There are many medical drama series on television, each with their own plot lines and fan favorite characters, but one there is one show that is favorited by over 7.5 million viewers, including myself. If you’re not familiar with Grey’s Anatomy or you have not seen it yet, you are most definitely missing out and not living your best life. In my opinion, it is the best show. Grey’s Anatomy has been on the air since 2005, making it the longest-running scripted primetime show on ABC. With 15 seasons, over 300 episodes, and multiple major doctor deaths, fans can’t seem to get enough of the drama and suspense the show brings. Grey’s Anatomy is available to watch on ABC, Showtime, Lifetime, Netflix, and Hulu.

The popular show takes place at Seattle Grace Hospital in Seattle, Washington, and focuses on Meredith Grey, one of the main characters, one of several third year surgical residents. Throughout the show, she struggles to maintain relationships while staying on top at work. In my opinion, she does an excellent job keeping up with her job, her kids, and relationships. Especially with the pressure of having to live up to the reputation of her legendary surgeon mother, Ellis Grey, while hiding the fact that her mother suffers from Alzheimer’s disease.

Although the series has had multiple main characters in the past decade since the show first aired, only four first season characters remain: Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), Alex Karev (Justin Chambers), Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson), and Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.).

One of the most heartbreaking deaths, (spoiler alert), was Derek Shepherd’s, also known as “McDreamy”, (Patrick Dempsey.) Personally, one of the most gut-wrenching deaths was Denny Duquette’s (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), he was a former patient at Seattle Grace Hospital. He was a patient of Dr. Preston Burke, a cardio-thoracic surgeon, and had been previously diagnosed with viral cardiomyopathy, which caused his heart to fail. Denny came back to the hospital when a transplant heart became available for him. He later died due to congestive heart failure when he was waiting on another donor heart, while on an LVAD, a left ventricular assist device. Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s character was so special to me because he was a very kind-hearted, witty, and had an all around great personality.

Derek Shepherd was a neurosurgeon and board director at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. He married Meredith Grey and they had three children together, two daughters named Zola and Ellis and a son named Bailey. Throughout the show, before his death, the most loved couple went through more traumatic experiences than anyone ever should. Including shootings, miscarriages, a terrible plane crash that killed two of the characters, including Derek’s best friend, Mark Sloan and surgical resident and Meredith’s half sister, Lexie Grey, and his agonizing death. Derek left Seattle to Washington, D.C. to work with the President, who asked him to join and take the lead on his Brain Mapping Initiative. The research was aided by fellows and when he noticed one of the fellows was stuck, he took an interest in her and encouraged her. He started to help her on her research and she developed a romantic interest in him, resulting in a kiss. Derek stopped it, told her he loved his wife and didn’t want to ruin what he had with Meredith. Afterwords, he quickly left the lab and boarded a plane back to Seatlle. Not long after his return home, Derek was travelling back to the airport for one more trip to D.C. when he witnessed a car crash, immediately jumped into action, and saved all four people before the ambulance arrived. After emergency crew had left, Derek was then struck by a semi and taken to Dillard Medical Center, along with the four individuals in the car crash. Due to lack of a doctor pushing to get him a head CT, they rushed him to surgery to try to fix his abdominal bleeding, and by the time doctors had figured out what was going on, it was too late. They waited over an hour for a neurosurgeon to arrive, but by the time he had finally showed up, Derek was pronounced brain dead. Although Derek Shepherd’s reputation has been known to intimidate the newcomers, he had a very charismatic and charming personality. His good looks earned him the nickname, “McDreamy,” was well liked by many people on the show and by numerous fans, due to his willingness to teach and allow them hands-on experience in his surgeries. He believed in fairness and disliked the competitive “dog eat dog” attitude some of the residents displayed, and this is why I was such a fan of him.

Overall, Grey’s Anatomy is very binge-worthy, especially when you have nothing else to do in your free time.