The Most Awesome Thing We Saw This Week (Jan 6-12)
In fact, the recap at the beginning of the season premiere was more than a little helpful. Sure, we 
all remember that Gless stabbed Sean from behind while he was in the operating room. Personally, I forgot that Sean was operating on his young daughter at the time. And it slipped my mind that Julia had amnesia after being shot in the face by the daughter of her lesbian lover. And it only got better from there, with Christian slipping and falling in a puddle of Sean’s blood, Gless’ weird fixation with the injured Sean, and a cleaver so clean you can use it to fix your makeup.
all remember that Gless stabbed Sean from behind while he was in the operating room. Personally, I forgot that Sean was operating on his young daughter at the time. And it slipped my mind that Julia had amnesia after being shot in the face by the daughter of her lesbian lover. And it only got better from there, with Christian slipping and falling in a puddle of Sean’s blood, Gless’ weird fixation with the injured Sean, and a cleaver so clean you can use it to fix your makeup. That was the first ten minutes. After that, we got awkward conversations about breast reduction, snark by the barrel, and best of all, wheelchair sex. And just when Nip/Tuck sailed over the top, they snuck in a plot about Christian Troy being diagnosed with breast cancer. Sure, he uses his disease (along with Sean’s wheelchair) to pick up some bar skanks, but along the way they put some much-needed heart back into the show.
And on a purely technical level, they fixed a pretty serious problem with the series plotting. A season or two back, there was an episode set in the future. While a fairly clever episode, it killed any cliffhangers — Sure, Sean got stabbed by a loony teddy-bear enthusiast, but we know he’s alive in ten years. This premiere retconned that episode into one of Sean’s dreams. Guess what? Now, nobody’s safe!
In conclusion, this was an episode that brought the awesome that Nip/Tuck is known for, and it still managed to be good. Way to go, guys!
Second place has to go to the return of Scrubs. After getting dumped by NBC after seven years of schedule changes, nonsequential airings, and minimal promotion, the doctors of Sacred Heart found a new home on the network that, technically, owned the show in the first place.
Sure, Scrubs has gotten a little long in the tooth. And scheduling it with The Office and 30 Rock made it look weaker by comparison, but it stayed solidly entertaining for seven years and it was genuinely sad to see them close up shop last season. Luckily, not only did ABC resurrect the show, but the season opened with the strongest episodes in years. The characters we love acted like their old selves again, with Zach Braff’s JD striking that precarious balance between “childish dreamer” and “person who is believable as somebody with a real job”.
The season premiere was suitably wacky, the second was a classic Scrubs-style tearjerker about a terminally ill patient. The fantasy sequences were funny without being overbearing, the new interns are funny, and Dr. Cox can still bust out a stream of personal abuse like nobody’s business. True, I’m not thrilled that Janitor was fired in the premiere and didn’t appear at all in the second episode, but you can’t convince me that he’s gone for good. Bring him back as soon as possible, and I’ll be a happy viewer.
