Since so many television series are cancelled after only a season or two it is an amazing feat for one to hit the forth year mark. Fore the ABC network both ‘Desperate Housewives’ and ‘Grey's Anatomy’ hit this milestone at the same time. It does appear that the so called reality shows manage to go on year after year but for a scripted drama it is difficult to keep the interest up and the fans engaged for such a period of time. For ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ this forth season was far more difficult than most series. The cast was pulled into to drama off set, major casting changes where made and the season was cut short by the now infamous Writer’s Guild strike bringing the number of episodes to work with down from 26 to only 17. The all important number of viewers was off several million from the previous seasons. Still the series garnered more than its share of awards and accolades as the cast and crew strove to maintain the quality of the show. The heart of the series is the combination of medical drama with a soap opera. Okay, there is nothing new here; after all one of the most popular daytime soaps is about a hospital and even provided a nighttime spin off. There is something about the constant life and death environment of a hospital, especially a surgical service that makes for great drama and a natural for the setting of the serialized trials and tribulations of a soap opera. If this show was a sports team this forth season would have been called a rebuilding year. Many of the changes did upset the die hard fan base but like any long lasting series they were necessary in order to move the series along and keep the story lines fresh. Because of all the alterations in stories and cast there were a bit of resettling that was necessary here but over all the season succeeded and held up against the previous ones.

The titular main character of the series is Dr. Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) working as a surgical resident in Seattle Grace Hospital. Meredith comes from a medical family with both her parents accomplished doctors. Her mother was regarded as a legend in the field of surgery. She is now considered an extremely good surgeon although her personal life frequently distracts her from her medical duties. She has an on again off again affair with the chief of neurosurgery, Dr. Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey), better known to Meredith’s friends as Doctor McDreamy. In this season Meredith’s main rival for his affections, his ex wife Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh) a renowned Neonatal Surgeon and OB/GYN, has moved to Los Angel for her own practice and spin off series. With the ex out of the way McDreamy finally wants Meredith to commit to a full time relationship instead of the friends with benefits they have become. She was not emotionally ready for this step and he backs off and starts dating one of his scrub nurses. Meredith is even more of an emotional mess than usual and seeks professional help with a therapist. Meredith tries to throw herself into her work by starting a clinical trial on patients with malignant gliomas. Unfortunately she needs the help of McDreamy so she is unable to distance herself from her former lover.

Making things even more difficult than usual for Meredith is the reappearance of her half sister Lexie (Chyler Leigh). She has come to Seattle Grace to start her internship in the surgical program. Now that Meredith is a resident she is expected to supervise the interns but makes sure Lexie is not on her service. As much as Lexie tries to become close to Meredith she is constantly rebuffed. Lexie does become friends with Dr. George O’Malley (T.R. Knight) who failed to pass the resident exams and has to repeat is internship. He is embarrassed by this but Lexie is willing to help keep the fact from the other interns. She also has an affair with a resident Dr. Alex Karev (Justin Chambers) who seems to have it in his contract to bed every female in the hospital. Lexie’s supervisor is Dr. Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh), Meredith’s best friend.

At the end of the last season Christina was supposed to married the head of cardiothoracics, Dr. Preston Burke (Isaiah Washington) but they grew apart and Christina wound up going on her honeymoon with Meredith. Behind the scenes Washington made a crude remark about the sexuality of Knight and his contract was not renewed. Christina is an over driven person but professionally and in her private life. There are no shades of grey for her only extremes. Christiana does not get along at all with Burkes’ replacement Dr. Erica Hahn (Brooke Smith). Hahn is equal to Christian inbeing a workaholic and in many ways the two share many qualities which make for a lot of friction. Unlike most of the women in the hospital Hahn seems immune to the many handsome men on staff which makes for a bit of a ‘shocking’ last episode.

George has always been the surgeon with a heart of gold. He is the most sensitive member of the group and wears his heart on his sleeve at all times. In this season he is married to an orthopedic resident, Callie Torres (Sara Ramírez). At first their relationship is near constant sex but soon troubles begin to crowd the couple. George resents that fact that Callie comes from a lot of money and hid her wealth from him. Making matters much worse when the marital problems start to mount he goes to his best friend, resident Izzy Stevens (Katherine Heigl). He has always harbored a major crush on her but now the go over the line and start to have an affair.

The series may have had a short season and all those changes but it kept true to the soap opera roots. There is a log of sex going on in Seattle Grace hospital. Even though these are amazing surgeons I would rather not be under their scalpel when they are in the middle of a relationship crisis which appears to be constantly. What the series does incredibly well is juggling all the intricate story lines. You basically need an interactive chart to keep track of who is doing who but each episode has a compelling drama that keeps the series on track and grounded. This is also one of the best ensemble casts ever in television. Each character is for the most part given enough time to keep their particular fans happy. Of course Heigl did take herself out of consideration for an Emmy because she felt her story lines did not give her character the right development. This was a season overshadowed by tabloid headlines but when you remove that from the equation the show holds up. They cast and crew should be able to build on this season and be fully back to they original glory with the coming season. ABC is part of the Disney family and is being released under the Buena Vista label. As with the other season DVD sets there are a lot in the way of extras including extended scenes for most episode. A Blu-ray version is also available. Keep the dream alive and stay with this series, it deserves it.