Editor's Note

Our reviews of Scrubs: The Complete First Season (published July 13th, 2005), Scrubs: The Complete Second Season (published June 7th, 2006), Scrubs: The Complete Third Season (published May 29th, 2006), Scrubs: The Complete Fifth Season (published May 22nd, 2007), Scrubs: The Complete Seventh Season (published November 13th, 2008), and Scrubs: The Complete Eighth Season (published September 2nd, 2009) are also available.

The Charge

"Don't say 'hate,' Gandhi. You kids throw that word around so much, it's lost all of its meaning. Now, now I have to find a word stronger than hate to describe how I feel about others. Hmmm…I megaloathe you all. Good day."—Dr. Perry Cox (John C. McGinley)

Opening Statement

It's babies, babies, babies as Scrubs: The Complete Sixth Season opens. J.D. (Zach Braff, Chicken Little) just found out that his girlfriend Kim (Elizabeth Banks, Spider-Man 3) is pregnant, Carla (Judy Reyes, Oz) and Turk (Donald Faison, Big Fat Liar) are preparing for the birth of their daughter Isabella, and Jordan (Christa Miller, The Drew Carey Show) and Dr. Cox are expecting another baby. Add to the mix an increasingly serious relationship between Elliot (Sarah Chalke, Roseanne) and Keith (Travis Schuldt), and you've got a pile of big changes for everyone at Sacred Heart Hospital.

Facts of the Case

Twenty-two episodes. Three discs. No mercy.

Disc 1
• "My Mirror Image"
J.D. is trying to wrap his head around the reality of Kim's pregnancy. A few familiar faces come into the hospital to be treated. Commentary by Neil Flynn (The Janitor).
Grade: C

• "My Best Friend's Baby's Baby and My Baby's Baby"
Carla goes into labor, while J.D. and Kim have to decide whether they want to keep their baby. Commentary by writers Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan.
Grade: A

• "My Coffee"
Elliot has to treat a contentious private practice doctor, and Turk tries to convince a reluctant Carla to go back to work. Commentary by director/editor Rick Blue and production designer Cabot McMullen.
Grade: B+

• "My House"
J.D. tries to convince Kim not to take a job in Tacoma, Elliot starts her new job as a private practice doctor, and Dr. Cox draws comparisons to another cranky TV doctor when he develops a limp and solves everyone's problems. Commentary by Ken Jenkins (Dr. Kelso) and prop master John Ornelas.
Grade: A

• "My Friend With Money"
J.D. and Elliot have a falling out when she starts making a lot of money as a private practice physician. Commentary by Neil Flynn and Director Jon Michele.
Grade: B

• "My Musical"
The famous musical episode. Sacred Heart's newest patient thinks everyone around her is singing. Commentary by Sarah Chalke and writer Debra Fordham.
Grade: B

• "His Story IV"
Dr. Kelso befriends a patient, Pvt. Dancer, who suffered a head wound while serving as a soldier in Iraq. Dancer's presence in the hospital sparks debate among the staff about the war. Commentary by Ken Jenkins and writer Mike Schwartz.
Grade: D

• "My Road To Nowhere"
J.D. gets the gang together for a road trip to Tacoma for Kim's first ultrasound. Turk and Dr. Cox stay behind, while Jordan's unborn baby needs surgery. Commentary by screenwriter Mark Stegeman and Sam Lloyd.
Grade: B

Disc 2

• "My Perspective"
J.D. is feeling sorry for himself after his breakup with Kim, and Turk defies Dr. Kelso's order to lie to his patients. Commentary by writer Angela Nissel and makeup department head Phyllis Williams.
Grade: B

• "My Therapeutic Month"
Turk has to serve time as one of Dr. Cox's medical interns, Elliot and Keith move in together, and J.D. tries to screw up the courage to ask out Pvt. Dancer's physical therapist. Commentary by writer Aseem Batra and set dresser Patrick Bolton.
Grade: B+

• "My Night To Remember"
The clip show. Commentary by producer Randall Winston and writer Melody Derloshon.
Grade: F

• "My Fishbowl"
Tensions run high while everyone waits for Pvt. Dancer's condition to improve. Commentary by Neil Flynn and script coordinator Sean Russell.
Grade: B-

• "My Scrubs"
Dr. Kelso wants the doctors to treat his friend, who has no insurance. Meanwhile, he has to crack down on the rampant theft of scrubs from the hospital. Commentary by Ken Jenkins and writer Clarence Livingston.
Grade: B

• "My No Good Reason"
Laverne's unshakeable faith in God is driving Dr. Cox crazy. J.D. and Turk can't stop staring at Isabella's not nanny. Elliot sneaks a patient's dog into the hospital against Dr. Kelso's orders. Commentary by writer Janae Bakken, Rob Maschio (The Todd), and production coordinator Hillary Hirsch.
Grade: Grade: D

• "My Long Goodbye"
Laverne is in a coma, and her condition is worsening. As everyone else prepares for Laverne's death, Carla starts hallucinating that Laverne is following her around. Jordan goes into labor, but Dr. Cox enlists J.D. to keep it a secret. Commentary by Aloma Wright (Laverne) and writer Dave Tannant.
Grade: C

• "My Words of Wisdom"
Dr. Cox is having trouble finding time for himself in the hospital. The Janitor serves as interpreter for J.D. and Turk as they treat a deaf patient, and Carla's still coping with the loss of Laverne. Commentary by writer Eric Weinberg and Neil Flynn.
Grade: B

• "Their Story"
The spotlight shines on supporting characters as Jordan drives a wedge between Elliot and Keith, Ted tries to mediate a dispute between Kelso and the nurses, and the Todd tries to talk Turk out of causing trouble with one of the senior doctors. Commentary by writer Andy Schwartz and Rob Maschio.
Grade: B+

Disc 3

• "My Turf War"
Elliot's friend Melody comes to visit, while Turk and Dr. Cox keep passing a hypochondriac patient off on each other. Commentary by writer Sean Russell Mike Schwartz (Lloyd).
Grade: A-

• "My Cold Shower"
J.D. tries to get closer to Melody, Keith has proposed to Elliot, and everyone fantasizes about what it would be like to be married to Elliot. Commentary by Sarah Chalke and Janae Bakken.
Grade: A

• "My Conventional Wisdom"
Elliot's having second thoughts about marrying Keith, and J.D. runs into an unexpectedly pregnant Kim at a medical convention. Commentary by writer Bill Callahan and director Michael McDonald.
Grade: B+

• "My Rabbit"
J.D. agrees to let Kim move in with him, even though she lied to him about having a miscarriage. Carla wants to throw a bachelorette party for Elliot, but Elliot has trouble relinquishing control. Commentary by writers Neil Goldman, Garrett Donovan, and Aseem Batra.
Grade: A

• "My Point of No Return"
Dr. Cox and Jordan are preparing for their daughter's baptism. J.D. and Elliot are having second thoughts about their commitments to Kim and Keith, respectively. Commentary by Neil Goldman, Garrett Donovan, and Aseem Batra.
Grade: A

The Evidence

Scrubs has always been something of an odd duck, not only in that it continuously showcases some of the most bizarre moments on network television, but that it does so and still manages to fly under the radar. The show's profile has been raised recently with the proliferation of endless reruns on Comedy Central, but Scrubs still has more of a small, loyal cult following than a huge mainstream audience.

Fortunately, creator Bill Lawrence and company have never been terribly interested in garnering that widespread acceptance, and the sixth season offers up more classic bizarre imagery, including Dr. Cox dressed up as Alice from the Brady Bunch, J.D. as David Hasselhoff in Knight Rider, and one of Dr. Kelso's old war buddies reincarnated as a goldfish. And those are just the fantasy sequences. The actual narrative is populated with characters like Dr. Beardface; Leonard, the security guard with the afro and the hook-hand; and Gloria, the geriatric intern who's carrying Leonard's unborn twins. If you had told me in 2005 that the show would be able to top gems like season five's Floating Head Doctor and Dr. Acula, I would call you names and throw things at you, because Floating Head Doctor was hilarious. But season six has a secret weapon: the musical episode.

Yes, much has been made of "My Musical," the all-singing, all-dancing episode of Scrubs. The cast and crew were bursting with pride, the fans couldn't wait to see it, and judging by the advertisements, even NBC was excited about it. Let me tell you something: it's great. That episode alone is worth the price of the DVD set; it is truly one of the finest episodes in the series' history. The writers got some help from the folks behind Avenue Q, and the resulting collaboration is both an infectious homage to musical theater and a case study in fidelity to established characters. I eagerly await the Broadway adaptation.

Character development is another area in which Scrubs has always excelled. I've always been impressed with the way the show has taken these meek interns and allowed them to grow. Scrubs isn't necessarily one of those shows that requires the viewer to have seen every prior episode, but it's also not the kind of show that wipes the slate clean at the end of every episode. The events of one episode inform the next, and, over the years, the result has been a naturalistic shift in dynamics. With the prospect of parenthood and settling down looming for so many of the characters this season, there are a lot of opportunities to further explore those personalities. Most of these opportunities are capitalized upon, with a few glaring exceptions. More on that later.

First, a note about the commentary tracks: you didn't misread the episode synopses. There's a commentary track on every single episode. The fun thing about these commentaries is that the participants are members of the cast and crew that wouldn't normally appear on these things—"My Perspective" has a commentary that includes Phyllis Williams, the show's makeup department head. Braff, Faison, Reyes, McGinley, and Lawrence are conspicuously absent from the tracks, but presumably that's because they've said their piece in the previous seasons' commentaries. It's actually pretty refreshing to hear some of these different perspectives from people who clearly know and love the show so much.

Other special features highlight the background characters, Judy Reyes' thoughts on the season, and the making of the musical episode. And what Scrubs DVD set would be complete without a compilation of alternate line readings? Flynn and Braff in particular are improvisational geniuses. I don't know these people actually manage to crank out a new episode every week. How do you not crack up when Neil Flynn is riffing extensively about braces on spider monkeys?

The Rebuttal Witnesses

I'm generally reluctant to assign grades to individual episodes, but in this case they're just there to illustrate that there are a few real clunkers in this set. I mentioned that characterization is one of the show's strengths, but a few of these episodes just ignore the years of character development in service of a given storyline. The clip show was lame, too.

Closing Statement

Despite a few missteps, this is another solid season of Scrubs. The DVD presentation is excellent, as usual, and the inclusion of the musical episode makes this on an essential for fans of the show.

The Verdict

You'll want to keep these DVDs overnight for observation. I mean, buy them.

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