Scrubs series 1. (Scrubs - The Complete Season 1 (DVD))

Member Name: butters

Product:	Scrubs - The Complete Season 1 (DVD)
Date:	14/11/06 (669 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Episodes | Price | Extras

Disadvantages: None.

With Friends over and Will and Grace not fitting the qualifications that a good comedy has (and the fact that it has ended) I have been waiting for a nice comedy so I spend less watching friends repeats that never seem to get boring, and more watching something new. New to me that is., since this great comedy started in 2001 and it was only over half term that I got into it. SO I brought the box set and watched all 24 episodes so fast it can’t be good for me.

Basically it is a comedy about interns starting work at the Sacred Heart hospital, a hospital full of weird and wonderful employees, yet all as realistic as each other. The cast is mainly a bunch of new actors, mainly unheard of all to star in this brilliant comedy revolving around quite a few people; there are many characters that appear often but if you just want to read about the absolute main 5 they are the first 5:

~Actors/Actresses and Characters~

Zach Braff-Play’s the main character of the show Jon Dorian, nicknamed J.D or Bambie in some cases. The whole show is ‘narrated’ by him and his wacky mind and weird imaginations. Quite scared and in medicine, he has known his best friend Turk for ages and being a bit of a dork, when we are let into his vivid imagination, we see some humorous things. For example, the idea of a Vagina Transplant, a bit of a musical and far more. He is superb in this series as an actor and delivers lines brilliantly and he is extremely talented as an actor playing the dorky character that is hilarious extremely well.

Donald Faison-Plays Chris Turk aka Turk or sometimes Turkelton (very rarely). A surgeon and has been J.D’s best friend for ages. Although he is a bit of a joker who dances extremely well (moon walking for example) he takes his job extremely seriously and doesn’t like to get close to a patient unless they die. He wants to become the best surgeon and is extremely competitive. Developing a liking for Nurse Carla early on, it’s interesting to see their relationship grown. His role is acted out excellently by Faison-playing the guy who-knows-he’s-cute perfectly.

Sarah Chalke-Plays the Dippy blonde character Elliot Reid who originally wanted to be the best doctor but felt that making friends was more important so makes friends with J.D and Turk. Always running after Doctor Cox she is desperate to prove herself but gets nervous and is found by J.D (who has similar intentions) hiding in a closet on the first day. She is a humorous character because she is dippy so she adds to the cast pretty well.

Judy Reyes-plays Carla Espinoza, a nurse who falls for Turk after he puts in some effort and is extremely kind and considerate. She looks after he mother and J.D whenever he needs someone to talk to (she is the one who nicknames him Bambie), but does have some attitude so you don’t get on the wrong side of her.

Jon C. McGinley-Plays the tough character Dr. Cox who doesn’t really seem to have many social skills though does have a big heart really. He secretly likes Carla and is looked up to by the interns, though they can’t help but be a little scared because of his teaching methods. He makes a big point about not offering out hugs and cookies whenever somebody answers a question and is extremely tough and really doesn’t get close to the characters. What he does do though is rant. If anyone needs help when he thinks they shouldn’t, or generally is just in a mood he will go on a huge scientific rant-using extreme sarcasm to get his point across so therefore comes up with the best one liners and throughout all of the series he has got me laughing on the floor in stitches. I can’t imagine another actor playing his role so well at all and he is a genius with some of his lines. As some of the extras have shown some of his line improvisations are genius and have got the crew in stitches. He has an ex-wife that pops up every now and then demanding sex which was part of their ‘divorce settlement’.

Robert Maschio-Only a minor character but deserves a mentioning still because he is genius. Plays Todd who is the sex obsessed idiot surgeon who, though good at his job (because he doesn’t think too much into it), turns everything into something sex related and gets some laughs in. Every time though he needs to hi-five.

Neil Flynn-Played the Janitor. He originally auditioned to play Cox. ON the first day he was fixing a door that wouldn’t shut and a friendly J.D commented there might be a penny stuck in there. There was and the Janitor was convinced it was he who put it there so holds a grudge, and follows J.D around taking the mick. Another great character

Ken Jenkins-plays Bob Kelso, chief of medicine and is a bit heartless-causing a bit of a feud with Dr. Cox who cares a lot about his patients. Appears from time to time to ‘help out’ the interns by shouting out and calling them ‘sport’ to be friendly, he appears often with Ned, the lawyer. He wouldn’t be good on his own but his feuding with Dr. Cox makes him a far better character.

All these characters make each episode fantastic and they all turn up in basically each episode to get a laugh or three in. There are far too many episodes to explain them all unless I want to be writing this over the weekend so I will just go through a few of my favourites. Since the creator of the show introduced hospital workers first, many people have said that this is one of the best shows for showing what actually goes on in a hospital (minus J.D’s imagination of course). It may be a comedy but there are some serious moments…

~Episodes~

My first day-It has to be included since it is the pilot episode that started it all off and I have to say it is one hell of a pilot. I have found many series in the past to have decent pilots, though not the best in the world. This one though introduces the characters perfectly. It starts off with something humorous (J.D making himself a bra out of shaving cream), and it continues throughout the whole show with him making an enemy out of the Janitor, him being scared and hiding in a closet and getting the nurses to do everything for him, and the first of many humorous lectures from his mentor Dr. Cox. It doesn’t really have a story-but just shows how difficult he is finding things.

My Best Friends Mistake-With work, Carla and his new friend Todd, J.D feels that he and Turk are not spending enough time together. Elliot and J.D were also going to kiss before being interrupted so he has 48 hours to finish that kiss before being in the ‘friend zone’ so it is hilarious to see the time count down.


My Two Dads-J.D finds himself having to choose his loyalty. Kelso who has the friendly attitude in public but is more than willing to have a go at J.D, and his ‘mentor’ Dr. Cox who, though he seems heartless and far from J.D emotionally, has a far bigger heart than Kelso who has become close to J.D and has invited him to play golf. You see, when a patient died Dr Cox tried to use his insurance money to pay for an operation that another un-insured patient needed. However, J.D accidentally stops this from happening when, knowing nothing about this, tells Kelso an operation on a dead person ‘won’t work’. So there is a moral choice for him to choose.
I think this is one of my favourite episodes of the series because, though it is extremely funny, it deals with a darker and more serious issue too which gives us the chance to see some characters in a little more depth.

My Nickname-J.D gets a nickname off then Janitor. Scooter. Short for scooter-pie because the janitor hates scooter-pie. More importantly though J.D starts to bond with Carla more and Elliot has a patient who worries a lot though is a bit hyper but always means well which has got her stressed. She is exactly like Elliot. I’ll be honest though and say this is only here because of this piece of script:

Turk: I'm not afraid of Kelso! I just felt like eating in here.
J.D.: Go outside and stand up for yourself
Turk: Hell, yeah!
He grabs his sack and leaves the table.
Todd: Dude. You know what else stands up for itself?
J.D.: You know, Todd, I'm not sure, but I'm--I'm gonna guess that it's your penis.
Todd: It is!

My Blind Date-Dr. Cox, quite moody at his long shift has set the interns a task of going until midnight with absolutely no deaths. Meanwhile a hospital visitor slip, but when she is having her head scanned the machine gets stuck so J.D is asked by Dr. Kelso to befriend her. He likes her but can’t help but feeling shallow since he wont ask her out until he has seen her face. Dr. Cox keeps calling on him too to help him out with patients so he needs to witch between the 2 jobs. A great episode since Dr. Cox has a great baseball speech to stop the interns letting anyone die.


Well, they’re my favourite episodes.

~Extras~

Unlike DVD Box Sets like Friends, for example this DVD is cramped with extras. There’s hours worth of them!

Newbies-a look at all of the before unknown actors and the one who plays Turk, known for his role in Clueless. It’s quite interesting actually because the actors actually talk about each other. Sure it ‘They’re great etc’ but still interesting since it isn’t one of those extras where the creator of the show and the writers talk none-stop because they like to hear the sound of their voice.

Outtakes-Pretty good actually. Shows a few scenes-generally the ones the actors messed up most on loads of times. Usually because of a funny line improvisation from someone such as Cox.

Deleted Scenes-pretty pointless. Some are funny, some are not.

The Doctor is in-One on one with the hilarious Zach Braff. It’s mainly about his audition and his life before Scrubs, him starting scrubs, a party where he met some of the actors. He complains a little but you should watch once. It’s nothing special though.

Superman music Video-The video to the theme tune. Great song and worth a watch at least once.

Alternate Lines: A second opinion-improvisations of lines. Best extra in my opinion. It’s incredibly funny with some of the things said and not only had the cast and crew in stitches but me also.

Favourite Moments-Favourite moments of the cast and crew. Still interesting because the writers don’t blab on etc. like they normally tend to in extras, but its just peoples favourite moments and since it shows them it brings back nice memories of that episode I watch almost a day ago.

~Extra Information~

Age: 12
Running Time: 518 mins approx.
Price: www.amazon.co.uk price is £17.97 for 24 episodes.
Created by: Bill Lawrence

Although it is humerous you may want to watch the show before you buy. Thething is it is on so many channels. It's an advantage because you get to see it loads but each of them only air certain seasons.

abc1-series 2
e4-series 4 & 5
channel 4-owns terrestrial rights.
Paramount-series 1,2 and 4
sky one/sky two-series 3.

Theyre on at different times. though i know its on e4 at 7:30 weekdays, and paramount comdedy it is on at 4:30 and also 7-8 weekdays

~Overall~

The best series I have ever seen in my life in my opinion. It is equally as good as friends and apparently accurate. I no doubt like it so much because it’s a comedy that covers serious matters. It’s in a hospital too so it is different but the most unique thing about it aside from the range of quirky and wacky characters is that you always see what is going on in J.D’s head which is always extremely extreme and hilarious. It’s not just the actual episodes and that there are so many but the extras are excellent and so is the price.

A great example of what goes on in J.D’s head is what happens when he needs an operation and he finds out Turk will be doing it. He imagines Turk with the beer hat and straw and he is wearing what looks like a white sheet wrapped around him. He says in a drunken frat boy voice:

Turk: Dude! I'm about to bust a mad slizzice in your insides!

Summary: A great comedy set around a hosptial