Scrubs TV Series

Scrubs

Directed by: Marc Buckland et al

Starring: Zach Braff

Genre: Comedy

Run Time: Varies

Release Date: October 2001

On The Web: Official Site

Teaser: No Trailer Available

Reviewed by Byron Merritt

If you’ve had a bad day at work and need a little de-stressing, then kick off your shoes and turn on SCRUBS for a heaping medicine cup full of laughs.

A bit real world and surreal world, the staff at Sacred Heart Hospital will have you holding your stomach in agony as the belly-laughs rip forth.

It’s difficult to explain and encapsulate all that this TV series is but we’ll give ‘er a go here. It’s about medicine, yes, but it’s mainly about the people who administer it and how they view their lives in the medical world. The two main characters are doctors J.D. Dorian (Zach Braff) and Chris Turk (Donald Faison). They’ve been friends for years and now both work at Sacred Heart. Pecking at their friendship are all the staff and all the business that comes along with hospital life. This includes patients, administrators, a wily janitor, nurses and their own fantasy-filled minds. It is this last item that gives the series its greatest boost ...as well as some over-the-topness that occasionally seems all too frequent. For instance, at one point, J.D. (Braff) discovers that he’s losing out on the time he and Turk (Faison) used to spend together because Turk has suddenly gotten involved with a pretty nurse named Carla (Judy Reyes). J.D. invents all kinds of fantasies to get rid of her (including feeding her to sharks, telling Turk she’s got some fatal form of a sexually transmitted disease, and many others). All of these fantasies are played out on-screen via J.D.’s twisted mind.

But J.D. isn’t the only one with delusions of ...whatever. We get inside the minds of almost all the characters, including Dr. Cox’s (John C. McGinley) the hospital’s whiz-man who oversees all of the interns. It is his insights that are most revealing and funny (he constantly calls J.D. “Carol” just to demoralize him). Dr. Cox also enjoys watching soap operas on his breaks and anyone who gets in his way or disturbs this time shall benefit from his wickedly sharp tongue.

Then there’s the hospital administrator, Dr. Kelso (Ken Jenkins) who strolls the hallways with a phony smile and not a care for the patients. His main goal is to make sure the facility is financially stable, no matter what the cost (?)!

Mention of the cast wouldn’t be complete without telling you about The Janitor (Neil Flynn). A vital part of the ensemble care within Sacred Heart, The Janitor (who has no-name, by the way) lies his way through life and continually harasses those people above him (mostly J.D. whom he captures and stuffs in hiding places so that he gets in trouble for not being where he’s supposed to be). The Janitor’s mind works quite a bit differently than all the others on the show, giving us a bizarre insight into the lives of those we rarely see (The Janitor also isn’t above fantasizing, including operating on patients, and remembrances of winning championship sports that obviously never occurred.)

The overtly silly premises within each characters internal dialogue gives this series almost all of its comedic punch. But it also often drops the comedy down to the lowest common denominator (utilizing bathroom antics, etc.)

It’s one of those shows that says, “Hey! Turn off your brain for a while and let it coast on neutral.”