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It's hard to believe, but it's been almost ten years since Scrubs premiered. From October 2001 to May 2010, we watched the doctors and nurses at Sacred Heart hospital fall in and out of love, save peoples lives, cry, moan, sometimes even sing. As a new doctor fresh out of med school, J.D (Zach Braff) is an instantly likeable hero. He’s socially awkward and insecure, but overall he's decent human being with a very active imagination. We see Scrubs through the eyes (or rather, the voice: Braff acts as the narrator of the show) of J.D, mainly showing his interactions with his patients and his colleagues.
For the first four or so years, this was all well and good. For its time, Scrubs was quite unorthodox. There was no canned laughter or studio audience, which fit perfectly with the offbeat and sometimes surreal humour of the show. Scrubs wasn't just concerned with laughs either, often pitting its characters against death or unrequited love. The 'serious' bits of Scrubs were cheesy at times, but they helped give the show heart.
Like most American sitcoms however, the show soon began to run its course. The character of J.D shifted from an awkward nerd into an annoying nerd. The supporting cast took a turn for the worst as well, including Sarah Chalke as Elliot Reid: a likeable character for the first few seasons who gradually turned into an unpleasant narcissist whining at any given opportunity. Even Dr Cox, a fan favourite played by John C McGinley, began to lose his edge as the show wore on.
So where was the point of no return, where the show had clearly lost the plot? It's difficult to pinpoint, but season 5 seems to be the chief offender. Scrubs was always a show that grounded itself in reality with the surreal and bizarre restricted only to J.D's imagination. Yet by its fifth year, the plots became more ridiculous and the characters became more stupid. Maybe it suffered from the bane of every sitcom, ratings. Sensing a dwindling audience, it's possible that the writers tried to appeal to the lowest common denominator, which meant more zany plots and more pointless guest stars.
Scrubs eventually did get cancelled. In total, it ran for nine seasons, although it switched television networks (from NBC to ABC) for its final season. Admittedly, season 8’s final episode is quite poignant. Without spoiling it too much, it's a fitting end for J.D, but it's also a fan service by featuring nearly every character, major or minor, that had appeared on the show. It didn't save the show, but at least it ended on a (relatively) high note.
The show awkwardly continued though, as what might as well have been a spin-off. Moving to a trainee hospital, and having main actors Zach Braff and Donald Faison in only supporting roles, Scrubs season 9 was an embarrassing last ditch attempt to save the Scrubs franchise. Its creator even admitted that it was done just to keep the cast and crew in work. Admirable, yes, but it's hardly a ringing endorsement for the show itself.
The series was finally canned last year, so we've likely seen the end of Scrubs. It's a shame that a show that started so brilliantly ended the way it did. I'm not sure what it is about American sitcoms - maybe because there's a big reliance on ratings, maybe it's because they've got a lot of people working on them - but there's a worrying trend of letting them run on far too long past their sell-by date. We're seeing it with shows like the US version of The Office or Family Guy, which are mere shadows of what they once were. At least with Scrubs it's finally over. Just get the first four seasons on DVD and pretend the rest never happened.
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