Episode 5 - My Growing Pains
29 March 2012
Synopsis: Dr Cox tells a boy that he has leukaemia despite his parents not wanting him to know the truth. He also tells JD to stop acting like a child making JD avoid all Turk’s ideas for them to have fun. Elliot and the Janitor try to find out Dr Kelso’s real age for his birthday party.
The Good: Carla and Turk teaching Dr Cox and JD the importance of childhood are pretty straightforward stories. The JD one is pretty good in the sense that season seven has shown a surprising consistency to its presentation of his development. They reference previous episodes where JD has slowly begun to learn what is important about being a parent. It’s rewarding to see that development progress in a logical manner.
This episode is full of humour. Not all of it is good, but at least there is lots of comedy which has been lacking in recent shows. But there is plenty to enjoy here. JD and Turk doing their babies’ voices and Ted learning and forgetting the difference between mitigation and litigation are simple stuff. The Janitor displays nice comic timing throughout as Kelso takes his drill, he shouts “you’re old” for two hours and he hears bells in his head. He also joins Ted for typically silly suggestions for how to find out how old Kelso is. The comedy star though is the returning Dr Hooch who becomes slowly crazier as he is followed around.
The Dr Kelso retirement revelation is a natural one for what could be the last season of the show.
The Bad: The hospital board should have known how old he was though. Finding out by coming to his party is pretty stupid.
There are some poor jokes such as the strange men-all-have-breasts joke and Caramel bear dying, which is pretty flippant.
Comic Highlight: (Dr Cox) “Who cares about losing your childhood? I damn sure didn’t.” (JD) “Yeah because your parents were violently abusive alcoholics. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it was probably very exciting.”
Diagnosis: Unlike recent episodes this show was more about comedy than it was a good story. The stories are ok though so this strikes a nice balance and is enjoyable to watch. Having said that, there is nothing great here. It is just better than the mediocrity which Scrubs usually presents.
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