Grey's Anatomy's Boston Accents In S19 Have Fans Cringing Hard
"Grey's Anatomy" doesn't just focus on the doctors and nurses at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. An interesting mix of patients and their families also populate the series, making for some interesting character dynamics. That was certainly the case for Season 19, Episode 10, "Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves," which sees one cancer patient get a visit from some supportive family members who happen to be from Boston.
While they make light of the cancer diagnosis, viewers don't seem to mind that too much. Instead, they were too focused on the rather atrocious Boston accents they sported. On a discussion thread of the episode on Reddit, a lot of people took the time to write about how the accents stood out like a sore thumb. That was the case with u/Health_Ad_7171, who wrote, "As someone who has spent her entire life in the Boston area those accents are terrible." It's a shame the emotional crux of the episode has been ignored in favor of people ragging on the actors for sounding like they're trying to do a Boston accent rather than genuinely being from the area.
The characters get unfavorably compared to another Boston character
A lot of people seem to be in utter disbelief that the accents made it into the final episode. Numerous Redditors had fun at the characters' expense, with u/Petaline writing, "Yuh right, yoo wuh vehrry good at yuh joyob!" The same user went on to make this unfavorable comparison: "Boston accents unlike any heard since 30 Rock's Nancy Donovan!" For those who don't know or don't remember, Nancy Donovan (Julianne Moore) sported a thick Boston accent. The only problem is that "30 Rock" is a comedy where the ridiculous accent was very much intentional, whereas "Grey's Anatomy" is supposed to be taken seriously.
The disdain for the accents carried over to Twitter, where people got oddly personal over the dialects. @daydreamxshawn wrote, "idk who taught these women how a boston accent sounds but their dialect coaches should be fired." "Grey's Anatomy" has an interesting history with Boston. Long-running cast member Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) recently left the show for the Massachusetts city to research a cure for Alzheimer's. Could she return to the mainstay series with a thick Boston accent in the future? After this reaction, maybe those behind the scenes will think twice before having people fake accents.