Tuesday TV Touchbase: Scrubs and Malcolm In the Middle
Alas, parting is such sweet sorrow.
The remarkable run by Jamie Ding as Jeopardy champion has come to an end after 31 straight games and winning $882,605 in prize money.
I thought if anyone had a shot at challenging Ken Jennings' record, it would be Jamie.
Jamie was fast on the buzzer and knew a LOT of stuff but he was also a gracious competitor. We're going to miss you on the Alex Trebek stage and look forward to your return in the next Tournament of Champions.
Well, as the saying goes, "What's old is new again" and television certainly adheres to that axiom.
Andrea and I followed the revival of Scrubs and for the most part, we were satisfied with this new serie.
J.D. is still prone to flights of fantasy even as he has moved from fledgling intern to Chief of Medicine at Sacred Heart Hospital.
I know there was some opposition from fans to have J.D. and Elliot be divorced and I was one of them. But I have to admit that having our "will they/won't they" couple from the original series land on the side of "won't" for the revival did open up some interesting challenges for our cast.
It's a bit ironic that for all the abuse she endured from Dr. Cox, Elliott has a propensity for sharply worded barbs directed at the new crop of interns. It is to her credit that she recognized this trait and does take steps to mitigate this behavior.
Speaking of Dr. Cox, the season ended with the erascibly grumpy doctor being brought down low by a diagnosis of a terminal condition. And he wants J.D. to be the doctor to help him thought it.
If the new Scrubs struggled with anything, it was balancing the classic cast (J.D., Turk, Elliott and the recurring Carla and Cox) with the new gang of interns.
As I write this, I am hard pressed to remember their names.
To Wikipedia? To Wikipedia!!
Dr. Samantha "Sam" Tosh, a medical intern who often uses social media to solve medical problems
Dr. Asher Green, an optimistic but weak-willed British medical intern.
Dr. Blake Lewis, a stoic, loner medical intern.
Dr. Amara Hadi, a surgical intern who has a romantic "thing" going on with Asher.
Dr. Dashana Trainor, a surgical intern who respects and admires Turk, and in whom Turk sees a younger version of himself
OK, now I remember them and I like them well enough, particularly Asher and Amara. I expect I'll know them better in season 2 as I hope the show handles the classic cast/new cast balance better.
Coming back for another go 'round is Malcolm In the Middle.
Malcolm in the Middle: Life's Still Unfairis a 4 episode mini-series bringing the cast back for the occasion of the 40th wedding anniversary party for Hal and Lois.
Malcolm attests to having a happy life with his daughter Leah and girlfriend Tristan. A Harvard graduate, Malcolm runs a charity food organization. Malcolm credits his contentment to keeping the hell away from his birth family.
His parents have NO idea he has a teenage daughter.
Leah has inherited Malcolm's intelligence, social awkwardness and his ability to break the fourth wall.
With the 40th wedding anniversary coming up, Lois is demanding Malcolm's presence and he's running out of excuses. When Lois and Hal show up on Malcolm's doorstep to demand he account for himself, the whole house of cards comes tumbling down.
Malcolm's secrets ran both ways. Besides keeping his current life cut off from his birth family, Leah and Tristan had no idea this whole family even existed.
Malcolm insists keeping this distance between these two parts of his life is necessary for this happiness and sanity but it seems that a lot of his stress is self-inflicted. Yeah, his family's crazy but everybody's family is crazy.
Side note: we watched episode 4 before we saw episode 3. We let a couple of weeks slide by after we watched episode 2 and we went back into the Hulu to watch the next episode, we did not realize it kicked us to episode 4 instead of 3.
Some stuff didn't make sense.
When did Lois break her leg?
How did Malcolm wind up at the anniversary party?
What are Tristan's secrets she's talking about?
So we went back to episode 3 after we finished #4.
Car accident at the end of episode 3.
Leah and Tristan literally kidnapped Malcolm.
Tristan confessed her secret past: she was once charged with attempted murder. (What? Don't worry, it's all good.)
Even with some stuff out of order, we very much enjoyed Malcolm in the Middle: Life's Still Unfair.
For now, that is that for this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase.
Next week, season finales for Abbott Elementary and Happy's Place.
Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.
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