Episode 6 - My Number One Doctor
29 March 2012
Synopsis: Dr Kelso signs Sacred Heart up to a website where patients can rate their doctor’s performance. JD is ranked number one and Turk and Dr Cox decide to sabotage him because they are so competitive. Carla warns the Janitor against hiding his true self from his new girlfriend Lady. Elliot has become friends with a terminal patient. But she is tested when she realises Shannon intends to kill herself.
The Good: JD becoming number one doctor is good from a logic standpoint. It has been established since the pilot that JD is good with his patients. And it has been repeatedly established that Turk doesn’t want to bond with people he has to operate on and that Dr Cox treats people like crap and that they are both competitive.
It’s a light episode for humour but it is passable throughout. The best bits come from the ever reliable Dr Kelso. Winning a life time supply of muffins is consistent with his gluttony in previous seasons. He makes the most of it here, eating a muffin in every scene he is in and lording it over others. He works well with both Carla and the Janitor to bring a few smiles.
JD is fun with his basketball and fake watch. The Todd can be relied upon for at least a grin. And it looks like the writers poke some fun at themselves for Dr Cox’ strange hair changes from last season.
The Bad: The Elliot story is too real for Scrubs to handle anymore. This type of serious ethical question should absorb at least half this episode but instead we get a third of the time devoted to the Janitor’s nonsense. It reflects Scrubs’ priorities. The writers are far more concerned with making silly jokes to write a proper story to fit such a serious issue. They even throw in Shannon’s carer being silly to try and get a laugh. It seems unlikely that there will be any repercussions for Elliot either.
The Janitor is not a real character. So it is impossible to care about his relationship. He tells Lady that he is developing super powers and has broken the speed barrier. Comments like this make it clear that we shouldn’t take him seriously and yet the tone of this story is such that we should feel sorry that he can’t be himself. Again the show shouldn’t try and get a reaction that it is too flippant to deserve.
Turk and Dr Cox sabotage JD and then fix things so fast that we have no reason to care about that story. JD’s strange obsession with unicorns is not funny either. This story or the Janitor’s should have been shelved to make room for more Elliot. Either that or don’t do such serious stories and be stupid all day long.
Comic Highlight: Dr Kelso orders a blueberry muffin and then throws it in the bin. “Because I can” he says with intent.
Diagnosis: Elliot comes to JD and a group of Doctors and tells them her patient tried to kill herself. Dr Cox makes a joke about how he would kill her himself. It’s a line that is out of character. It’s kind of funny but Dr Cox has spent seven years teaching Doctors that what they do is so important because it is about life and death.
Here he makes a flippant joke. It’s a moment which sums up both this episode and Scrubs’ wider malaise. The show doesn’t know whether to be serious or stupid. Sadly they have played the fool for so long that no one will take them seriously anymore. Elliot’s plot is not given the attention it deserves and so we have a show which is not funny enough to be good comedy but not serious enough to be good drama. Welcome to Scrubs, be prepared to be disappointed.
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