Scrubs Season 9…But is it really?
Posted: November 19, 2010 Filed under: Posts With Thought | Tags: Dave Franco, Juris Doctor, Kerry Bishé, List of characters on Scrubs, Lucy Bennett, Michael Mosley, Our First Day of School, scrubs, Television Leave a comment »
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So, as you may or may not know, season 9 of the hit American Comedy-drama programme, Scrubs, has commenced in the UK. And here we all were thinking it came to an end, with John “JD” Dorian’s heart-filled, yet incredibly emotional send-off as he left the beloved Sacred Heart hospital we all know and love. Now, me, being one of the biggest fans of Scrubs that I know (I quote it on a daily basis), was ecstatic when I heard of the new season, and literally could not wait to watch it. However, what followed once I had heard about the plot and seen the first couple of episodes for myself, was a bit of a disappointing, yet unsurprising outcome.
The first episode, ‘ Our First Day of School’, sets the scene with a brief introduction to the ‘new’ setting for the gang, roughly 18 months after ‘My Finale’, the final episode of season 8. Well, I say gang, although it’s not entirely the gang we know from season’s 1-8 of Scrubs, with a number of new additions..and sadly, with a few short of the old cast. The story now seems to be focusing around the character, Lucy Bennett (played by Kerry Bishe), who slowly, but surely, will take over as the main star of the show. Drew Suffin, (played by Michael Mosley) is also a new addition; a somewhat reserved character, making a second attempt at becoming a doctor, along with Cole Aaronson (played by Dave Franco); an arrogant womanizer.
The second this episode starts, you can notice a big change in the general style of the programme, including the comical aspect, aswell as the dramatic, although the style does still seem to partially mirror that of the older seasons. You would expect this change, though, as even though it is still Scrubs, technically it is a spin-off from the ‘original’ Scrubs, and therefore is also known as ‘Scrubs: Med School’. However, the true fans who have been watching Scrubs from the start will have noticed this change in style arising in season 7, and particularly, season 8.
Fortunately though, Scrubs lovers will be pleased to know that there is still the hint of general Scrubs-ness, and (if you havn’t seen the first episode yet, you may want to look away), the re-uniting of arguably the best duo on tv, JD and Turk! Although another massive downside to this this season ( another spoiler coming up, although it had already been ruined for me), is that JD does once again, leave, in the 6th episode of this season. However as an upside, fans of the Scrubs genre of music will be pleased to know that so far, the soundtrack seems just as great as it used to be. Honestly, to date, I have not seen a show in which I have loved the soundtrack as much as Scrubs. Also, the song ’Superman‘, by Lazlo Bane, which was the music for the Scrubs title sequence, has been covered by the band ‘WAZ’, for the title sequence to season 9…trust me, it will not sound right at first, but it will grow on you.
Overall, although the new seasons has only just began in the UK, Zach Braff, himself has confirmed that the new season of Scrubs, a.k.a season 9, a.k.a, Scrubs: Med School, has now been axed. Such a shame, but to be fair, true Scrubs fans such as myself would not consider this new season as the ‘original’ Scrubs. But to sum up, based on the first two episodes of season 9, the change between season 8 and 9 has had a transition which I am not particularly keen on, and I’m sure many others aren’t either. Enjoyable I guess, but it is nothing compared to season’s 1-8 of Scrubs..and I imagine it never will be.
Do make your own opinion though – be sure to catch season 9 of Scrubs every Monday on E4, at 9pm, and make your own decision if you havn’t already.
By Manpreet Singh
Related Articles
- Scrubs – E4, 9pm and 9.30pm (mirror.co.uk)
- Can ‘Scrubs [Med School]‘ Pull Off Another Season? (buddytv.com)
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Shutter Island…Did It Deserve More Credit?
Posted: November 19, 2010 Filed under: Film Reviews | Tags: Arts, Elias Koteas, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Martin Scorsese, Movies, Patricia Clarkson, Shutter Island Leave a comment »
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As one of my favourite films of the year, Director Martin Scorsese, has crafted a beautiful psychological thriller. If you haven’t read the book then Shutter Island will certainly surprise you. It Follows Federal Marshall Teddy Daniels, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, with his partner Chuck Aule, acted out by Mark Ruffalo. The two have been sent on a mission to investigate a mental institute for the criminally insane on a remote island, to look for a missing patient who has impossibly left her prison block, called Rachel Solando (Patricia Clarkson). You soon learn nothing is what it seems. As the plot moves on, it is mostly focused on Teddy Daniels, who has personal problems of his own. He has his own agenda; he believes that illegal experiments are being carried out on the island, and is trying his best to find out where it is happening. He also wants to find a man, Andrew Laeddis (Elias Koteas) for his past crimes.
The story of the film moves quite slowly but not necessarily in a bad way. The film often tries to give you subtle hints as to what the whole film is about. I for one didn’t get the subtle hints, which I’m glad about, because I was shocked in the end. But maybe you can, unless you’ve read the book of course, so don’t be smug. The film also slowly moves to a faster pace really nicely, moving from standstill, to moving slow, to moving fast, but the transition between the three is so smooth that you barely notice it.
The acting in this film is almost perfect. You’d have to nit pick to find anything wrong. DiCaprio once again proves to us the great actor that he really is, and gives an award-worthy performance. I have a confession actually, I didn’t rate him as an actor a few years ago, and I’m quite ashamed about that, because he has been one of the best actors on screen this year.
My biggest concern is that the film made its money, but it didn’t get the credit it deserves. As well as Inception, this is another film that is in the top 10 this year. I don’t understand why it didn’t get the attention it should have received; maybe it wasn’t marketed as well, or maybe a bigger film was out at the time, either way it’s a shame really. Oh well, just like other reviews it gets a good rating from me aswell.
4.8/5
By Daniel Hart
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- Shutter Island (mrmovietimes.com)
- Martin Scorsese | No 20 | Film Power 100 (guardian.co.uk)
- 10 Things You Didn’t Know about Leonardo DiCaprio (bettyconfidential.com)
- /Film LA: Scorsese/DiCaprio Retrospective, Live Donnie Darko Commentary, Four Lions, Darren Bousman’s Abattoir, Elm Street (slashfilm.com)
The UK Film Industry Needs To Be More Inventive
Posted: November 19, 2010 Filed under: Film Reviews | Tags: Daniel Radcliffe, Film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, HarryPotter, ITV, James Cameron, JK Rowling, United States Leave a comment »
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Director James Cameron is right, the UK needs more films like ‘Harry Potter’; imagine a teenager in America when he thinks of films related to the UK – what would come to his head? Harry Potter. But that is not a good thing. We don’t have many JK Rowling’s writing books that would be perfect on the big screen, do we? I am not annoyed that as a society we turn to America to watch most films, as I do it as well, as the American film industry has way more money and it’s well, better. The quality shows. You watch a horror film from the UK, low budget and cheesy. But America? Good quality and scary. The maths also says it all - America makes the highest grossing films in the world.
The problem has nothing to do with the quality of acting, in fact we are probably just as good in the drama aspect. I mean, the dramas we produce on ITV, lets say, are up there as the best. Our TV shows don’t need to be improved as much, well apart from TV series, because like films, the best TV programmes come from across the ocean.
So what is the problem.. Poor directors? Not enough film budget? Not enough original ideas? Well whatever it may be, it needs to be sorted, not because I am tired of poor UK films, but because our reputation is at stake. Music seems to keep up with America, so it puzzles me as to why the same doesn’t apply to films. Whilst Harry Potter carries the torch maybe this will be the start of good quality and box office busting films. You think? I can’t see that happening… but we’re in luck! JK Rowling is tempted to extend the Harry Potter series.
We seem to try and compete with American films aimed at teenagers. America brings out Step up, we bring out StreetDance 3D. But how is that even a competition? Where’s our Avatar? Where’s our Inception? I think it’s solely to do with budget, and if that is the case, the government need to make more effort and inject cash into the industry.
By Daniel Hart
