One-Week (Repetitive) Retrospective

I was really excited to have a whole week of writing in this blog done. Felt very accomplished, despite the sub par quality of most of the posts. Today, I realized I had 51 more weeks left of writing, and felt pretty boned in commitment to this crazy dream of mine.

Soon, I'm going to start having to do weird statistical studies and crazy experiments like trying the P90X thingy, just to make ends meet. Not that these are particularly bad things, just a bit gimmicky. On the plus side, I'll finally have a scientific answer to which of my best friends are the best looking, and I myself will have a much better physique should I do these things.

But that is neither here nor there. Today, I'm going to be repetitive and stick with the same old format I've had for the past week of talking about my personal life and the media I bury my mind in to hide the fact that I cannot function socially.

The topic of today: Repetitiveness

I go down the rabbit hole when it comes to Youtube a lot, as I'm sure most of everyone does. They see those related videos and click and click and click until they forgot what they were initially doing. It's a complete waste of time, and I thank Youtube for providing me with such a perfect distraction in these long and boring days.

Today was a quicker and stranger route than most. I saw a link on Twitter to an old video of Whoopi Goldberg talking on The View about Republicans (specifically Sarah Palin) "targeting" Democrats who occupied government positions usually controlled by Republicans. Given the rather sad timing of this, the video was titled, "Sarah Palin Responsible for Gabrielle Gifford's Shooting?"

I'm not going to expound my thoughts on that subject, I'm just pointing out that it's only in the weird wacky world of Youtube where I'd click a link and immediately be transported to a somber Peter Gabriel rendition of the Magnetic Fields' "Book of Love."

I had heard this song before, but where? I rack my brain for the answer, but no need; Youtube is telling me I heard it in what should have been the series finale for "Scrubs," which is unabashedly one of my favoritest shows ever.



For the record, as someone who spent eight years watching every episode of this series, I surprisingly did not cry during the above segment.

But good lord did I want to.

I bring all of this up in relation to repetitiveness because anyone, especially people who grew tired of the show, will tell you that "Scrubs" is unbelievably repetitive. An episode goes as such:

• Goofy jokes, recapitulation of anything important that has been happening (mostly relationship stuff)
• Introduction to patient of some sort; more jokes
• Shit gets real
• JD narrates a profound lesson learned through shit getting real. Maybe a joke or two more to make you feel fine at the end of the episode

Sometimes there are exceptions, but I can only think of one, really - a cliffhanger episode where Dr. Cox walks out after messing things up. But the next episode goes right back to formula.

So why did I watch this for 8 long years? Crippling shyness towards women probably helped, and also I was in high school, so I had most school nights to sit around and do nothing.

But it's more than that, I think. It's a testament to likeability, really. I watched the show because the characters were great, people I liked, people that reminded me of my friends and whatnot.

There's a scene where JD has to convince Elliot how much he loves her (also, by the by, found in the suggestions box on Youtube). He says, "I love you more than [JD's best friend] Turk." "Oh my God," responds Elliot. This was the most romantic thing he could possibly say ever, given . "I know, That's even hard for me to say, but it's true."

I love this scene because if there is ever a time in my life where I have to convince a woman I love her, I'll probably say the same thing nearly verbatim.

Like it or not, repetitiveness is everywhere, and characters are why we like art. No one watches The Big Lebowski for its plot on the umpteenth go-round; they watch it because of Walter, the Dude, and Donnie. "Northern Exposure" has got some great episodes, but the stories almost always take a backseat to the quirkiness of the community and how much they all like each other and interact and accept each other. "Scrubs" followed the same format for eight years* and with the exception of a few goofy years, was solid up until the end.

People say there's nothing original anymore. The bad news for those folks is that there never was anything original, ever. They've gotta realize it's character that makes the repetition bearable.

Plus, who doesn't like a TV show that pulls of a joke like this?



*I'm excluding the ninth year because I choose to believe that doesn't exactly count as "Scrubs," seeing as how the settings and characters changed so much. Plus, the Janitor wasn't there, and who likes that.