Had there been a character quite like John Dorian, medical resident, doctor in training, before SCRUBS aired? It's hard to think of anyone quite like him. An extraordinarily unmasculine, feminised man, immensely caring but also sarcastic and cruel on occasion; obsessed and basically in love with his best friend, Chris Turk, but not in a gay-way, no no, not at all. Just in a, well, weird way. Even the more masculine Turk, the cocky surgeon in training with an appetite for basketball and a hot nurse who reminds him of his mother, is a bit of a softy, especially when compared to the tougher guys who run the joint, the rebellious Dr Cox and the acid-tongued man in charge, Dr Kelso.
The Scrubs environment is filtered through JD's fantasy-clad psyche, so the viewer is taken deep into the world of Dorian in all its sweet absurdity.
Scrubs had more toughness in its first season or two, trying apparently to emulate long running hospital drama ER. But Scrubs is not ER, although it makes a commendable effort to get the medical procedures and jargon flowing through each episode, in stark contrast to the bitter British hospital-com, Green Wing. Scrubs is a colossal goof, just like its narrating lead character, JD. Its riotous, often nonsensical fantasy sequences, and the frequent displays of wit, make it immensely enjoyable when it's good, as do the soapy, rom-com predicaments the doctors get themselves into. Like Green Wing, Scrubs' hospital is a character haven, but unlike Green Wing the Scrubs gang are mostly likeable; even the caustic Kelso, a bit like Mr Burns in The Simpsons, an elder character with a consistently dark and droll humour.
The difficulties though come in profusion. The awful jingle. The persistent didacticism, unctuous as it often is. The flawed attempts to deal with contemporary events (the so-called War on Terror is handled with moronic jingoism). The stomach-churning sentimentality. The clumsy plot development. The fact that, in the long run, we just can't see a difference between what's going on in JD's imagination and what's really happening, so goofy and saccharine the show winds-up becoming. And, like all US shows, it runs on far too long, beyond the point of exhaustion. Networks are simply too greedy Stateside.
Try out the first season or two, and see how it makes you feel.
The Scrubs environment is filtered through JD's fantasy-clad psyche, so the viewer is taken deep into the world of Dorian in all its sweet absurdity.
Scrubs had more toughness in its first season or two, trying apparently to emulate long running hospital drama ER. But Scrubs is not ER, although it makes a commendable effort to get the medical procedures and jargon flowing through each episode, in stark contrast to the bitter British hospital-com, Green Wing. Scrubs is a colossal goof, just like its narrating lead character, JD. Its riotous, often nonsensical fantasy sequences, and the frequent displays of wit, make it immensely enjoyable when it's good, as do the soapy, rom-com predicaments the doctors get themselves into. Like Green Wing, Scrubs' hospital is a character haven, but unlike Green Wing the Scrubs gang are mostly likeable; even the caustic Kelso, a bit like Mr Burns in The Simpsons, an elder character with a consistently dark and droll humour.
The difficulties though come in profusion. The awful jingle. The persistent didacticism, unctuous as it often is. The flawed attempts to deal with contemporary events (the so-called War on Terror is handled with moronic jingoism). The stomach-churning sentimentality. The clumsy plot development. The fact that, in the long run, we just can't see a difference between what's going on in JD's imagination and what's really happening, so goofy and saccharine the show winds-up becoming. And, like all US shows, it runs on far too long, beyond the point of exhaustion. Networks are simply too greedy Stateside.
Try out the first season or two, and see how it makes you feel.