Goodbye Scrubs: Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end

by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . May 9, 2009 . 9:30AM

When my husband got Tivo, I winced and then glared and then was passive aggressive for a nice long time. For me, it was just another shiny new gadget that would ultimately get stuck in some orifice of the house and would do nothing to enhance our life. I was wrong, so, so wrong. There are many reasons I was wrong, but the main reason I was wrong has to do with my obscene love of the television show Scrubs.

For the last several years, Scrubs has been my “go to” show. The show itself addressed this phenomenon in one if its episodes. We get attached to the show, the characters and the way it allows us to go somewhere outside of the hectic activity or stress of our own lives for a while. I have used Tivo to its fullest and through the wonder of Tivo, I frequently have no less than 5 episodes a day that just wait for me to watch them in an insomniatic daze.

I have my favorite characters (Elliott and her neuroticism reminds me of me), my favorite lines (when J.D. tells a potential suitor that Elliott is a dude) and my favorite episodes (air banding). I think there are plenty of commentaries out there about the finale, so I won’t add to them other than to say that I think it was superb. It’s exactly what I wanted and the haters can hate. It took the show back to its roots and the die hard fans know that it was the only true way to end the show. I would have liked a little more J.D./Turk interaction, but the thing is that they have moved past that point as characters. As a viewer, I am the one who hasn’t moved past that point.

For us, as viewers, there is a grieving process as our favorite characters go on without us. I think it was keenly felt at the ending of “Friends.” I feel it more now, as these characters were always accessible to me in a way that I never felt that “Friends” were. They were realistic. They had the thoughts I had. Dr. Cox said the things I keep in my head.

From here, we give the characters the privacy to move on with their own fictional lives and we search for something else to fill the void. Or we buy the full series and watch them over and over and over again. Or watch them on Tivo. Thank you, honey, for buying tivo. I wish I could say I will never doubt you again, but we both know that’s not true. Quit buying shiny gadgets. Now that I have Tivo, I’ll never be hungry again. Or something like that.