Grey’s Anatomy is the medical drama that just won’t stop on ABC, to the point that only two of the current series regulars ahead of the 2025 TV schedule have been around from the beginning in 2005. That said, the social media account for the show threw all the way back to the beginning to ring in the new year by posting a clip of the first meeting of Meredith Grey and Derek Shepherd, and I’m McDreaming of the golden MerDer days before he was killed off. Happy New Year?
While the pilot of Grey’s Anatomy from nearly two decades ago featured the aftermath of Meredith and Derek’s first meeting, that first meeting wasn’t actually shown until Season 3 and then revisited in a flashback in Season 11. Still, it’s chronologically the beginning of the MerDer story, so what better fit for the start of a new year? Check it out below:
Well, with Season 21 currently on hiatus and not set to return with new episodes until March, maybe it's time to fire up that Hulu subscription and/or Netflix subscription to revisit the glory days of MerDer in primetime! I tend to be more of a Japril fan myself ever since they got the rare Grey's Anatomy happily-ever-after, but Meredith and Derek arguably have one of the most iconic relationships in television history. Seeing how they met really put me back in the mood for the highs and lows of their story over the first eleven seasons.
I'm also not alone in the idea of rewatching the early days of Grey's Anatomy after seeing the clip from Instagram, as a number of commenters posted the same thing. Here are just a few:
- nailsbymarvin: "Ugh fine I’ll rewatch greys anatomy 😆"
- trini_lee_89: "Now i want to go watch GA from the very beginning 😍"
- mluthfimpi: "Damn it! I gotta watch again from season 1"
- bonadea1978: "Well..looks like it’s time to watch this from the beginning. They were my favorite seasons anyway! 🤷🏽♀️"
- _theisas: "Ok fine i will rewatch GA all over again. For the gazillion time."
Honestly, it's very Grey's Anatomy that the people considering a rewatch are embracing the idea with a combination of resignation, excitement, and nostalgia. The show isn't hard to find to stream, for better or worse, with all of the MerDer seasons available on more than one platform. You can even revisit all of Patrick Dempsey's appearances in Season 17, when he technically wasn't a living, breathing McDreamy.
For her part, Ellen Pompeo named Derek's as the saddest death in Grey's Anatomy history, which is saying something for a show as lethal to its own main characters as ABC's medical drama. The show is set to return in the new year on Thursday, March 6 in its new (and not entirely successful) time slot of 10 p.m. ET on ABC, so there's plenty of time to revisit days gone by as winter hiatus continues.
