TV Shows

Grey’s Anatomy

Ever since its beginning, and way before Callie was Erica Hahn’s glasses and and made her see leaves, “Grey’s Anatomy” stood out from other TV shows not only for the excellent writing and acting, but especially because of its female characters.

Hardly any other TV show features so many diverse, edgy, complex and fascinating women like this show does: From Christina Yang, who seemed cold and barely capable of human emotions and was focused only on her career until she fell for heart surgeon Preston Burke, who broke her heart and left her at the altar, to Miranda Bailey aka the “Nazi”, who had to work hard for her position at the hospital and make a lot of sacrifices, to Meredith Grey, the title character, who is still suffering from the aftermath of a loveless childhood with a brilliant but egocentric mother.

Not to mention Addison Shepherd, who came to Seattle to fight for her husband but ultimately lost him to Meredith, or Izzie Stevens, who worked her way up from the trailer park to med school, lost her fiance and had to battle cancer. And the list goes on. All these characters make it hard at times to really like them, but that is what makes them interesting.

One of the best episodes of the year was the finale of season 5. Towards the end, it took such a sudden and unexpected turn that it left viewers breathless and at the edge of their seats and wondering how on earth they could possibly bear having to wait four months for the next season.

The episode reminded viewers why “Grey’s Anatomy” is one of the best shows on TV at the moment – just in case they had their doubts, especially after the whole “Callica” debacle.

Verbotene Liebe

Like “Grey’s Anatomy”, “Verbotene Liebe” is not only noteworthy because of “Starla”, but there are more things that make it worth mentioning.

Verbotene Liebe is one of very few shows that has consistently featured a lesbian character for more than six years. From her first appearance in 2003 on, Carla von Lahnstein has always been a major character of the show, front and center of the key plot lines, and her stories – though very cliché-ridden especially in the first few years – were treated just like the stories involving other, straight characters on the show. Furthermore, the authors never even went as far as hinting that she could be attracted to a man – Carla was a lesbian, period.

With Stella Mann, the show introduced a second lesbian character whose sexuality was never questioned. Since they were the only two lesbians on the show, it was inevitable that Carla and Stella would end up falling in love – this is, after all, a soap opera -, but before that happened, the authors came up with a nice little twist rarely seen on TV: a lesbian love triangle. Whether you liked the “Stella being in love with Charlie while Charlie tries to hook her up with Carla” storyline or not, it was definitely unique.

But what was probably the episode that was most impressive in terms of a subtle yet positive and matter-of-fact portrayal of homosexual couples was an episode that seemed least likely to do just that, because it was actually about the wedding of a straight couple.

In the anniversary episode, which aired on Nov. 6, former callboy Gregor married princess Louise, and sitting in the front row in church were two happy gay couples: Gregor’s brother Christian (Thore Schölermann) and his boyfriend Olli (Jo Weil), and of course Gregor’s cousin Stella and her girlfriend Carla. Throughout this and even the next episode, both couples were repeatedly shown hugging and kissing, and when Christian cut in to dance with Louise, Gregor continued dancing with Olli.

So, dear authors and producers of Verbotene Liebe: We forgive you for putting Carla in jail and torturing us with Stella’s crush on Charlie which lasted way too long, because overall, you made a lot of us very happy this year, and we hope to see much more happy gay couples next year. And yes, bringing Carla and Stella back in January is a very good start.

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