What has happened to Scrubs? First the strangely horrible musical episode, and then tonight, a weirdly political and timely episode involving the Iraq war and the inner dialogue of Dr. Kelso. The only even remotely funny thing was that salt and pepper shaker made out of a dead rabbit (and I instantly thought, dead rabbitt=metaphor for what the show has become). Now, I’m all for exploding our little fantasy that the world is just peachy keen, and I’ll readily admit that television is just part of the machinery of manufacturing consent, but c’mon, oh esteemed writers of Scrubs! If I’m already watching, I at least want SOME kind of escape! Can’t you at least make your political commentary funny? Is that too much to ask?

This article appears in Feb 1-7, 2007.

2nd- generation Tucson native with a Tucson music problem. That is, a Tucson problem as well as a music problem.

9 replies on “Scrubbin’ It Up”

  2. Well, yeah, that was pretty clever. But the show as a whole…. what? There are these, like, “epiphany” moments where the show turns into one giant sappy bleeding Hallmark card of cheesy melty goo. If we wanted that, we’d be watching Grey’s Anatomy.

  3. It’s that combination of silliness and epiphany that first attracted me to the show. Same with My Name is Earl.

  4. Yeah, I’ve watched Scrubs from day one, and I decided not to watch it last night. I think the musical episode may have unfortunately been Scrubs’s shark-jumping moment. Too bad.

  5. re: Silliness and epiphany… Used to be there was actually silliness and actual epiphanies. These days, the epiphanies seem obvious and the silliness… not so much.

    And I have a question for Jason K: “Shark-jumping”?

  6. “Jumping the shark” is a metaphor used to refer to the moment in which a TV show has passed its peak — when a series of events, new characters, or direction twists all but eliminate the reasons you tuned in from the beginning. The origin of the metaphor is taking from an episode of Happy Days — when Fonzie jumps over a shark on a pair of waterskis. Read more on the wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_the_shark

  7. There are always the reruns of the good episodes on Comedy Central — a weekend primetime ritual now that G4 is playing Arrested Development once a week during working hours. WGN has the show too.

    I guess the only question left is when KUAT will bring back “Are You Being Served?” because stuff like “May to December” isn’t cutting it for me.

  8. Addendum: they’re playing AD once a day, not once a week.

    Anyone in favor of the Britcom “My Hero” by the way? (KSPS Spokane got me hooked).

  9. Never seen My Hero. And I never understood why Are You Being Served? was considered funny. They never had a shark to jump, in my humble opinion. But then again, my favorite British comedy is Red Dwarf. Maybe I just relate more to evolved cats than department-store clerks.

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