- Release Date: August 25th, 2009
- Publisher: ABC Studios
- Price: $25.99 on Amazon
- Rating: PG
- Run Time: 414 Minutes
- Special Features: Commentaries, Bloopers, Deleted Scenes, Alternative Lines, My Bahamas Vacation, Scrubs Intern Webisodes
- Starring: Zach Braff, Donald Faison, Sarah Chalke, John C. McGinley, Judy Reyes, Ken Jenkins, Neil Flynn
- Genre: Comedy
After eight seasons I think Scrubs is the comedy that just won’t die. Scrubs never got great ratings and yet was not cancelled for seven seasons. Then NBC canceled the series and Scrubs appeared to be dead. Scrubs ended up being saved by ABC and given an eighth season. Now most people assumed that last year was the final season but Scrubs once again got another season. While the eighth season won’t technically be the final season, I will always think of it as the final season since it would have made a great final season.
Being the eighth season and all I am not going to go into my typical explanation of the series since it doesn’t really pay. If you haven’t seen the series before I would recommend checking out the first season. The first couple of seasons of Scrubs were a hilarious comedy that most people should enjoy. While you can enjoy the eighth season without watching the earlier seasons I don’t see the point of it since while the later seasons are also pretty good, they don’t compare with the early seasons.
With that said I thought the eighth season was sort of a rebound season. It was better than the seventh season and on par with the fifth and six seasons. It’s not as good as the early seasons but as I already mentioned it would have made for a great final season. It did a great job wrapping things up and giving the characters closure. You got the feeling from the beginning of the season that everyone expected it to be the final season. Then it was picked up for another season so the eighth season ended up not being the final season. Since things are changing quite drastically next season though I am still going to think of this as the final season of Scrubs.
Overall this season had some hit and miss episodes. That has been the case for the last couple of seasons though. It is rare for a comedy to never have any miss episodes though. While there were plenty of good episodes in the season, the episode I liked most was the final episode of the season which was supposed to be the series finale. Series finales usually aren’t the greatest. I honestly don’t think Scrubs’ “series finale” could have been any better. It was pretty much the perfect series finale. It’s too bad that it won’t end up being the actual series finale. It was funny but also brought a lot of closure to the series.
One problem I had with this DVD set is that for some reason the DVD is fullscreen instead of widescreen. While some people might still not have widescreen televisions, it would still have been nice if the episodes were in widescreen format since fullscreen DVDs don’t always look great on widescreen televisions. It’s not a terrible problem but I know it will annoy some fans.
Overall the special features are pretty similar to other seasons of Scrubs. You get your typical commentaries, bloopers, deleted scenes, and alternative lines. For the most part these are pretty good. One thing that I felt was missing was a feature on this season since it is essentially the final season for most of the cast. Scrubs will continue this season but Turk and Dr. Cox are the only regulars that will return for the season. I think it would have been nice to have a feature looking back at the eight seasons of Scrubs. Maybe this feature will show up on the absolute final season of Scrubs. Who knows when that will actually be though. As far as special features you actually get, here is a more detailed look at what you can expect.
- Commentaries: If you are a fan of commentaries you will not be disappointed with Scrubs whopping 16 commentaries. There were only 19 episodes in the season so it is amazing that 16 have commentaries. The commentaries are pretty good and you obviously can’t complain about the quantity.
- Bloopers: Your typical blooper reel which is pretty funny overall. Length: 3 Minutes
- Deleted Scenes: 16 deleted scenes from the season which includes the aired and deleted scene. I didn’t find many of these to be that great.
- Alternative Lines: 17 different scenes where the cast member uses different scripts or just makes up different things for the scenes. They are mostly hit or miss with Neil Flynn’s scenes being the highlights.
- My Bahamas Vacation: A 20 minute look behind the scenes of making the two Bahama episodes this season. This is your typical making of featurette but it is pretty entertaining overall.
- Scrubs Intern Webisodes: The DVD set includes all 12 intern webisodes that aired on ABC.com during the season. These webisodes were kind of hit and miss. Some were not funny at all while others were very funny. They follow “Sunny” (the extra cheery intern) as she and the other interns adjust to Sacred Heart. Most of the regular cast make at least one appearance in at least one of the webisodes. Lengths range from just over two minutes to four or five minutes long.
Overall the eighth season of Scrubs doesn’t compare with the earlier seasons but what do you expect out of an eighth season. The eighth season was mostly written like a final season and despite Scrubs getting yet another season, the eighth season was still great. I would recommend that people who haven’t watched the first seven seasons to check out the series from the beginning since those were the best seasons. For fans of the series I would recommend a purchase since a great season and a bunch of special features makes this almost a perfect DVD set for fans.
