I have no idea if it's cool, or even big or clever, to be a fan of "Scrubs", which has been showing on the English Channel 4 for about the last two or three months. I just know that I like it.
Apparently imported from the NBC station in the US, Scrubs was billed before it started here as a "sort of Sex In The City meets Ally McBeal set in an ER environment". Having not watched any of those shows, I wasn't sure what to expect, really. But I'd been impressed by the trailer so made a point of not missing the first episode and have generally watched ever since, when I've been around.
In a shell that contains a nut (cheers, Mark!) Scrubs is a comedy drama set in the A&E department of the Sacred Heart hospital and primarily follows the lives and loves of the 'newbee' interns JD and Elliott (a girl, fact fans) and their 'newbee' surgeon friend Turk. Throw frazzled, but decent, more experienced Dr. Cox (played by the incredible John C. McGinley off "Wall Street" and "Platoon" - believe me, you'll recognise him), Dr Kelso, the two-faced, slightly deranged senior physician, and nurse Carla into the equation and you have your basic characters. There are excellent incidental characters too, such as (show) Todd (some love) and the mad janitor, but the other six are the main staples.
It's quite difficult to talk about a show that's run for 15 episodes here and 27 in the US, but I can try to say why I like it, though it isn't easy...
First off - it's laugh-out-loud funny, several times a show. To me it is, anyhow. The laughs might be a result of tried and tested 'aside to camera' or 'fantasy' sequences, but it doesn't matter. They work and that's what's important. They work because they are actually funny. Simple, eh?
Secondly - it's fast-paced. It managed to fit a whole relationship into the episode I've just watched! It's just got a justifiable self-assurance at the moment and oozes quality. The very first episode must have been the best first episode of anything. Ever. It introduced *just enough* of every character that you'd need, made me laugh, and made me sad and wanting more - all in the space of 25 minutes. Now that is no mean feat...
Can be poignant - this is a tricky one, because generally I hate stuff that feels as though it has to 'carry a message' about humanity. But Scrubs, it seems, can moralise (or does it?) about certain things without being smug or preachy. Maybe that's the self-confidence again, I dunno? But by being adult about *issues* and, more pertinently, intelligent and knowledgeable about them, Scrubs to me seems way ahead of the game. It can make you laugh and cry in equal measure within the course of a 25-minute episode. This must be the work of genius?
As new comedies go, this has to be right up there with the very best. Like the very best of recent US sit-coms (Frazier, Larry Shandling) there are things happening underneath the storyline that make you *think* about certain nuances of human, your, behaviour. It's not going to change the world, but it might make you laugh, and apparently make you feel as though you aren't the only one thinking certain things.
Just like, Google informs me... "Ally McBeal". But I don't care - I haven't the time to re-discover a show that's long gone; I like my Scrubs and I will follow it until such a time as it becomes crap. I can't say fairer than that.
M*A*S*H fans will love it.
Alan, 18/10/2002