From February 1st to March 1st, we celebrate Black History Month. During this month, many look to educate themselves or spread knowledge about the good and the bad of African American lifestyle throughout history.
This month I am challenging myself to do the same.
Ever since I was in middle school, I have had an unexplainable love for “Grey’s Anatomy,” directed by Shonda Rhimes. As I have grown up, I have begun to enjoy other shows like “Station 19”, a spin-off of “Grey’s Anatomy,” and “Bridgerton,” which were also created by Shonda Rhimes and her production company Shondaland.
Now that I am older and sitting down to reflect, I have the ability to see how powerful these shows all are and what great creations she was able to make.
As a child, Shonda Rhimes grew up in the suburbs of Chicago with her mom at home, and her dad was a university administrator. While she was in high school, she worked in a hospital as a Candy Striper and then went on to university. She started out at Dartmouth with the goal of being a writer and then went to the University of Southern California for cinema, where she got her filmmaking degree.
Right after college, she was given many opportunities by directing a number of movies, selling her first script in 1996. After a couple of successful movies, she began to find her passion in creating TV series’. Early in this point of her career, she had only one failed pilot. After that, she began creating many powerful shows, which she said in an Oprah interview were all done with color-blind casting. She had no specific person in mind, just wanting to see who fit each part best.
Her accomplishments include “Grey’s Anatomy” (2005-present), “Private Practice” (2007-13), “Station 19” (2018-24), and “How to Get Away With Murder” (2014-2020), all from ABC networks. Besides live TV, in 2018, she signed with Netflix to create “Bridgerton” (2020-present) along with the mini-series “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story”.
From her long list of attainments, I have fallen in love with some of the stories and universes she was able to create. Like I said before, “Grey’s Anatomy” is one of my favorite shows of all time. She created this show to be unlike any other hospital show by focusing deeply on the friendships, relationships, and emotional challenges experienced, allowing people watching to feel seen. She was able to create something amazing with the repetition of many special scenes, like how they are always ‘dancing it out,’ which is something that has been popularized in everyday, stressful situations, definitely in my life. You always have time for a deep breath.
Another one of her great shows that has become widely popular is “Bridgerton”, which is an adaptation of the books written by Julia Quinn. This story goes back in time to the 1800s high society in London, England, following a family trying to find acceptable suiters. I love this show for the passion and emotion that is shown extremely well throughout, entirety making you fall in love with the characters and the relationships they are creating. But also the way she has created an extremely diverse cast makes the show even more powerful; Queen Charlotte being a Black woman is extremely powerful to other young Black women.
I had not realized this until recently: Shonda Rhimes is an artist who has been able to create masterpieces. Her work consists of many attention-grabbing and soul-sucking shows that are so easy to become addicted to. She has this talent that I have not truly recognized by anyone else, bringing me so much comfort in my favorite TV shows.