Archive for Reviews
After last week’s seemingly out-of-order interlude with J.D. and Elliot, we’re back to the purity of following the med students around, and I have to say, this was the best of those episodes to date.
Given the proper elbow room, you can see even some of the more one-note characters, like Lucy and Drew Cole, grow and change. And, given the fact that even Bill Lawrence thinks it’s a 70/30 shot against renewal, it’s a bit of a shame; episodes like this make me want to get to know these characters a little more and follow them through their med school trials and tribulations.
Again, the pacing of the episode was slower, and we didn’t see as many flashbacks and fantasy sequences. Which is fine with me; I want to get to know these characters with regards to how they interact with each other, not how they fantasize.
So the cheating scenario, where Cox keeps everyone from that med student study group in the same room until one of them admits to cheating on the exam, was very helpful in that regard. Nothing like having all the main characters in the same room for an extended period to see how everyone bounces off each other. It’s why there always seems to be one bank robbing / hostage scenario episode on every show.
Here’s what we learned: Lucy is overwhelmed, and she chews her hair when she lies, among other things. Drew Cole is actually noble, willing to take the hit for Lucy, especially because everyone expected him to be the cheater, anyway. Hottie Maya really, really has the hots for brainiac Tran (”You’re smothering me” might be the funniest line in the episode).
Finally, all the students are going to pull for each other because med school is tough enough and they all feel overwhelmed — and Drew is the king of second chances. So they’ll take Cox’s wet re-exam that probably asks who won the 1952 World Series, mainly because they all know they could have been the ones cheating.
I’m really liking Drew and Denise as a couple. Interesting how it was Lucy, horse lover and Denise’s polar opposite, that finally convinced Denise to reciprocate Drew’s “I love you.” Though even Cox is afraid of Denise’s “murder eyes,” people are starting to see the normal, vulnerable person underneath. Yes, it’s a shocker that Denise is capable of love, but if she can match up with anyone, a guy like Drew, whose parents are convinced is dead, seems to be perfect.
Even the Cox-Turk story was fun, because it’s interesting to see the peer dynamic develop between the two, especially their deal involving lunchtime pages and hip-hop handshakes. Oh, and it was fun to see Nadine Velasquez in any role, even if it’s in a hospital bed. And, good to get some extended face time with The Todd. You knew that with lesbians in the area, it would have been criminal for him to have the day off.
I still don’t know what they’re doing with Ken Jenkins. Kelso is just randomly hanging around the hospital now, talking about the “good old days” when doctors used to talk to their patients? I seem to recall Chief of Medicine Kelso hated talking to patients. Maybe he was more of a conversationalist in those heady, sexual harassment filled days of the sixties and seventies.
Like I said, this one was fun to watch. Hopefully, the last three episodes will build on this.
Watch “Our True Lies” Episode Online
[source]
Sacred Heart University — that’s what we’ve dubbed it for now — has just accepted a new first year med student.
Sources tell me Dave Franco has been cast as a “Scrubs“‘ series regular, the first of three new actors to join the show later this year.
You may recognize Franco from “Privileged” on which he played Rose (Lucy Hale)’s boyfriend Zach. Or, perhaps, you see the resemblance between him and his big brother, James.
Either way, if you’re a “Scrubs” fan, you’ll get to know Dave later this year when he takes on the role of “Cole,” a 22-year-old medical student, who might rub people the wrong way. I’m hearing he’s a crazy entitled, rich kid whose family has no problem using their money to give him an edge.
As you can imagine, Dr. Cox will be a huge fan of his. Or just hate him with a nasty vengeance… which I very much look forward to seeing.
June 12, 2008 – I grew up watching The Simpsons, I can recite a lot of episodes and know plenty about the show. Weird thing is, I started watching it again and noticed how they built the relationships between the characters: Lisa is daddy’s little girl and sometimes comes down from her moral high ground for things that she and Homer do together. Bart wants to please his mom, but goes about it all the wrong way (a trait shared with his father). Marge always has the kids’ best interest at heart, though she does something for herself on occasion. Homer sometimes gets into trouble, but he never means to harm anyone and usually has the best intentions, even though he’s not the brightest bulb.
And then they had these characters’ intentions and personalities bounce off each other and affect one another. It proved that a sitcom can be hilarious, but can use a deeper, richer subtext to provide deeper, richer jokes and a better show. There are to my knowledge three shows that borrowed The Simpsons formula and executed it very well: Scrubs is definitely one (The Office and Arrested Development are the other two).
It didn’t get through in the first few episodes, but it started right around “My Nickname,” when Carla and JD tried to get a little closer, but a set of events led to their relationship blowing up in the middle of the street on a rainy evening. It was like a bank robbery, so well designed. Here’s a quick rundown of how things happened:
JD and Carla are getting along swimmingly. Elliot is annoying Dr. Cox with her overactive personality when she meets a patient just like her. Dr. Cox takes it out on JD in front of Carla. Carla defends JD to Dr. Cox in front of Elliot and the always-annoying Jill Tracy. Dr. Cox embarrasses JD about his “mommy” defending him in front of everyone. JD yells at Carla for acting like his mommy (with the only trump card he has: “I’m the doctor, you’re the nurse”). Everyone yells at JD for yelling at Carla. Dr. Cox is happy because he vented on someone and destroyed other peoples’ happiness and JD and Carla have some tension—-all a part of Sacred Heart’s zero-sum game of happiness.
So when Carla gets mad at JD on the bus for a stupid joke about going to college, it feels like it’s completely JD’s fault, but it’s also Carla venting about her frustrations. A completely confused JD asks if she wants her coat while she’s standing in the rain, Carla says no, and JD responds with “Why would you?”
Carla, being the Dutch Uncle of the show, tells JD how wrong he is to wrap up his self-esteem in what he does and is exactly right about it. Carla’s flaw is that she has to tell everyone how it is. If JD had any fight in him, he would have argued that she was overstepping her boundaries and had no right to fight his fights (though she did because she knew he wouldn’t), or any high ground for that matter to criticize him.
But since he’s JD, he doesn’t and simply accepts what she says as reality … which it is, but if he had any backbone, he would have fought back a little. It was perfect (if you can ignore the “I never felt bad about what I do, not for one second … until I met you” line) for both of those characters to be in that argument at that time; for Carla getting burned for being too protective and JD getting burned for chastising someone for helping him. Who the characters are reflected the moment, especially because JD’s biggest flaw is that he looks up to and tries to garner attention from people he’ll never get acknowledgment (except once) and ignores the people that do help him and this episode exploited that.
JD, being JD, tried to heal the relationship in the most transparent way possible, by asking her a silly medical question. Though Carla didn’t bite, she thanked him for acknowledging he was an ass earlier.
That type of action-reaction character dynamic, mixed with the cloverleaf storytelling, is what made the show so great (in addition to being funny). Later episodes would sophisticate the process a bit more and include more of the hospital and the surroundings, but this episode was a great step in that direction.
Source: http://tv.ign.com/
