
The Scrubs Season 4 Posted by CK-Auctions
3 of 6 people found this review helpful.
The sitcom has had its share of doomsayers in the last several years, but the cries that the medium is dead probably need a clarification. If anything, it's the traditional four-camera, taped-in-front-a-live-studio-audience, laugh-track sitcom that is going the way of the dodo. With shows like The Office (both British and American) and My Name is Earl, the situation comedy is alive and kicking, it's just broken out of its regular confines.
So it is with Scrubs, a hospital comedy that started in 2001. Beginning with the first year of three fresh-faced medical students--the doe-eyed John Dorian, a.k.a. J.D., a.k.a. Bambi (Zach Braff), who narrates the show and provides its whimsical point of view; his best friend, the confident surgical student Turk (Donald Faison); and the scatterbrained Elliot Reed (Sarah Chalke). They have all signed on at Sacred Heart, a teaching hospital, where they will learn by doing. Though primarily a comedy, the series also has its share of drama, and so not all of the eager students' screw-ups end in hilarity. Sometimes, harder lessons have to be learned. In fact, every episode centers on a theme, with the various members of the team laboring on parallel problems that get tied together by Braff's ever-present voiceover. It's a concept that may sound a bit tired, and in earlier seasons, the need for a moral to end every episode did ferment its fair share of stinky cheese, but by Season 4, Scrubs has hit its stride, and the wrap-ups don't feel forced anymore. The J.D. character has become a comfortable friend, and his narration has a diary-like quality, ruminations on the events of the day rather than fortune-cookie homilies.
While there are plenty of great episodes in season 4 (I'll list them all shortly), the stand-out has to be "My Life in Four Cameras." When J.D. is having a particularly bad day at the hospital and has to deliver some devastating news to a patient who used to write for Cheers, the doctor wonders why life can't be more like a sitcom. The episode then shifts to an extended fantasy sequence where Sacred Heart really is part of a sitcom. For the first time ever, Scrubs is shot in front of a studio audience on one stage. Many sitcom tropes are lampooned, from putting all the female staff members in sexier costumes to running a talent show where the prize is just enough money to stop the budget cuts and having a special guest star in a minor role (Aitken, who is given a chance to sing and win the talent show). The results are amazing, and despite the nostalgic fun had by all, the format change drives home how much better the situation comedy is when it's let loose. By paying tribute to the past, Scrubs proves itself to be the future.
Please let us know if this review was helpful (click below)
If you have any questions about this review please contact us at
contact@ck-auctions.com
Posted by CK-Auctions
Review ID: 10000000002923790

Thank you for voting. If your vote meets our
guidelines, it will be posted within 24 hours.
You cannot vote on the helpfulness of a review you wrote.
Your request cannot be processed at this time. Please try again later.