You Don't Need to Be a Grey's Anatomy Fan to Love Its New Spinoff, Station 19

There will be tons of comparisons between Andy Herrera and Meredith Grey. They're both smart, talented, and deeply inclined toward pensive voice-overs. Still, there's an immediate rawness and bluntness to Andy that we don't see in Meredith until later seasons.

Unlike Meredith in the Grey's pilot, Andy knows what she's doing. She's fairly confident about her job, even obstinately ramming a police car that's parked in her red zone. She speaks up on her own behalf when her father plans on passing his job to the guy who unsuccessfully proposed to her.

While she's a badass heroine who runs into fires, Andy also has a disarming vulnerability to her. Not too long into the first episode, we see her crying when she finds out that her father, the fire department chief, has been hospitalized after collapsing during a fire. Andy shares something of a complicated, loving relationship with her father. He's her mentor, but she also has to take care of him at home. So far, the dynamic is way less dark than Meredith's twisty relationship with her mother.

The show focuses first and foremost on Andy figuring out how to assert her authority at the fire station within her new capacity as a leader, but it also treats viewers with a love triangle between the heroine and two very attractive men. Yup, Andy is in a love triangle with Ryan, the policeman who went to prom with her, and Jack, her colieutenant who proposes to her with no luck. While it's an awkward position to be in, Andy doesn't seem too torn up about it, which is refreshing in and of itself. The love triangle is fairly subdued, but the writers may ratchet up the tension deeper into the season.

I had my doubts about Ben's transition into this new Shondaland project. There are risks in using his character's backstory in this new show. I, for one, feared that it might come off as too heavy-handed. But Station 19 brushed away my doubts.

Ben is more fleshed out on this show, even if he's familiar to Grey's audiences. He's a newbie at the station, and as he's learning the ropes and tricks of his new workplace, so are we. Throughout the first two episodes, Ben encounters some tension when it comes to exercising his medical knowledge on the job, whether it's to medically treat the fire chief in the ambulance or to deliver a baby inside a dirty middle school bathroom. We also get to see Ben's adorably close relationship with his stepson Tuck, who's proud of his stepdad for fighting fires but also dying for father-son bonding time around their hectic schedules.

There is something small about Ben's introduction that may haunt me. While on the job, the former surgeon develops a rapport with his coworker Victoria. In the second installation of the premiere, they deliver a baby and survive a scary blue ethanol fire together. While their relationship strikes me as more of a friendship, I'd be devastated if Ben and Bailey ever broke up.

Stepping aside from the plot and characters for a second, we need to appreciate how good the music is on this show! Shondaland shows don't shy away from using emotional music to highlight important beats. We see it time after time with indie rock music in the earlier seasons of Grey's and soul music all throughout Scandal.

Station 19 goes down a casually edgy pop-rock route that's upbeat and fun without being too sappy. Just at the top of the pilot, we're introduced to the fire with Emily Bell's gravelly, garage rock anthem "Can't Talk Back." It ends with Alex Lahey's celebratory punk-pop song "Every Day's the Weekend" as the firefighters slide down their station pole. Alex Lahey pops up again with the frenetic "I Love You Like a Brother" at the beginning of the second episode. Will Lahey be something to Station 19 like Sleeping at Last is to Grey's? We'll see in the next few episodes, but I'm digging the Australian singer-songwriter's sound already.

Being a spinoff series, Station 19 will inevitably attract reviews that compare it to its parent show. A lot of its emotional weight has been tied to Grey Sloan Memorial, whether it's Meredith telling an overwrought Andy to put her game face on or Miranda giving Ben a pep talk. But the firefighting drama offers a lot on its own, including a whole new cast of unique, emotionally rich characters and interesting relationship dynamics between those characters.

While die-hard Grey's fans will catch the show's hidden Easter eggs, newcomers will be able to enjoy the emotional kick.