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suits has always been their ability to incorporate guest stars into meaningful roles. Season four is no exception. While it may reek of stunt casting on the offset, Colin Farrell actually creates one of the show’s funniest guest characters by playing on his public persona of charismatic drunkenness. Other notables include a stone-faced Juliana Margulies as a heartless malpractice lawyer and Heather Graham as a flighty chatterbox of a psychiatrist. Graham in particular, slips effortlessly into the mix by pulling a Tom Selleck with her extended guest appearance, managing to stick around for the first 9 episodes of the season. With her breezy comic timing and illuminating screen presence, it’s not hard to see why she was awarded her own sitcom the next television season (the promptly cancelled Emily’s Reasons Why Not).
A highlight of the season is Episode 17, “My Life in Four Cameras,” in which the show departs from its single-camera style for a brief foray into standard sitcom production with a live audience during one of JD’s extended fantasies. While this was almost definitely designed as a sweeps week ratings stunt, the gimmick works because the technique is incorporated naturally and concludes on a very serious note.
After three seasons of remarkably consistent quality, Scrubs finally starts to show signs of age during season four. Many of the episodes, particularly during the middle of the season, tread some very familiar territory. Occasionally, the screenplays feel a little lazy, particularly the teasers and endings. Some of the openings feel like they’re missing a joke or two, and the punch lines don’t zing quite like they used to. More detrimental is that many of the endings fail to provide resonance with their lackluster conclusions.
But even during its slumps, Scrubs is still one of the more charming and earnest shows on television and it’s hard to fault a show this genuine and eager to please.
Special Features
Will You Ever Be My Mentor examines the relationship between JD and the curmudgeonly Dr. Cox (John C. McGinley) through clips from the show and interviews with the cast and crew. It runs 4-and-a-half minutes and most of the observations are rather self-evident but fans likely won’t mind revisiting some of these moments.
The Sweethearts of Sacred Heart gives a recap of season four’s many relationships. Like the first featurette, it boils down to a surplus of clips and largely uninformative interviews.
More substantial is The Weapons Chest. This featurette is devoted to the arsenal of secondary characters that inhabit the world of Scrubs. It’s great to have praise heaped upon some of the show’s unsung heroes and a lot of fun to hear from some of the less-heard-from actors like Almoa Wright and Johnny Kastl.
Who is that Man? takes a look at the mythical qualities surrounding the Janitor (Neil Flynn) and is presented in a mock-Unsolved Mysteries manner. Janitor has long been one of the show’s funniest and most bizarre elements but in season four he starts to overstep his boundaries a bit and becomes ...
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