Thoughts on the "New" Scrubs
For those of you who haven't heard the news, go here to see the announcement.
I spent a while just thinking about this after I first read the article, my emotions neither progressing towards excitement nor devastation. Just contemplating, really. Scrubs has been such a major thing in my life over the past 3 years. I've met so many wonderful people in the fandom, waited with excitement for new episodes, and I never truly hated any of Lawrence's choices. Sure, Kim is the Mary-Suiest thing this side of Sacred Heart, and I SWORE that JD getting back together with Elliot would be the worst thing ever, but Bill's always been able to use his wonderful storytelling to make me rethink things and to skim away from bad plotlines before they really bring down the show. Overall I've found Scrubs to be one of the best shows on television. Maybe other shows have fresher writing or better ideas sometimes... but Scrubs has always had the most heart.
As I thought about it more, I found I really COULDN'T get happy or mad over this. I mean, more Scrubs always sounds like a good idea. But then I thought, "is this really going to be Scrubs anymore?"
And you know what? I don't want it to be Scrubs. For me, Scrubs ended when JD walked out those doors for the last time and drove away from Sacred Heart. That story's been told. We're so lucky as Scrubs fans; our show got an ending, when we were all afraid last year that NBC would fuck us over and leave us seven years in and no series finale. ABC took our wonderful show in and the Scrubs cast and crew worked hard to give us that finale we've all wanted. And god DAMN was it a finale to remember. I've never had one touch me so deeply that I couldn't shake the feeling for days. Even now, whenever I listen to "Book of Love" I get that deep, bittersweet feeling in my chest. I want that song as my wedding song. That's how deeply Scrubs has affected me.
But on the flipside, I'm not going to count this "new" Scrubs out. I think that this could turn into the Frasier to Scrubs' Cheers. It could be so awesome, we could fall in love all over again with the new cast and the fandom could thrive once more. Lawrence says in the article: "It'll still be life-and-death stakes, but if the show is just Scrubs again in the hospital with a different person's voiceover, it would be a disaster and people would be mad." So that makes me happy, that it's going to change.
One thing bothers me though. It may seem trivial, silly at best, but... you can't call the show Scrubs anymore. This isn't going to be the "ninth" season of Scrubs. It's going to be the first season of the spinoff of something completely different and perhaps amazing. But calling it Scrubs and saying it's just a simple continuation... I think it kinda takes away from what Scrubs was. Every single character on that show was vital; JD, Perry, Turk, Carla, Elliot, Jordan, Kelso, Ted, Janitor, the Todd, Doug, Laverne, etcetera... all these people made Scrubs what it was. The atmosphere and the mood of this new "season" are going to be completely different. Scrubs has never been ER; you can't just turnover the main cast members with this show.
To me, Scrubs in essence was always JD's story, and it just can't be Scrubs without him; without his story. It's okay that this new thing will be in the same universe... but it's just not going to be that show anymore. And that's okay. Hell, let the new show stand on its own two feet; give it a chance to be its own show, not just Scrubs 2.0.
JD's story has been told. Scrubs is over. But I can't wait to see what happens next at Sacred Heart.
I spent a while just thinking about this after I first read the article, my emotions neither progressing towards excitement nor devastation. Just contemplating, really. Scrubs has been such a major thing in my life over the past 3 years. I've met so many wonderful people in the fandom, waited with excitement for new episodes, and I never truly hated any of Lawrence's choices. Sure, Kim is the Mary-Suiest thing this side of Sacred Heart, and I SWORE that JD getting back together with Elliot would be the worst thing ever, but Bill's always been able to use his wonderful storytelling to make me rethink things and to skim away from bad plotlines before they really bring down the show. Overall I've found Scrubs to be one of the best shows on television. Maybe other shows have fresher writing or better ideas sometimes... but Scrubs has always had the most heart.
As I thought about it more, I found I really COULDN'T get happy or mad over this. I mean, more Scrubs always sounds like a good idea. But then I thought, "is this really going to be Scrubs anymore?"
And you know what? I don't want it to be Scrubs. For me, Scrubs ended when JD walked out those doors for the last time and drove away from Sacred Heart. That story's been told. We're so lucky as Scrubs fans; our show got an ending, when we were all afraid last year that NBC would fuck us over and leave us seven years in and no series finale. ABC took our wonderful show in and the Scrubs cast and crew worked hard to give us that finale we've all wanted. And god DAMN was it a finale to remember. I've never had one touch me so deeply that I couldn't shake the feeling for days. Even now, whenever I listen to "Book of Love" I get that deep, bittersweet feeling in my chest. I want that song as my wedding song. That's how deeply Scrubs has affected me.
But on the flipside, I'm not going to count this "new" Scrubs out. I think that this could turn into the Frasier to Scrubs' Cheers. It could be so awesome, we could fall in love all over again with the new cast and the fandom could thrive once more. Lawrence says in the article: "It'll still be life-and-death stakes, but if the show is just Scrubs again in the hospital with a different person's voiceover, it would be a disaster and people would be mad." So that makes me happy, that it's going to change.
One thing bothers me though. It may seem trivial, silly at best, but... you can't call the show Scrubs anymore. This isn't going to be the "ninth" season of Scrubs. It's going to be the first season of the spinoff of something completely different and perhaps amazing. But calling it Scrubs and saying it's just a simple continuation... I think it kinda takes away from what Scrubs was. Every single character on that show was vital; JD, Perry, Turk, Carla, Elliot, Jordan, Kelso, Ted, Janitor, the Todd, Doug, Laverne, etcetera... all these people made Scrubs what it was. The atmosphere and the mood of this new "season" are going to be completely different. Scrubs has never been ER; you can't just turnover the main cast members with this show.
To me, Scrubs in essence was always JD's story, and it just can't be Scrubs without him; without his story. It's okay that this new thing will be in the same universe... but it's just not going to be that show anymore. And that's okay. Hell, let the new show stand on its own two feet; give it a chance to be its own show, not just Scrubs 2.0.
JD's story has been told. Scrubs is over. But I can't wait to see what happens next at Sacred Heart.