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STUDIO: Buena Vista Home Entertainment / Touchstone
MSRP: $39.99
RATED: Not rated
RUNNING TIME: 530 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
• My 117 Episodes: A look back at 5 seasons
• Deleted scenes & alternate lines
• Director’s cut of the 100th episode directed by Zach Braff
The Pitch
It’s ER meets a big stinkin’ bag of looney bin.
The Humans
Zach Braff, Donald Faison, Sarah Chalke, John C. McGinley, Judy Reyes, Neil Flynn.
Nothing sucks worse than when the wardrobe budget is cut…
The Nutshell
The nutbag lives of the doctors and nurses in a community hospital are explored through what can only be described as a meth-hazed point of view as told by a schizophrenia patient off his meds. Jokes fly a mile a minute, sight gags are o’plenty and reality warps all in the name of telling hair-brained stories of the medical world on crack. Drs. JD Dorian (Braff), Elliot Reid (Chalke), Christopher Turk (Faison), Perry Cox (McGinley) and others are all practicing in a Naked Gun environment and when they’re not playing Jiggly Ball,
pretending to be multi-racial Siamese twins, or looking for any and
every opportunity to humiliate each other and treat each other like
crap, they occasionally manage to save a couple of lives along the way.
The Lowdown
The best way I can describe this show is that it’s whacked, plain and simple. I had seen some episodes here and there, but never gotten a concentrated dose until now, and I realize that not only have I been missing possibly the most original show currently on TV, but untold opportunities to just ogle Sarah Chalke and think thoughts that would surely get me membership in any Pagan group of my choice. Scrubs is simply a fantastically written and executed piece of tomfoolery in every episode and it revels in it, like a pig in a shit jacuzzi.
Finally, a show with something so fucked up, even I’m speechless. Wow.
First of all, the writing on this show sends the jokes out like they’re on a conveyor belt. And the only thing better than how they’re scripted is how they’re delivered by a cast with more chemistry than a couple dozen high school science labs. Braff heads up the group and he’s perfectly suited to playing the usual butt of many of the jokes that get fired his way like a barrage. I’ve also been a longtime fan of Faison since Clueless, and although he’s done a lot of other kind of work, he’s best when he gets to make a lecherous ass of himself as he frequently does here. His rapport with Braff is one of the main discs in a backbone of lunacy. And if there’s currently a funnier hot chick or a hotter funny chick on the idiot box than Sarah Chalke, I ain’t seen her. Christa Miller is also good and easy on the eyes as Jordan, Like many a woman, she’s at her best when she’s screwing Cox, either metaphorically or not. But the real heart of the show is of course, The McGinley, who is just shy of The Walken or The Campbell in terms of radiating sheer coolness. I’ve been watching him for years, and except for getting his nuts crushed in Highlander 2, he is definitely doing his best work here as the ball-busting yet lovable Dr. Cox.
"The number of times I had to shoot my agent for booking me into Are We Done Yet? and Wild Hogs back to back…"
Season 5 dealt with the beginning of JD’s, Turk’s and Elliot’s progression to attending doctors and the realizations that although they’re not at the bottom the food chain anymore, they still get their own good helpings of shit rolling downhill. The season started off with "My Intern’s Eyes”, which was a first-person POV of one of JD’s interns as he sees the shenanigans that occur all around him. Meanwhile, JD had secretly moved back in with Turk and Carla, Elliot had gotten a fellowship at another hospital, and Turk and Carla were considering having a baby…well Carla was, Turk was busy hiding birth control pills in her food. And Jordan had officially been hired to work at the hospital, which means she now gets to make Cox’s life there as much a living hell as she does at home.
This is just so right for so many reasons…
In “My Jiggly Ball”, JD had to deal with finding something kind to say about Dr. Kelso when he introduces him at an awards banquet, as well as find out what’s involved in the game of Jiggly Ball, but doesn’t like the answer when he finds out. 100th episode, “My Way Home” sported a Wizard of Oz theme as each of the characters were looking for something similar to what a character in the movie was: JD looking to get home, Carla for courage to become a parent, Elliot for brains during a Q&A session, and Turk for a heart donor. And in “My Déjà Vu, My Déjà Vu”, JD gets that old feeling when things seem to be happening over and over again at the hospital. Much of the rest of the season dealt with Turk’s and Carla’s attempts to have a baby, and JD running his group of interns and Elliot dating the most annoying of them, Keith.
The review I completed right before this one was for a Seinfeld box set and most sitcoms would be shredded in direct comparison, but I think Scrubs embodies a lot about what made that show great and acquits itself quite well. But it takes several elements a couple of notches even further, particularly the zaniness and sheer number of jokes, and I’d dare say that the verbal sparring between characters, particularly with Cox, is right up there with Seinfeld. This is also simply an excellent show.
Faison found out that the hard way that when the writers decide to pull a line last minute, they mean business.
The Package
This set has a good amount of extra stuff to keep you busy when you’ve leered at Ms. Chalke for a couple days straight and need a break. First of all, there’s an extended cut of “My Way Home”, which was directed by Zach Braff. There’s also “My 117 Episodes”, a 16-minute behind-the-scenes of the first five years of the show. There’s also a couple of commentaries, on episodes “My Big Bird” with actor Neil Flynn and producer Randall Wilson and “My Lunch” by director John Michel and McGinley. There’s also a few deleted scenes and some alternate takes of other scenes to round things out. Good box set here, definitely.