You're right.
Things are going to be different.
But different doesn't always mean bad.
It just means different.
That's Donald Faison's Dr. Turk in the season four
finale of Scrubs, reassuring Zach Braff's
hapless, sensitive JD that change can be a good thing.
And it would turn out that he had nothing to worry about
because while season five of Scrubs
was absolutely going to transform
the characters, the story, and the overall tone of the show,
everything was going to be all right.
In fact, it was going to be perfect.
But while we're scrubbing in for this one,
why not take a moment to subscribe
to the Nerdstalgic channel.
Created by Bill Lawrence, Scrubs debuted on NBC
in October of 2001.
A single camera sitcom about a group of medical interns
and the staff they worked alongside at Sacred Heart
Hospital, the show had a top notch ensemble cast
and a unique comedic voice.
(SINGING) Knife wrench!
Practical and safe.
Whoa!
It also worked as something of a character drama
and was known to mix moments of genuine pathos
into its storytelling.
Scrubs was an instant hit in the ratings.
And with the exception of its widely disliked ninth
and final season--
which you can hear all about in our video on how the Scrubs
spin-off failed in a single, strange season--
it would always remain a great show.
After season four, Scrubs was syndicated for local markets,
allowing every episode to earn what Lawrence would later
describe as a ton of money for the studio that produced it.
And while Lawrence has never said as much,
it's easy to imagine that the show's
tremendous financial success, combined
with its overwhelming critical success,
gave the writers the freedom and confidence to get even more
creative with the show's elements.
Whatever the case, from there on out,
the series went on a bit of a tear.
And season five would carry Scrubs to new heights.
As implied in the final moments of season four,
five would be all about change, starting with the overall tone
of the show.
Which is to say, in season five, the comedy got sillier.
It's like they've been watching our lives
and then just put it on TV.
This increased sense of playfulness
absolutely permeates all of the episodes in the season.
And before it's over, the series produces
some of its most memorable sight gags,
including bits where JD explodes a soda in Dr. Cox's car,
Dr. Kelso attempts to blend into a mural,
and JD's floating head performs karaoke with Dr. Kim Briggs.
At the same time, the emotional moments of season five
hit harder.
No doubt Scrubs has done fantastic dramatic episodes
in the past.
Season three's Emmy-winning tearjerker, "My Screw-Up,"
is a perennial candidate for the show's best episode.
But season five found a way to make that level of drama
a part of Scrubs' DNA, which was no small feat for a series that
was primarily known for its oddball humor and slapstick
comedy.
You bested me again, you little chocolate bitch.
These extreme tonal shifts, combined
with a more frequent use of cutaway gags and fantasy
sequences, could have made for a rough viewing experience.
But not only did Scrubs blend it all seamlessly,
the series actually got better for it.
In fact, season five arguably marks
the emergence of the style people
now most associate with Scrubs.
Eagle!
Oh!
Ah!
And nothing exemplifies this new experimental spirit better
than episode seven, "My Way Home,"
which is a brilliant homage to The Wizard of Oz.
So how was the zoo?
It was awesome.
They had lions, tigers, and bears--
oh, my!
Shot with a look similar to the technicolor
used in the 1939 classic, the episode also
features songs from Laverne's gospel choir
and Ted's a cappella group.
Also, we're no longer called The Worthless Peons.
We were sued by a Dutch metal band with the same name.
We now go by Foghat.
Again, Ted, busy!
The story's various threads, which
are laced with references to the source material,
casts JD as Dorothy trapped at the hospital
and trying to get home; Elliot as the scarecrow trying
to look smart by faking various expertise;
Turk as the Tin Man attempting to convince a man
to donate his son's heart for a transplant;
and Carla as the Cowardly Lion, coming to terms with her fears
over how she relates to children.
The episode is a visual and musical masterpiece,
and its respective storylines are classic Scrubs
medical dramas.
And while most of the episodes in season five
didn't go quite so far with things.
"My Way Home" stands as a prime example
of the more ambitious blend of music, visuals, comedy,
and drama that the show would be striving
for during the rest of its run.
Season five was also all about change.
Storywise and throughout, we saw the characters
in narratives that evolved or expanded them
in fundamental ways.
It kicks off by literally having JD list off
all the changes to the status quo that have occurred
since we last saw everyone.
JD himself has become an attending physician,
while Elliot has moved to a new hospital.
Turk and Carla are trying to have a baby, which neither
seems particularly ready for.
And Dr. Cox and his wife, Jordan,
are raising their young son, Jack.
JD and Elliot spend the season feeling out
their new relationship as friends.
Her romance with handsome, young intern, Keith Dudemeister,
tests JD's feelings while he searches
for new love and a steady place to live.
The ongoing thread expands and deepens
JD and Elliot's relationship, laying the groundwork
for their dynamic in the seasons to come
and setting them on the path to becoming
the more mature characters they'll
be by the end of the series.
By the time the season is over, Turk and Carla
managed to conceive, but surprise, surprise!
So do Dr. Cox and Jordan as well as JD and Kim.
It was an ending that promised the growth the characters
experienced over the season would
have lasting consequences.
And that was really saying something
because season five had shown us so
many new facets of the show's characters,
and not just the two main couples.
In "My Way Home," the typically surly
Cox is humanized in a tender moment
where he eases Carla's fear that she hates children
by discussing the love he feels for his own son,
and pointing out that it's different
when the kid is your own.
It's really just the start for Cox,
though, because along with JD, Cox befriends elderly patient
Patricia Wilk.
After a contamination accident her case terminal,
the two doctors scramble to fulfill her dying wish
to go to the beach by building a makeshift version
on the hospital's roof.
But Mrs. Wilk only gets to see it once before dying.
The storyline culminates in the utterly devastating
"My Five Stages," in which Cox and JD jointly navigate
the five stages of grief.
The episode, and the season in general,
bring JD and Cox closer together as friends and as colleagues
through this shared trauma.
This was all pushed even further by "My Lunch" and "My Fallen
Idol," the latter often cited as the best episode
of the entire series.
Cox pushes for three patients to get transplants,
resulting in all three dying from receiving infected organs
from a patient who had an undiagnosed case of rabies.
There was no way Cox could have known,
but despite previously advising JD
that a doctor can't take the death of a patient personally,
the incident sends him into an emotional tailspin.
He even shows up to work inebriated, which
was ultimately his rock bottom.
Showing JD for the first time that the doctor he idolized
was fallible.
Cox's friends visit him one by one,
trying to ease his conscience.
And the normally irritable doctor's heart of gold
is laid bare as we see the depth of his suffering.
It only comes to an end after JD articulates
how he's realized that he idolizes Cox
not just for his superhero-like infallibility,
but for his deep-rooted humanity.
It's a powerful moment that doubles
as a sly, thematic callback to the show's theme song lyric,
I'm no Superman.
And JD's shift in viewpoint changes
the audience's relationship to Cox as much as his own.
Doctor Bob Kelso, the hospital's chief of medicine--
and typically a ruthless a-hole--
also gets to show a more human side of himself.
"My Jiggly Ball" gives the audience a rare look
at Kelso briefly letting his emotional guard down, revealing
a man who hurts more than you think
over some of the things he has to do as a part of his job.
Even Sacred Heart's bizarre janitor
is recast in three dimensions via relationship
he has with a paralyzed patient who's
broken their computer, which is also
their sole method of communication.
"His Story III" sheds some light on how the janitor sees
his relationship to the hospital,
and the difference he makes there.
They don't know how different it would be if I wasn't here.
Hey, Jill.
It's a surprisingly emotional and effective rehabilitation
of the character, who often serves
as JD's chief nemesis which, ironically, takes place
while he's holding JD hostage in a water tower.
These are just a few highlights, but the fact
is every episode of season five is good.
Every storyline in five is, at the bare minimum, interesting.
No time is wasted and not a single installment
comes off feeling like filler, which
is a truly incredible thing to say about a season with 24
episodes in it.
And it did all of this while being
more entertaining than it had ever been
or would ever be again.
Eagle!
I told you not to call me Lawrence.
And I told you I never get dizzy!
[BANG]
Sitcoms are often purposefully constructed
to keep the characters in a type of narrative
suspended animation.
Allowing characters to change or evolve too much risks upsetting
the status quo an audience has grown
to love, which ultimately endangers
the show's profitability and, as a consequence, its lifespan.
But in season five, almost every character on Scrubs
grows and learns things about themselves.
Their personalities are explored and filled out,
adding a depth and complexity to their relationships
that the show would continue to benefit from for years to come.
And even if the end result of that growth
in the subsequent seasons never fully lived up
to the promise of season five, Scrubs
chose to break the mold it had established on every front,
and did for its characters and audience
what few sitcoms had done at the time or have done since--
it let them grow.
So what do you think?
Was season five the perfect season of Scrubs?
And if it wasn't, what was?
Let us know down in the comments below.
And if you enjoyed this video, you'll
definitely find others you like if you check out
the rest of the channel.
As always, thank you for subscribing to Nerdstalgic.