ELECTRIC DREAM MACHINE

So, for the last few years Scrubs has been going through the motions. It always seemed to be JD, the perpetual man-baby prancing about the hospital and guffawing with his butt-buddy Turk. When this series began its seventh (supposedly final) season with a string of weak episodes, it began to appear like the show would never get back to its old quality-level.

Then something strange happened... they actually started developing characters. Kelso was being forced out, JD was growing up, and him and Elliot were getting closer and closer. Things were happening. It was looking like Scrubs could end with dignity.

Then NBC canceled it, leaving the show in limbo with no sense of resolution whatsoever. But maybe the show was too long in the tooth to end right. Maybe this was a blessing and a curse. Scrubs wouldn't tarnish its legacy with a sub-par season and finale.

Then Bill Lawrence, the man behind Scrubs, announced that the show was getting an 18 episode season on ABC. While most remained optimistic and excited, some felt that this was prolonging and weakening a series whose relevance was already lost long ago.

For the show to return again, it needed to improve. It needed to become real again and have much better writing. It needed to do the unthinkable and become creatively rejuvenated. Its characters needed to become fleshed out, real people again. After years of atrophe, it's a tall order for a show to suddenly become real again. The question is: did Scrubs fill that order last night?

As a huge, huge fan of season 1-3 and a season 7 apologist I can say: yes, it did. From the classic interactions between JD and The Janitor to Elliot and Carla not annoying the Hell out of everyone when they were on screen to JD dealing with a crop of new interns, everything in this episode was funny, some of it was revealing, some of it was important growth for the characters. It was hard to see JD so tired, stressed, and overworked... but it was as if the JD we once knew from seasons 1-3 (who is also my favorite character on any TV show ever) had finally come back. No... it was the JD we once knew. He has returned after being hidden by his own cocky and silly bravado for years now. 

The dramatic elements are all in play, but is the comedy? Again, yes. My Jerks was funnier than any episode from season 6 and 7 and more down to earth than most of season 5. The Janitor was an unstoppable comedic force in this episode as was JD. The Carla and Elliot plot did not deliver a lot of laughs but it was well-done and it succeeded in helping us like Elliot just a little more. Even in the second episode, which is about JD and Turk staying with a patient as he contemplates death and faces his fear of it, there are still plenty of funny moments (honestly, that episode had some of the funniest moments of the night). That episode also had some of the best character growth, as it showed how JD and Turk's innocence, when it comes to death, had been lost forever. They were just two men trying to help another one face his fear of dying.

The cinematography was better, even. Darker and grittier like the first few years.

And the interns? While I would never watch a show full of them, they were a great device to show how far the interns we started watching in the beginning have now progressed and become full grown doctors.

I can't wait for more character development, great jokes, and great emotional moments. I used to be excited for Scrubs every week because I was hoping for an occasional classic episode, but never really expecting one. But this year is different. If this season keeps up the quality level shown last night, it could indeed end up being the show's best season.