scrubs

Ever since it came on, I've been a big fan of the show Scrubs. Initially, it was because it was just plain hilarious, and made for perfect casual TV whenever I happened to flip to it while channel surfing. Which, incidentally, happened alot in college thanks to Comedy Central (the only channel other than ESPN that our TV was ever tuned to) re-running old episodes, as far as I could tell, every second they weren't running the Daily Show/Colbert or South Park. However, when I started experiencing the hospital grind for myself, initially as a student and later as a hospital employee, it soon became abundantly clear that aside from documentaries, Scrubs was probably the most accurate medical show on TV, at least in terms of the characters and their relationships. The show was still funny as hell to me, but it simply took on added meaning.

That was when I was on the outside looking in. Now that I'm about 2 inches from the precipice that is medicine, rewatching the show on Netflix is a completely different experience. I still laugh, but the timbre of laughter is undoubtedly different. It's often uneasy and nervous - the kind of laugh you might overhear from a couple on their first date, where they are laughing because it's something to do, because it's something that they think is the appropriate reaction. It's the way self-serious dbags half-laugh at jokes made at their expense*. In any case, let's examine the main characters of the show. The protagonist, JD, is a self-absorbed loser who is impossible to take seriously (hence the comedy), constantly berated by everyone, including the janitorial staff, unable to hold on to a girl and essentially devoid of life outside the hospital.
 *This might indicate that I, in fact, am a d-bag. I'm OK with that.

[I might be OK with being a narcissistic loser if it meant I can 'jackhammer' Heather Graham though..]


[so ronery..]

[oh so ronery..]

Are the rest of the doctors much better? Hell no. JD's mentor, Dr. Cox, is an ultra-narcissistic, unstable, abusive, emotionally stunted borderline alcoholic with a clear anger issue.

[stress release]



[something many premeds can relate to]

JD's eventual girlfriend/loveforever Elliot is an insecure, sheltered neurotic, who, unlike JD, never even secures a modicum of respect from the senior medical staff. And though she initially starts off as a competitive gunner, (and that's gunner used correctly, to describe someone who sabotages others to get ahead) ultimately, and too starkly realistically, she realizes medicine is not a career that makes her happy.

The fact that she moves with JD away from Sacred Heart in the final season is further evidence that this career is no longer a priority for her. That leaves us, out of the main cast of doctors, Turk. He's probably the most normal and best-adjusted out of this group, and, perhaps not coincidentally, also the most successful - by the end of the series, he becomes the Chief of Surgery (which, one must note, must surely be an artifact of TV fiction - it's hard to imagine a department chief who would be barely over 30; still, the point stands). He is not without his flaws obviously, as this cliff-note rant of all of the above tl;dr points succinctly summarizes -

Still, he has what seems to be a good family life, derives great satisfaction from his job, and is altogether happy. For those of you keeping score, that's the first time that adjective has been used for any of the aforementioned characters. That's a 0.250 batting average. Only one of the four main doctors is actually happy with his life. The fact that he's a surgeon might be a relatively accurate reason for this - he can actually fix things, although in real life it would likely come at the expense of family time.

And there it is. Scrubs - hilarious, and terrifying. Like I said at the beginning, though there are obviously exaggerations for the purpose of making a good sitcom, the characters on this show as a whole ring very true. The question then, is which of these or the other ancillary characters am I? Which are you?