Grey’s Anatomy: Why The Show Made Amelia The Anti-House

Grey’s Anatomy turned fan-favorite doctor Amelia Shepherd into an inverse take on House, thanks to a tragically revealed brain tumor. The beloved medical drama on ABC has run for eighteen seasons, never failing to inject the story with just the right doses of high stakes and heart-wrenching suspense. Even after two decades, Grey’s Anatomy remains one of the most popular shows on American network television.

The brilliant neurosurgeon Amelia Shepherd was promoted to series regular status in season 11 of Grey’s Anatomy, after several guest appearances – in addition to headlining the Grey’s Anatomy spin-off series Private Practice for six seasons. Amelia’s impulsive goes-with-her-gut attitude helped her save the lives of many patients over the years, but it also got Amelia into trouble more often than not. In season 14, episode 2, ‘Get Off On The Pain,’ Amelia—and audiences—finally got an answer for her behavior: Amelia has had an undiagnosed brain tumor sitting in her head for 10 years.

The shocking and ironic twist puts a brilliant spin on the classic “doctor as savant” trope seen in popular television programs like House M.D. or The Good Doctor. There’s always one doctor on every hospital drama who is so innately daring that they end up pulling off surgeries, solutions, and stunts that everyone else thought impossible, or at the very least totally crazy. Before her diagnosis in Grey’s Anatomy, Amelia was just the latest in a long line of savant doctors. However, the revelation of her brain tumor turns the trope on its head, making her status as the “doctor as savant” painfully realistic for Grey’s Anatomy audiences.

Amelia’s brain tumor grounds her behavior in a very real context, making her drastically different from, say, Dr. House, whose prophet-like talents are largely unexplained. Her impulsive and brash methods are revealed not to be the machinations of some fantastical medical genius, but the cognitive malfunctions of a sick person. It manages to subvert the tendencies of the genre in order to deliver the human drama that Grey’s Anatomy fans have come to expect. That doesn’t mean a character like Dr. House is entirely devoid of drama or interest. Viewers of the House TV series know very well how Dr. House, the brilliant diagnostician who even went to jail, is haunted by addiction. However, Dr. House’s illness is often portrayed as the unfortunate price he pays for his brilliance, while Amelia’s behavior is revealed as a byproduct of the illness itself.

Amelia’s brain tumor makes her the anti-House and sets Grey’s Anatomy apart from the very large pack of medical dramas that dominate network, cable, and streaming TV. While other shows derive nearly otherworldly drama from the tortured brilliance of their doctors, the doctors at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, on the other hand, are thoroughly and devastatingly human.

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