Shuffle.

There are rumors that Heigl is on her way out and that Knight may be gone soon, but what the show needs is not a different set of characters. It needs better writing. No one expects “Grey’s Anatomy” to be “Mad Men,” but there’s enough talent for a pretty satisfying soapy drama if the dead sex partners, secret surgeries, and backstage squabbling will get out of the way.

Linda Holmes is a writer in Washington, D.C.

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