apropos of anything

I do. I love her. And if/when the Meredith/McDreamy/Addison triangle resolves itself on Grey’s Anatomy, I’m going to be very disappointed if they find a way to dispose of Addison despite the hospital contract she signed early in the season.

It’s not fashionable to like Addison. The anti-Addison fanbase is rabid, and even Shonda Rhimes is all about Mer/McDreamy, which makes me marvel all the more at how complicated and well-rounded a character Addison is. She’s the unfaithful wife, yes, but there’s more to her. Much of the credit there goes to Kate Walsh, who does a fabulous job making Addison vulnerable personally while keeping her strong and capable professionally.

What I like best about Addison is not only does she never deny making an enormous mistake, she also accepts full responsibility for it. She doesn’t try to pin the blame on McDreamy for being distant in New York. She never tells him he drove her to it. He’s realized recently that maybe he was a contributing factor, but Addison is not the one who makes that clear to him.

And she doesn’t really complain when all the chips don’t fall her way. Early this season, Addison asks McDreamy if he’s “done hurting her back.” It’s a line that could easily go the poor-me route, which would have been irritatingly soap-operaish, but then she continues, “If not, I need to special order a thicker skin.” It’s painful, but she’s going to stand up and take it because she realizes to a certain extent she deserves it.

Addison came out to Seattle, she put her heart on the line, and if McDreamy had kicked her to the curb, I doubt she would have whined and moaned about it the way Meredith has been doing.

That being said, I know it is fashionable to dislike Meredith, but I’m not entirely on that train either, thanks to the writer’s blog. I get why Meredith makes the choices she does. She’s lonely too, and she’s carrying more than Addison is. She feels like she’s doing it all by herself. That doesn’t make it right, and it doesn’t mean I approve, but I do understand. I want to see her pull herself out of it and start making good choices, something I think she’s never really been good at doing. Most of all, though, I want her to move past McDreamy before she goes back to him because otherwise I’m going to feel like her character is still in the same place it was in the first season finale, right before McDreamy tells her he’s so sorry.

The key to Grey’s Anatomy is characterization, not the triangle. The writers have created people who have layers and gray areas, who mess up and then have to deal with the resulting fallout. They are charmingly imperfect, sometimes so much, it’s harrowing to watch them. That’s what makes them great characters.

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