‘Grey’s Anatomy’: The Friendship-Turned-Romance That Never Should Have Happened
What happens when you get controversial Grey’s Anatomy character Izzie Stevens who many fans hated and the iconic character George O’Malley whose death still haunts fans?
It seems you get confusion. Some thought they made a cute adorable couple, while others thought the pairing was pointless and ruined the concept that “men and women can just be friends.”
Add to that drama involving the actors T.R. Knight and Katherine Heigl both surrounding the show, and you have a pretty interesting conversation on your hands. Izzie seemed to have a habit of strange romantic relationships. Almost like it was a running joke with the writers. O’Malley was also married to Callie Torres, and Heigl strongly feels that her character would have respected that bond.
Are O’Malley and Stevens a pointless relationship that destroyed a good friendship, or was the randomness of their hook-up the point? The writers showed that, much like real-life, sometimes things just happen, and they don’t need to have a point. And if the relationship was so meaningless, why are people discussing it all these years later?
They were excited at first
Heigl was really excited about the idea when it was first pitched. “I was really excited about it in the beginning because, obviously, I got to work more with my best friend, and that’s awesome,” Heigl explained to Entertainment Weekly in 2010.
But when the relationship quickly fizzled out, she wondered what the point was. Even their couple’s nickname was awful “When I found out our little nickname was Gizzie, I knew it was over,” “I was like, ‘We’re going to have to move on because that’s not hot. That’s not, like, Brangelina.'”
Was it a rating’s ploy?
Ratings had dipped a bit in Grey’s fourth season, and sometimes writers want to create some buzz. Knight and Heigl were good friends outside the show, and maybe the writers thought that would translate, but up to that point, Izzie and been somewhat of an uptight goodie-goodie, and it seemed strange. Heigl told Vanity Fair in a 2007 interview.
“They really hurt somebody, and they didn’t seem to be taking a lot of responsibility for it.” “It was a ratings ploy,” she explained, “It was absolutely something that shocked people — it wasn’t predictable, and people didn’t see it coming.”
What do the fans think?
Bustle lists them in the top 11 Grey’s Anatomy couples you wanted to break up. And Vulture ranked every relationship on Grey’s Anatomy, and they ended up 46th. Not high praise.
While conventional wisdom ranks their relationship as a mistake, there’s still a Reddit thread that argues the merits of their relationship. Also, when Katherine Heigl talks about her worst memories of the show, that does not even make the list. So why all the hate?
