Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.

Here is a TV review from a man who calls himself Chachi.

Make of that what you will.

Hey, Moriarty...

Well, at least there's one hope for the fall, and it's called SCRUBS. I had a not-so-great quality screener from an talent agency, but the show overcame even the crappy VHS tape. It's a single camera (not sitcom) show that was created by Bill Lawrence, one of the guys who did Spin City. The SCRUBS pilot is about an emergency room intern named J.D. on his first day of work. I guess you could say its setting is basically early ER with the high speed comedic tone of ALLY McBEAL (when that show was kinda good in the early days), with a bit of MASH (comedy & tragedy). Zach Braff (who was in the indie movie The Broken Hearts Club and one of the Woody Allen flicks) plays JD, and he has it all on his shoulders very successfully. He can go from drama to pratfalls without missing a beat, and he has the energy and pathos that a TV star needs to make you care about watching every week. The other great thing is John C. McGinley, who has been playing high intensity assholes for years (SWAT leader in Seven, head of FBI in Point Break), and he nearly steals the show from everyone because, as well allowing McGinley to do his usual funny jerk self, the writers have given him some dramatic moments which play really nicely in contrast. The rest of the cast is really good too, including Sarah Chalk (Roseanne) and Donald Faison (Clueless).

The show mostly happens from JD's perspective (with dead-on hysterical dream sequence cutaways) about who to trust, who to have a crush on, and whether or not he can actually be a doctor. Now that Noah Wylie has moved out of the young doctor role into old mentor on ER, I think there's a space on TV for the learning curves of being a doctor, except this time it's really funny. It seems like the bite of the humor is toned down a half-step from what it could be to be TV-safe (except for a few moments like when JD imagines himself as a horny sitcom Dad), but it's still miles above everything else. We'll see if they go the MASH way (with more drama, because this cast can act) or if they just stick to the funny... either way, it's the best hope for Must-See TV. There's potential for something great that would almost fit in better on the HBO schedule than the Must-See TV schedule, and that's the best compliment I can give it.

It's no Buffy or West Wing yet, but neither were they when they started... hopefully they'll give a good show a chance...

Looking for my Joanie,

-Chachi