In 2005, Grey’s Anatomy aired its first episode, where viewers met Dr. Meredith Grey. Ever since then, fans have followed Dr. Grey and the rest of the Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital doctors in their journeys of romance, friendship, family life and other challenges they encounter while working through their daily lives as doctors.
As the show has entered its later seasons, fans of the show have become more critical of the new characters and plot points being introduced. Some find the show is becoming repetitive or just overall boring. Season 17 brought back a lot of excitement for many fans, especially those who have been watching for a while when many characters who had left the show in previous seasons made cameos for a couple of episodes. When many of these extremely liked characters showed up on the screen again, fans became enthralled with the show once again. Now that the show is entering its 18th season and more returning characters are being teased, fans have high expectations for the upcoming season. But will this season live up to the hype? Or will this just be another season filled with audience disappointment after every episode?
Before the first episode of the new season even aired, trailers and promotion videos teased audience members with how this season is going to play out. One of the bigger surprises viewers have gone crazy over is the return of Addison Montgomery, played by Kate Walsh. Dr. Montgomery has been many fans’ favorite character since her appearance at the end of season one. The iconic doctor left the show as a primary character in season three but ended up with her own spinoff show, Private Practice. Fans have been excited to see the return of this character and are excited to see her dynamic with characters that have arrived after her.
The trailer for the first episode of season 18 also created a lot of speculation among fans when it was announced that someone from Meredith’s past would be returning in the episode. Considering there have been many important characters who have come and left Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, fans had many ideas of who this could have been.
Despite the excitement and speculation, when the episode finally aired and the audience saw who the returning character was, a number of fans were immediately disappointed. The returning character was a patient who only appeared in one episode a few seasons earlier before his return. Viewers were disappointed that the returning character wasn’t a more predominant character from the series. Considering that the first episode has already been somewhat of a letdown, many fans wonder if the rest of the season will have the same fate.
For many fans, it seems the biggest thing they are looking forward to this season is the return of Addison Montgomery. The disappointing season premiere made many question if the storylines will be interesting enough to keep their attention for the rest of the season. This is not a new criticism for the show, as many fans have found previous seasons to be uneventful and just wish for their favorite character’s return.
On the other hand, as rumors circulate that this may be the final season of the longtime running show, many fans are hopeful that this season will continue to have surprise guests and exciting storylines. Hopeful viewers have made the speculation that other fan favorites will make appearances on the show this season, like Dr. Callie Torres, Dr. Arizona Robbins and Dr. Christina Yang.
As more episodes of this season air, hopefully we get to see a more positive reaction from fans on Twitter and Instagram, who simply cannot wait for the next week’s episode to air. Alternatively, there is a chance that even as the season unravels, the only thoughts fans have is “this show should have ended seasons ago.”