“How to Save a Life”: On Grey’s Anatomy and the Logics of Televisual Alleviation in a Time of Crisis

Abstract

This article examines the representation of the COVID-19 global public health crisis on U.S. network television medical dramas. Programs featuring healthcare professionals like Chicago Med (NBC, 2015-present), The Good Doctor (ABC, 2017–2024), and New Amsterdam (NBC, 2018–2023) depicted the devastation of the pandemic and the plight of the frontline healthcare community to viewers at home through the fictional hospital. In particular, Grey’s Anatomy (ABC, 2005–present) produced a “very special season” dedicated to portraying COVID’s toil. I argue that the primetime doctor show attempted to lessen the pain of COVID’s impact by presenting its audience-as-patient with a way to manage their emotions around loss through narrative catharsis. The program adheres to a logic of alleviation in its care work for viewers. Such a tele-therapeutic strategy of engagement on the long-running Grey’s Anatomy, amidst mass suffering and death, also served to revive the series as compelling broadcast television in the streaming era.