After a season and a half of increasingly zany, silly and vapid humor, Scrubs finally seems to be on the mend. This season premiere had smarter jokes, original character development, and more realistic drama, a formula that made Scrubs a great show in the first place. It is apparent that Bill Lawrence and the writing staff have taken recent criticisms to heart, abandoning the wildly surreal humor of the past season for a smarter, wittier (though still silly) approach.

J.D. finally appears to be maturing, a line of character development that's been long overdue. After all, how many lessons can he learn each episode before they finally stick? His final realization about the nature of his relationship with Kim was starkly honest and felt more genuine than the many shallow "life lessons" from last season. With this, the episode struck a good balance between comedy and drama.

Of course, the show still has a ways to go. Dr. Cox hasn't quite made his way back from irrelevance yet, and his little "WhoCareseys Award" monologue about all the whiny people at Sacred Heart (which wasn't even a monologue because it was almost entirely J.D.'s fantasy) lacked the deliciously biting wit of previous legendary Cox rants. Much to my dismay, Keith is still very much in the picture, although it was gratifying to see Elliot finally kick him to the curb and end one of the most unrealistic and ridiculous relationships the show has ever seen.

Overall, the episode seems to have built a solid foundation for what could be a wonderful final season. The certainty of this being Scrubs' last season could be a blessing in disguise, as the writers won't be playing quite so fast and loose with the over-the-top zaniness anymore. This season will be important in establishing Scrubs' legacy. It can either go down in history as a once-brilliant series that somehow collapsed in on itself in a hail of absurdity and throwaway jokes, or it can go out on top as a show that returned to its roots and showed that touching drama and smart comedy can combine to form a great and unique series.

Some favorite moments from the episode:
"Keith? Wait, I was already surprised out loud..."
Infanticidal panda bears. "Stupid nature!"
"Pig-whore read/Reid"
"Ghan-diddy"
and of course, J.D.'s closing monologue.

Also, I am immeasurably glad that the J.D./Elliot almost-kiss never developed into anything. Seasons 3 and 4 very thoroughly killed any remaining possibility of romance between those two. To redevelop that story line a fourth time would have been a disaster.

As a loyal fan of the first four seasons, I find it difficult to give this show an overall negative review. However, given the tremendous downturn in the show's quality over the last 1.5 seasons, I cannot rate it as the near-perfection it would otherwise deserve.

Scrubs is not the show it once was. One by one, the foundations that made seasons 1-4 great have eroded. Foremost is the character of Dr. Cox. Once a brilliantly sarcastic wiseass who managed to fit pearls of wisdom into his now-legendary rants, Cox has been neutered in season 6 to the point of being a sideshow. His rants are few and far between, and often take the form of annoying interjections that have little to do with the rest of the storyline. Zaniness and shallow sentimentality have become Scrubs' MO, at the expense of smart sarcastic wit and truly touching moments of drama resulting from good character development.

In episode 17 of season 4 (My Life in Four Cameras), the show goes into an extended parody of typical fixed-camera sitcoms. Everything, from the unnaturally bright lighting to the barrage of lame one-liners, smacks of conventional situational comedy. Trouble is, season 6 has adopted the same look and feel, but this time it's no parody. Scrubs has sunken to the point of embodying everything it once ridiculed. To turn a once-great show into the butt of its own joke is a sadly ironic twist.