"Grey's Anatomy" fans are blasting executive producer Shonda Rhimes for how she wrote longstanding character Dr. Alex Karev out of the show in an episode that aired Thursday night.
Viewers were expecting a dramatic ending for Karev, who has been played by actor Justin Chambers for 16 seasons and become a fan favorite, but instead of a tear-jerking send-off, they were given an anticlimactic ending that many dubbed ridiculous.
Chambers left the show in November but instead of writing his character out, Rhimes and her team dragged his final farewell out by having his character disappear but still write letters to his wife in the series, as well as to Meredith Grey and Miranda Bailey, noted Yahoo Entertainment.
In his farewell episode Chambers did not appear onscreen but through voice overs of his letters "Grey's Anatomy" revealed that he had been living on a farm with his former wife Izzie Stevens (a character who was written off "Grey’s" years ago). Another shocker was that Izzie had taken the couple’s frozen embryos from years ago and now had five-year-old twins.
Fans were furious.
"Izzie having Alex's kids and not telling him all these years and him going back to her now is reverse character development at its worst," one Twitter user wrote.
"I mean I can't believe I'm saying this but shonda should've just killed him. that would have made way more sense than this mess #GreysAnatomy #GreysAnatomy16," another viewer tweeted.
"[S]o your[sic] telling me that alex karev had the biggest & best character development and became the best man on the show perfect husband perfect friend just for shonda to have him go back to izzie who we havent seen in 10 seasons as his exit?? THROW IT ALL AWAY," wrote another Twitter user.
Stevens, who was played by Katherine Heigl, exited the show in season six. There was no closure to her character's ending, which was similar to Chambers', and Heigl hoped to return to the show to give Stevens a proper ending, but Rhimes said she did not intend to revisit the character's storyline, according to Yahoo Entertainment.
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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