Love Grey’s Anatomy? Here are five shows to watch next if you love drama in scrubs

If Grey’s Anatomy has you hooked on messy love lives, high-stakes surgeries, and emotional rollercoasters in the break room, you’re not alone. The iconic medical drama has been breaking hearts and saving lives for nearly two decades.

But what happens when you’ve binged every last tearjerking episode? Don’t worry, your prescription for more drama in scrubs is right here. From sizzling romances to ethically questionable operations and intense hospital politics, these five shows deliver all the adrenaline and angst Grey’s Anatomy fans live for. Ready to scrub in for your next obsession? Here are five shows to watch next.

Five shows you should watch if you like Grey’s Anatomy

1) ER

Before Grey’s Anatomy made surgical drama sexy and tearful, ER was already cracking hearts wide open in the ER bay. Created by Michael Crichton and produced by Steven Spielberg, this ‘90s juggernaut didn’t just walk so Grey’s Anatomy could run, it sprinted through hospital corridors with defibrillator paddles in hand. Set in the chaotic emergency room of Chicago’s County General, ER served up raw, unfiltered hospital life long before Meredith Grey ever picked up a scalpel.

Like Grey’s Anatomy, ER wasn’t just about saving lives; it was loss, too. It was about falling in love mid-suture, cracking under pressure, and doing the right thing even when it wrecked you. The characters were messy, brilliant, heartbroken, and human. Sounds familiar? Clooney’s Dr. Doug Ross walked so McDreamy could broodingly whisper into a surgical mask.

But where Grey’s Anatomy delivers romance with a side of melodrama, ER keeps its feet in the blood-soaked trenches. It’s less glossy, more gut-punched. Still, the emotional devastation? Equally satisfying. If you loved Grey’s Anatomy for its blend of heart, heartbreak, and medicine, ER is your next must-watch. It’s the original blueprint for drama in scrubs, and trust me, it still hits like a crash cart to the chest.

Where to stream: Prime Video

2) The Pitt

The Pitt isn’t just another medical drama; it’s an unflinching adrenaline shot straight to the heart. Set in a fictional Pittsburgh trauma center, the show unfolds in real-time, with each hour-long episode capturing sixty minutes of non-stop emergency room chaos. Created by ER veteran R. Scott Gemmill and executive produced by John Wells, The Pitt is as close to actual trauma care as television has ever dared to go.

Noah Wyle slips back into scrubs like he never left, delivering a searing, career-defining turn as Dr. Robby Robinavitch, a man stitched together by duty, grief, and the ghosts of too many long nights. He’s not the bright-eyed doctor we once knew. He’s cracked, scarred, and running on fumes. And yet, somehow, still standing. By his side is Taylor Dearden as Dr. Mel King, who walks the ER floor with a heartbeat full of fire and eyes that have seen too much for someone so young. She’s the light in the hospital’s darkest corners, and together, they make a team that bleeds empathy and exhaustion in equal measure.

The Pitt doesn’t hold your hand, it grabs your pulse and doesn’t let go. There’s no room for glossy monologues or slow dances under hospital lights. This is trauma television in its rawest form. Every second ticks with tension, every silence feels like the space between life and death. Critics say it’s the best medical drama of the generation, but that undersells it. The Pitt doesn’t just raise the bar, it defibrillates it. If you're ready for pain, purpose, and the kind of stories that don’t come with clean endings, scrub in. This one cuts deep.

Where to stream: HBO Max

3) The Good Doctor

If Grey’s Anatomy is your messy, dramatic bestie who’s always crying in the supply closet, then The Good Doctor is her quiet genius cousin who is socially awkward, painfully honest, and capable of saving a life with a single glance at a CT scan. Created by David Shore, this series follows Dr. Shaun Murphy, an autistic savant with surgical skills so sharp, they could cut through glass and your feelings at the same time.

On the surface, it feels different from Grey’s Anatomy. It’s less scandal, more sincerity. But scratch the surface and you’ll see the same lifeblood: the impossible surgeries, the aching humanity, the way one shift can change everything. Shaun and Meredith? Two different hearts, same war. Both are underestimated, both carry grief like a second skin, both are trying to be brilliant in a world that keeps asking for more.

You still get the hospital chaos, the morally blurry decisions, the moments that make you scream “don’t die, don’t die”, but The Good Doctor slows it down. It’s not trying to seduce you with shirtless surgeons. It wants to show you what empathy looks like when it’s quiet, when it’s earned, when it cuts deeper than a scalpel ever could.

Where to watch: Prime Video and Netflix

4) New Amsterdam

Set in America’s oldest public hospital, New Amsterdam follows Dr. Max Goodwin, a medical director who doesn’t just ask “how can I help?”; he bulldozes red tape, fights insurance demons, and bleeds compassion into every policy.

Like Grey’s Anatomy, it thrives on the chaos of medicine: last-minute saves, impossible diagnoses, lives hanging in the balance. But where Grey’s Anatomy is all about passion, intern romances, elevator confessions, and plane crashes, New Amsterdam is water. It flows slower, deeper, soaking into systemic wounds. It trades the glamor of Seattle’s private hospitals for the grit of public healthcare. It’s not just about who’s in love with who (although, let’s be real, there’s still a little of that), but about what it means to care, radically, relentlessly, institutionally.

Both shows wear their hearts on their scrubs. But while Grey’s Anatomy screams, sobs, and breaks you up with a music montage, New Amsterdam whispers, “What if we actually fixed this?” And somehow, that hope hits just as hard. Maybe harder.

Where to watch: Peacock

5) How to Get Away with Murder

If you’re looking for more of Shonda Rhimes’ magic, the kind that makes your heart race, your jaw drop, and your trust issues spike, How to Get Away with Murder is your next wild obsession. Created by Peter Nowalk but executive produced by Rhimes, this show carries the same explosive DNA that made Grey’s Anatomy a cultural reset. It’s Shonda’s world, we’re all just emotionally unstable in it.

Where Grey’s Anatomy gives you life-and-death on an operating table, Murder hands you life-or-death in a courtroom, or sometimes in a basement with a blood-stained trophy. Annalise Keating is the Meredith Grey of law, flawed, brilliant, tragic, and magnetic. Both women are surrounded by chaos and interns who make terrible choices, and both navigate their personal wreckage while carrying everyone else’s burdens like a one-woman Greek chorus.

The Shondaland touch is unmistakable: lightning-fast pacing, morally complex characters, scandalous secrets, and emotional grenades hidden in almost every episode. Both shows champion diversity, challenge institutions, and prove that pain makes great television.

So if you binged Grey’s Anatomy and thought, “I need something messier, darker, and with more criminal activity,” Shonda already delivered.

Where to watch: Netflix

Also read: Is Grey's Anatomy still worth watching in 2025? Here's what we think