Grey's Anatomy: Every Season Ranked Worst To Best
5. Season 6
Some Grey's Anatomy seasons work in spite of their flaws, their best developments overshadowing them (see seasons four or 15), but the best seasons are the ones that build to the big moments with real purpose, the major twists revealed in such a way that they feel both inevitable yet shocking.
Such is the case with season six, which in its final episodes throws the hospital into turmoil when a grieving widower commits a mass shooting. The shooting is the most horrible thing Grey's has ever done, but it's never manipulative.
Before this, the drama is already of the highest order. From Derek becoming Chief of Surgery, to the departure of Izzie Stevens and the aftermath of George's death, the season allows each of its characters time to thrive as their careers take drastic turns, all the while dropping painful hints of the horrors to come.
It has all the hallmarks of classic Grey's Anatomy - the one-night stands, the outlandish surgeries - and for all its pain (Meredith has a miscarriage whilst watching her husband die from a gunshot wound, in one of her greatest tragedies) it still manages to find some laughs and hope amongst the chaos.