Editing Review: Greys Anatomy

Edited by: Victor Du Bois and Assisted by Susan Vaill

After this weeks look at films that use voice over to gain a more active and present tense viewpoint with the audience I decided to have a look at the American TV Drama Greys Anatomy, created by Shonda Rhimes in 2005. The show has spanned over nine seasons as we watch the lives of the Surgical Interns and other residents of Seattle Grace hospital advance in their fields.
The show is narrated by Protagonist Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) who uses both metaphorical, retrospective and foreshadowing dialogue to explain the direction of the episode and wrap it up at the end.
In the clip shown above taken from the pilot episode of the season we see that as she talks, visuals to emphasise metaphors and actuality are cross-faded over her. i.e.: [0:00 - 0:17] She talks about the playing field and the game, which is cross visualised with an operating room. When she says her mother was one of the greats we know that she means Surgeon and not Basketball player. She ends this clip saying that she's "Screwed" in terms of the sequence of the episode, an alarm goes off and we see a naked man on the floor (A quick shot of which is at the very beginning where we see a leg) and the protagonist/Narrator Meredith who is running late for work.
At the very end of this clip [2:25-2:50] her voice over become part of the on screen dialogue as she talks to her mother who is in a care home facility. This drags the audience out of the head space of the protagonist and allows us to get a more objective view of the episode, as opposed to the one sidedness of the narrator.
This theme of the narration turning into on screen dialogue happens again over the course of the nine seasons maybe only twice if that but the introductory, concluding and at times mid analysis of Meredith Grey stays a running theme throughout. Regardless, the narration to on-screen dialogue was unexpected but has an effect on the audience, and having the overall narration kept to the beginning and end of the show allows the audience to judge and characterise the other people without the bias-ness of Meredith's inner thoughts.
[Note: It was series creator Shonda Rhimes that suggested the addition of a voice over in the cutting room, as she felt something was missing]