History YMMV / GreysAnatomy

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap:
** Izzie's cancer subplot granted her a brief reprieve from the bile that was coming from mostly everyone at the time, but as the subplot dragged on and on and it became clear that she would be undergoing very little CharacterDevelopment, she became less sympathetic again. Creator/KatherineHeigl's frankly obnoxious wishy-washy behavior during the sixth season (forcing everyone to accommodate her schedule, refusing to give a definitive answer to ''anyone'' about whether or not she was staying with the show, forcing a large number of re-writes when she asked to be let out of her contract before she could be written out for real at the end of the season) pretty much sealed the deal regarding how everyone feels about the character.
** Of the five new interns introduced in Season 9, Jo is the only one who's managed to find ''some'' fans (read: the only one who is not absolutely despised), thanks to her interesting backstory and her storylines as an intern/resident being funny rather than frustrating as they usually are for rookie characters. Not to mention her [[BirdsOfAFeather chemistry with Alex]].

** At the end of season seven Meredith tampers with Derek's Alzheimers trial and gets caught by Alex, who later on (and while drunk) reports it to Owen because Alex is worried that Meredith will be named chief resident. The truth thus comes out, and it leads to everyone being really mad at... Alex. Meredith broke the law, her actions put the hospital and Derek at risk of being blacklisted by the FDA, it's deeply unethical and unfair to the person who would have gotten the drug if Meredith hadn't switched the bags around (not to mention all the people who won't get the drug anymore once the trial is shut down) and in real life Meredith would have lost her medical license over this. Derek is furious with her for a couple of episodes and Bailey reacts the way you might expect a sane person to. Everyone else is furious with Alex, going so far as to putting all the blame on him for the fallout, including accusing him of getting Meredith fired when that was 100 % her own fault. Meredith too joins in on blaming Alex for the whole thing and Owen chooses not to appoint Alex chief resident because he ratted out Mere, when you would think that finding out that another surgeon broke the law and keeping quiet about it would be a much worse decision. Cristina even ends up accidentally stabbing Alex with an injection of adrenaline, and while it might make sense that she sides with Meredith in this situation nobody else has any reason to do so. The take-away message seems to be that if you catch someone red-handed breaking the law you should keep it to yourself, because if you don't you are a bad person and any repercussions suffered by the person who broke the law is entirely your fault.

** The solution to season 9's problem? Have Catherine Avery come and offer to have the Avery Foundation buy the hospital.

** The music in the back half of season 10 is almost entirely acoustic '80s covers.

** [[CoolOldGuy Dr. Thomas]] in season 9. It helps that he was played by Creator/WilliamDaniels.

* GrowingTheBeard: Grows it (season 2), shaves it off (season 4), grows it again (season 6 finale, widely seen as revitalizing the show), shaves it off again (season 8 finale/season 9 premier, [[spoiler: in which Lexie and Mark are killed off]]), starts to grow it ''yet again'' (season 11) and then shaves it off dry ([[spoiler: the death of Derek Shepherd]]). Slowly grows it back by (season 14) when it's generally considered the dark period after ([[spoiler: Derek's death]])has ended, before Covid-19(season 17) practically melts it off. Possibly growing it again (season 19) with a huge new cast and new status quo.

** In the Season Six Finale episodes, one of ''Grey's'' infamous periodic disasters (this time a shooting), Meredith is explaining to Cristina what being the godmother to her child means, to which Cristina replies, "OK, so, if you and Derek are in a plane crash and die, the kid is ''mine''?", happy that they're placing so much trust in her. It's a joking line, if a bit dark, but it's placed firmly in this category once the ''next'' disaster to strike the Grey's team comes along: [[spoiler:a plane crash. In which Cristina, Derek, and Meredith are all involved and injured. Oh, and Lexie is killed]].

** In the season 8 Valentine's Day episode, Lexie debates with herself on whether or not to tell Mark that she's still in love with him. She makes a crack about how she better do it because "if you don't say it, you bleed out and die." [[spoiler:Guess who gets ''crushed by a plane'' a few episodes later?]]

** In the sixth episode Izzie teases [[spoiler:George that he needs to ask Meredith out before he dies. George yells back "I'm not dying!" He dies in the season five finale and no, he never did ask Meredith out. However, he did sleep with her, she cried, it was very awkward, and he ended up meeting Callie and getting over Meredith.]]

** In season 2 when the interns are working on Denny alone, Meredith asserts that "no-one is leaving and no-one is dying" -- a MeaningfulEcho comes many seasons later in season 9 with Meredith saying that "everyone is leaving and everyone is dying": at this point, every single person she had spoken to the first time had either left (Izzie and Cristina) or died (Denny and George).
** Derek in season 2 when a restaurant gets shot up reflecting on how awful it is to just be at work one minute and having a bullet in you the next is harsher when you learn that his dad died by a shooter coming into his shop and shooting him in front of Derek and Amelia -- and then worse come season 6 when a shooter comes into the hospital looking for Derek himself.

** In a season 5 episode, Arizona says to Alex, "I wish that you could just get organs delivered instead of having to go and pick them up, you know? I hate flying. I always feel much closer to death on a plane than I do in the OR." Come the end of season 8, [[spoiler: it turns out her fear was justified. At least they weren't going to pick up organs on that flight.]]

** In season 4, Erica Hahn returns to perform a heart surgery, which Izzie and Cristina immediately volunteer to scrub in on. Hahn tells Cristina she won't be able to impress Hahn by sleeping with her (like Burke and Marlow) because Hahn dates men. [[spoiler: Try not to laugh at this scene after you've heard Hahn's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqrwo6UBefk | Leaves on Trees]] speech from the following season.]]

* IKnewIt: Before season 9 even aired, everyone was saying that the return of [[spoiler: Richard's wife Adele]] [[BackForTheDead would be her last]].

* {{Narm}}: Meredith's crying when she [[spoiler: finds Lexie dead under plane wreckage]] which is weird seeing as she's had some non-narmy crying scenes in the past. It's also hard not to cringe and/or laugh during the season six finale when Mer cries over Derek in the operating room in the most unauthentic, overblown fashion possible.

** Of the five new interns introduced in season 9, Jo is the only one who's managed to find ''some'' fans (read: the only one who is not absolutely despised), thanks to her interesting backstory and her storylines as an intern/resident being funny rather than frustrating as they usually are for rookie characters. Not to mention her [[BirdsOfAFeather chemistry with Alex]].

** Callie in season 12. Many fans were disgusted by her behavior towards Arizona, particularly forcing her to go to court over custody for Sofia, arguing that she's Sofia's true mother because she gave birth to her, and playing the victim card when Arizona ultimately wins custody.
** Eliza Minnick in season 13.

** [[spoiler: The fire and smoke in the last two episodes of season 13.]] It's real, but how controlled it is, well, you can tell easily there's no real danger.

** And season 7 has Cristina even more Woobie-ish after having a HeroicBSOD during an operation when a loud bang from an accident paralyzes her with fear, as a result of the hospital shooting. And more recently, her going practically catatonic in season 9 for weeks after the plane crash.

** Eliza Minnick is fired at the end of season 13. Come season 14, she breaks up with Arizona in the shittiest way possible, and nobody has anything nice to say about the changes she implemented. Webber and Bailey are particularly scornful.

** Owen in seasons 8/9: Stressful job that he's really unprepared for, loses his best friend, his marriage is falling apart partly due to the abortion, becomes TheScapegoat being blamed for the plane crash which causes him to lose another friend and his part in it may cause the hospital to go bankrupt.
** Amelia Sheperd. Between her tragic backstory when she was little, the horrific events of Series/PrivatePractice, and in season 11 [[spoiler:the death of Derek]], her life has been nothing but tragedies. As she sarcastically puts it:

* AcceptableTargets:
** The rapist whose [[spoiler: penis was bitten off by his would-be victim]] is treated with pretty much the exact amount of tact and sympathy you'd expect anyone to have for somebody in that situation.
** Nurses, apparently. Being called a nurse is treated like a grievous insult, and when Bailey gets attracted to Eli, a nurse, she struggles a whole lot with it. When asked whether she is dating a nurse she denies it adamently, insisting that she would never stoop so low. It is also actually Nurse Eli who figures out how to minimize the risk of post-op pancreatic fistulas, but Bailey gets all the credit because she is the doctor who noticed that he had figured it out. In general nurses are treated like less valuable than doctors, while any real doctor knows that nurses are just as important. In real life, a lot of what the surgeons do on the show would be done by a nurse.

* GrowingTheBeard: Grows it (season 2), shaves it off (season 4), grows it again (season 6 finale, widely seen as revitalizing the show), shaves it off again (season 8 finale/season 9 premier, [[spoiler: in which Lexie and Mark are killed off]]), starts to grow it ''yet again'' (season 11) and then shaves it off dry ([[spoiler: the death of Derek Shepherd]]).

* AuthorsSavingThrow: After how controversial the reaction to the death of [[spoiler:Derek in the Eleventh Season]] was, it seems that the show's staff has taken the hint from the reaction, as later main cast departures afterwards have been viewed as less mean-spirited and don't involve them getting killed off, but rather choosing to leave Grey Sloan in-story.

* IdiotPlot:
** Season 9's plot of the hospital possibly being closed down or sold because of the lawsuit, when the easy solution would just be for the people who just won millions of dollars ''each'' to [[JustEatGilligan either buy the hospital themselves or donate some of the money]]. Though everyone knows this is bound to happen, so why brother dragging it out? RuleOfDrama.
** Season 15/16's insurance fraud plot, which wasted a lot of time acting like Meredith would actually face any real consequences for her actions. Not only is she the main character, the series had already been renewed for Season 17!

* WhatAnIdiot: Meredith, after tampering with the Alzheimer's trial, adamantly insists that nothing that she did affects the outcome of the trial.

* AlasPoorScrappy: Well, it'd be an understatement to say that the Mercy Westers were unpopular both in universe and with the fans, but I bet no one wanted to see [[spoiler: Reed and Charles shot dead during the hospital shooting]].
** You'd be surprised. It prompted a TakeThatScrappy reaction for just as many.

* TheSociopath: Did Ellis Grey really care about her patients, helping the sick, and relieving suffering, or was her focus really on showing everyone what a great doctor she was?

** Christina very clearly crosses the line when she ''tampers with an organ transplant list'' so that [[MoralMyopia her patient (who she is in love with) will be saved instead of the father of three ahead of him on the list]]. Not only does she get away with this, but the man she stole the heart from actually ''dies''. The only bit of retribution she gets for this is that [[AllForNothing the man she tried to save dies of a stroke shortly afterwards.]]

* DesignatedHero: Pretty much ''all'' of the surgeons come off as this from time to time. The show seems adamant that surgeons are allowed to do whatever they want and ignore the wishes of their patients, and frequently shows them doing things that would get real doctors fired or arrested. Like stealing organs from patients, [[ItsAllAboutMe coercing patients to give up a transplant for ''their'' patient]], misplacing body parts, and ignoring family member' wishes. Surgeons are so self-obsessed in this world that they are effectively allowed to ''indirectly murder'' people for personal gain, so long as they feel bad about it afterwards.

** Maggie's GenkiGirl personality, neurotic behavior and tendency to blurt whatever comes to mind makes her practically a posterchild. Doubly so during Season 14, when she unknowingly eats a weed cookie and her quirkiness is cranked [[UpToEleven up to eleven.]] She's convinced she doesn't need her neck anymore and goes on a loving diatribe about all her favorite kinds of cheese, among other things.

* TheSociopath: Does Ellis Grey really care about her patients, helping the sick, and relieving suffering, or is her focus really focus on showing everyone what a great doctor she is?

** The first season finale combines this with FoeYay for Alex and George. We're treated to such lovely scenes as George dropping his pants for Alex to inspect his junk close-up, and later George tackling Alex shouting "You gave me syphilis!" (Now, the fact that he meant that he got it from a ''woman'' Alex had previously slept with isn't of any relevance here).'

* FunnyAneurysmMoment:

* GrowingTheBeard: Grows it (season 2), shaves it off (season 4), grows it again (season 6 finale, widely seen as revitalizing the show), shaves it off again (season 8 finale/season 9 premier, [[spoiler: in which Lexie and Mark are killed off]]), starts to grow it ''yet again'' (season 11) and then shaves it off dry ([[spoiler: the death of Derek Shepherd]]).
* HarsherInHindsight:

* {{Flanderization}}: As with most long running shows, this trope pops up from time to time. Though one stand-out example is Dr. Sidney Heron, who first appears in season two as the interns' temporary resident during Bailey's maternity leave. In her first two episodes she is extremely bubbly and peppy, having the motto "healing with love", and more or less treating the interns like she's their kindergarden teacher. However, she is also shown as being a very intelligent and capable surgeon, who has a lot of substance beneath the seemingly naïve and infantile surface. But by her third appearance, those traits seem to have mostly vanished, leaving only the peppy kindergarden teacher persona.

** More recently, there's Jackson/Maggie for the Jackson/April fans. The fact the couple made it official the same day that it was announced that Sarah Drew (April) was fired from the show did not help matters and fans speculate that Drew, who had no intentions to leave, was cut to allow Jackson and Maggie to thrive.

** Owen is called out for not going to see his ex-girlfriend while she is going through severe depression. When he points out that she cheated on him, and that he is in no way obligated to see her, the person arguing with him brings up how people forgave him for accidentally choking his girlfriend while waking up from a PTSD nightmare. Not only are these two scenarios completely different, but his ex-girlfriend cheated on Owen by her own volition, and her bout of depression is completely unrelated. When Owen calls her out for bringing that up so casually (let alone at all), she retorts that she isn’t saying it casually, and Owen agrees to go see his ex. Aside from the InsaneTrollLogic that Owen’s PTSD is at all comparable to being a cheater, bringing up someone’s mental disorder to make a point is extremely disrespectful.

** Owen is called out for not going to see his ex-girlfriend while she is going through severe depression. When he points out that she cheated on him, and that he is in no way obligated to see her, the person arguing with him brings up how people forgave him for accidentally choking his girlfriend while waking up from a PTSD nightmare. Not only are these two scenarios completely different, but his ex-girlfriend cheated on Owen by her own volition, and her bout of depression is completely unrelated. When Owen calls her out for bringing that up so casually (let alone at all), she retorts that she isn’t saying it casually, and Owen agrees to go see his ex. Aside from TheInsaneTrollLogic that Owen’s PTSD is at all comparable to being a cheater, bringing up someone’s mental disorder to make a point is extremely disrespectful.

** Season 15/16's insurance fraud plot, which wasted a lot of time acting like Meredith would actually face any real consequences for her actions. Not only is she the main character, the series had already been renewed for Season 17!

** InformedWrongness:
* Owen is called out for not going to see his ex-girlfriend while she is going through severe depression. When he points out that she cheated on him, and that he is in no way obligated to see her,

{{Squick}}: In Season 4's "Forever Young", a cheerleader is amongst the casualties in a bus crash, with a damaged face and "a broken butt" that needs surgery. Alex, at one point makes a comment about seeing a "hot cheerleader ass". Said cheerleader is a ''teenager''.