A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

HE'S MY PATIENT! MY ENABLER! MY PATIENT! MY ENABLER! HE'S MY PATIENT AND MY ENABLER: Long ago, in an undergraduate architecture design studio, our professor brought in an architect to show some slides of his work. Upon reaching a picture of a large table topped by a huge single slab of wood with a prominent knotty hole in the center, he said one thing a designer needs to learn is to "make your mistakes your features."

Last night was the first night in a long time that I thoroughly enjoyed an episode of Grey's Anatomy, and while there were some things that predisposed me to like it -- a high Addison-to-Meredith ratio, a complete absence of Dr. Cartoon Autism, amusingly scene-chewing work by an unfortunately Botox-immobilized Faye Dunaway, and affecting work by a patient harking back to the work of a certain ALOTT5MA-enjoyed actor in a certain episode of a certain other program -- the main reason was, oddly, the treatment of the thing about which I usually complain. In the past, I've seen the show as a collection of abnormally self-involved characters only reluctantly turning their attention to the problems of others around them (both patients and colleagues), which turned me off. Last night was the first time I remember (and I fully accept that it may have happened before, but I'm dense) that the show fully committed itself to the idea that the characters' abnormal self-involvement is what causes the problems of others around them. Every principal character in the episode save last night's two heroes, Addison and Hunt, got so wrapped up in his or her own personal concerns that he or she couldn't help the people who needed it, even in obvious ways.

If the show is adopting this as a thesis, like The Sopranos adopted "people don't change," then the megalomania rampant at Seattle Grace becomes less an irritant than an accelerant, both something that drives the drama as small carelessnesses multiply into looming catastrophes and something that gives people, like Izzy in last night's episode, an enemy against which to strive. A mistake, to borrow a thought, that can become a feature. I hope last night wasn't just a happy accident.