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Tuesday, December 8th, 2009

Why I continue to watch 'Scrubs'

I have mixed impressions of the new Scrubs: Med School reincarnation. The episodes were above the average of the last three seasons (post-JD's-having-a-baby surprise), but that's not saying much. The level of acceptance for boring, unsympathetic characters is incomprehensible. But there still remain moments of learning, or hope for those moments, I appreciate. One I ran across recently from earlier in the show's run:

Elliot: Dr. Cox — I just wanted to let you know that Turk did the right thing by taking my patients off of my service.

Dr. Cox: Noooo. What that yellow-bellied scalpel jock should have done was to go down to Surgery and schedule himself for an early morning add-a-pair-tomy. That way, if it took, he'd have the stones to at least come and talk to you next time he had a problem.

Elliot: I just can't seem to stop letting my life out there affect my life in here, you know?

Dr. Cox: Well, hell, Barbie… look at me. It's not like I've always been the centered, well-adjusted Guy Smiley you see walking up and down the halls of this dump. I mean, stuff like that takes time. But, eventually, you learn to keep your personal problems separate from this place.

Elliot: So, what do I do until then?

Dr. Cox: You get your damn life in order… Oh, and, Barbie? Let's say word were to get out that Uncle Cox was doling out the feel-goods? I'll make ya pay. Ya have no idea. Huge!

Wednesday, January 7th, 2009

No Superman

Saw the first two ABC episodes of Scrubs last night, and they were a welcome return to form. The new interns need work, but that's it. The episodes also got me thinking, probably too much. What else would explain waking up from stress dreams every quarter hour last night and a Dr. Cox mood all morning? (How those dreams doing, Veronica?)

I like the show as TV, but I find myself relating to it a good bit. The environment, not any particular character, is what gets me. One of my favorite episodes is one that gets it across the best: "My Monster." Imagine a shot of a a fiery hospital monster here. "Sometimes the hospital seems like a big, hungry monster that feeds on our personal lives," narrator J.D. begins. Work stretches into friends, relationships, thoughts at home, life decisions, and you can manage the sprawl until the connections hit each other the wrong way. That's the monster.

Not surprisingly, Scrubs isn't much for having all of its episodes online, but reading the transcript may help you recall this one. While the J.D. resolution on the monster is much better set in context, I'm okay with taking it out here to remind myself: "I guess, in the end, the monster's always gonna be there. The trick is to not let it beat you."