Scrubs Thread

[kibaxx7]

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[benji]

They should have done this season three years ago after season six. Wouldn't have minded bringing in new classes (something they somewhat did, which saved the original series really) of students. And we wouldn't have missed anything and could've saw the old class (and the series) go away at their high point.

Didn't mind the finale really. The arcs were all underwritten due to lack of time but they logically wrapped them up in this one. Especially liked Cox's fear that Drew was turning into J.D.

[Andrew]

I still liked seasons seven and eight myself. To be honest, I don't think I was ever going to like this spinoff no matter when it was done, though I was still hoping it would prove me wrong. As for the finale, it was alright but at the same time a merciful end. They gave it a shot, probably did the best they could. Worth watching through to the end, some of the episodes were OK and there was still some good stuff from the original cast.

[Lamrock]

Felt nostalgic and downloaded all 8 seasons of Scrubs to watch when I did tedious homework. Ended up getting really hooked. Almost done with the 8th season (which I'm sad about), which I only caught half the episodes of. I've actually been really enjoying it. Really liked some the storylines, and its a little less repetitive that the past few seasons in my opinion. (though 5 was probably my favorite)

[Azzdogs]

Season 5 was my favourite.

[Lamrock]

Though the Janitor was pretty stale, season 8 may have actually been my favorite season. In its "prime", the show was addicting but somewhat repetitive. Seasons 6 & 7 sucked, and in season 8 the plot was strengthened and the characters were less parodies of themselves. (Plus there was a lot of Ted and Kelso)

The failed med school season came into itself somewhat towards the end IMO. Cole really carried the show. Trying to get into Spin City now. God laugh tracks are annoying.

[Andrew]

I enjoyed Seasons 6 or 7, though I wouldn't call them the strongest (especially the WGA strike abbreviated seventh season). Season 8 was a stronger finish for the show though I thought both the Janitor and even Dr Cox at times weren't quite at their best. I enjoyed bits and pieces of Season 9, mostly stuff with the original cast but found the new cast (and ascended role for Denise) dull and unfunny, especially Cole.

On the whole, I think Scrubs remains kind of an underrated and underappreciated show despite its popularity. Its greatest problems in later seasons were touches of character derailment and exaggeration of certain character traits to the point of poor (or at least a little off the mark) characterisation along with the tendency of characters to forget the lessons they've learned. In a way that was pretty realistic and subverted the tendency for shows to put everything right by the episode's end, but it also squandered some really good opportunities for natural character development and fresher plots and jokes accordingly.

I felt they dropped the ball with the JD/Dr Cox dynamic in later seasons. Season 5 developed it pretty well to the point where JD's neediness was still funny and not too over the top and he still annoyed Dr Cox, but they still got along in their own way and Cox - to his horror and regret - had some liking and appreciation for JD. The Cox of later seasons was too mean-spirited and less tolerant of JD while JD's neediness and the like were grossly exaggerated. To me it just felt like they missed an opportunity for some good plots and some better scenes between the characters. I'd compare it to Homer Simpson going from a well-meaning if sometimes boorish buffoon that truly loves his family to a wacky loudmouth who's a raging alcoholic and is at best tolerant of his family; just not as enjoyable and less funny to boot.

Anyway, now that the show appears to be done, how about some favourite episodes lists and the like?

[Lamrock]

Off the top of my head, my favorite episode is the finale, but I also thought season 5 was salvaged towards the end with a handful of great episodes starting with Dr. Cox's first kills. I'll look over some season 1 & 2 episode guides and make a formal list later.

[Oznogrd]

Personally i feel the show was at it's strongest at the episodes that had long lasting repercussions on the characters with messages. The growth and development is usually left out of sitcoms but Scrubs was great at it early on. Later they started just going with personalities rather than developing them and it fell off slightly

Far and away the My Musical episode from season 6. It is a fucking classic in every single way imaginable.

Highlights include Dr. Cox's Song, Turk/Carla's Argument about is she puerto rican or dominican, Guy Love, and even the way the episode flows like a broadway musical with the sentimental "Thats What's Going to Happen." I have almost never enjoyed an episode a show as much as this one. (except maybe Cripple Fight, Raisins, and Up the Down Steroid on South Park)

meh fuck it

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[Lamrock]

Ranking the seasons:
Season 1 (the best season overall - the freshest, with the most fleshed out stories)
Season 8 (in my opinion the funniest season and a major return to form and excellent end of the series)
Season 5 (Last four or five episodes were classics)
Season 2 (not as good as season 1, but still very good)
Season 4 (still a little repetitive but there were some great episodes)
Season 3 (decent season, though a little repetitive - plus Sean sucks)
Season 6 (really went downhill. All the characters developed into cliches of themselves)
Season 7 (like season 6 but shorter)
Season 9 (had its moments, and Cole was hilarious, but the writing was poor, and it should have ended with the S8 finale)

[benji]

Trying to get into Spin City now. God laugh tracks are annoying.

Cougar Town doesn't have one. (And doesn't get ruined by Charlie Sheen and Heather Locklear. Yet.)

[benji]

And farewell, Scrubs is officially cancelled.

But Cougar Town is better than ever, so who really cares?

[Andrew]

A merciful end. Again, I've got to give them credit for giving it a try but yeah, not too disappointed.

Just realised I never followed up on this myself:

Anyway, now that the show appears to be done, how about some favourite episodes lists and the like?

My season rankings:

1. Season 3
2. Season 2
3. Season 1
4. Season 4
5. Season 5
6. Season 8
7. Season 6
8. Season 7
9. Season 9

There's not much between my top five, eight stands out as a bit of a comeback for the show, seasons six and seven I still enjoyed but six wasn't the best (and seven too short thanks to the writer's strike) and nine is far and away my least favourite with very few highlights. But that's just me.

As for favourite episodes, "My Lunch" and "My Fallen Idol" from Season 5 are right up there, as was the 100th episode ("My Way Home"). From Season 4, there's "My Unicorn", "My Cake" and "My Life in Four Cameras". From Season 3, "My Fifteen Seconds", "My Porcelain God", "My Butterfly", "My Rule of Thumb", "My Dirty Secret", "My Screw Up" and "My Brother, Where Art Thou?". From Season 2, there's "My Fruit Cups", "My T.C.W.", "My Monster" and "My Sex Buddy". Season 1 has "My First Day", "My Bed Banter & Beyond", "My Old Man" and "My Hero". Finally, I'd have to say "My Cold Shower", "My Musical" and "Their Story" from Season 6 and of course, "My Finale" from Season 8. They'd probably be my top 25 (though not necessarily in that order).

[Oznogrd]

This may be grave digging but with Scrubs appearing on netflix instant i've finally managed to catch up on the last bits of season 6-8 (and im currently in 9 but not really digging it).

And most of the sentiments in this thread hold true for me too. 6 and 7 felt a little off, but 8 was quite strong and i caught myself relating to almost every episode (Especially the 2nd bahamas episode and the finale). Thats what good television should be. While you're being entertained, you should be able to see yourself and your friends in the story lines and maybe even if you're dealing with a similar problem, the show can maybe make a point you couldn't see in your own situation.

Seriously, might be in my top 5 tv shows ever if you exclude season 9.

[Andrew]

Season 9? There was never a Season 9.

[Oznogrd]

So i finished it up and it wasnt as bad as the first few episodes led me to believe. Actually I think it could've worked given a little less focus on eliot and JD and more focus on the current class. It was almost like they couldnt decided whether to just go all out as a new series or not. Kelso, Cox, Turk, and Mahoney all worked as recurring characters left over from Scrubs. Although it was weird to have Turk with no Carla.

[Andrew]

Really? It's been a while since I watched those episodes but I was pretty unimpressed with the new characters. I found Lucy to be a fairly uninteresting lead (kind of like they put JD and Elliot together but without anything that made her funny or interesting), Cole was just annoying and felt like he belonged in another series (preferably any series that I don't watch), Drew was flat out bland and Denise wasn't nearly as entertaining as a main character. The original cast had their moments but they should've left it alone with the Season 8 finale.

[Lamrock]

Scrubs: Medical School (or whatever it was called - not season 9) was watchable in that it was still Scrubs, but it obviously wasn't very good. I still disagree about Cole though. Annoying and not very likable, sure, but he was also the only character that brought the occasional lulz.

[Oznogrd]

I'd agree about Lucy, she was some weird eliot and JD thrown in a blender without the likability but I enjoyed the antics of the rest. Cole is that idiot guy who always did better than me in classes but was a total douche. Drew was that older guy that I usually got along with. Denise was every tomboy i've ever known. Maybe its just a case of knowing people like the characters in real life made me enjoy their stories a little bit more. Dont get me wrong. Im not saying it was a good idea to extend into season 9, I'm not saying it was anywhere near the level of other seasons. But it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. When episode 13 ended, I wanted a little bit more just to see how things played out.

Maybe its like Lamrock said though: maybe it was just cuz it was scrubs so i still deem it better than 90% of the stuff on now.

[Andrew]

I'd say they did the best they could given the circumstances, the new cast gave it their all and the writers did what they could to make things familiar yet fresh. It was a noble experiment, but a post script season with a new cast (and thus a different dynamic) is a tough sell for any successful series.

Denise was great as a recurring character during the eighth season, with some really good one liners and a couple of good serious moments as well. As a main character though, I didn't they think they did a good enough job fleshing her out. It was basically one joke, one theme (her being a tomboy) done again and again and turned up to eleven. It was also weird having her go straight from being an intern to an attending and in a position of power. From memory, we're supposed to assume some time has passed between Season 8 and 9/Med School but it felt like they missed a few steps in character development.

Honestly, if a post script season had to happen, I'd have set it right after Season 8. JD's taken a new job so you could have Zach Braff making his six or seven appearances, along with Sarah Chalke. They finished Season 8 as a couple, so her pregnancy (and therefore Elliot's) could've been written in pretty much the same. You could even set it a little further into the future (but not quite as far as they did) if you wanted to have them married as they were in Season 9, or you could've just had them engaged. You'd still have Turk as the Chief Surgeon and Cox as the Chief of Medicine, Carla could still be at home with the two kids (and mentioned in passing when need be) since Judy Reyes didn't sign on for the new season. Other members of the original cast could make their appearances and Neil Flynn could still be written out the same way.

You could then shift focus slightly from the main characters to the interns introduced in Season 8, including Denise. I felt they were a more likeable bunch and there'd be more potential to make a "familiar but fresh" approach work. There's no skipped steps with characterisation or the jolt of a newbie suddenly being in a position of power.

As for the narration they could just keep JD, even for episodes he didn't appear in. I'd liken it to Future!Ted in How I Met Your Mother or perhaps Ron Howard's role as the narrator in Arrested Development. From an in-universe perspective, one could explain it by suggesting that he's recounting a tale second hand, events that Turk or someone else told him about. They did a couple of episodes in Season 8 without his narration which worked out alright, so they could probably drop it at times or completely if they were feeling a bit more daring.

Anyway, I feel that would've made a much better post script season. It probably still wouldn't have been quite up to scratch but I think I'd have enjoyed that more.

Scrubs: Medical School (or whatever it was called - not season 9) was watchable in that it was still Scrubs, but it obviously wasn't very good. I still disagree about Cole though. Annoying and not very likable, sure, but he was also the only character that brought the occasional lulz.

What exactly was funny about him though? For me there's nothing inherently funny about being annoying or a jerk, a trap I feel a lot of comedies fall into these days (I guess there's a fair few people who do find that appealing but I'm definitely not one of them). When you have a fundamentally unlikeable character, the way to make them funny is to have them be witty, get them into comedic mishaps and in most cases, have them screwed over by the situation when it's all said and done. I'm sure I've mentioned it before but if anyone here is familiar with the Blackadder series, the titular character is a perfect example of what I'm talking about.

[benji]

I, of course had to check the last page for half a second to see my past posts, but I'm probably more positive on the last season of the show now than ever. And I think it might be illini's "fresh eyes" to the whole affair.

I LIKED the final season EXCEPT how it tried to force the old seasons in. I get Cox there, someone who will whine forever and ever yet do something because it's what they really want. (That's me. ) And I get J.D. trying to recapture things. Anyone else old was wrong.

Denise was the best character, she wasn't a tomboy, she was the complete 100% antithesis of J.D. And the flaw in her is that they didn't make her the J.D. replacement and revolve the new series around her. That was the real lifeblood opportunity. Cox we've seen, J.D. is not believable as a mentor. But Denise with her cold emotionless efficiency provided an opportunity not just to turn her into a nymphomaniac but as the proper central foil to the caring students.

I said it before, but the core issue was staying with the main characters. J.D., Turk, Carla and Elliott turned into doctor gods and the series became about their personal drama. The show should have moved them into the mentor roles and brought in a new class with new issues far far far earlier on.

The mentoring halfway through was good, but the teaching was just that at another step, none of it well planned out. Which is why the show somewhat fell apart when you consider it at a proper level, even as individual episodes continued to deliver.

But then again I'm well established here as saying "My Point of No Return" could not be topped as a finale. (Let's all ignore it was written as a series finale! IT STILL WON! They couldn't top it and they didn't!)

[Andrew]

I'd still choose "My Finale" over "My Point of No Return" as that's the kind of finale I prefer, but that would've been a hell of an ending in its own right.

[benji]

DAT MONTAGE

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