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LTTP: Scrubs

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Scrubs is one of the best shows ever
sans season 9
.

scrubs-banjo-o.gif
 
if you're going to watch it, watch the first two seasons. Starting in season three, it gets significantly goofier, a quality that only ramps up over time, and the fantastical stuff gets more and more elaborate with less and less resonance, a la Family Guy.

It's also the show with perhaps the most significant Flanderization of all time, with everyone starting off semi-realistically and become goofy weirdos that are unrecognizable compared to their original incarnations. J.D. turns into a metrosexual manchild, Turk turns into his fun-loving, over-the-top "chocolate bear", Carla turns into a smiling nag, Dr. Cox turns into a rant machine, Dr. Kelso turns into a "dirty old man with a heart of gold", the Janitor turns into a creepy eccentric, etc.
 
Snowman Prophet of Doom said:
if you're going to watch it, watch the first two seasons. Starting in season three, it gets significantly goofier, a quality that only ramps up over time, and the fantastical stuff gets more and more elaborate with less and less resonance, a la Family Guy.

It's also the show with perhaps the most significant Flanderization of all time, with everyone starting off semi-realistically and become goofy weirdos that are unrecognizable compared to their original incarnations. J.D. turns into a metrosexual manchild, Turk turns into his fun-loving, over-the-top "chocolate bear", Carla turns into a smiling nag, Dr. Cox turns into a rant machine, Dr. Kelso turns into a "dirty old man with a heart of gold", the Janitor turns into a creepy eccentric, etc.
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You're not wrong, but that's not to say the later seasons are without nuance. Seasons 3 and 5 have the most emotionally impactful episodes/arcs of the season. Season 8 brings that one romance to a conclusion that wouldn't have had the same impact without the previous 7 seasons. And Carla's postpartum arc in season 5 is pretty important for representation.

And the Janitor may become eccentric later, but he starts off weird and vindictive and that strangeness doesn't let up throughout the series. Really, there's only a couple of episodes that make him a real character and those are in the later seasons.
 
exYle said:
You're not wrong, but that's not to say the later seasons are without nuance. Seasons 3 and 5 have the most emotionally impactful episodes/arcs of the season. Season 8 brings that one romance to a conclusion that wouldn't have had the same impact without the previous 7 seasons. And Carla's postpartum arc in season 5 is pretty important for representation.

And the Janitor may become eccentric later, but he starts off weird and vindictive and that strangeness doesn't let up throughout the series. Really, there's only a couple of episodes that make him a real character and those are in the later seasons.
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He was far subtler in earlier seasons, though, probably because they made the first season with the idea in mind that he might just be a figment of J.D.'s imagination. Like, the first season has an episode where all the Janitor does is try to get everyone to call J.D. "Scooter" because he hates scooter pie, and the arc comes to a close when Dr. Cox calls him Scooter and The Janitor does a little three-second jig. He was much better when he was used sparingly, as a dash of salt, rather than "one of the gang".

Every character just becomes very one-dimensional and stereotypical, such that even the "emotional" stuff in the later seasons is undermined by their being goofy, unrelatable cartoons in the rest of the episode.

It's just one of those shows that started writing based on the audience's perceptions of the characters' personalities, that wrote its characters around its jokes, rather than sticking to their guns and letting the comedy and drama flow naturally from the characters.
 
Spork4000 said:
My sister works in a hospital. According to her Scrubs is basically real life for them, also Grey's Anatomy is painfully inaccurate. She also says most surgeons follow the stereotype.
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As someone who's worked in a hospital surgery department for close to 2 years, I can confirm this. Though there are some legit chill surgeons out there, oddly enough they're mostly foot surgeons.
 
Man I really like to see this show have a following with so many nice things to say about it. It's really nice to watch, this one.
 
Bold One said:
Dunno, I think 30 Rock is a pretty good shout
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Spork4000 said:
30 Rock didn't have the drama and real depressing shit scrubs had.

Find me a 30 Rock moment like how to save a life.
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Bingo. There are shows that are funny (too many to name). There are shows that are funny and have a ton of heart (30 Rock and Parks & Rec). There are few shows that have both of those and also emotional moments on the regular and aren't just part of "a very special episode." MASH was one of those. Scrubs was one of those. Uh...hm. I can't think of another off the top of my head. Futurama had emotional episodes, but they revolved around a handful of episodes. The rest was exceptional comedy. The perfect blending of the three elements is what made Scrubs so special.

BUNTING1243 said:
Community?
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Admittedly, I've only watched to season 3, but outside of the one episode with Abed and his dad, I don't really recall any sort of drama elements.
 
To add to the accuracy comments:
My gf and I re-watched scrubs recently (I'm a pharmacist and she's a Dr.) and were trying to spot mistakes.
In one episode JD and Elliott are with a patient and Elliott intubates him. She does it really casually while talking to JD and not really concentrating. Gf immediately declares it to be bs that she could tube so easily.
Then Dr. Cox comes in and spots that Elliott has intubated wrong and is inflating the stomach.
So the one time she thought she'd spotted a mistake, turns out they new exactly what they were doing.
 
Cohsae said:
To add to the accuracy comments:
My gf and I re-watched scrubs recently (I'm a pharmacist and she's a Dr.) and were trying to spot mistakes.
In one episode JD and Elliott are with a patient and Elliott intubates him. She does it really casually while talking to JD and not really concentrating. Gf immediately declares it to be bs that she could tube so easily.
Then Dr. Cox comes in and spots that Elliott has intubated wrong and is inflating the stomach.
So the one time she thought she'd spotted a mistake, turns out they new exactly what they were doing.
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I have the whole lot on DVD and they explain that they had 2 Doctors that they went to because they wanted accuracy. I remember that one of them had the initials JD, so they called him "Real JD".

It's been a whole, but other things I remember include 2 stunt people meeting on the show and ending up married, the cast being nothing like their characters with the exception of The Todd, and Neil Flynn/Janitor not originally being a regular character on the show but improvising in an early episode (I think it was the mouthing/acting out of "I'll kill you") and everyone loving it so much that as the show went on sometimes the script would say "Whatever Neil says". There's clips on YouTube of him doing improv in his early days, and the DVDs have compilations of his outtakes where he comes up with some random shit.

Dr Cox's wife (Bill Lawrence's real life wife) looked so much better before the work she had done in the later seasons, and I think Sarah Chalke might have had some done too.


I think it's about time I watched Scrubs again.

Edit: that Journey track got popular again because of Glee, but we all know Scrubs used it first and inspired it.

Edit 2: there's no other live action comedy that I can think of that was as emotional as Scrubs was in its best moments. The show was so great.

I'm sure the general impression of Scrubs wasn't that fantastic, but I don't remember the last time I saw it talked about and I don't even remember if it was here or Reddit. Nah must have been here, Reddit loves Braff.

Why do people not like Braff?
 
WanderingWind said:
Bingo. There are shows that are funny (too many to name). There are shows that are funny and have a ton of heart (30 Rock and Parks & Rec). There are few shows that have both of those and also emotional moments on the regular and aren't just part of "a very special episode." MASH was one of those. Scrubs was one of those. Uh...hm. I can't think of another off the top of my head. Futurama had emotional episodes, but they revolved around a handful of episodes. The rest was exceptional comedy. The perfect blending of the three elements is what made Scrubs so special.
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Fresh Prince of Bel Air?
 
One of the first comedies I got into and I loved it. I use lines from it whenever possible.

This show is the reason I think that John C McGinley would be a great J. Jonah Jameson.
 
Amazing soundtrack too, introduced me to a lot of music...

How the hell did Zach Braff not get more movie roles?
 
SodiumBenzoate said:
I don't agree with skipping any of it, but seasons 6 and 7 are definitely the low point.



Great show, that could be wacky and stupid and still completely nail moments like this (trying to not spoil anything for OP):
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You made me tear up.


I have never loved a show more and I probably never will.
 
SixFourMike said:
I think it's about time I watched Scrubs again.

Edit: that Journey track got popular again because of Glee, but we all know Scrubs used it first and inspired it.
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Which Journey song? Don't you mean Boston's More than a Feeling?
 
I recently watched all nine seasons for the first time. It definitely has its low points, but it really does blend in emotional moments with good comedy. A couple of seasons in it definitely got in a rut. The janitor becoming a caricature being the biggest offender. Although in return, Kelso got fleshed out a lot more.

I was dreading the final season giving everything I had heard, but honestly it was fine. Better than most of Season 7.
 
Tecl0n said:
I love Scrubs.

He probably means Don't Stop Believin',JD loves Journey. (Season 3)
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As someone who doesn't really listen to music, this show introduced me to Journey's Don't Stop Believin', which is now my absolute favourite song.

Also I could really relate to Elliot, as someone who says "Frick" a lot...
INST said:
Love it, helped me a lot in very different ways. Haven't watched it in a while tho, thanks for reminding me OP. Will watch it again.

Also, Sarah Chalke was smoking.
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This is also true.


Edit:
Snowman Prophet of Doom said:
He was far subtler in earlier seasons, though, probably because they made the first season with the idea in mind that he might just be a figment of J.D.'s imagination.
Click to expand...

While I preferred him as an actual character, I thought it was really neat how the Janitor wasn't a "real" character until the second season, but in the first season was designed as someone who represented JD's doubts and fears of becoming a doctor.
 
Yep I loved it. Been years since I saw an episode, so I think I'm due for a rewatch of a few episodes. Dr. Cox definitely took the show from "good" to "great" in my opinion.
 
So many great moments in show. It's always my go to show if i need something in the background.

Tell you one thing.. that show can make me cry every time. Not going to spoil anything but prepare to shed tears.


Also what the fuck guys no love for Jordan?

tumblr_llr12jH3PM1qa02dro1_r1_500.gif
 
I've watched it three times already, and we own the DVDs at home.
It's just too good, I can't not emotionally respond to it, or not laugh at its humor, love the show <3
 
Just started a rewatch of this actually. On season 2.

What I can't get over is how cheesy it all is. Yet it somehow works. Like the show beats you over the head with moral lessons, but everything in between is fucking gold.


Also, watching the show high turns it into a completely different show.
 
potam said:
What I can't get over is how cheesy it all is. Yet it somehow works. Like the show beats you over the head with moral lessons, but everything in between is fucking gold.
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I can't believe I don't roll my eyes whenever there's some cheesy daydream cutout. For some reason it works. Same thing with Dr. Cox's character, his response in like every social situation is the same and the writers seem to find a new, entertaining way for him to respond despite that.
 
I recently rewatched this on Netflix, but I stopped during season 8. I don't know why, but I found that season to be more cringe inducing and some scenes just got me to give up on finishing it. Like when JD and Elliot is in the cafe talking about their stuff, I just found it to be completely out of form and stupid. Also, the interactions with the new interns fell flat most of the time.

That being said, I really like the first seven seasons f. Especially the episodes that explores stuff about how every day doctors and medical professionals have to deal with stuff that normal people only see a few times in their life.
 
Choomp said:
Done with season 1. Love this show a ton. What's the best season I have to look forward to?
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Depends who you ask. Almost everyone will agree seasons 6-7 are weak and 8 is a comeback. Where they disagree is where the show peaks earlier. I'd say season 4, personally but I can see good arguments for 5.
 
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