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matt_zimmerAlso reviews for the season premiere of Scrubs, and the latest episode of Law & Order: Special Vicimts Unit.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy "The Life Of The Stars"
This episode shocked me. I didn't expect it to. I had no idea.
I legit cried at one point.
Let me clear: I will occasionally cry when rewatching something I love that has always made me cry. As far as stuff I see fresh goes, never happens. I'm struggling to think of the last new thing to make me cry and it was the Doctor Who episode Doomsday all the way back in 2006.
Why is that, I wonder? I'm wonder if it's the fact that this episode was greatly flawed that allowed me to do it. The last really sad moment I saw that really shook me was in one of the season finales of She-Ra And The Princesses Of Power. But I didn't cry. I laughed. The amount of pain the episode was giving off was purely perfect and I was in literal dramatic Heaven. The She-Ra finale being perfect just pushed aside the tears so the hurt caused me joy instead.
This episode is just shady enough that I was able to feel the Doctor's pain on his own terms, instead of seeing it as a larger part of a great Narrative. Robert Picardo doesn't just deserve an Emmy nomination for this episode. He deserves the Emmy. He made me cry when nothing else does.
The show reinventing the Doctor as a tragic figure feels right, but it's ironic it's the one-off holographic family from that Voyager episode that did it. I would have thought it would have been the eventual deaths of Janeway, Seven of Nine, and the others. But when the Doctor fell apart in that old episode, it wasn't jive. He legit loved that family. And fuck B'Elanna Torres for literally ruining it for him. I get it now.
I mentioned the episode itself isn't strong. It's too damn long. I'm not saying Tarima's emotional beats aren't important (although I frankly wouldn't deny that idea either). What I will say is they could have literally trimmed 15 minutes from that B plot and not just not lost anything, but it would have strengthened the episode. I am a writer who doesn't like cutting my own material either. Frustratingly so, I imagine. But one thing that always gives me pause about doing that is pacing and the economy of timing. If the moment is gonna be huge or devastating, whatever nonsense I'm wed to, I won't delete it. But I will always certainly move it elsewhere. I feel like Tilly's return could have involved either something else or simply occurred in a different episode. Speaking as someone who refuses to trim their own writing fat, if you don't, you gotta at least sizzle it a bit.
Anyone tells you the fact that Starfleet Academy is not a great show is a failing, I couldn't disagree more. BECAUSE the show is imperfect, it made me cry. For the first time in literally decades. This demand by modern audiences for perfection in entertainment disturbs me because when it comes to The Good Hurt, perfection can literally hurt The Good Hurt. The fact that I found the Academy stuff emo and boring made the Doctor's pathos hit me like a mallet. Breaking Bad never did that. The Wire never did that. Those shows were so busy making sure to be high-quality and amazing I could never let down my guard for any genuine pathos they tried to show. No, I will never begrudge a TV show for being imperfect or having flaws. Because it can often do things shows without those flaws could never hope to accomplish.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Angel. Doctor Who. Quantum Leap. The X-Files. Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. Biggest examples of The Good Hurt of my youth. And with the exception of Deep Space Nine, the one thing those projects all had in common is they were quite often hit or miss. Fine, I'll acknowledge The Muppet Christmas Carol is perfect too but that's the only other counterexample I'll admit to. Maybe that's the reason the tears got to me back in the day. Maybe the fact that TV is currently SO obsessed with being the highest quality possible means I can never let my emotional guard down. And when I do, wonderful things can happen.
I kind of wish we had seen more of Tilly and Jay'Den. Just because 22nd Century humans tended to have VASTY different opinions of Klingons than people who came later. For her part Tilly doesn't seem rattled at all, but it would have been interesting if she and Reno had noted the difference and irony of Klingons being in Starfleet, and it being no big deal.
So yeah, that was a good week. Hand Robert Picardo an Emmy. He's suffered enough for us. ****.
Scrubs "My Return"
I am shocked. I am shocked I liked that.
Let me be blunt. Scrubs: Med School ruined the franchise for me. I couldn't even watch reruns after seeing it. Same thing happened after Roseanne's finale. But Med School did not just suck. The way it sucked put into sharp relief all of the flaws of the original series that I had previously looked past. And only after seeing them all in that "new" scenario in such cliched and cringe ways made me realize how fucking unacceptable those flaws actually were the entire time. Scrubs stopped being fun and immediately became bullshit at that point.
So, I came into this wary. I'm not sure it's good news that Med School is being entirely ignored (I feel like a canon should live with its sins when it fucks up) but the episode wowed me by moving things forward.
Dr. Cox is still a pure asshole. Who is kind to J.D. now years later. J.D.'s role as a mentor to the young doctors doesn't involve him pulling the same dick moves Cox did, thereby suggesting that type of behavior was entirely performative, and say it with me, bullshit. Dr. Cox wants him to take his place because his style is different. I appreciate that.
Turk's darkness felt real. And I appreciate that the show is showing there is a cost to being a Black doctor. And when he tells J.D. he works for upper class suburban people, the class struggle is explicit in a way both J.D. and Turk refused to allow it to be on the old show.
Turk is Black. J.D. is not. The show was fun and fanciful for acting like that didn't matter. In reality, it does. The relaunch has my stamp of approval for suggesting right now in 2026, nobody can afford to be color-blind or pretend the problems in society are anything but what they are.
Med School's biggest fault was aping the first season in completely cliched and out of character ways. The woman outside dying and the hunky doctor feeling guilty is the one thing the episode did as a callback to how the first season worked, and it worked absolutely fine. Med School would have fucked that up.
I am really bummed John C. McGinley is not a series regular. Dr. Cox was always the best character, and for some reason he's ten times better than he used to be. Yeah, man, they gotta nail this guy's contract down better for season 2. Even if he's not Chief of staff, he needs to be on the show every week.
I like the notion that because Elliot ended the marriage, her treating J.D. like the bad guy whenever they cross paths is out of bounds. That sounds right to me. Never been married, but that feels like an unspoken rule she is breaking, and I'm glad Carla called her on it (because J.D. wasn't smart enough to).
All in so far. Great relaunch. *****.
Scrubs "My 2nd First Day"
Not as good as the first episode, but that's to be expected. Wish Dr. Cox appeared.
The moral that J.D. needs to stop looking for guidance elsewhere is good to have in the second episode back. Necessary, even.
I can't even fathom why they brought back Todd at all. Even when he walks back the horrible things he says, the things aren't actually funny. I don't think they ever were.
Oh, so Turk took J.D.'s side in the break-up, and after this episode, so do I. It's the affair rumor. Elliot not setting the record straight means I'm on J.D.'s side.
By the way, Turk also sucks for feeding into it.
It's hinted the marriage broke up because J.D. put Turk first. I think it was very unprofessional for Elliot to bring that up to Turk when she did. Especially because J.D.'s decision here obviously had nothing to do with favoritism. What a shitty thing to say if that's the reason she dumped him to begin with. Yeah, on Team J.D..
It's weird, but I never liked Elliot. She always rubbed me the wrong way. I feel comfortable saying that now.
The episode was solid, but again, not as good as the premiere. ****.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit "Corrosive"
This episode was banned for real-world reasons.
Basically, Timothy Busfield played the judge, and between the time he filmed the episode and when it was originally supposed to air, all of these sex abuse allegations came out against him. To be brutally honest, I don't think a real actor or director being a scumbag is a good reason to ban an episode or project. I think Al Jean banning "Stark Raving Dad" on The Simpsons was so stupid because that's not something a franchise can control. Say, did you know Matt Groening flew on Epstein's jet? Guess we'll now have to ban every Simpsons episode with his name on it. Not to worry, we still have "A Star Is Burns". I was saying Boo-Urns. THAT'S why it's dumb.
That being said, THIS specific show has to be a lot more careful there just based on the subject matter. The fact that the episode hadn't even aired yet made it a no-brainer to pull.
The problem was the episode was juicy. Just banning it would suck. So they recast the part of the judge with David Zayas, who is ironically a MUCH better actor than Busfield, and they were able to get it to air after all. I see the logic of a redo instead of an outright ban. The episode is lurid in the best way this show can be with a truly insane and sinister villain. This season is starting to lean back into The Crazy more recent seasons have deliberately pulled away from. I personally didn't have TOO much of a problem with SVU embracing The Crazy. The problem was it became sustained, and they kept having to top themselves, so that the entire show eventually lost its credibility. It's spent years gaining it back via milder storytelling, but the truth is SOME Crazy on this show is good. If they don't take this too far this time, we are in for some good episodes. If they do, the show will turn into the live-action cartoon the later Stabler episodes were.
The kid who refused to accept the deal to give his testimony credibility? If I were Carisi, I'd go back after that trial and offer it to him again. I liked that kid's lawyer a lot. A worse or more unethical lawyer would totally object to him rejecting the deal. But he cautiously goes along with it because he understands the significance of what him doing that would do to the case against Robbie. That look he gave across the table says this is a guy that will do what's best for his client. And in this case, it's not avoiding jail. It's taking back his autonomy.
Yeah, I liked that lawyer.
One of the things I like about the show is a lot of cop shows will make the "brilliant deductions" actually come out of thin air to surprise the audience. I like that fact that after Curry hears Elsa's story, she says it felt rehearsed. Because that's what I immediately thought too, considering the repeating language from the tape. When it comes to policework, it's never supernatural on this show. They put in the legwork for the viewer.
I'm glad they found a way to make this work. Timothy Busfeild sucks balls and can bite my ass. ****.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy "The Life Of The Stars"
This episode shocked me. I didn't expect it to. I had no idea.
I legit cried at one point.
Let me clear: I will occasionally cry when rewatching something I love that has always made me cry. As far as stuff I see fresh goes, never happens. I'm struggling to think of the last new thing to make me cry and it was the Doctor Who episode Doomsday all the way back in 2006.
Why is that, I wonder? I'm wonder if it's the fact that this episode was greatly flawed that allowed me to do it. The last really sad moment I saw that really shook me was in one of the season finales of She-Ra And The Princesses Of Power. But I didn't cry. I laughed. The amount of pain the episode was giving off was purely perfect and I was in literal dramatic Heaven. The She-Ra finale being perfect just pushed aside the tears so the hurt caused me joy instead.
This episode is just shady enough that I was able to feel the Doctor's pain on his own terms, instead of seeing it as a larger part of a great Narrative. Robert Picardo doesn't just deserve an Emmy nomination for this episode. He deserves the Emmy. He made me cry when nothing else does.
The show reinventing the Doctor as a tragic figure feels right, but it's ironic it's the one-off holographic family from that Voyager episode that did it. I would have thought it would have been the eventual deaths of Janeway, Seven of Nine, and the others. But when the Doctor fell apart in that old episode, it wasn't jive. He legit loved that family. And fuck B'Elanna Torres for literally ruining it for him. I get it now.
I mentioned the episode itself isn't strong. It's too damn long. I'm not saying Tarima's emotional beats aren't important (although I frankly wouldn't deny that idea either). What I will say is they could have literally trimmed 15 minutes from that B plot and not just not lost anything, but it would have strengthened the episode. I am a writer who doesn't like cutting my own material either. Frustratingly so, I imagine. But one thing that always gives me pause about doing that is pacing and the economy of timing. If the moment is gonna be huge or devastating, whatever nonsense I'm wed to, I won't delete it. But I will always certainly move it elsewhere. I feel like Tilly's return could have involved either something else or simply occurred in a different episode. Speaking as someone who refuses to trim their own writing fat, if you don't, you gotta at least sizzle it a bit.
Anyone tells you the fact that Starfleet Academy is not a great show is a failing, I couldn't disagree more. BECAUSE the show is imperfect, it made me cry. For the first time in literally decades. This demand by modern audiences for perfection in entertainment disturbs me because when it comes to The Good Hurt, perfection can literally hurt The Good Hurt. The fact that I found the Academy stuff emo and boring made the Doctor's pathos hit me like a mallet. Breaking Bad never did that. The Wire never did that. Those shows were so busy making sure to be high-quality and amazing I could never let down my guard for any genuine pathos they tried to show. No, I will never begrudge a TV show for being imperfect or having flaws. Because it can often do things shows without those flaws could never hope to accomplish.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Angel. Doctor Who. Quantum Leap. The X-Files. Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. Biggest examples of The Good Hurt of my youth. And with the exception of Deep Space Nine, the one thing those projects all had in common is they were quite often hit or miss. Fine, I'll acknowledge The Muppet Christmas Carol is perfect too but that's the only other counterexample I'll admit to. Maybe that's the reason the tears got to me back in the day. Maybe the fact that TV is currently SO obsessed with being the highest quality possible means I can never let my emotional guard down. And when I do, wonderful things can happen.
I kind of wish we had seen more of Tilly and Jay'Den. Just because 22nd Century humans tended to have VASTY different opinions of Klingons than people who came later. For her part Tilly doesn't seem rattled at all, but it would have been interesting if she and Reno had noted the difference and irony of Klingons being in Starfleet, and it being no big deal.
So yeah, that was a good week. Hand Robert Picardo an Emmy. He's suffered enough for us. ****.
Scrubs "My Return"
I am shocked. I am shocked I liked that.
Let me be blunt. Scrubs: Med School ruined the franchise for me. I couldn't even watch reruns after seeing it. Same thing happened after Roseanne's finale. But Med School did not just suck. The way it sucked put into sharp relief all of the flaws of the original series that I had previously looked past. And only after seeing them all in that "new" scenario in such cliched and cringe ways made me realize how fucking unacceptable those flaws actually were the entire time. Scrubs stopped being fun and immediately became bullshit at that point.
So, I came into this wary. I'm not sure it's good news that Med School is being entirely ignored (I feel like a canon should live with its sins when it fucks up) but the episode wowed me by moving things forward.
Dr. Cox is still a pure asshole. Who is kind to J.D. now years later. J.D.'s role as a mentor to the young doctors doesn't involve him pulling the same dick moves Cox did, thereby suggesting that type of behavior was entirely performative, and say it with me, bullshit. Dr. Cox wants him to take his place because his style is different. I appreciate that.
Turk's darkness felt real. And I appreciate that the show is showing there is a cost to being a Black doctor. And when he tells J.D. he works for upper class suburban people, the class struggle is explicit in a way both J.D. and Turk refused to allow it to be on the old show.
Turk is Black. J.D. is not. The show was fun and fanciful for acting like that didn't matter. In reality, it does. The relaunch has my stamp of approval for suggesting right now in 2026, nobody can afford to be color-blind or pretend the problems in society are anything but what they are.
Med School's biggest fault was aping the first season in completely cliched and out of character ways. The woman outside dying and the hunky doctor feeling guilty is the one thing the episode did as a callback to how the first season worked, and it worked absolutely fine. Med School would have fucked that up.
I am really bummed John C. McGinley is not a series regular. Dr. Cox was always the best character, and for some reason he's ten times better than he used to be. Yeah, man, they gotta nail this guy's contract down better for season 2. Even if he's not Chief of staff, he needs to be on the show every week.
I like the notion that because Elliot ended the marriage, her treating J.D. like the bad guy whenever they cross paths is out of bounds. That sounds right to me. Never been married, but that feels like an unspoken rule she is breaking, and I'm glad Carla called her on it (because J.D. wasn't smart enough to).
All in so far. Great relaunch. *****.
Scrubs "My 2nd First Day"
Not as good as the first episode, but that's to be expected. Wish Dr. Cox appeared.
The moral that J.D. needs to stop looking for guidance elsewhere is good to have in the second episode back. Necessary, even.
I can't even fathom why they brought back Todd at all. Even when he walks back the horrible things he says, the things aren't actually funny. I don't think they ever were.
Oh, so Turk took J.D.'s side in the break-up, and after this episode, so do I. It's the affair rumor. Elliot not setting the record straight means I'm on J.D.'s side.
By the way, Turk also sucks for feeding into it.
It's hinted the marriage broke up because J.D. put Turk first. I think it was very unprofessional for Elliot to bring that up to Turk when she did. Especially because J.D.'s decision here obviously had nothing to do with favoritism. What a shitty thing to say if that's the reason she dumped him to begin with. Yeah, on Team J.D..
It's weird, but I never liked Elliot. She always rubbed me the wrong way. I feel comfortable saying that now.
The episode was solid, but again, not as good as the premiere. ****.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit "Corrosive"
This episode was banned for real-world reasons.
Basically, Timothy Busfield played the judge, and between the time he filmed the episode and when it was originally supposed to air, all of these sex abuse allegations came out against him. To be brutally honest, I don't think a real actor or director being a scumbag is a good reason to ban an episode or project. I think Al Jean banning "Stark Raving Dad" on The Simpsons was so stupid because that's not something a franchise can control. Say, did you know Matt Groening flew on Epstein's jet? Guess we'll now have to ban every Simpsons episode with his name on it. Not to worry, we still have "A Star Is Burns". I was saying Boo-Urns. THAT'S why it's dumb.
That being said, THIS specific show has to be a lot more careful there just based on the subject matter. The fact that the episode hadn't even aired yet made it a no-brainer to pull.
The problem was the episode was juicy. Just banning it would suck. So they recast the part of the judge with David Zayas, who is ironically a MUCH better actor than Busfield, and they were able to get it to air after all. I see the logic of a redo instead of an outright ban. The episode is lurid in the best way this show can be with a truly insane and sinister villain. This season is starting to lean back into The Crazy more recent seasons have deliberately pulled away from. I personally didn't have TOO much of a problem with SVU embracing The Crazy. The problem was it became sustained, and they kept having to top themselves, so that the entire show eventually lost its credibility. It's spent years gaining it back via milder storytelling, but the truth is SOME Crazy on this show is good. If they don't take this too far this time, we are in for some good episodes. If they do, the show will turn into the live-action cartoon the later Stabler episodes were.
The kid who refused to accept the deal to give his testimony credibility? If I were Carisi, I'd go back after that trial and offer it to him again. I liked that kid's lawyer a lot. A worse or more unethical lawyer would totally object to him rejecting the deal. But he cautiously goes along with it because he understands the significance of what him doing that would do to the case against Robbie. That look he gave across the table says this is a guy that will do what's best for his client. And in this case, it's not avoiding jail. It's taking back his autonomy.
Yeah, I liked that lawyer.
One of the things I like about the show is a lot of cop shows will make the "brilliant deductions" actually come out of thin air to surprise the audience. I like that fact that after Curry hears Elsa's story, she says it felt rehearsed. Because that's what I immediately thought too, considering the repeating language from the tape. When it comes to policework, it's never supernatural on this show. They put in the legwork for the viewer.
I'm glad they found a way to make this work. Timothy Busfeild sucks balls and can bite my ass. ****.
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Date: 2026-02-27 03:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-02-27 04:22 pm (UTC)