Scrubs - The Complete Sixth Season

Scrubs - The Complete Sixth Season Review

My daughter, who is of the YouTube and MySpace generation inveigled upon me to make an exception for "Scrubs" (and "House") to my normally-unbreakable primary rule about broadcast television; which is to eschew watching any television show about doctors, cops or lawyers. This rule is based on the bitter experience of having seen just about every single plot permutation imaginable in the medical, legal or law-enforcement venue several dozen times over. It is not entertainment when one can predict the outcome of an episode before going five minutes into it.

I think of "Scrubs" as the updated civilian version of "M*A*S*H" - at least if it is reminiscent of a medical comedy-drama, it has the good taste to model itself after a darned good one - and it's frequent lurches into surrealist absurdities are even more pronounced. Like "M*A*S*H", it has an eclectic bag of characters - the nebbishy intern JD, and his friends, brash Turk and the pretty but comically insecure Elliot, ricocheting like ping pong balls among the staff at Sacred Heart Hospital. At this point in the series arc viewers might think that pretty much everything that could be done with the characters could be done - but season six had some surprises: Carla and Turk coping with parenthood for the first time, the acerbic Doctor Cox and his wife re-running through their minefield of a marriage, the sudden death of Nurse Laverne and J.D. and Elliot poised to take the marital plunge, but not with each other. There was also the comic road trip from hell and one entire episode as a Broadway musical. Now that was an especially prolonged, episode-length lurch into surreality.

Notable bonus features in the season 6 collection include a short feature about the making of "My Musical"- obviously, all involved had an enormous amount of fun doing it - and a long sit-down monologue with Judy Reyes (Carla) talking about the show. I would have liked to see other cast members, in similar conversations. Deleted scenes and alternate lines played the scene as it was broadcast, and then showed the alternate scene; as is usual, some of the scenes would have added something more and obviously were deleted for time - like the hilarious visualization of medicine being practiced as if we had more in common with dogs. Well worth watching, especially if the writers strike continues for long.

Scrubs - The Complete Sixth Season Overview

Fill your prescription for laughs with the sixth dose of the Emmy® award-winning Scrubs. The doctors of Sacred Heart make their rounds in the surreal comedy that GQ magazine hails as their "stealth nominee for sitcom of the decade." Expect big bundles of laughs this year as J.D and Kim, Turk and Carla, and Dr. Cox and Jordan are all expecting little bundles of joy, and the entire crew take an unforgettable road trip. Continue your Scrubs collection with all 22 episodes of the groundbreaking sitcom’s sensational sixth season. With a band of hilarious guest stars and exclusive bonus features, including alternate takes and bloopers, this 3-disc box set is the perfect cure for the entertainment blues.

Scrubs - The Complete Sixth Season Specifications

The preliminary diagnosis on Scrubs's penultimate season was stable, but critical. On closer examination, however, a second opinion is warranted. Season 6 cuts deep with developments that are both "hilarious and life-changing" (not to mention, heartbreaking) for the Sacred Heart staff. J.D. (Zach Braff),\ has learned that his girlfriend, Kim (Elizabeth Banks), is pregnant, but there are dramatic setbacks and surprises in their budding relationship. Carla (Judy Reyes) experiences devastating post-partum depression after the birth of her daughter. Elliot (Sarah Chalke) becomes engaged to Keith (Travis Schuldt) but develops the kind of second thoughts that season cliffhangers are made of. And one of Scrubs's beloved secondary characters meets a tragic end, putting nurse Laverne's (Aloma Wright) belief that "everything happens for a reason" to the supreme test.

This season produced one of Scrubs's crowning achievements, the Emmy-nominated tour-de-force "My Musical," featuring such show-stopping numbers as "Everything Comes Down to Poo" and "Guy Love," sung by Scrubs's closest couple, J.D. and best friend Turk (Donald Faison). Still, too often, one wishes Scrubs had the equivalent of Graham Chapman's military character on Monty Python who would stop the proceedings if he deemed them too silly. Before the opening credits of the season premiere have rolled, J.D. has been whisked to Las Vegas to be the unwitting bride to a gay senior, escaped, and wound up onstage with Blue Man Group. At the end of the episode, his tormentor, Janitor (Neil Flynn), transforms him into a human flag. In the next episode, Turk assembles a "big-time college drum line" to herald the impending birth of his daughter. At times like these, fans could be forgiven for wanting to ask the show, "Who are you, and what have you done with Scrubs?" But even in the most uneven episodes, there is always a redeeming bit of business (Turk bringing back 'N Sync's "Bye Bye Bye"), meta moment (Ken Jenkins' Dr. Kelso nipping one of John C. McGinley's signature "Coxian" rants in the bud with "Funny long list. We get it. You need a new thing, big guy."), or an always-welcome appearance by Christa Miller-Lawrence as Dr. Cox's not-to-be-trifled-with ex-wife Jordan, to make the medicine go down. The extras, too, including a featurette about the production of "My Musical" and another devoted to the show's Simpson-esque gallery of "third tier" characters, are deserving of a boxed-set high-five. --Donald Liebenson

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