10 Shows To Watch If You Love Grey’s Anatomy

•  Grey’s Anatomy is known for its emphasis on connection and family, and there are other shows like The Night Shift and New Amsterdam that capture this essence.
•  Shows like Younger and The Resident offer a fresh take on the hospital drama genre, focusing on romance, comedy, and the politics of the medical field.
•  If you’re looking for shows with strong female leads and complex stories like Grey’s Anatomy, How to Get Away with Murder and Private Practice are top picks from Shondaland.

Shonda Rhimes’ Grey’s Anatomy is currently 19 seasons of peak hospital drama, and while that seems like a never ending supply of television, there are other shows to watch for when it inevitably runs out. Without anything to replace it, the classic show hole is created; while it’s so easy to fall into that hole after growing attached characters over such a long period of time, it’s a lot harder getting out. Grey’s Anatomy brings families together and guides children as they grow up, and with such a long gap between seasons, there needs to be something to take up the space Grey’s Anatomy leaves behind.

The essence of Grey’s Anatomy isn’t just the medical cases, though that is important. The show’s emphasis on connection and family is what makes the series so special. The show has friendships going through ups and downs, relationships struggling to stay together during trauma, and, at the center of it all, is the understanding that empathy and humanity are the most important things to bring through life. There’s also a lot of romance and a lot of laughs. Grey’s Anatomy spin-offs were able to capture the essence of this show, and others have done the same.

10The Night Shift (2014-2017)

The Night Shift was a medical drama on NBC. It followed the night shift of a military hospital in Texas through tumultuous, and sometimes unbelievable, events. Not only is this series a medical drama, but it has the same found family trope that Grey’s Anatomy does. The main protagonist was in the Army and worked directly with many of the other doctors in the hospital. His girlfriend also works in the hospital, which leaves plenty of room for longing across hospital corridors. Each episode follows multiple cases and allows the doctors to explore their own emotions through their patients. There’s romantic tension, there’s endless drama, and it could be the perfect start to moving on from Grey’s Anatomy.

9Younger (2015-2021)

Sometimes, it can be hard to watch two shows of the same genre directly following each other. Younger is the perfect follow-up to Grey’s Anatomy because they have the same bones, but have plenty of differences. Younger follows Liza Miller, a 40-year-old woman pretending to be 26 in order to bypass ageism in the publishing industry. It uses comedy and romance to navigate the complicated and messy world that Liza creates. While Grey’s Anatomy and Younger have a lot of differences, they both have indulging love triangles and a lighthearted foundation. Both series also emphasize the importance of strong female relationships, which surpasses the importance of any love triangle.

8New Amsterdam (2018-2023)

New Amsterdam has a lot in common with Grey’s Anatomy, but specifically, it shares the interdepartmental relationships within their respective hospitals. In New Amsterdam, the show focuses on not just the ER or surgery departments, but also looks at psychological and neurological services. These are two departments that don’t always get a lot of screen time, but are extremely important to how real life hospitals are run. Both shows make an effort to have cases that bring together staff from all departments to make the shows more dramatic, but also to be more representative of what cases in hospitals look like.

79-1-1 (2018-Current)

9-1-1 is a hit first responder show formerly airing on Fox, now on ABC. This show follows a group of firefighters from Station 118 in Los Angeles through countless emergency calls and found family dinners. It is also the perfect mix of the two Shondaland shows left on ABC. It has the medical aspect of Grey’s Anatomy and the first responder pieces of Station 19, which is a Grey’s Anatomy spin-off. 9-1-1 utilizes mass emergencies in the same way Grey’s Anatomy does, as they want to start and finish a season with a bang. Cases get wilder and wilder as the seasons go on for both of these shows, but the plot still manages to feel grounded in family and love.

6The Resident (2018-2023)

Led by stars Matt Czuchry and Emily VanCamp, Fox’s The Resident had a slightly different take on a hospital drama because, while it does focus on patient cases, there’s also a large emphasis on the politics that surround hospitals and the money that goes into them. Grey’s Anatomy is not afraid of plots like this, covering things like hospital ownership, shifting of power dynamics, and the government interfering with caring for patients. There is plenty of heart in The Resident, and there are plenty of characters to root for, but having a different perspective of looking at political effects on hospitals is a fascinating way to approach a genre that’s so populated.

5How To Get Away With Murder (2014-2020)

Shondaland is a production company responsible for a vast network of series. Shondaland shows are filled with strong, female leads and complex stories. Its creator, Shonda Rhimes, was not only responsible for Grey’s Anatomy, but had several other hit shows, including one called How To Get Away With Murder. Led by Viola Davis playing Annalise Keating—a law professor who invites a group of students to work with her in her law practice—, the show never chooses the expected path. As they share a creator, Grey’s Anatomy and How To Get Away With Murder both explore having strong women in male dominated fields and being faced with seemingly impossible decisions.

4Private Practice (2007-2013)

Mentioning Grey’s Anatomy spin-offs without talking about Private Practice would overlook one of Shondaland’s most underrated shows. It ran for 6 seasons before it was canceled. It followed Dr. Addison Montgomery, an OB/GYN who specializes in fetal surgery and medicine. She was on a couple of seasons of Grey’s Anatomy before producers gave her a spin-off show. She ran her own practice, and like in the parent series, she was a powerful leader and an empathetic doctor. This series adopted the same heart and the same bones as Grey’s Anatomy, and it was successful because of it.

3The Rookie (2018-Current)

The Rookie is another procedural show on ABC, but it follows a police precinct in L.A. rather than a hospital. Following a 40-year-old man who decides to become a rookie cop later in life, the series shows John Nolan’s journey through the LAPD and how he grows as an officer and as a person. Like Grey’s Anatomy, the lighthearted banter and great cast of characters is set against the backdrop of solid relationships and intense emotional moments. It’s easy to fall in love with these people just like it is in Grey’s Anatomy.

2All Rise (2019-2023)

All Rise is a courtroom drama that has had several homes, including CBS and OWN. It follows a judge as she learns the pressures and politics that surround her job. This show, like Grey’s Anatomy, celebrates diversity and differences in the workplace. The cast has great chemistry and very interesting cases to follow. While it takes place in a courtroom and not a hospital, the drama is on par and the relationships are just as indulgent as in ABC’s hospital drama.

1ER (1994-2009)

ER is the closest show to Grey’s Anatomy, both in terms of story focus and longevity. They both follow a core group of doctors in a hospital that goes through mass catastrophes and the deaths of main characters. ER also had an extremely star-studded cast. Actors like George Clooney, John Stamos, and Linda Cardellini all played a huge role in the show, and there were countless guest stars over the years. Grey’s Anatomy and ER alike spend seasons creating characters to connect with, and both are not afraid to kill characters to further the heart of the show. Full of medical drama and romantic plots, ER is like picking up right where Grey’s Anatomy left off, just with slightly more dated video quality.

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