My Doc Talk - My Absence and My Comedy Show
Posted by James Craig on 02.11.2009
Someone is knocked up, nipple whiskers and some character development to boot. Check it out all inside!
Welcome back for yet another installment of My Doc Talk. This week the 9th and 10th episodes of the season aired and we were able to come away with some interesting tidbits. Episode 9, My Absence say some big news for one couple come to light after the seed was planted last season as well as the introduction of a new intern. Episode 10, My Comedy Show sees substantial growth for an intern. I'll be getting into both episodes shortly, but first, the recap.
Recap:
- JD and Elliot have decided to take yet another crack at a relationship. This time, as both have grown up and lived life a bit more, they seem to be taking a much more mature approach this time around and it seems to be working.
- We have been introduced to 3 new interns; Ed, who has all the talent in the world, yet can't bothered to put very much effort into being a doctor. Then there is Katie, who is very much a jerk and has shown signs of being manipulative and conniving. Finally there is Denise, who we have had the most exposure to. She is a very blunt person, to the point of being rude. JD has decided to take her under his wing, and there have been very small, minute signs of progress with her.
- After having one very bad replacement for Kelso as Chief of Medicine in Dr. Maddox (Courtney Cox), Kelso actually recommends Dr. Cox for the position. After some initial hesitance, Cox tales the job. surprisingly enough, a real friendship starts to form between the two former adversaries.
- As Dr. Cox settles into his new role as Chief of Medicine, he begins to take on more of the traits of Kelso while JD steps up (with some prodding from Kelso) to fill in the void resulting from Cox' promotion.
- Dr. Cox fires intern Ed.
- Ted gets himself a girlfriend, Stephanie Gooch
Episode 9 - My Absence
First off the bat, this was a completely JD free episode and as a result, Cox, the Turks and Elliott were left to pick up the slack in his absence. JD is away on a "mini vacation" and this leaves Elliott glued to her cell phone talking and texting with JD, keeping him informed on the goings on while he is away. The biggest news that does come out is that Carla and Turk will be having their second child as Carla finally managed to get pregnant again. You may remember that in last season's My Waste of Time they agreed to start trying for a second and finally, 9 episodes deep, the trying finally works out. While it is this development that take Turk in one direction it is another event in the hospital that pulls Carla in while helping to put an end to the Dr. Cox-centric story arc that has lasted for the 3 episodes previous.
For Turk, the news is huge and he is incredibly excited. While Carla says that no-one can know, Turk runs around the hospital looking for JD to share his excitement with. While his hopes are dashed by a less than excited JD over Elliott's cell, Turk hopes that someone will be able to get excited with him. Turk is disheartened to learn from Cox that while having a first child is something to get worked up about, with the second it is more of a been there done that situation. Those aren't his exact words, but it pretty much sums up how the conversation went. Turk, however, won't be stopped and finds himself someone who will get excited with him, The Gooch, Ted's brand new ukulele playing girlfriend. The only catch is, he told he rit was his first child he was having.
As Turk's search for celebration goes on, Carla is faced with a request for assistance from the new intern in town, Sunny. Sunny is looking after a patient who is comatose and has been left in a vegetative state. The "potato" as Dr. Cox refers to him has a sister who wants to fly in to see their sibling before they pass away, so it is left to the intern to do so. Sunny in turn looks to Cox to help, but he is less than receptive and points out Carla as the one to see. As Carla is approached with the request for assistance, she seems to agree, but it less than enthused to do so. As it turns out, when Cox is leaving, he finds Sunny tending to the potato on her own (again his words, not mine) and go out to find Carla and get to the bottom of this as he has always been ab;e to count on Carla in the past.
As this was all going down, The Gooch finds Turk and sings him a song in honor of his happy event. I just need to say here, that while not quite in the same league as say The Worthless Peons, but The Gooch's songs are very funny and just the right amount of inappropriate when you consider that she sings for children for a living. Well, Carla walks in on the impromptu concert and breaks the news that they are actually having their second child, not their first. The Gooch is angry. Carla lets Turk know that she intends to use this story against him as their first child, Izzy, gets older and looks to find a favorite parent. Classic. Carla is then off to home.
It is at home that Cox manages to find Carla, and wonders why she didn't stay to help Sunny with the patient. He then questions just when it was that Carla stopped caring. This seems to have struck a nerve with Carla. Carla returns the next morning to find out how things went and is happy that Sunny didn't lose the patient, but did have an adventure in doing. so. Carla goes to find Cox, looking to apologize, but it Cox who has the apology in store. He says that it may have been too much to ask Carla to keep on caring as long as she has. She has fought the good fight longer than most and it would be silly to think that with all she has on he plate that she would be able to do so. As he apologizes he gives us his entire name, Percival Ulysses Cox, to show that he is darn serious. Carla accepts, but towards the end of the episode, Carla has decided to stay with Sunny and tend to the patient while waiting for the sister to arrive. Carla lets Cox know that while he may have been right, she isn't ready herself to let that part of who she is go.
This episode was very much one of those transition episodes that have been worked into this entire season so flawlessly. We get to move on from the Cox story arc and move into the Turks having a new baby on the way. I will say, that while there we still some funny moments with JD involved, the episode as a whole seemed to lack that spark he brings and suffered as a result.
Best Laugh(s):
Ted letting us know that his sperm are tailless and are more or less just blobs.
Ted offering advice to Turk relating it all to how Gooch is his first girlfriend an that the break up is coming like a freight train.
Gooch threatening to break her ukulele over Turk's head if he ever lies to her again. The Gooch doesn't like to be lied to.
The end as Cox rips apart his office looking for Elliott's cell phone left on speaker, while JD talks and talks and talks.
Rating: 6.0
Episode 10 - My Comedy Show
This evening's second episode had all the trappings from the outside of being one of the more goofy episodes as we find that Turk and JD will be in charge of producing the annual sketch comedy show put on by the interns, but this actually turned out to be a very strong episode focusing on two interns in particular. While still very funny, it is not really the sketch comedy show that gives the big laughs, but rather something I like to call "Nipple Whisker Gate" involving Carla, Keslo and the Janitor.
I was quite pleased to see that this episode would focus on the seriously cold intern Denise and the way too perky intern Sunny, introduced last episode. It seems that it is the Denise character that the writers and producers want to focus on as she has been the intern focused on the most and given the most fleshing out thus far. This was another step in the process as we see Denise trying to put into practice being a more caring doctor by giving a patient a bedpan she warmed in pediatrics incubator, because he was complaining that the bedpans were too cold. Small steps doctor, it is all in the small steps you take. She is immediately repulse by the overly cheery Sunny as she invites Denise to come outwith the rest of the interns for some drinks. Denise declines, saying that she is going to stay at the hospital and catch up on more of her work. Elliot, who seems to have taken more to Denise now, going back to last episode, tells Denise that she should go out and get away from the hospital before it takes over her life. Denise promises...but welches on that as we come to find out.
The whole arc of the episode then centers around how Sunny and Denise deal with a young patient, Brianna, and her over-bearing, over-protective mother. What is important to note her is that Denise's icy exterior finally started to thaw as she felt real sympathy for how Brianna was being treated. This was a cause that seemed to really stir something inside Denise that, like i said, she had been trying to work on. Also, the interplay between Denise and Sunny, Sunny Day, is nearly perfect. There is some real chemistry between the girls and they work in that odd couple kind of way. Sunny being overly perky, vowing to make Denise her friend and being at her side pretty much for the entire episode just worked. Especially good was that they were to do a sketch in the comedy show where they were to play JD and Turk.
While they were busy attending to Brianna and that dilemma, they had neglected to get back for rehearsal or even pick up their lines. As they made the show, very late, the two were forced to make up their lines on the spot. Since the show was meant to roast the senior staff, Denise did the only thing that could be done really in terms of roasting JD and Turk and kissed Sunny, dressed as Turk. It was a great moment as it was a good shot at the 7 and half seasons worth of bromance between JD and Turk.
Once that was said and done with, Denise and Sunny wanted to confront rianna's mother about how she was looking after her daughter. Ellliot said that the shouldn't bother. They did anyway, but were rebuked by the mother, who informed Denise (after Sunny ran away front the confrontation) that Elliott had already approached her about the same thing and met with the same result. It seems as if Elliot has set up the event to show that there are times in the hospital when a doctor just needs to forget the things around him/her and get out. She needed to show Denise the hard way that even though she was close to becoming a full fledged doctor, there was a lot to learn, and that letting go of lost causes was one of those things. Elliott again tells Denise to get out and live some otherwise she would be completely overtaken by the hospital being in every facet of her life. This time Denise listens and does indeed meet up with the other interns for drinks, something that Sunny is only to happy with.
Ok, since you've been patient, now for "Nipple Whisker Gate". This was a very small part of the episode, but it was certainly fun to see the interaction between Carla and the Janitor. It all starts as Carla notices someting down her shirt. She seems to be slightly grossed out, looks around, reaches in and pulls out the mother of all nipple hairs, or whiskers as I have decided on calling it. She thinks she is in the clear, but the Janitor, waking up from a nap, sees this as does Kelso. The real fun begins as Janitor begins to try and use this against Carla, but she in turn meets him with the story that it never happened and she didn't even see him the day before. Ah, the mind games begin. Carla engages in a full attack on Janitor's sanity, even enlisting Kelso in on things to help convince that what he thinks he saw he did not see, as it never happened. It all eventually boils down to Janitor apologizing for trying to hold something against Carla that never happened. I really enjoy the interplay between Carla and Janitor as it so rarely ever happens. This was just as good as when Janitor tried to blackmail Carla about replacing Rowdy with a fake stuffed dog in season 6's My Scrubs.
Overall this was a very good episode, much better than I expected it to be heading into it. I can appreciate the focus and development of intern Denise, and it was filled with a lot of good laughs. Some of those would be...
Best Laugh(s):
Jimmy, the overly touchy intern imitating Dane Cook dead on and closing the imitation with, "Why do people think I'm funny?" ... Those have been and always will be my exact thoughts about Dane Cook.
The fallout of the kiss between Denise and Sunny, hampering the JD/Turk bromance, only to have it overcome and we also get a bit of Guy Love...awesome
Brianna's mom comparing her age to Elliott's and asking if Elliott has teenagers. Cue the classic Elliott freak out.
Rating: 9.0
Well, looks like the show is going to go on a quick hiatus, returning Wed., March 18th, to play out the final episodes leading to, as of right now, the series finale. So, there obviously won't be any new episode reviews until then, but I do play on taking a loo at the Webisodes on ABC.com centering around the interns. However, until I then, thanks as always for reading and I'll see you back in March for more My Doc Talk.
The 411: One really strong episode and one really weak one. While My Comedy show was a very good episode (one of the best of the season thus far) it had a real dud leading into it in My Absence. Zach Braff was missed in tonight's first episode. I like how the Denise character has been written so far and look forward to seeing how things eventually go. Now that we have a new baby on the to keep the Turks busy, all the pieces are set as we head into the home stretch leading to the finale. As always, the overall rating is an average of both, but I would reccomend My Comedy Show as a much watch for the season.
