Greetings, reader!
Almost two years ago, I started to watch Grey's Anatomy from the beginning. Now, I'm all caught up (well, okay, I haven't seen the brand-new 21st season yet as it hasn't been released on streaming, but still, I watched 20 seasons and I think I deserve a medal for this). There are many, many top-list-worthy topics concerning the by-now legendary medical drama, so the entire month of May 2025 will be dedicated to Grey's Anatomy -posts; I'll be looking at the show's best episodes, characters and much more. To kick off this theme month, here's my ranking of all 20 seasons!
A spoiler alert is in order, as I'll be discussing specific events and plot turns.
20. Season 16
Yeah, this is where things got really bad before they started to look up again (to some degree, at least). While no season of the series is completely bad, the sixteenth one is the closest it gets - between Bailey suddenly running the hospital like an authoritarian tyrant, Richard playing with fire and purposefully miscommunicating to cause drama in his marriage and Alex being written off in a very "f**k the viewers, the sixteen-year character growth meant nothing" manner, the season temporarily ruined some of my very favorite characters.
There must have been some major changes in the writing team behind the scenes, because the season is riddled with inconsistent and disloyal character writing. Also, the overall decline in quality when it comes to dialogue and production values is noticeable here as the show appears to simply care less. The episode My Shot, with Meredith fighting to keep her license and the medical community rallying to help her in a touching manner, is a standout episode that more or less keeps the season from being terrible.
19. Season 20
Assuming you've made it this far in the show and are looking for positives, there's surprisingly much to like about season 20 - on paper, at least. Ideas like "Let's have the season be 10 episodes long instead of the usual 20+" and "Now that Meredith was written out but Ellen Pompeo didn't want to fully leave after all, let's have the former protagonist be a recurring character who appears in half the episodes" seem fresh enough. The problem is that, while these ideas might be what keeps the season from being bad, they in of themselves don't do much to make it good either. Thus, season 20 ends up being quite bland and neutral.
There are high points (I found the episode with the suicidal patient to be very sensitively and powerfully done, and the season finale ends on a properly dramatic note), but they are scarce and few. Most of the season is semi-dull - the story is well-thought-out enough to not piss one off like the storytelling choices in season 16, but it's not especially attention-grabbing or fascinating either. That being said, I will be tuning in to see season 21 when it arrives on streaming, but that's just my personal insanity.
18. Season 18
The biggest negative for the eighteenth season isn't any individual storyline or episode, but rather the fact that it is the eighteenth season, meaning that no matter how hard the production team would try to make the series feel fresh (and honestly, they could've tried harder), some elements will feel tired and rehashed no matter what. It does feel like a series in its eighteenth season, and especially for a show as formulaic as Grey's, that can't be an especially good thing.
However, it's not all bad - in addition to my completist nature and morbid curiosity, the third big reason why I wanted to watch the whole thing through was that it remained worth watching despite the inevitable quality decline, especially when you're as invested in the characters and long-term storylines as a viewer like myself is bound to be. Season 18 did provide its share of highpoints to keep me committed to continue the viewing process, such as the return of Meredith's best post-Derek love interest Nick who joins the main cast, and the season finale (also the show's 400th episode) being a brilliant walk down memory lane, with myriads of sentimental fan service moments.
17. Season 19
Now, season 19 may not be a masterpiece, but it was a surprising breath of fresh air after the few that came before it. This is thanks to many things, but the biggest individual element is definitely the new batch of interns - in a time when many beloved characters had either left the show or were just hanging out with their most interesting archs and storylines behind them, we're suddenly introduced to five new interns who, against the expectations for a show in its nineteenth season, are all interesting and fleshed-out characters. Although the series was at a place where as much thought isn't put into dialogue, patient storylines and consistency as in the show's prime, a lot of thought clearly was put into these new characters, and they feel like a very welcome jolt of energy into the series.
The first episode of the season is one of the best episodes from the show's sunset years, as they found many clever and nostalgic ways to mirror the pilot episode and first season of the show - managing to feel more like a homage and less like a copycat, the writers find delightful parallels between the personalities and life situations of the five new interns and those of the iconic quintet who we started off with in season 1. The callbacks to the first episode range from funny to endearing and powerful - my heart almost stopped when Lucas Adams spoke out the iconic "It's a beautiful day to save lives" quote in the O.R., with the dialogue right after that revealing in a profound manner that he is the late Derek Shepherd's nephew and that Derek was his hero and the reason he became a doctor. Good stuff, and the fresh storylines of the new interns more or less make up for an otherwise somewhat generic and forgettable season!
16. Season 15
One cannot overstate how much season 15 is carried by Silent All These Years, a top 3 episode for the entire series. It's not like it'd be a bad season without it - but it would be a very, very subpar one. The season opens with a void-like feeling after the departures of April and Arizona, and takes its sweet time getting back into rhythm and properly ushering in the new characters like Link. Even the better episodes are quite mediocre in the grand scheme of things - that is, until we get to Silent All These Years, a dark and touching masterpiece that singlehandedly puts season 15 ahead of the very worst ones.
The rest of the season is alright, made somewhat better due to the aftermath of that episode (Jo Wilson's character development leading up to it and after it is pretty great). The season's endgame definitely isn't among the show's best (after surviving the plane crashes, explosions and mass shootings, an intense fog doesn't really feel like anything), but also isn't among the worst (Bailey firing three major characters, attendings no less, is quite the dramatic cliffhanger).
15. Season 13
There are two very clear elements that set season 13 apart, and form my opinion of that season specifically - and both of them are 50% positive and 50% negative. The first is multi-episode storylines that start off intriguing but conclude anticlimatically, and the second is sidequest episodes that are good but also highlight the show's overall decline.
To open these up a bit, I'll start with the storylines that begin with excitement but fall flat. One is Alex Karev's legal trouble - in the aftermath of him beating up Dr. DeLuca in the season 12, the season premiere follows his dramatic arrest, and the first several episodes that advance this storyline are quite riveting. However, the midseason finale ends the storyline in a very lazy fashion. The same phenomenon can be seen later in the season with the Dr. Minnick / "civil war" storyline - an attempt to reform Grey Sloan Memorial in a questionable way splits the beloved main cast in dramatic battle lines, and the storyline makes for some great drama. But again, it's resolved in a very anticlimactic fashion.
As for the second partially good and partially bad aspect of the season - I'm referring specifically to the episodes You Can Look (But You'd Better Not Touch) and Who Is He (And What Is He to You)?, the first of which follows Bailey, Arizona and Jo on a medical visit to a prison while the second one follows Jackson and April on a trip to (among other things) meet with Jackson's estranged father. Both episodes are good and among the season's best, but they really highlight how the show's overall quality had declined - if the main, hospital-centric storylines that the typical episodes revolve around were of the quality we had in the show's golden years, the sidequest episodes would cause a "man, I can't wait to return to see what's going on in the main storylines!" sense. However, a lot of the typical hospital drama in season 13 was semi-boring, which is why the sidequest episodes felt a bit too good - the show had started to become formulaic and generic enough, that just doing something different suddenly felt like a very fresh and welcome change of pace. That's never a great sign.
14. Season 11
We're now starting to get to the "very flawed and not in its prime, but pretty solid nonetheless" portion of the list. Season 11 has one of the weakest beginning acts of any Grey's season, with the Meredith-Maggie drama in the first three episodes feeling painfully forced and unimaginative. The season takes a turn with the episode Only Mama Knows, which fleshes out the Richard-Ellis lore in a powerful manner, and from thereon out, the season is quite alright.
Season 11 has its negatives (Derek's inconsistently written and out-of-character arch in the episodes before his death; the finale You're My Home being one of the weaker season endgames in the show), but dammit if it doesn't do some amazing heartstring-pulling in episodes like All I Could Do Was Cry (Jackson and April’s baby - Jesus, this show is cruel) and How To Save A Life (Derek's infamous death - I've understood it splits opinions, but I for one thought it was done quite well).
13. Season 12
Season 12 opens with Sledgehammer, one of the show's best season premieres, with its ultra-powerful LGBTQ+ patient story and the beautiful moment of manifested destiny as Miranda Bailey finally becomes chief of surgery.
For most of season 12, the series is pretty average - there aren't many bad episodes, but more mediocre ones than in previous seasons, despite some diamonds in the rough (Guess Who's Coming to Dinner is peak relationship drama). I didn't think the season would rank nearly this high on my list, but it really got its shit together towards the end - I'm not just talking about the season finale, but the several episodes leading up to it. Pretty much everyone in the loaded main cast gets an arch for the season's endgame, and this plethora of storylines comes beautifully together in the tear-jerking finale Family Affair.
12. Season 17
I'll just come out and say it - one of my many, many hot takes is that the notorious Covid season of Grey's Anatomy is actually pretty damn good.
First of all, let's address the Covid stuff. Every series that decided to include the pandemic in their canon polarized their fan base, but whether it's Brooklyn Nine-Nine or It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, I'm pretty much all for it in the cases I've come across. I'm the kind of viewer who just finds it really intriguing to see how a set of fictional characters I'm invested in would deal with the predicaments we all had to deal with in real life. And, I mean, it's a hospital series, so it would've almost felt weird not to address the pandemic.
Furthermore, by the time we get to season 17, the show had become generic and predictable enough that a true change of pace was very called-for. This far into the show, you get a lot of points for sticking out of the crowd and being memorable, and the Covid season certainly did that. I've also always liked the very left-leaning political messages of the series (I know, quite a shocker), so I respect season 17 for being the absolutely most socially charged season of the show. It wasn't just dealing with the pandemic - it was using its platform to raise awareness of the systemic injustices in the American medical system that made Covid so much more lethal to minorities.
Also, it's not just the Covid season - in fact, for a season so late in the show's trajectory, there were many individual elements that made it one of my favorites from the show's late era. We get the multi-episode storyline of Meredith in a coma, which gave us the beach sequences, a.k.a. the return of not one, two or three but four beloved actors whose characters had been killed off, and it feels like they all got a more proper send-off in these bittersweet sequences. We were also treated to one of the most shocking and heartbreaking character deaths in a series that really prides itself with brutal killings-off, as we said goodbye to Andrew DeLuca (R.I.P. legend). And last but not least - Jackson Avery, one of my favorite characters, is written off the series, getting one of the best and most heartfelt exit archs of the show. So, in conclusion - I sort of get why so many fans hate season 17, but for me it was a nice change of pace, an inspiration to my activist spirit, and a proper emotional roller coaster.
11. Season 10
Speaking of great character exits - the season 10 finale is where we say our goodbye to Dr. Cristina Yang. And with one sole exception, all the seasons with Yang are simply better than all the seasons without Yang.
The reason season 10 is slightly outside of my top ten is mainly that a certain degree of decline in overall quality was becoming visible - the past-its-prime signs had already been there during season 9, but here they really started to show, before escalating further in the post-Cristina seasons. Mind you, it's far from bad, but it just starts to feel like a clear drop from the greatness that was the show's 'golden era'. This can be seen in the dialogue, level and balance of main plotlines, and the fact that there are only a few great episodes amidst tons of semi-average ones.
But, oh man, those few in the midst - they are gold. The midseason finale Get Up, Stand Up is, in my opinion, the best moment for the romance aspect of the series, as it culminates in a hellishly powerful moment for Jackson and April, one of the show's greatest love stories. I cried like a baby when watching that unfold. Tears were also present in the season finale - after multiple episodes of building up Cristina's exit arch, Fear (of the Unknown) gives her a pitch-perfect departure. It's sad to see her go, but honestly, the exit is done so well that it's hard to feel too upset about it. That's how you write off a beloved character.
10. Season 4
The fourth season was one of the toughest ones to rank. You see, for the era of the series that it's in, it's remarkably subpar - whether it's the amount of great moments, the quality of the season's average episodes or the intrigue and entertainment value of the storylines, it's nowhere near as good as the three seasons that came before or the several that come after it. My initial impulse was to rank it even lower, because it was such a clear momentary drop in quality when watching.
However, I had to admit that even if it was strangely underwhelming for the early era of the series, it's still better television than pretty much any of the post-season-10 seasons. Even with its flaws, it's early Grey's Anatomy, which means that A) no storylines felt too repetitive, lazy or rehashed as they often might in the show's sunset years, and B) the main cast still had heavy-hitters like George O'Malley, Lexie Grey, Mark Sloan et cetera in the mix. So, yeah - it may be a somewhat uneventful season, with the only truly standout episode being the Crash Into Me two-parter, but it still gets a lot of points simply for lack of veering-on-jumping-the-shark material.
9. Season 9
Season 9 is where the slow, slow downhill of the show's quality begins, but it begins so subtly that it doesn't affect this season's quality all that much. Yes, it's not as good as the many before it, partially due to changes in the cast (Lexie and Mark were killed off in the season 8 finale and season 9 premiere respectively, and their dynamic star power was hard to replace), and partially due to the season simply having slightly less engaging storylines and episodes by average than seasons 5-8.
But still - for a show in its ninth season, it's remarkably fresh, especially when looking back on the 20-season perspective I recently gained (it's funny how for many shows, season 9 might be where the writers really run out of ideas, but after following Richard contemplate retirement for like the thirteenth time while Owen deals with his 1000th instance of marital issues, season 9 of this show honestly still feels like the nostalgic good ol' days). The ninth season is at its best about halfway through, when the aftermath of the season 8 plane crash gets to the point that the hospital is in danger of going out of business, and the series more or less turns into Succession for four of five episodes. Quality drama right there.
8. Season 1
Ah, season 1. I get why many fans would rank this cute nostalgia-fest even higher, and it's very possible that my own opinion would improve further upon re-watch. Based on my first viewing of the series, however, it can't help but fall a bit short of the show's prime. Mind you, it's still well in the better half of my ranking of an overall kick-ass series, because there's a lot to enjoy here. The core of the show's original premise (following the original group of five interns under Bailey's watch) is immensely enjoyable, and everything feels fresh and new for obvious reasons.
Still, there is room for growth - the season at its best is nowhere near the bombastic quality and masterpiece episodes that we'd get in later seasons, after the viewer has become more invested in the characters and many major storylines have been developed into fruition. Still, season 1 deserves a lot of thanks for starting that process, and giving us a cozy atmosphere and some iconic lines in the process.
7. Season 14
No, really!! I was as surprised as anyone to notice that the fourteenth season of Grey's Anatomy was so much better than it had any right to be. After many flawed seasons indicating that the drop in quality was irreversible, they pulled off this amazing individual season, only to return to the overall negative direction right after it. But, yeah, season 14 is pretty great, mainly thanks to an odd abundance of above-average episodes and storylines. The main cast, production values and dialogue were pretty much on par with the few seasons before this one, but there are more remarkable individual episodes and memorable moments here than in the three previous seasons combined.
The season starts out strong, with a four-episode arch focusing on major character Amelia Shepherd's brain tumor diagnosis and high-stakes surgery. Only a few episodes after this chain of events, we get Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story - the show's 300th episode, and one that celebrates the milestone in question with a brilliant blend of nostalgia, fan service and tribute to the show's core themes. Soon after this, we get 1-800-799-7233 and Personal Jesus, two consecutive episodes that aren't exactly a two-parter but have a lot in common, and they take the show's tear-jerking potential and hard-hitting real-life themes to a fucking extreme - three separate storylines in these two episodes manage to tackle police brutality, trans issues and domestic abuse, and all three themes are dealt with in a sensible and powerful manner.
After that, it keeps going! Again, there's just a few average episodes in between, and then we get to One Day Like This, a fantastic episode with Saul Rubinek's guest role as Rabbi Eli Rigler being one of the show's best one-episode-only characters and April Kepner's crisis-of-faith storyline taking a fantastic turn. Later, the season treats us to Judgment Day (season 14 episode 20, heh), the show's hands-down funniest episode by a long shot, as we follow the doctors at Grey Sloan getting accidentally high due to a hilarious chain of events. The season's penultimate episode, Cold As Ice, is an emotional powerhouse as April fights for her life while Jesse Williams acts his heart out in the role of Jackson Avery, and the season finale All Of Me works as a nice bookend for the season - Jo and Alex get married, April and Arizona are written off the show, we finally get to see BokHee's face et cetera. It's all pretty awesome.
6. Season 3
Season 3 is absolutely, start-to-finish solid television. It does miss the wow factor that defines this list's top three in particular, but that's okay - every season can't be total banger after total banger, because then the best seasons wouldn't be exceptional. The main cast, long-term storylines, relationship drama and individual episodes of season 3 are all in the same tier: not quite at the show's best, but definitely in the upper tiers and ahead of most.
The season has many good-but-not-elite storylines for viewers to enjoy: Burke's tremor and Cristina getting into trouble for covering for him, George processing the grief of his father getting ill and passing away, and Addison being written out as a backdoor pilot for the spin-off Private Practice. The season's highpoint can be found from three consecutive episodes (Walk on Water, Drowning on Dry Land and Some Kind of Miracle), which feature many of the shows strengths simultaneously: a disaster that brings a rush of dramatic patient cases to the hospital, a major character fighting for her life, and an emotional death scene. Good stuff!
5. Season 7
Now we're really getting to the good stuff. While season 7 is the weakest of the four consecutive seasons that clearly form the show's utmost prime, it still rocks - the main cast is absolutely stacked with legends, the best episodes are quite magnificent, and even the worst ones are a-okay. A big theme throughout the season is the aftermath of the mass shooting at the end of season 6 - not only did that event make for the show's best individual episode, but it caused a ripple effect that made for a season's worth of character development. Following the beloved characters grapple with their trauma is gripping and completely fascinating.
Many of the season's most memorable episodes are gimmicky ones - either in the fun and unserious way (I will forever defend the infamous musical episode Song Beneath the Song), or then utilizing a gimmick for a somber and serious episode (such as the documentary episode These Arms of Mine). We also get the marriage of my emotional support lesbians Callie and Arizona, the arrival of Zola Grey Shepherd into our lives and hearts, and an underrated endgame with the subdued lowkey dramatics of the finale Unaccompanied Minor. A chaotic season, but a damn good one at that.
4. Season 8
And the chaos continues! The opening act of season 8 has Meredith Grey, the show's protagonist, kidnapping a child (she has her reasons), and it doesn't get any less crazy from there. Throughout season 8, we get the show at its most fun (the baseball episode!) and at its absolute least fun (R.I.P. Henry Burton - man, this show is cruel), then back to most fun (what the f**k was up with the "What if" episode? I don't know who came up with that but I love it), and then least fun (The Girl with No Name is maybe the hands-down most depressing episode of the series, and that's saying a lot).
Things get exciting towards the end, with the main residents taking their oral boards, as the heart-melting love story of Jackson and April gets its electric beginning while all sorts of tensions fly high. Oh, and speaking of flying, the season's second-last episode appeared to end as it cut to black for a few seconds after a nice shot of the plane carrying several major characters being up in the air. It was at that moment when I noticed that my fiancée Martta, a megafan who has seen the series countless times, was holding back tears in an attempt not to spoil anything from this first-time viewer. And, well, we all know what happens next, and of all the notes to leave a season on, that is certainly f**king one of them.
3. Season 2
Ah, season 2 - it's like season 1, but the training wheels are off. Meredith, Alex, George, Izzie & Cristina are still in their intern year, but instead of nine low-stakes episodes, we get 27 quite dramatic ones - and when I say dramatic, I mean things like "O'Malley performs a heart surgery in an elevator" and "The hospital goes on a code-black lockdown because there's a BOMB in a PATIENT" and "That Goddamn train episode, you know the one" and "Let's do a high-stakes gray-area moral dilemma storyline so iconic that millions of Americans will learn and remember what an LVAD wire is thanks to this".
We also meet legendary characters like Callie Torres and Mark Sloan for the first time (and Addison, if you don't count her bombastic entrance in the final seconds of the season 1 finale). The season starts to dip its toes into the political themes that would become a big staple (the episode where the nurses go on strike is underrated as hell), while really starting to shape the identity of the things the show would go on to be best-known for (the relationship drama here is vintage, and Denny Duquette is the Citizen Kane of sad Grey's Anatomy deaths).
2. Season 5
First of all - pretty much every major character on Grey's Anatomy has had one or two close calls with death over the course of the series (or like 23, if you're Meredith). These storylines are often among the more dramatic ones, as a longtime character you've grown to care about as a viewer hits different than a 'patient of the week'. And I'd argue that the hands-down best-written, most emotionally powerful and most unforgettable narrative of the doctor becoming the patient, throughout all 20 seasons, is Izzie Stevens' battle with cancer in season 5. That storyline is a fucking emotional rollercoaster, causing a near-endless supply of twists, turns and tears.
That alone earns high marks for season 5, but oh man, there's so much more to love as well. Arizona and Owen join the main cast (say what you will about Owen, but that's one hell of an acting performance and an entertaining character in all his bullshit), Bailey finally realizes what she's worth and dumps the sorry jackass Tucker, Derek and Meredith get engaged - the season is a powerhouse of great TV, and this is especially evident in its endgame. The third-last episode is What a Difference a Day Makes, the show's 100th episode, and perhaps the biggest individual tear-jerking cry-fest that Shonda ever put together. Except that just two episodes later, we get the season finale Now Or Never, which against all odds made me cry even more. Absolute cinema.
1. Season 6
Still, it has got to be season 6 at the top. Opening with the confirmation and aftermath of O'Malley's death? Bittersweet closure. The storyline of Richard struggling with his sobriety? Heartbreaking and ultimately beautiful. Individual episodes like the whodunit I Saw What I Saw, the movie-like Give Peace a Chance and the emotionally powerful The Time Warp? Majestic. The hospital merger that brought us dramatic tensions as well as new characters Jackson and April? Perhaps the biggest individual catalyst into the show's 'golden years', with the main cast from that point up until Mark&Lexie's deaths being the all-time best version of itself.
And on top of all that, the season finishes off with the double episode Sanctuary / Death and All His Friends, which is hands-down the show's finest moment. Panic, heartbreak, tragedy, chaos and heroism ensue in this poetically written and intensely directed sledgehammer of quality TV. Bravo.
Thank you for reading! Tune in next week as the Grey's Anatomy theme month continues with a ranking of the show's best characters.
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