Scrubs is yet another one of those shows, like
Ally Mcbeal, that overloads on
flashy gimmicks rather than actual
jokes. Don't get me wrong, there are some funny bits in it, when the
script writers actually bother to write them, but the rest of it basically repeats the same joke that was funny for about five minutes when Ally Mcbeal did it, but quickly became annoying and an obvious substitute for any actual
acting or
directorial skill.
Here's some examples: One of the senior doctors asks one of the new interns if she saw a certain patient today. whoosh! - flashback to shot of the patient - whoosh! she says yes, she did see him. See, I know who he's talking about since she's only seen one patient this episode, and I'm not an idiot, so it would be nice if the program makers didn't treat me like one.
Another example: The same intern goes to apologise to one of the nurses about an argument. After apologising she goes on to say that she still believes she was right. Cut to her continuing her speech whilst literally digging her own grave while the other hospital staff watch. It's the same joke that was repeated fifty times in Ally Mcbeal (except usually in Ally Mcbeal it was someone getting "dumped"), and isn't that funny to begin with.
Final example: One of the senior doctors addresses one of the interns as "sweetheart". The main character then pictures him in a smoking jacket, with a pipe, leering at the woman. We already have a voice-over from the main character that addresses this, and again, it's the same joke that made up multiple series' of Ally Mc-fucking-Beal. Can't anybody in TV these days write stuff that is funny and not just a showcase of flashy gimmicks that will look incredibly dated and stupid in about a year?
The show also fails spectacularly to develop the characters. Each character is basically flat and has one joke attached to them, if that. The only thing that comes anywhere close is the doctor who appears nice at first but is in fact permanentally angry, which was pretty predictable, and the will they/won't they relationship between the two main characters, which is a cliche anyway, and one that by TV show rules is never resolved until the show jumps the shark. The rest of the characters (main character included in fact) simply do not have any depth to them. The show needs to either be a character based comedy, which it clearly isn't, or an anarchic one (say, in the style of Naked Gun). Instead, it plays everything too safe and forgets to include any of the vital ingredients.