My Scrubs pimpage

[oyceter]

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE I finally have my S2 Scrubs DVDs!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*flails wildly and squees*

OMG adore this show so much! I hug it! Other shows, I have not abandoned you, but you all have admirers and I want people to all go watch Scrubs and write me fic and vid and do all that fun stuff! Where is my fandom? Who can I squee to?

So. I have never really done this before, but gorram it, having no one to share my squee with is driving me nuts.

Ergo, pimpage!

Scrubs is a half-hour sitcom with no laugh track; despite this, it's honestly one of the funniest things I watch, and it is consistently funny. It airs on NBC but is currently on hiatus (booooo!). From what I can tell, NBC moved its premiere to mid-season. I have no idea why and am still trying to get a grasp of fandom-y things.

Anyhow, it is indeed a medical show. Generally it follows the lives of JD, Turk and Elliot, who are interns at the beginning of S1 and have become residents in S2 (I've only watched S1 and bits and pieces of random seasons).

• JD (aka John Dorian) - the main character of the show, though it is a very strong ensemble show. JD narrates most of the episodes. He's got this wonderfully fun and goofy face, and I absolutely love the way his brain works. He's sweet and zany and has that undescribable sort of personality that manages to find the good points in everything and make everything feel better, and I always want to hug him. JD is definitely the center of the show, and he's a nice center (unlike the nasty cherry cordial centers in chocolates) that makes me feel like the world is good even as I'm laughing my head off.


• Turk - JD's best friend and roommate. Turk's a surgical intern (JD is in medical), and he and JD have been friends since who knows when. Turk is also in a long-term relationship with Carla the nurse, and I really like watching him negotiate the relationship. He's also a great friend.


• Carla - a nurse whose been at Sacred Heart much longer than JD, Turk or Elliot. She's in a relationship with Turk. She's very no nonsense, tells it like she sees it, and rather likes to mother JD (she calls him "Bambi").


• Elliot - ignore her characterization in the pilot. It completely changes. Elliot is basically the extremely insecure, socially awkward one who gets pressuring phone calls from her mom all the time and is still trying to figure out what to do with her life, now that she's out of med school. I adore Elliot. She talks to fast, constantly sticks her foot in her mouth, and always tries her best.


• Dr. Perry Cox - Dr. Cox is my favoritest character ever (EVAH!), which is saying a lot because I love all the characters on this show. He's the doctor who basically looks after the interns (albeit extremely reluctantly and with much snarling). He consistently sabotages his own career because he hates climbing the corporate ladder, he bitches out everyone, he is sarcastic and snarky to the max, but he also tries his absolute best to make sure that the interns turn out to be good doctors, he cares about the patients, especially the ones that the medical system abandons because of insurance issues, and is in general complicated, snarky, and really messed up and really, really funny. Also, he calls JD by girls' names.


• Dr. Bob Kelso - Dr. Kelso is the chief of medicine at Sacred Heart. Or, as Dr. Cox would put it, he is Satan incarnate. He sucks up to whoever's on the hospital board of trustees, he's always looking out for the bottom line, and he is evil. But funny!

Those are the characters in the title sequence in S1. Other recurring characters that I love:

• The Janitor - JD pissed off the janitor on his first day, and since then, the janitor has grandiose plans of revenge. Or, you know, he just trips JD in the hallway randomly when it suits him. So far he doesn't talk to any characters besides JD, but he is hilarious. It's sort of hard to describe the janitor.


• Ted the Lawyer - Ted the Lawyer is Kelso's flunky and basically has to deal with all the hospital lawsuits. He is nervous and sweaty and balding and has problems by the boatload. He's also in an a capella group that sings cartoon theme songs (they show up in some episodes!).


• Laverne the Nurse - Laverne's one of those people who has been working at her job for about ten years too many. She knows how the hospital works, and honestly, she just wants to get through the day and get home.


• Todd - Todd's the stereotypical surgical intern (I didn't actually know that there was a stereotype, but thus sayeth the interviews!). He is macho and has a god complex and also has high fives that take your hand off. He's also strangely puppy-dog-like every so often.


• Jordan Sullivan - Dr. Cox's evil ex-wife. I adore her to bitty pieces. She snarks. She bites people's heads off. She has angry post-divorce sex regularly with Dr. Cox. The snark between the two reaches legendary proportions.

Reasons why you should be watching Scrubs:

1. It is funny like a funny thing. If you like Joss' dialogue, you'll like Scrubs dialogue, I promise. I sit in the living room and watch four episodes at a time and cackle like a madwoman to myself. JD (played by Zach Braff) narrates most of the episodes, and the character has a lovely, unique, zany voice. The thing I like the most is that JD's got a wonderful sense of innocence -- he goes off on odd tangents and daydreams random things, but it never feels like it is supposed to be Quirky and Cute and Odd. It just feels like the way I think, actually, which is probably a bit frightening.



2. I adore the characters. (see above for adoration) I have special adoration for Dr. Cox and Jordan -- the snark! Someone needs to tell me what the status of the two is right now, so I can know and stop nervously watching. I can't believe I am OTPing people in a sitcom.



3. It feels real. I realize that this is an odd thing to say about a sitcom about a hospital with fantasy sequences, but it is true! I, however, am not an intern or a med student and have been in the hospital a grand total of two times, so I can't actually say how real it is. But it sounds like the writers have talked to a lot of residents and interns and put in many of their true stories. And they have a medical consultant. Apart from that, Scrubs has a great sense of place (Sacred Heart hospital, that is). I like that the show has things like battles with insurance companies and politics with the board of trustees. It makes the hospital feel like an actual place, as opposed to medical dramas in which people are constantly having emotional trauma and etc. The hospital is constantly understaffed, the doctors can't always provide the best care to people because of this, there's never enough funding to go around.
   
   And I like that JD and Elliot and Turk are learning the ropes of the medical world and career-building, because while AMA conferences and papers aren't as exciting as epidemics, they feel like things I'd have to deal with.



4. The show has a sweet, gooey heart without being overly sentimental, courtesy of JD.



5. Scenes like this:
   (JD's been worrying about his relationship with Turk)
   JD's Thoughts: Just tell him how you feel without sounding like a girl, for once.
   
   JD: I miss you so much it hurts, sometimes.



6. The fact that Ted the Lawyer is in an a capella group that sings cartoon theme songs.



7. Ted the Lawyer's a capella group showing up in episodes to demonstrate their a capella prowess.



8. A portrayal of an actual, long-term relationship (Turk and Carla).

So now you are convinced? But how to get eps?

I have no idea! Uh, ok, that's not quite true. S1 and S2 are out on DVD right now, so Netflix is always an option (they are addictive and I watch eight episodes at a time sometimes -_-;; ). You can also get torrents of some episodes at TorrentSpy. If anyone knows how to get S3 and S4, please tell me!

Also, if you like it, you should get the DVDs because I love my show. And write fic! And vid! I cannot find the fandom at all, and seeing as how it is on Yuletide's fandom list, the fandom itself probably isn't too big.

I just started Tivo-ing random reruns of the show, and it soon got to the point where I was always anticipating the weekly ep. I then binged on the DVDs via Netflix, and was pretty much lost. I don't even watch sitcoms, but something about this show totally gets me.

In conclusion, go watch Scrubs because it is my new shiny show (even though it is technically an old show) and I love it to tiny bits and pieces and want to proselytize!

Comments

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

OK, I'll Netflix it. But I may have to finish Homicide: Life on the Streets, my old beloved cop show starring Kyle Secor, back when he was younger and even hotter, first.

I don't know if you'd like Homicide or not. It's excellent but very dark-- not dark in the horrid cop-brutality NYPD Blue sense, but in the "sometimes crimes don't get solved and things don't get fixed" sense. Though it's not a heavily arc-y show, the first episode has Secor's rookie cop Tim Bayliss unpacking a box of stuff for his first day in Homicide; his first case is the murder of a little girl, Adena Watson, a case that haunts him for the next seven seasons; and the series finale also involves Tim Bayliss, a box, and Adena Watson. Bayliss grows and develops more as a character than I think I've seen in any other TV show.

Plus, there's lots of snarky dialogue. You should try it. It's also notable for having a lot of major characters who were black (it's set in Baltimore) and dealing very realistically with racial issues. (I don't recall very many Asian characters and no regulars, alas, though one of the creators and main writers (I think his name is James Yoshimura) was Japanese-American. Perhaps there's not that many in Baltimore?) At the time it was shot, there was only one female Homicide detective in Baltimore, so the show also only has one. Her name is Kay Howard and she is a great character.

[oyceter]

Oooo, Jake Kane! Homicide sounds good, actually (er... I just realized how funny that sounds out loud). I like the snark. And the racial issues!