Archive for Turk
COLE AND KELSO FIND SOLACE WITH ONE ANOTHER WHEN REAL FRIENDS ARE HARD TO COME BY, ON ABC’S “SCRUBS“
“Our Driving Issues” – When Cole and Kelso both get negative results back after a few routine tests, they learn the hard way to put their egos in check in order to rein in the support of their so-called friends, on “Scrubs,” WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10 (8:00-8:30 p.m., ET), on the ABC Television Network.
“Scrubs” stars Zach Braff as J.D., Donald Faison as Chris Turk, John C. McGinley as Dr. Perry Cox, Eliza Coupe as Denise, Kerry Bishe as Lucy, Michael Mosley as Drew and Dave Franco as Cole.
Guest starring are Ken Jenkins as Dr. Kelso, Nicky Whelan as Maya, Matthew Cardarople as Frank, Jane Le as Ming and Matthew Moy as Trang.
The episode was written by Alessia Costantini and Prentice Penny and directed by Eren Celeboglu.
Watch “Our Driving Issues” Episode Online
Just like with Better Off Ted, there doesn’t seem to be any sign that the final two episodes of Scrubs are going to air any time soon. One was supposed to air tonight, but got yanked. One might air next Wednesday, but evidence is conflicting.
If this is the last episode we see, then, that’ll be a shame, because this was the best one of the season. We saw a lot of growth by all the characters, even the ones that we’ve seen on our screens for nine years. But mostly, we saw exactly what the new Scrubs could be if given time: a great ensemble comedy that brings the funny on a consistent basis.
What did I like about the episode?
– Drew asserting himself as a true leader, with Cox’s help. It really looks like Cox is taking a shine to his number one, to the extent that he’s giving Drew lessons that go beyond medicine. We’re seeing a new side of Cox, too, one that doles out compliments along with his patented shaming method of leadership. Also, we know what makes him smile: the prospect of putting his students through Hell Week.
– Lucy getting a spine. Sure, she picked on Trang, the smallest one in the group, but she had to assert herself somewhere. “It’s getting froggy in here. Want to jump?” was one of the funniest lines I’ve ever heard her utter. Now if they just got rid of her narration (it’s almost gone), we’d be in good shape.
– Turk can be humbled. We’ve seen it before, of course, but as chief of surgery, we knew that we were going to see his ego go out of control at some point. Sure, as Kelso mentioned, Dr. Dennis is a “douche,” but sometimes you need to suck up to help the greater good. It was also fun to see Turk try to break out his dance moves and pull a muscle. Those days of busting a move to Bel Biv Devoe’s “Poison” are long gone, aren’t they?
– Denise being human and Denise, all at the same time. While she was trying to help Turk get back his dignity with the whole Dennis argument — she called him a “little girl bitch” — she was dealing with her feelings for Drew. Now, I wonder if the writers wrote about how Denise’s throat would close when stressed to explain whatever hoarseness Eliza Coupe showed up with that week, or if it was just a coincidence. But it was interesting to see her own Hell Week psychotic break in a flashback.
– The Trang / Maya pairing has a history: Maya’s mom dated tennis champ Michael Chang. That family seems to be drawn to overachieving Asian men, don’t they?
– The Todd wanting scrubs that hugged his privates better. Always good to hear from The Todd.
What didn’t I like? Not much. Cole was Cole. He’s OK when treated mostly like he was in this episode, where he was mostly just comic relief. As others have mentioned, it seems like this role would have gone to Aziz Ansari if he didn’t take Parks and Recreation last season, since Cole seems to be almost the exact same character as Ed, only Aziz did a better job with it. So Ed would maybe be an intern all over again and Cole would have morphed into someone else. Not sure.
To see the show improve every week at this point is encouraging and disheartening all at once, but it also proves once again that, in the right hands, many comedies will improve from a shaky start. Not sure if ABC will give this version of Scrubs a chance, but if they don’t, at least we’re ending on a high note.
Watch “Our Dear Leaders” Episode Online
[source]
I knew the first Zach Braff-free episode of this new version of Scrubs was going to be a bit of a bumpy ride, but I didn’t think things would be this bad.
It’s not just that the episode was lacking in funny. The established characters were mostly written wrong, exhibiting characteristics we’ve never really seen before. And the med students — except for Drew — were so broadly written that they could have been played by anybody.
No wonder why this episode was buried on New Year’s Day.
First of all: Elliot. Was that the same person we left at Sacred Heart last year? Granted, she was a much more confident doctor and person at the end of season eight than she was at the beginning of the series. But I didn’t recognize this Elliot. She was almost cocky, a characteristic even season eight Elliot never had.
Could she have developed it after getting married to J.D. and getting pregnant? Maybe. But it felt like the writers had another doctor in the original draft and just decided to make the doctor into Elliot. Really, Lucy could have been marveling at any doctor who seemingly “had it all,” then called that doctor a “munch” when the doctor left her with her patient. The way it was written, we didn’t really see much of what made Elliot such a compelling character all these years. And, if all Bill Lawrence could afford was a couple of full episodes with Sarah Chakle, he and his crew pretty much wasted an opportunity.
On to Turk. Jeez, the guy’s got to sack up. He worked for an entire year without J.D. You’d think he’d be used to it. He never seemed to be the needy half of the couple, so having him essentially whine and pout throughout this entire episode was a little off-putting. We like Turk because he’s a cocky bastard, comfortable enough in his own skin to be able to dance to “Poison” and feel fine about it. Whiny Turk is not a fun Turk. Maybe palling around with Denise will give him back his mojo.
Oh, and Denise. Didn’t she kind of not like Turk? Or was she just disdainful of the whole weird thing he had with J.D.? Now all of a sudden she’s liking him? Seems convenient that Turk is turning to her to find people like the Korean Helen Hunt and steal birthday cake from too-chipper employees.
And why would Cox conspire with a med student, even if the med student was his designated #1, to get another med student to do all the scut work? Is that really something Cox would even bother with? Cole is barely worth his time, much less the effort to tell him about some fake ranking system.
Finally, Lucy. Dull as usual. Nothing about her character makes me want to follow her as she moves on in her medical career. And screw-ups like mixing the bachelorette photos for the class slides didn’t give me any more reason to sympathize with her.
Download “Our New Girl-Bro” Episode here
It’s J.D.’s last day of teaching and the students all submitted their teacher evaluations. Even though J.D. is the top-rated teacher, he gets one bad evaluation. He’s determined to find out who it is and teams up with Turk as the interractial Hardy boys and they discover a path of clues that lead them to Dr. Kelso’s shag pad. Damn, a dead end. Dr. Cox eventually reveals it’s him that wrote the evaluation, he has one last thing to teach J.D. He does not need other people’s approval and doesn’t need to keep babying the students. It’s medical school, not kindergarten.
Meanwhile, Lucy is unable to draw blood from anyone except J.D. He agrees to let her use him during her exam when she proves unable to draw from Cole. To let Lucy grow and after Cox’s speech, J.D. doesn’t show up to her test and she draws blood successful from Cox.
Oh and Sunny is back and wants to double date with Denise and Drew. Drew says no and Denise quickly pretends like she didn’t want to either. Cox convinces her she’s losing the power in the relationship so she makes him go and ditches him during the date. She explains to him they’re in a relationship because she said so.
It was good to see an episode that had a bit more of a balance between the old and the new. Yes, we concentrated a lot on the J.D./Turk “Bro-a-Palooza” and Ted’s departure from Sacred Heart. But we also got a fair amount of the students working together.
Do Lucy and Cole still need a little bit more of a personality infusion? Sure. But it’s hard to keep up comedically with characters who have been developed over the last eight years. This episode gives me hope that eventually they’re going to be able to stand on their own.
As others have mentioned, we need to see more of Turk away from J.D. We know he can stand on his own as a character, but if he’s going to be one of the significant cast members after Zach Braff leaves in two episodes, we’re going to need to see how he reacts to Cox, the students, Denise, etc. We’ve barely seen him interact with any of them without J.D. around.
Because of the Bro-a-Palooza, there wasn’t one scene where Donald Faison was separate from Braff. And despite how funny the story was — Turk the black cowboy and J.D. the Indian in chaps doing Brazillian fight dancing was priceless — it did Donald Faison’s character a disservice.
I will say one thing, though: Cox making the two of them realize that they’re getting old was a nice breath of fresh air. “Stop wearing ironic t-shirts and just let it happen.” Yes, Bill Lawrence seems to be mining similar territory in Cougar Town, but that’s probably because he’s feeling his forties hit him upside the head. I’m only 38, and I can relate to all of it. But it’s a good reminder to Turk and especially J.D. that their characters need to move forward, not stay in the past.
Ted and Gooch are so friggin’ adorable together, aren’t they? It was nice to see Ted stand up to Kelso and demand more from him than a drunken, clammy good-bye, even if the clammy one was Ted. And it was good to see Kelso finally give him one. After all the abuse Kelso gave and Ted took, it was heartening to know that Bobbo appreciated the guy.
Sam Lloyd doesn’t get enough credit for creating a well-defined character like Ted in his short bursts of screen time, and it was good to see him get a proper send-off. Which of the state songs did you like the best? My choice is Wyoming.
Ok, med students: Nicky Whelan looks like she’s become the fourth new regular, as she’s actually getting major plot time, and a name – Maya. It’ll be fun to see the writers play off her Aussie accent and her way too hot to be a med student physique. Good to see that Cole got some more personality quirks (can’t touch bread) and a teeny tiny bit of heart (he came back to talk to the dying patient played by Paul Dooley). Lucy has a weird habit of pulling on the front of her scrub top; is that Kerry Bishé’s quirk or one she gave the high-strung Lucy? And we didn’t see a lot of Drew, but we saw enough to know he used to eat from dumpsters and is still sleeping with Denise.
Download Our Histories Episode here
