Buena Vista // 2006 // 530 Minutes // Not Rated
Reviewed by Judge Ryan Keefer // May 22nd, 2007
"As you all know, Sacred Heart is dealing with a mountain of malpractice lawsuits, courtesy of bumbling interns, clueless doctors and hack surgeons, or, as I like to refer to them, 'you people.'"
The gang at Scrubs celebrated two milestones in its fifth year of existence; not only were they going to broadcast their 100th episode, but they were in their fifth season, which was a milestone in and of itself. So when it came to Season Five, how does this one stack up to the rest?
To sum up the cast of Scrubs, you've got medical attending Doctor John Dorian, a.k.a. J.D. (Zach Braff, The Last Kiss), his friend and aspiring surgical resident Christopher Turk, a.k.a. Turk, or Turkelton (Donald Faison, Clueless), his wife and head nurse Carla (Judy Reyes, Bringing Out the Dead), and their best friend (and occasional J.D. booty call) Dr. Elliot Reid (Sarah Chalke, Roseanne). The gang works at Sacred Heart Hospital, where Dr. Bob Kelso (Ken Jenkins, The Sum of All Fears) presides as Chief of Medicine, and frequently clashes with a longtime veteran doctor in Perry Cox (John C. McGinley, Platoon), who's married to the caustic Jordan (Christa Miller, The Drew Carey Show). So in the hope of being as brief as possible to cover the show's 24 episodes during the 2005-06 season (which are split over three discs), they are:
Disc One
* "My Intern's Eyes"
A medical intern's first day, seen
through his eyes. Sure, this one is notable for the debut of Keith, but wasn't
this episode done a couple of decades ago by the folks at M*A*S*H*?
Grade: C+
* "My Rite of Passage"
Dr. Cox' wife Jordan stumbles when
she makes a decision that costs her some face at the hospital. And J.D. feels a
bit awkward when his interns patronize him because "he's the boss."
Grade: B
* "My Day at the Races"
In honor of his 30th birthday, J.D.
tries to accomplish a series of tasks designed to keep him in a young frame of
mind. Turk is also pressured to operate on a patient who wants to be sedated by
hypnosis.
Grade: B
* "My Jiggly Ball"
The first freaky Elliot incarnation is
spotted, with a hybrid between her and Turk. And everyone tries to find out if
Kelso will do something nice in the hospital while trying to decide how to get a
rich patient into an experimental study. Elliot manages to return to Sacred
Heart after working at a different hospital early on in the season.
Grade:
B+
* "My New God"
Dr. Cox' estranged sister Paige (Cheryl
Hines, Curb Your Enthusiasm) comes to town for his son's baptism, and the
two pick up where they left off. Plus, the janitor punks J.D. using some rather
elaborate tactics. It's an interesting prayer vs. medicine debate, but the
Turk-Carla pregnancy story got better due to "angry sex."
Grade:
B+
* "My Missed Perception"
Aside from a cameo by Gary Busey
(Lethal Weapon) and the quest to have a staff picture, the only other
event to speak of is a battle between Doctors Dorian and Cox over attention for
a patient, including Cox' imaginary warning light whenever J.D. bothers him. And
pay attention to the beginning of Dr. Acula.
Grade: B
* "My Way Home"
In episode number 100, J.D. institutes the
Dante line of defense when he's called into the hospital on his day off. But
instead of Clerks, it becomes more of a tribute to The Wizard of
Oz, which was a nice change of pace for the show to experience.
Grade:
B
* "My Big Bird"
After a pretty funny opening sequence where
J.D.'s scooter is shot by the police, the real story is that Elliot, Carla, Turk
and J.D. have to attend a debriefing session on the sudden death of a patient
they came into contact with.
Grade: C
* "My Half-Acre"
J.D. thinks he might have found the perfect
girl in Julie (Mandy Moore, American Dreamz), but the better story in
this episode is the formation of the air band that Turk fronts. Oh, and the
Elliot-J.D. hybrid is also good too, not to mention "saltine."
Grade: A
Disc Two
* "Her Story II"
J.D. introduces Julie to his friends, while
Carla has a crisis about her age when a younger nurse comes aboard. J.D. thinks
that Julie is too good to be true, and starts to overanalyze things in the
relationship. Best episode of the season, which isn't saying too much in
retrospect.
Grade: A
* "My Buddy's Booty"
Even though bumming from the Julie
breakup, J.D. becomes a closer friend with Elliot. And when the two go out on
individual booty calls, things get interesting when Elliot hooks up with Keith.
And surprisingly, the janitor and Cox develop a friendship in their hatred of
J.D.
Grade: B
* "My Cabbage"
J.D. decides to torment Keith, largely
because of his relationship with Elliot. However, it backfires on him when
another one of his interns performs poorly and Keith turns out to be a stellar
intern. There is a pretty good dream sequence of Turk confusing his soon to be
child with a pumpkin over the course of years, but aside from that, the ending
is a bit of a downer.
Grade: B
* "My Five Stages"
A longtime patient of the hospital is
finally about to die, and a rather unorthodox grief counselor (Dave Foley,
The Kids in the Hall) bristles Cox and J.D. with his tactics. It's pretty
focused on this one topic, but it's a good one.
Grade: B+
* "My Own Personal Hell"
Carla gets annoyed that Turk spends
so much time with J.D. (which is the pet storyline since Carla and Turk got
married). In the meantime, Elliot's interns start to feel that she is giving
preferential treatment to Keith.
Grade: B
* "My Extra Mile"
J.D. and Cox conflict over how to approach
taking care of their patients. J.D. is a firm believer of going above and beyond
for his patients, until he finds something he might not want to do. Turk and
Carla continue their attempts to have a child, bringing in more specialists to
find out why it's not happening. It's not too bad, but it could have been
better.
Grade: B
* "My Bright Idea"
Carla finally finds out that she's
pregnant, but the problem is that she throws the pregnancy test away before it
gives her the good news, which Turk finds out and wants to tell everyone about
it. When Carla tells Turk, she wants to tell the world, Turk has to scramble for
cover.
Grade: B+
* "My Chopped Liver"
J.D. tries to spend some more time
around Turk, while Cox and Jordan double date with Elliot and Keith, and Keith
uses the information on Cox to the advantage of the rest of the interns.
Grade: C+
* "My New Suit"
J.D.'s brother Dan (Tom Cavanagh, Ed)
comes to town to try and reestablish a relationship with Elliot. Meanwhile, Turk
is in trouble for revealing suggested baby names to J.D. What happened in this
one again?
Grade: C-
Disc Three
* "His Story III"
The janitor ruins a video diary that J.D.
made to send to his mother and the staff gives him some grief as a result.
Meanwhile, Turk makes an attempt to "be black" while Elliot becomes a
more demanding taskmaster to her interns.
Grade: B
* "My Lunch"
J.D. and Cox encounter a former patient that
they both find a little bit annoying, but they see her in the hospital due to a
suicide attempt. Cox takes a personal stake in keeping three perspective
transplant patients alive, but he decides to quit Sacred Heart when they all die
after the transplants. It came out of nowhere, but it's pretty good.
Grade: B+
* "My Fallen Idol"
The gang tries to console a distressed
Cox, but J.D. refuses to take part in the restoration of his mentor. In the
obviously lighter subplot, Turk resists the sensitive, emotional leadership of
his new surgical boss.
Grade: B
* "My Déjà Vu, My Deja Vu"
J.D. views the
happenings in the hospital today and seems to have seen them all before in his
five years. The smaller storyline has the staff trying to help Cox with his
apprehension since his return.
Grade: C+
* "My Urologist"
J.D. meets a specialist at the hospital
(Elizabeth Banks, The 40-Year-Old Virgin) and becomes instantly attracted
to her. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Elliot starts to doubt her
relationship with Keith. Hey, more Dr. Acula!!
Grade: B
* "My Transition"
J.D. and Kim continue to grow close.
There's a bit of a swerve at the end that took me by surprise, but if you've
seen Season Six at all, you now know what it is. Oh, and Jordan tells Cox that
she's pregnant again.
Grade: B+
Season Five for the Scrubs cast and crew found them in unwelcome territory for a lot of viewers. At this point, Braff was making movies during periods of the show's hiatus, and the critical reception that he received from his directorial feature debut Garden State might have puffed his skull up just a wee bit. So for the loyal hardcore viewers out there, with Braff's success combined with seeing more and more of the show in syndication, perhaps there was a feeling that the show had "sold out" now that it had achieved some level of popularity.
As one who started watching the show back late in Season Two, I'd say that the show hasn't sold out, but I would say that it ventured into the area of "safe" comedy. The humor seemed to be a little edgier earlier on in its life, and now it just seemed, well, I don't want to say "boring," but the laughs that were in Season Five came from more of the supporting characters than anything else. Was it because the main characters were moving on with their lives? Dr. Cox used to be a hardass, but now was married to Jordan and dealing with issues surrounding their son Jack. And Turk, the Costello to J.D.'s Abbott, had been married for a little while now, so the first half of the season concentrated on him and Carla as they tried to have a baby. Sure, these characters had their moments during the show, but the moments were brief and they just weren't the same or didn't deliver the same kind of bellylaughs like they used to. Because some of the characters had gotten a little stale, it did give series creator Bill Lawrence (Spin City) and others a chance to flesh out more of the supporting characters that fans clamored for. So that's probably why we've seen more of the janitor (Neil Flynn, The Fugitive), Turk's surgical partner "The Todd" (Robert Maschio, Date or Disaster) and the hospital legal counsel Ted (Sam Lloyd, Galaxy Quest).
I've got to give Buena Vista some credit where it's due; they might have waited to release Scrubs on DVD until well into its third season on air, but they have done an excellent job of catching up, as last year's Season Five has just been released for public consumption. But from a supplemental material perspective, there seems to be a dearth of material compared to previous seasons. There are commentaries on three episodes (one of which is an extended "My Way Home" from Braff, which he directed) plus a retrospective on the show to Season Five, and a handful of deleted scenes. And aside from the commentaries, the extras are on the third disc.
On "must-see Thursday" television viewing, the lack of a proper high definition version of Scrubs sticks out like a sore thumb. It is the only show that I watch that's not in 1.78:1 and could very well be one of the few that's not. I can understand the decision to shoot and air the show in full frame, because the show's style doesn't lend itself to it that much. There are a lot of tight shots that don't allow for it and there isn't the need to bring in a lot of composition to any one shot, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.
Fans of the show will no doubt add this to their collection, as they should, as Turk's reaction to Lando Calrissian is worth the price you pay for getting this. But for newer fans of the show, I'd suggest starting off on Season Two or Three to appreciate the arcs of the character relationships a little bit better, plus you might laugh more as well.
Did you ever see the boobies on Lady Justice! Awesome! Not guilty five!
Review content copyright © 2007 Ryan Keefer; Site layout and review format copyright © 1998 - 2008 HipClick Designs LLC
Scales of Justice
Video: 85
Audio: 88
Extras: 45
Acting: 86
Story: 81
Judgment: 82
Perp Profile
Studio: Buena Vista
Video Formats:
* Full Frame
Audio Formats:
* Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround (English)
* Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround (French)
Subtitles:
* English
* French
* Spanish
Running Time: 530 Minutes
Release Year: 2006
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Distinguishing Marks
* Extended Cut of 100th Episode
* Selected Episode Commentary
* Easter Eggs
Accomplices
* IMDb
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0285403/combined
* Season One Review
http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/scrubsseason1.php
* Season Two Review
http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/scrubsseason2.php
* Season Three Review
http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/scrubsseason3.php
* Official NBC Site
http://www.nbc.com/Scrubs/
* Official Touchstone Site
http://www.scrubs-tv.com/