Bye-Bye, Burke

Yes, it's true. Burke is gone, he's really gone.

Is it a good thing or a bad thing? Well, good, I guess. In real life, Isaiah Washington seems like a raging asshole, I never found his public expressions of repentance convincing, and I'm sure his continued presence on the Grey's Anatomy set made for a very tense working environment for everybody.

Even in terms of the show, it's OK. I first got into the show when Burke was covering up his hand tremor, and I was entranced by the apparent bond between him and Cristina. It took me a while to appreciate what a demanding, impossible-to-please control freak he was. The plotline might have been interesting with Burke continuing to work with Cristina after humiliating her like that (dumping her at the altar after she turned herself inside out for you? And saying that you're doing it because you love her enough to let her go? Dude, get a grip). But it seems a little Mer/Der redux, whereas now they might get some mileage out of how the invincible Cristina deals with being human like everybody else.

The only real downside is I'll miss looking at Isaiah on my TV screen. It's pathetic, you'd think there'd be some internal mechanism you could use to say, "That guy's a horrible human being, I don't find him attractive any more," but there isn't. It's just another example of the undeserved slack we cut pretty people in this world: no matter what appalling things they've done, we still like looking at them. Probably just the way that THE Preston Burke's friends would have used to justify continuing to hang around with him after the way he acted.

So, it's all good. I'm fine. Really. I'm fine. Seriously. Fine.

*sigh*