My Observations

Last night I finished watching Scrubs. All 9 seasons are on Netflix instant, and I've been watching a few at a time for a while now. I had only seen a few episodes of seasons 7 & 8 and none of 9, so the last few weeks have been mostly new episodes. Much fun. I really enjoyed Scrubs when it was on, and I think the show held up. I smiled during every episode and laughed out loud during most. Although, the musical episode was not funny, but that may be because I generally don't like musicals.* Some observations:

• One of the things that I really like about the show is how mean Dr. Cox and Jordan are. I think Cox is my favorite character. Does this say something about how much I repress my meanness? Yes, I think it does.
• Elliott is a horrible (fictional) person. I remember finding her character annoying when the show aired, but I connected with her extreme self-doubt and neuroses. Watching a bunch of episodes back-to-back, I found that I really didn't like her. I think that because she's often the impetus to one of J.D.'s decisions, she often doesn't have fully developed motivations for her actions. This makes sense because he's the main narrator often and focalizer, and he can't know her motivations, so it's all filtered through his perception of how she affects him. But it makes her a weak character in a way that Carla isn't. Also, many of the horrible things she does are to J.D. or another boyfriend, and because J.D. is the narrator, my dislike does speak to the show's success and making his character sympathetic (even though he too is very annoying at times, especially in the last few seasons when the character seems to stop developing).
• I had forgotten how male the show is. It has some fairly sexist and homophobic moments, but usually handles them the way it handles the racist moments, which is to call attention to it. Sometimes the joke doesn't work, so it just comes off as sexist. But a lot of what happens in the show is a negotiating of masculinities. Even the female characters' discussions of femininity are about femininity as a response to masculinity. I'm not sure where I'm going with this. I find it interesting though. One would think with all of the girls-names-as-insult jokes the show would bother me more than it does. Being like a women (even for the female characters) is clearly a problem and a point for ridicule. I guess because the girl jokes are set in front a complex backdrop of gender negotiation they don't resonate the same way they would if the show was a more straight-forward sitcom? More thinking needed here.
• Many of the Netflix comments are about how much season 9 sucks, but it is funny. I can see how it would be very disappointing if you were thinking of it as the same show and not a spin-off (which is what it is). But it is funny.
• I like how goofy the show is.
  
  
  *but Avenue Q is hilarious