What Happened to Grey's Anatomy?

Seriously, what happened to Grey's Anatomy? This past week's episode was mind numbingly dull. Each time a commercial break came along I was tempted to change the channel, but my faith in the gloriously over the top soap opera that is Grey's Anatomy kept me from changing it, hoping that something interesting would happen in the next segment of the show. It didn't. Izzie spent the entire show trying to keep a patient whom the group lovingly named "really old guy" from killing himself after he woke up from a year long coma. Alex gets stuck with an intern who is old enough to be his grandfather and is just as naive about medicine as any ordinary grandpa. Alex's intern keeps getting in Alex's way and inhibits his ability to diagnose patients simply because Alex feels weird about disciplining an intern that is old enough to be his grandfather. But i don't buy it. Alex has respect for no one. In fact, later in the show, he tells all of George's fellow interns that he is, in fact, a repeat intern and not some genius of medicine. Why would he suddenly have this honorable feeling of respecting one's elder? Meredith's break up sex has reverted to secret break up sex, all in the name of sheltering poor Cristina, who no longer has Burke. I'm sorry, but since when has Cristina ever needed to be protected. Nothing gets to Cristina. Not even being dumped by Burke, apparently. When Cristina finds out Meredith has been secretly sleeping with McDreamy, she milks her abandonment at the alter. She puts on the most unbelievable sad act anytime she's around Meredith, but instantly perks up the second Meredith walks away. This leads to Meredith giving Cristina her surgery, all in the name of cheering Cristina up. McSteamy and the Chief preform a surgery neither of them have done before to prove that 'old dogs can learn new tricks', which crosses all borders of medically ethical, if you ask me. But i'm no nursing major, so what do i know? Long story short, McDreamy comes in and saves the day, and voila, the patient has the ability to speak again. Lexie continues to bother the crap out of me. Lexie is assigned to Meredith in this episode, and in the name of higher education, Meredith allows Lexie to practice an intubation on a guy who has been dead for fifteen minutes prior to his arrival. Lexie freaks out because her first intubation didn't go as well as hoped and the patient dies. The patient who was already dead before going to the hospital dies, and Lexie blames Meredith for not saving him. She insists that a good doctor would intubate herself instead of letting an intern learn how to. This ends with Lexie asking Meredith what kind of doctor she is, and I just want to crawl through the screen and smack her. Why has no one noticed that Lexie isn't strong enough for medicine? Anyways, the episode ends with Callie asking George to say out loud that he slept with Izzie, since both of them already know this is fact. Big whoop. It was entirely anti-climactic. George told Callie something she already knew. And if we're to be honest with ourselves, George knew that Callie knew. So really, what is the secret here? I mean seriously, is Grey's Anatomy getting old? Have all the storylines been done? Say it ain't so. I will chalk this week up to tired writers. I'll even go so far as to assume one of them had a mid-life crisis. But if this series is targeted towards college aged women, why was the show so focused on old age?