TV Times

The ending of the seventh season of Scrubs was a massive load of arse on toast. Having still not managed to secure myself a job, I've been watching hours and hours of television, including seasons 2-7 of Scrubs, which generally I've approved of. Okay, so it's formulaic to the point of nausea, but the show's got enough comedy and randomness in it to get me through the schmaltzy emotional bits where we all go home a little bit wiser and kinder to our fellow man. Like so many other series, Scrubs suffered at the hands of the writer's strike, but die-hard fans of the show would surely have been crushed to receive a measly 11 episodes, the last two of which were played in the wrong order. JD and Elliot's relationships were all naturally all over the place owing to the fact that the show's makers are blatantly going to try some messy reassembly of their relationship, despite the fact that they decided seasons ago that it was not going to work. I have to say it's a device in American television that's starting to bore me. Carrie and Big, Mulder and Scully, Ross and Rachel – all of these poor bastards seemed destined for each other despite the fact that the only thing they have in common is the capacity to make each other miserable. Well, maybe not Mulder and Scully. I actually quite liked those two.

Anyway, so I've been watching masses of TV and some of it's good, and some of it's merely okay. None of it's that bad. I'm always impressed that American TV is so often much better quality than British TV in that they've actually got something worth watching on every night of the week. I saw the first episode of "Fringe" the other night, which was gripping if nothing else. It's got enough in common with The X Files to make it good. I'm just hoping it stays on that side of the line and doesn't stray into Ghost Whisperer territory where things get too weird. I always quite liked the framework to the X Files and the way it dealt with cases on a fairly impersonal level. The moment you start bringing demons and other peculiar "underworld beings" you're getting into dodgy space.

Having said that, I've been watching "True Blood" with Dan and it's really good. At least, I like it, but then I'm quite into that vampiric lore stuff, what with having seen Hellsing, read the manga, and watched so much Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It's definitely better than Buffy; more gritty, and the theme tune is this really cool blues track that I keep getting stuck in my noggin for hours on end. The only problem I really have with it is Sookie Stackhouse's breasts. I mean, what is up with those bad boys? Fair enough that Anna Paquin isn't overwhelmingly well-endowed, but whoever's on wardrobe duty on that show needs a slap upside the head so her chest doesn't end up halfway up her nasal passage by the time we're halfway through the series. If they wanted Sookie to be voluptuous, they should simply have chosen a curvier actress. There's nothing wrong with Anna's shape, I just can't help but cringe when she's slipped into these overly padded bras. Her boobs don't look bigger, they just look... odd.

I'm enjoying the most recent season of House. That and Grey's Anatomy are filling the hospital drama slot that Scrubs has inhabited the last month or so. Oh, and the new season of ER. It's strange that ER has gone on as long as it has, I remember watching it years ago when George Clooney was still in it. Greg died, which was depressing, and I spent the rest of the afternoon feeling a bit weepy. Given that I'm trying to watch television to improve my mood, I might avoid ER in the future if it continues to be depressing!