Scrubs
Is it really over? That's unclear, as ABC is still flirting with the possibility of a rebooted, Zach Braff-free Scrubs for the fall. We probably won't get a definitive answer on the matter until the network's upfronts on May 19, so in the meantime, let's use this space to sound off on the gooey-centered, one-hour finale episode — of whatever variety it might turn out to be.
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In the first episode, "My Saving Grace," there was a good, if rather facile, continuing thread of Carla trying to take new intern Kate (Betsy Buetler) in hand and convince her that relating with both patients and her colleagues is in her own best interest...while around them, an object lesson is made of the new and suddenly former Chief of Medicine, Dr. Maddox.
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Scrubs is back, and the series is apparently determined to get back on track after a couple of weaker seasons on their former network, NBC. Now, as an ABC Studios production on sitcom-weak ABC, one would hope they'd get a fair shake on their new broadcast home, for their 8th and probably last season. So far, ABC isn't too worried about the "flow" of the evening, as the two-episode debut was sandwiched between two "reality" series — neither exactly pitched at the Scrubs audience — as small as that's become (the end bumper on the first episode even jokes about the Neilsens, who turn out to be dissatisfied patients).
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Even though by showing it tonight as the last episode of Scrubs NBC intends to air it violates internal chronology Bob Kelso is magically back in charge at Sacred Heart I can see why they kept this charming episode for the season finale And possible series finale though it does seem more likely than not according to various sources on this site and elsewhere that ABC will commission and run at least a few more episodes to make a full seasons worth for the last setUsing a framing device that as others will remind you resembles that of William Goldmans novel The Princess Bride and the film made from it we have the intersecting stories of Elliot and JD attempting to diagnose a young woman patient of Elliots who seems to be getting worse no matter how her symptoms are treated and that of a bedtime story Cox tells his young son which is inspired by the days events in the hospital including Kelsos maniacal drive to ensure no doctors are working overtime and therefore
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And were back to a merely watchable episode albeit one with some inspired bits of business not least a flashback involving Ken Jenkins as the now-retired KelsoKelso has left and Perry Cox is the new Chief of Medicine a fact he insists everyone recognize by addressing him and referring to him as Chief Doctor Cox nonetheless the bureaucratic responsibilities of the office dont sit well with him Jordans presence is at best only mildly helpful with that albeit she does give Cox someone to enumerate his woes with Ted notes that he is now Coxs subordinate and offers the same sort of slavish assistance he provided Kelso till the Janitor points out to Ted that he doesnt have to continue toadying that with Cox he can make a fresh start The exuberant Ted not only begins asserting himself with Cox who is only slightly puzzled but with the Janitor as well who finds himself no longer the undisputed leader of his little group of hospital misfits Meanwhile Turk is co
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An episode that could stand comfortably with any of the previous seasons episodes the first one in this stymied season that I can write that about without hesitationAnd of course I failed to heed my own advice and forgot that NBC changed time slots for the show on Thursdays to 830p ETPT so missed it last night and caught it today on NBCs website But its a fine sendoff for Ken Jenkinss Kelso with the A story devoted to Elliot and Carlas attempts to rally folks to attend a meeting of the hospitals board of directors to get them to rescind Kelsos forced retirement at age 65 Kelso had falsified his age on HR documents so as to buy himself some time The B story is mostly devoted to Kelsos reminisces about his life at the hospital as delivered to a young intern named Boone or Boon which Kelso with characteristic charm refers to as a stupid name The C story involves Cox unable to diagnose a chronically ill patient whos been in and out of Sacred Heart for mont
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Angela Nissel the writer who perhaps has made the most of her or his association with Scrubs is credited with this amiable episode and while she does offer a few good wild concepts one of the true pitfalls of the aging sitcom is in evidence here the attempt to make well-rounded characters out of roles which are best preserved as devices Bob Kelso grounded just enough so that he isnt just a two-dimensional two-faced ogreis funny and at times sobering or acidly touching most obviously in the episode where the audience gets to see what he hides from his staff how much life and death decisions take out of him every day Bob Kelso tragic figure who has to depend on Elliot and Carla and for goodnesss sake eventually Cox to rescue him from forced retirement considerably less effective in every wayBut then that last wasnt the only unlikely development in this thinly-plotted but incident-rich episode The A-storyline Turk has apparently returned from a weeks visi
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Finally back and with a good episode albeit one that felt a bit more Sitcom than we might hope for from Scrubsthe pace was right the performances on but the jokes were often just a bit too typical of what we might see in a shall we write lesser show Thats a problem that this series will continue to have as it wraps up on NBC this season and it appears makes its way to ABC for a very short final set of episodesit set such a high bar in its first seasons managed so frequently to pull together its disparate elements even the disparate styles of its performers so well that its almost unfair to expect them to sustain that level of quality into seventh and eighth seasonsparticularly with the syndicated and cablecast evidence of those earlier triumphs available every dayCarla having forgotten a playdate for her infant daughter spirals into an intense guilt trip against herself which Turk allays reassuring her that shes an excellent and attentive mother and th
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Scrubs returns to NBC next week, to begin the last new episodes of the season, but NBC's announced schedule for next year doesn't include the series...so it might be up to ABC to run the last, short season as planned. Or will they be DVD-only? That seems unlikely, somehow.
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And this is the Scrubs weve seen a little too much of of lategood enough to watch but only intermittently or fitfully funny and perhaps not quite seemlessly mixing the frequent tragedy of medical life with the various sorts of comedy offered upA recap can be pretty quick on this episode since the A B and C plotlines are pretty thin in outline Elliot faces an ethical dilemma when she learns that one of her private-practice patients dying of ALS has landed in the hospital in a suicide attempt Elliot is unsure as to whether to make the authorities and her patients home-healthcare nurse aware of this or to allow the patient to die on her own terms JD suggests she should tell for no better reason than that Elliot tends to let such things get under her skin by episodes end Elliot has decided to keep her patients secret having accidentally let the dying woman know how more effectively to drug herself to death Meanwhile JD having discovered how insanely compe
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