Welcome to a new Sitcom Tuesday! This week, we’re concluding our coverage on the best of Scrubs (2001-2008, NBC; 2008-2010, ABC), which is currently available on DVD and Hulu.
The final season of Scrubs stars DONALD FAISON as Dr. Turk, JOHN C. McGINLEY as Dr. Cox, ELIZA COUPE as Denise, KERRY BISHÉ as Lucy, MICHAEL MOSLEY as Drew, and DAVE FRANCO as Cole. With KEN JENKINS, SARAH CHALKE, and ZACH BRAFF.
This season shouldn’t exist. Or rather, this season shouldn’t exist as Scrubs. When ABC offered a 13-episode renewal at the last minute, creator Bill Lawrence — who’d already moved on to Cougar Town — wanted to call this effort Scrubs Med, à la Mayberry R.F.D. after Andy Griffith left The Andy Griffith Show. But the network sought full name recognition, making it so this year would be aired, syndicated, and now discussed as part of the original series. And this is a problem, for it’s engaging with the original’s brand but not its situation. And naturally, 13 episodes aren’t enough for this new Scrubs to seem as compelling as the previous… especially when there are so many reminders of what it used to be. That is, Turk and Dr. Cox are back full-time — teaching at a med school that also features Denise, the best of Eight’s intern crop, and three main student newbies, all four of whom create two couples: Lucy/Cole, Denise/Drew. Lucy is the new narrator, and has lots of fantasies like J.D., but she spends the first half of this season sharing those duties with J.D. himself, as both he and Sarah Chalke’s Elliot appear in six and four outings, respectively. (Incidentally, Dr. Kelso also hangs on in a recurring capacity.) This is unideal, for their arcs already ended — slowly, tortuously — and all this extra stuff not only feels unnecessary, it keeps the new Scrubs from being able to prove that its situation is strong enough to survive on its own. That is, as long as J.D. and Elliot are on screen, the new Scrubs can’t really be the new Scrubs and make an audience come to care about its new trappings. Also, for the record, I think the young leads actually are well-defined. And with Cox and Turk serving as mentors, the relational hierarchy that typically occurs on casts of new and old characters is part of the text, so it works… well, when the newbies are front and center, and they’re not forced to compete with the previous stars… Accordingly, the final season of Scrubs is bad mostly because it goes out of its way to be compared to the prior eight — both by retaining the title, and by keeping too many of the former regulars around. For that reason, there are very few episodes that depict this new situation as viable. I could only pick one episode to highlight — the only one that makes the new Scrubs feel like it has its own potential.
01) Episode 179: “Our True Lies” (Aired: 01/26/10)
Dr. Cox is determined to find out which of the students cheated on an exam.
Written by Lon Zimmet & Dan Rubin | Directed by Michael Spiller
This is the only episode where the new Scrubs feels like it has a real opportunity to create a worthwhile situation that isn’t totally stuck in the shadow of the previous eight years and those former main characters. Its primary story, which dominates the half hour, has Dr. Cox demanding to know which of his students cheated on an exam — the five suspects are the three newbie regulars, and their two most notable recurring colleagues. This centralizes the young ensemble’s relationship dynamics, and also provides movement on behalf of the two core romantic couples, as Cole takes the fall for Lucy, and Denise (again, a Season Eight holdover and one of the highlights on this new iteration) finds out Drew is married. So, this is the sole outing — one of only five in Season Nine without either J.D. and/or Elliot — that makes the new Scrubs seem possible, revealing its natural charms and suggesting it actually could have had a bit of a life… if only it wasn’t forced to be compared to its predecessor.
*** The MVE Award for the Best Episode from Season Nine of Scrubs goes to…
(Isn’t it obvious?)
Come back next week for more sitcom fun! And stay tuned for a new Wildcard Wednesday!