Rain, hail or shine, that’s where they'll be. Once their mission is complete, they log onto www.abc.go.com and click on to the link that will take them to the Grey’s Anatomy home page.
They wade through all the information until they find the gold at the end of the rainbow: the message boards.
For the next hour or so, that’s where they'll be. Mind, body and soul. Nothing can keep them away. Not even the looming threat of a power failure.
You see, for the past few years (seven television seasons to be precise), they have been addicted to the television series, Grey’s Anatomy. Grey’s Anatomy (GA or Grey’s for those in the know) is an American medical drama that revolves around a group of surgical interns at Seattle Grace Hospital. The titular character is Dr Meredith Grey and the show’s title is a play on the classic medical textbook Gray’s Anatomy.
Now, not to knock Australian television programming, but when a new season of Grey’s debuts in America in mid September, the same season won’t hit our shores until late January to early February.
Asking a Grey’s fan to wait over four months to watch an episode, is like asking the entire Christian population to celebrate Christmas four months later! It’s blasphemous!
So what do non-American fans do in that four month break? They hit the boards. Lucky for them, there is an entire army of people who give live recaps and spoilers of the episodes, so that they know what’s happening. Some might say you need to hit the boards armed with a dictionary. But I don’t know any dictionary in the English language that would help you decipher its messages.
It took me awhile to crack the lingo and I still don’t think I fully understand it. The easier ones are the conjoined couple terms. In a world of Brangelinas and Tomkats, it wasn’t too difficult for me to decode MerDer (Meredith/Derek) , Lexzie (Alex/Izzie) and even the similar sounding couple Slexie (Sloan/Lexie) but what the hell is a Judy Doll?
I don’t always get what the fans are writing about but the writers do. And if you don’t think the writers read these boards then you’re wrong. At the end of season four, speculation ran rife that their [MerDer] happy end would be ruined. One post was titled ‘Derek will get into a car accident and be seriously hurt and Rose is pregnant’. Flash forward to the season five premiere and guess what? Derek got into a car crash and died and Rose admitted she was pregnant. The writers wrote what the fans predicted albeit it was a dream (more like nightmare) sequence for the fans.
But who are these people who spend hours slogging away on their computers and taking every opportunity they get to vent and voice their opinions, regarding one of the most successful television dramas in the world? They are a group of dedicated fans who come from all over the world and meet up in the, er, boardrooms of cyberspace, to share their love of the television show and it’s ensemble cast.
Adam/Anatomy05 (05 is for 2005, the year the show premiered), 17 from Colorado in the United States, joined the message boards a day after the season two finale, back in 2006. At the age of 14, he set up the Grey’s Anatomy fan site, All the Shades of Grey, because the season two finale moved him so much. The fan site is a combination of photos, spoilers, video footage and articles about Grey’s Anatomy.
“It’s been an incredible journey. I’ve had so many remarkable things happen because of the site,” he says. “I got to see the Season 5 premiere of Grey's about a week before it aired, which was really exciting because so much had been promised about season five. It's really neat because it provides an insight into the process of making a television series - something I one day hope to accomplish,” he says.
Adam used to write several posts on the boards until the moderators changed the format.
“I don’t write so much anymore just because ever since the change the atmosphere of the boards has changed. They [fans] are very negative. I can sometimes be a major downer. It's just hard to go on there and read all of the negativity, all of the attacks - fans are consistently attacking Shonda, the storylines... it's tiring and frustrating to read.” he adds.
Like Adam, Rachel/thereisnophantom, 20, from Sumter, South Carolina is another poster, who writes a few times a day on the Grey’s message boards. Rachel writes on the boards because she enjoys reading other people’s opinions about a show that she loves.
“I lurked for about a year, but I’ve been writing for a little over a year,” she says. “I can get vocal but I generally just state my opinion and leave it at that,” she adds. But surely she hasn’t always been happy the storylines on the show?
When I ask Rachel what was her least favourite storyline, I’m not surprised by her answer at all.
“When Derek asked out Rose at the end of Lay your hand on me. I yelled an obscenity and threw my phone at the television. That was a one time lapse in maturity. Generally, I just ride it out,” she says.
The Rose a.k.a. plant backlash was rampant, when the shows writers decided to split up the shows golden couple, Meredith and Derek. For a writer, the boards can also be a great reflection to fan reaction to current storylines. The failed romance between George and Izzie (Gizzie) and the ‘Dead Denny’ storyline were two controversial topics on the board. The fan uproar split the board in two by those that were happy with the storyline and those who weren’t.
Maria/ga_gurl124, 23 from Charlotte, North Carolina is one of the people that hated the Denny storyline, however once it finished playing out, she realised its purpose towards the greater picture.
“I’m obsessed with the show and it’s nice to know that there are other people that are just as obsessed with the show. I read fan fictions…I go on other websites to read some,” she says.
When she’s unhappy with the show, she talks to her mother who is also a fan. “If it’s really bothering me then I will vent on the boards,” she adds.
Keeley/HowCanHeBeSoBrainless, 18 from the United Kingdom cites the ‘Gizzie’ storyline as the worst ever. “I hated it . I hate watching those episodes with them all in love with each other, “ she says.
She writes on the boards’ everyday and has been doing so for the past two months. She hangs around the MerDerFightclub (a sort of club on the boards) and likes to post spoilers. “I write on them to meet new people. To be aware of the latest gossip, to be involved. Plus it’s fun and addictive,” she adds.
15 year old Helen/hme789, who lives in Hong Kong, has been writing on the boards since October 2007. She only posts if she has something important to say or a link she wants to share with her fellow boardies.
“It’s great to find so many people who love what you love and to discuss things you liked, hated, wanted or wished for. Also, spoilers make it so much more interesting,”she says. Like the other posters if she is unhappy with a storyline she lets it be known. “Post. Or reply to someone else’s post. If there’s a new storyline or a shocking twist, there’s guaranteed to be a post about it,” she adds.
“[The boards have stopped me from] going to bed when I was hoping to,” Tera says. Although Tera doesn’t write on the boards, like me she is a frequent visitor. “I just read. I’m too strongly opinionated and busy to argue with anyone on the boards,” she adds.
“I can be vocal. Vent to my boardies [if I’m unhappy with a storyline],” Jenna adds.
However, not all fans show their love in the same way. In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph magazine, Aussie comedian Anthony "Lehmo" Lehmann recounted the time when a crazy fan left a special package in his mailbox. Scattered in the envelope were strands of coarse hair.
“The letter wasn’t sexual; it said something along the lines of, ‘I love your show. Let’s catch up.’ But there was all this hair loose in the envelope. I thought, this woman has been to my house, she knows where I live and now she’s putting pubic hair in my letterbox!” says Lehmann.
That sounds like someone who doesn’t have all their eggs in the basket. These guys definitely don’t fit in that category. They are the threads that hold the show together. Television shows can’t make it on their own without the fans. When I ask them if they have anything they’d like to tell Shonda Rhimes, this is what they have to say.
“I’d probably pass out…and giggle a lot. I don’t know what to say to her because I idol (sic) her so much…where do you start,” he says. Adam is not timid in his admiration for the writer, who is also behind Private Practice, the series that spawned from Grey’s Anatomy.
Keeley shares her love with Adam. Unlike Adam though, she has already told Rhimes .
“I would say what I’ve already said to her. I think she is an incredibly intelligent woman with an amazing mind. I envy her and love to be in her shoes,” Keeley says. “Try to let something good happen for once, like Meredith and Derek’s wedding,” Marie adds.
Tera and Rachel aren’t so loving but I think that has more to do with the storyline than Rhimes herself. Tera thinks that the writers have forgotten to explain several storylines to do with the timeline of the show.
“It’s my biggest problem with all the storylines that there has been no explanation. None. Just skimmed over like it wasn’t an issue.” she says. Rachel agrees and adds, “I hate the way you’re running your show. You say you’re going to give the fans what they want but you only give them a twisted version of what they ask for,” she says.
Unlike Rachel, Helen’s message is pure and simple. “You’re awesome,” she says.
As for me, I think these guys are awesome. Anybody who can care about something so passionately and is willing to share it with the world is great in my books. Well, oh look. It’s Friday. 11:55am to be exact. I’ll be back in an hour or so.
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