"Scrubs" finale fell flat

I've always liked "Scrubs," the NBC show about young doctors and their wacky hijinks. It is often a brilliant tongue-in-cheek, alternate-reality kind of experience. From Dr. Cox's arrogance (for which John McGinley should have won several Emmys by now) to J.D. and Turk's man-love, it's always been a show with a very unique comic flavor. Its brilliance is inconsistent, though, and "Scrubs" has never been a show for everyone, which explains why it's generally been disrespected by its network, the awards people and mass audiences.

The show takes chances - sometimes it hits, sometimes it misses. Last night's series finale with its fairy tale allegory was a big whiff. It was unfortunate. I was hoping "Scrubs" would go out with a bang. I suppose series finales are inevitably disappointing, but this one was especially so.

But there was one redeeming element in the "Scrubs" finale, although not enough to save the whole. The show refused to bring closure to the series-long, on-again, off-again relationship between J.D. and Elliot. The show stayed true to itself by not giving in to the kind of Ross-Rachel, schlocky, mad-dash-to-the-airport ending that ruins so many shows' finales ("Friends"). The "Scrubs" finale was ruined in other ways, but at least it was in ways that reflect the spirit of the show. I respect that.

In fact, now that I think about it, the "Scrubs" finale was not really a finale at all; more like just another episode ... albeit a bad one. Nothing changed; no one moved, got married, died, graduated, had a baby. If they were going to end their series with just another episode, it's too bad they couldn't have hatched one of their classics instead of one of their eggs.