Scrubs vs Brooklyn 99

Me and the American normally watch Food Network when enjoying downtime on the couch. When its not Food Network, its normally a sitcom. We love big long dramas, but that involves a bit too much mental commitment.

The first sitcom we watched together was Scrubs, a show we both loved from long before we ever knew each other. We watched five series in our three months together in Pittsburgh. More recently, we were watching Brooklyn 99 on Netflix - until we spotted Scrubs on Amazon Prime and immediately switched back.

This has got me comparing the two shows in my head and wondering why I prefer Scrubs so much, particularly as I'd generally rather watch police shows than hospital shows. It's not like they don't have some huge similarities with a lot of the same character stereotypes. This isn't preferring nutella to peanut butter, its about which brand of peanut butter I like best. And I love making that sort of distinction between stories.

The other day, I think I figured out why. But first things first - know I'm really not a fan of narcissism. 

Now, Perry Cox and Gina Linetti are arguably the two biggest narcissists among each show's cast. It's a lot more arguable in the former's case, as Scrubs contains a lot of narcissistic tendencies. Gina is the heavyweight narcissist champion of Brooklyn 99, a show where a lot of the characters are actually quite self deprecating.

Which, given my hatred of narcissists and overblown egotism, should make Brooklyn 99 my winner and Dr Cox a hated character. Quite the opposite. And why?

When the Scrubs scriptwriters made a point of playing up Cox's self-love, he's usually headed for a fall as a consequence. In contrast, Gina's continual self-absorption is almost always rewarded.

Now, first off, of course that tilts me towards Scrubs just on its own. Seeing narcissists get rewarded for tricking people into drinking cement rather than getting punched in the face is enraging. But it goes deeper than that. Because Cox has to confront his narcissism, he's a far deeper character. Because he sometimes overcomes it, he's a lot more sympathetic. This isn't exactly the deepest most radical storytelling analysis ever I know - but Cox gets a hard time and is a more interesting character for it.

After thinking of this, I realised it runs all the way through both shows. The Brooklyn 99 cast has their share of interesting character flaws, but it rarely seems to impact them hard. I know some don't like Scrubs for its melodramatic element but to my mind, it seems to provide the necessary counter-balance to the comedy. Without those struggles to give them humanity, Brooklyn 99's characters feel a bit throw away and 2D. And the best laughs come from characters acting like real characters, not just people saying great lines.

This can be taken too far. Maybe my least favourite part of Scrubs is the way the main characters JD and Elliot make the same over the top bad decisions again and again. I far prefer Turk and Carla, whose relationship constantly changes, getting stronger as they overcome different failings. I can only sympathise with those who find JD and Elliot too melodramatic and it's writing devices such as them that make me rebel against the advice "Always make things worse".

But, on reviewing the differences between Scrubs and Brooklyn 99, it would seem its better to go too far here than undershoot.

And that's why I love Scrubs - and stories like Scrubs - more.

Well, that and less celebration of rampant narcissism.