My Interns: Down with Grey's

A few weeks back, I had been unexpectedly nominated by my company's HR department to be the esteemed summer intern coordinator. I know, it sounds like a pretty big deal. A promotion it is not, but I will gladly accept the role. Let me explain. If you've ever watched Scrubs on NBC, you know what I'm talking about. Yes, it's a TV show but can one not extrapolate TV fantasy into reality once in awhile?!? I'm referring to the way J.D. plays Mother Hen to his less-than-competent interns and to his surprise learns that he wasn't Mr. Comedian with them after all, as they had been laughing at all of his jokes for his personal benefit. I'm not saying that I want the latter but the former will do just fine.

So I took two of my college interns (one female and one male) out for a sushi lunch to just chat about work and whatever else was on their mind. Truly interesting for me - as I could test my ability to relate to the kids.

So it starts out like this, “So do you guys have My Space accounts?”

Female intern says, “No. There are a lot of creepy people on My Space. I can’t believe there are older people in their twenties who are on there.”

I say, “Yes there are sketchy people on My Space. I don’t have an account but a lot of my friends have My Space accounts.”

You know who you are. Ok, moving on to the next topic.

“So I’ve been watching this cool new show on MTV called Fresh Meat. Have you seen it?”

They say, “Nope.” O for 2. Sweet. Time to break out the life-saver. Grey’s here we come.

“What about Grey’s Anatomy? I’m really bummed the season’s over.”

I already knew that one of the interns (the female one, no surprise) watched the show so I was in. We then proceeded to talk about why the show is so good: intelligent characters, witty dialogue, solid story lines, and of course the really good looking people. I will say that the show is pretty darn addicting. Plus, I have to show support for the show’s creator/producer, Shonda Rhimes, who’s a fellow Dartmouth alum. Props to her for creating something SO FRESH and filling a huge void on network TV. I have no doubt that this show has legs for the long run. The key will be to maintain character development for Meredith (obviously) and those who are interesting to me like Addison (she’s hot!), George, and Izzie. Tuning the audience into that development is the ultimate crack for TV. Enough of Grey’s.

Back to my interns, they are awesome: eager, inquisitive, and mellow cool. I look forward to being a lighter version of J.D. – helping them pull off an actionable research project and at the same time, enjoy a Mariners game and a few more Grey’s-like conversations over lunch.