Why Should We Care About These People?

Scrubs has always been a bit of a weird show. It's strange to imagine that these characters could actually walk around a hospital all day caring for patients, and yet still think about nothing but themselves. But we stuck with them, with JD and Elliot, because we were foolish enough to believe that deep down they must surely be good people. Somebody who has as many reflective, thoughtful voice-overs as Zach Braff must eventually come to grow as a person, right?

Well, not really. As the doctors power up the defibrillator one last time in one final desperate attempt not to let this very very dead show die (rolling on now into the seventh season), our principal characters still continue to show a surprising lack of depth. Towards the end of last season, JD and Elliot found themselves a whisker away from happiness ... Elliot had found her perfect, subservient male and they were engaged to marry, and JD was about to become a father thanks to a gorgeous, caring girl who seems perfect for him in more or less every way.

They could have ended the show there, and allowed these characters to live like normal people, but no. The season ended with JD and Elliot lying side-by-side about to kiss each other. Now Elliot has decided that she doesn't love her fiance, and JD has decided he doesn't love the future mother of his child. They've hinted that he might stay with her anyway, for the sake of the child, but from what we've seen of this character for the past six years I find it to be a deeply unlikely possibility.

I won't deny that Scrubs is still funny at times, even entertaining, but in most ways it's more or less become just like Zach Braff's debut movie project Garden State. Well-made, lots of sheen, quirkiness and good music, but ultimately completely devoid of any real substance.