Scrubs (the series) and my love/hate relationship with it

When Scrubs was first released back in 2001, I feel as though everyone was still watching network TV and we had to wait a week between episodes. There might have been some people out there that had figured out how to use torrents or something along those lines but I don't feel as though this was the norm, there certainly wasn't any legal streaming services at the time.

I wasn't an early adopter of this show because I had so much going on in my life at the time, but I do recall that it was a big hit.

Years later, this show has become one of my "comfort shows" that I will regularly return to even though I have already seen every single episode at least once.

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Something about this show that was rather unique for the time was that it was primarily a comedy, but there was never a laugh track in there the likes of almost any other weekly sitcom. It also had a lot higher production value than say, Friends or Seinfeld and therefore a lot more time went into the various episodes.

There is an overall theme to some degree, but for the most part you can jump in during any episode and have a pretty good time even if you don't know any of the backstory. Each episode is standalone with a new drama situation created in that 22 minutes. The overall story arc is important, but not essential.

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Generally speaking there isn't a main character, but the entire show is narrated by "JD" and most of the story is told from his perspective. They don't really focus on just him so much though and the shows go through the lives of about a half dozen of the main characters. They do have a few episodes that are about people you wouldn't expect though, such a the Janitor, who to this day remains one of my favorite supporting characters ever to appear in a comedy.

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one of the fun things that they do with "the janitor" is not reveal what his name is. They don't actually reveal his real name until many years later in season 8 but there are clues along the way that only the most die-hard fan would even remember. He constantly torments and dislikes JD even though his reasons for doing so are not very good reasons.

Dr. Cox is a favorite of mine and almost everyone else's as well. He is absolutely essential to the story and of course is heavily featured all through all seasons.

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John C. McGinley is the actor who plays Cox and he does so in an absolutely perfect way. I recently found out that the first choice for the role was not John, but another McGinley who is not at all related to John and it is just a coincidence that they have the same last name.

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You might remember McGinley if you think about it enough, as the neighbor to the Bundys in Married with Children but older people might remember him from Happy Days. According to Ted himself, he absolutely bombed the tryouts for Scrubs role of Dr. Cox and was really disappointed that he couldn't nail it. Given how John C. McGinley did so well, I suppose we should be thankful that he did in fact bomb, else we probably wouldn't have the Dr. Cox that we all love and hell, we might not even know who John C even is because think about it? Other than bit roles here and there what else has he actually been in?

Ok, I tend to get wordy when I talk about the history of a show so I will get to the point and the title of this article which is why I have a love/hate relationship with Scrubs.

I absolutely love the show, it is one of my "comfort shows" that I return to time and time again even though I already know what the endgame is with all the characters. I love the show because it is a delightful mix of comedy, love story, and drama. I believe it to be one of the most perfect comedies of all time because it attempts and succeeds in making you feel a lot more than just funny and giddy.

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_{if you know, you know... and i need say no more}

The hate part of my relationship with this show is that they are so damn good at pulling on your heartstrings that sometimes it kind of ends up making me feel bad in my real life. The relationships that they are able to create on screen starts to make me feel a bit bad about how sometimes I kind of feel as though I do not have those things in my own life.

It's a TV show, I get it and I don't have mental problems and can see the difference between fantasy and reality. But sometimes after I watch a particular episode of Scrubs I feel genuinely rocked and it makes me feel a bit bad about myself haha.

So in my mind at least that is a sign that this is a true top-notch show because if it wasn't so wonderfully written, it wouldn't make you feel anything at all.

If you have never seen Scrubs I highly recommend that you do so. There are a total of 9 seasons although that last one should have never happened. The viewership numbers gradually decreased over time except from the jump from season 1-2 and I think this is pretty normal for most shows. At the end it appears as though almost everyone hated Season 9 and they decided to cancel it outright.

They are bringing the show back for a season 10 in February of this year, and while I am hopeful that it won't be, I think this is a mistake that will tarnish the original. We shall see!