Flatlining Season 11: 'Grey's' should be euthanased to put us out of our misery

When the first episode of Grey's Anatomy aired in March 2005, Twitter did not exist and a fire pool was still on Jacob Zuma's bucket list.

Much has changed in the 10 seasons since we first met Meredith, McDreamy and company. In 2005 Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) was a surly intern with an unpleasant childhood and a taste for tequila. She has since discovered unknown sisters, survived countless near-death experiences, become a fully qualified doctor, adopted children, lost friends, had sex in a hospital and lived through the angst of being a doctor.

Now in its 11th season, someone needs to kill Meredith so that Shonda Rimes, the show's creator, can stop mercilessly flogging this dead horse.

For once, the latest season doesn't begin with plane wreckages, bomb explosions or shot people.

A departure from its usual formula, season 10 ended with Christina Yang (Sandra Oh), Grey's talented best friend, jetting off to Switzerland to head a cutting-edge cardiothoracic research facility and her McDreamy husband (Patrick Dempsey) being offered an equally fancy neurological research post in Washington.

Season 11 instead kicks off with the characters struggling to fill the gap in their lives left by Yang, and the arrival of a new character who threatens to further destabilise the already dysfunctional environment of the Sloane Grey memorial hospital.

This is Maggie Pierce (Kelly McCreary), the surgeon replacing Yang, who also happens to be the long-lost love child of Ellis Grey - Meredith's mother - and former chief of surgery and hospital board member Richard Webber. If the plot sounds familiar, that's because season three introduced Lexie Grey, another prodigal daughter of the elder Grey, who lasted five seasons before she was killed off in a plane crash.

In the labyrinthine plot lines surrounding Grey are a host of other characters all struggling with personal and professional dramas.

Alex Karev (Justin Chambers) battles for a spot on the hospital's board after Yang bequeaths him her shares in the hospital. He is opposed by his former mentor, Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson), recommended by Webber to fill Yang's spot.

Maintaining the same level of dramatic intensity for almost a decade is a feat few shows ever achieve and, perhaps, rightly so. Having exhausted their store of surprising hook-ups, disaster scenarios and pretty male doctors, perhaps it's time for the good doctors to retire and develop prescription drug habits, like normal rich people.

• 'Grey's Anatomy' season 11 on DStv 101 on Mondays at 7.30pm