Grey’s Anatomy is one of the most popular medical TV dramas out there, and the longest running one in the industry. This show starts off by following a group of surgical interns, portraying their career and personal struggles. The main residents depicted in the second season are Meredith, Cristina, Alex, George, and Izzie. Additionally, the attendings–Derek, Webber, Bailey, Addison, and Burke–and their storylines are also integrated with the residents’. Although their values and cultural beliefs change over time, their initial attributes will be analyzed in this post in the context of the earlier seasons of the show.
Meredith’s and Derek’s dating timeline was heavily portrayed in season 2. Meredith is characterized as inherently brilliant, empathetic, and calm–in medical procedures, patient care, and her love life. She’s the daughter of Ellis Grey, who is a renown and highly skilled surgeon. Because of this, she displays a quick-witted personality when it comes to coming up with diagnoses for unusual patients. For example, she’s usually the first to respond with a confident manner when Bailey (a resident, and therefore her boss) asks what the treatment plan is. Meredith is also not easily upset or excited when something intense occurs. She’s clam and collected, and because she’s able to remain non-judgmental, patients and often her intern friends open up to her easily. In the episode where Addison specifically requested that Meredith work under her for that day, she cares for a patient that is going through a parallel situation as she is: her husband had an affair with another women. Even though the patient was clearly being passively aggressive with Meredith, she remains professional and tries to take the patients perspective and feelings into consideration. In later episodes, it’s very clear that patients are able to open up to Meredith because she herself has gone through traumatic events, allowing her to understand the feelings or pain of her patients.
Cristina is portrayed as an overachiever that puts her career life before her personal life. She is ambitious, driven, and out-spoken. She values discipline and restraint because she believes that it will lead her to success. When she and Burke (an attending) start a romantic kindle, she gets pregnant and sees it as an obstacle in her way. She has a strong drive to become the successful surgeon that she knows she has the potential for, so she believes that having a personal life is unattainable. She even explicitly says to Meredith in one episode, “You know what happens to pregnant interns. I’m not switching to the vagina squad or spending my life popping zits. I’m too talented. Surgery is my life.” This suggest that she has a stronger internal drive to become an alpha surgeon to fulfill her reputation and her skillset. Additionally, she suggests that different surgical professions are more superior to others.
George has strong morals. When Joe, the bartender, comes into the hospital because of a life-threatening problem, he undergoes an advanced and costly surgery. Dr. Webber, the chief of surgery, says “we operate on our patients and that’s it.” George strongly disagrees because he believes that a doctor’s job is not only to treat the patient’s disease, but also the patient’s wellbeing afterwards. So he goes out of his way to research different ways that Joe can be financially supported.
Alex Karev as an intern was portrayed as callous. He’s arrogant, and believes that he will become a good doctor for only treating medical issues well, disregarding the patient care side of it. He calls patients “colon guy” and “hernia chick” when doing rounds on his patients instead of putting in the effort to know their names and their stories.
Miranda Bailey is depicted as assertive, as she’s able to instill fear into her interns on the very first day. Both Burke and Derek hold a slight god complex: they both fight for interim chief when Webber is in the hospital as a patient. They are always confident in their surgical skills and diagnoses. They strive to treat the impossible or “inoperable” cases.
It's A Beautiful Day To Save Lives 
I like your characterization of Meredith as a brilliant and empathetic person. However, I’ve noticed that Meredith at the start of the show can be emotional. For instance, she goes into a daze upon seeing a patient’s shoes that are the same as hers. As the show continues, doesn’t it seem like she blocks her emotions off? She goes through some horrific things like putting her hand on a bomb and watching her mother lose her memory. When she falls into the water helping people on the ferry boat, she just lets herself almost drown.
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