Grey's Anatomy - Season 2

I've spent a feverish few days watching the Grey's Anatomy Season 2 DVDs and now that I've finished, I'm undergoing some form of withdrawal. It's a type of despair, knowing that now I have to pace myself and accept that the current Season 3 can only be seen one episode at a time. Perhaps it's better that way, though, as I've bitten down my nails while watching this very addictive show nonstop. This will give my nails and my nerves some much-needed relief.

It's another season at Seattle Grace Hospital as we follow five surgical interns through their good and bad decisions about their careers and lives. We open on the scene we left - Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) has learned that Derek Shepherd/McDreamy (Patrick Dempsey) is married and his wife, Addison (Kate Walsh), has come to win him back. To cope with this, Meredith looks longingly, drinks, sleeps around, and does an unforgivable thing to George (T.R. Knight). There's hope for Meredith, though, as McDreamy spends a lot of time looking like a kicked puppy as he watches her from across rooms (or elevators), and to make Meredith's choices complicated, we bring in Chris O'Donnell as a vet who accepts that she's "scary and damaged." Cristina (Sandra Oh) continues her relationship with attending Dr. Burke (Isaiah Washington), with all kinds of complications coming into play (as if there wasn't enough making things complicated simply given their natures and jobs). Rather than leave poor George alone to wrestle with his longing for Meredith, he's given a love interest named Dr. Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez)... while he continues to wrestle with his longing for Meredith. Izzie (Katherine Heigl) and Alex (Justin Chambers) also deal with their relationship, which twists, turns and then backflips when Izzie falls for heart-transplant patient Denny (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Dr. Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson) has a baby and fights being "mommy-tracked" while we learn more about Chief Webber (James T. Pickens) and his association with Meredith's mom, the great Dr. Alice Grey who now has Alzheimer's.

Yes, there's a lot of romance and drama, but there's something great about watching an episode that you think is good enough to be the season finale and you're only on disc three of six. Each actor has something to sink his or her teeth into this season and what makes this compelling television is that you can understand their choices (good or bad) because they're responding as people, not just characters swept up in a plot. Christina Ricci (who plays a paramedic in a fantastic storyline involving unexploded amunition in a patient) says to George, "You think you're going to be the kind of person who stays and does something. You know, the good man in the storm. I'm a paramedic. I'm suposed to stay and do something, and I ran away." This is a huge statement for this season -- every person is dealing with what they should run away from or what they should run towards. In the last episode, we deal with the real "fight or flight" response and the consequences of our choices. The season ends with Izzie saying, "I'd rather be running towards someone than running away" and pretty much every character has to make a similar decision for themselves.

While you're waiting for someone to run towards, go run and watch this season. You won't be disappointed.