The show: Scrubs
The episode: "My Porcelain God," from Season 3.
What happened: Dr. Reed (Sarah Chalke) is suddenly having trouble with intubation, a medical procedure she had no trouble with when she was starting out at Sacred Heart three years ago. (Don't ask me what intubation is, I'm no doctor and the extent of my knowledge is derived from this show: it involves sticking a metal tube into a patient and attaching that to a semi-rigid balloon). She goes to Dr. Kevin Casey (Michael J. Fox) for advice, but he's way more concerned with his contradictory impulses for a toilet the Janitor (Neil Flynn) has installed on the roof: he wants to touch it because of his OCD, but he doesn't want to touch it because of his germophobia.
Both doctors' problems are tied together at the end of the episode when Dr. Reed finds a Polaroid picture of Dr. Casey using the roof toilet. Reed then uses the roof toilet and a medical emergency helicopter brings a patient needing intubation. Reed finds the confidence to intubate the patient, and is rewarded with a kiss from Casey. But that was just a fantasy. Nevertheless, Reed has regained the confidence to do intubations again.
What doesn't quite make sense: It worries me that if I ever have to heloed into a hospital and the only available doctor has been using the facilities installed on said roof, there might be no soap and water for the good doctor, or at least an antibacterial cream. It doesn't take years of medical training to see the potential for contamination and infection in such a scenario.
I know that bit about the patient being heloed in was a fantasy (indeed the whole show is a fantasy), but the rarity of hand-washing on a medical show is troubling. In almost a decade of watching this show, I can count on the fingers of one hand how often we see the doctors washing their hands prior to a medical procedure. Now, in the other episode with Michael J. Fox guest-starring as the troubled Dr. Casey, we saw the poor man washing his hands repeatedly after a procedure, but that was clearly because of the OCD rather than health concerns.
Maybe the intubation apparatus was designed to somehow compensate for the fact that it might not always be used under the most hygienic condictions. In fact, the whole intubation procedure seems to be an emergency procedure. Here we get to the detail that doesn't quite make sense: If I'm right about intubation being an emergency procedure, with no time for doctors to carefully and methodically consider all alternatives, but instead being required to act quickly, why exactly is it that the procedure requires a doctor to do it, and that emergency medical technicians aren't trained in it?
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
The crushed flusher
The show: Ally McBeal
The episode: "World's Without Love," from Season 2, now on Disc 2 for that season.
What happened: Georgia (Courtney Thorne-Smith) is sitting on a toilet in the unisex, reading National Law Review, when she hears a weird gurgling noise. She gets up from the toilet when Stephan (John's pet frog, presumed dead in the previous episode) jumps out of the toilet bowl and onto Georgia's face. Horrified, she gets out of the stall and throws the frog over to Nelle (Portia de Rossi) who tosses the animal back to Georgia and Georgia throws him back to Nelle but Richard (Greg Germann) opens the door to his stall and Stephan hits the door and falls to the floor. Soon there are a lot of people around the frog, when they hear the sound of a toilet being remotely flushed. Nelle stalls John (Peter MacNicol), who likes "a fresh bowl," from the entering the unisex bathroom to give Elaine (Jane Krakowski) time to sneak the frog out and over to a vet.
Why it doesn't quite make sense: Putting aside for a minute that we're supposed to believe that a frog could survive in septic plumbing for at least a couple of days, didn't John destroy his remote flusher in the previous episode?
Let's remember how Stephan came to be presumed dead in the previous episode, "Story of Love:" The frog was on the toilet seat of John's preferred stall, but when Richard tried to pick him up, he instead jumped into the bowl. At that very moment, John, about to enter the unisex, pushed the button on his remote flusher, causing Stephan to be flushed away. Later in the episode, Elaine collects the pieces of the remote flusher. It seems that John, angry at himself for pushing the button and causing Stephan's death, took his anger out on the device. Makes sense, given how much he loved that frog.
Now, in this episode, John is using the remote flusher again. I find it a little hard to believe that he'd go back to using it so casually. Even if he had a spare, wouldn't he be a little more judicious in its use, such as checking that the bowl contains only things he wants flushed? This also raises an issue of courtesy: if we're to believe that the most famous restroom in television history is the only restroom at the offices of Cage & Fish, where at least two dozen people are employed, wouldn't John be extremely rude in remotely flushing a toilet that might be in use by someone else?
The episode: "World's Without Love," from Season 2, now on Disc 2 for that season.
What happened: Georgia (Courtney Thorne-Smith) is sitting on a toilet in the unisex, reading National Law Review, when she hears a weird gurgling noise. She gets up from the toilet when Stephan (John's pet frog, presumed dead in the previous episode) jumps out of the toilet bowl and onto Georgia's face. Horrified, she gets out of the stall and throws the frog over to Nelle (Portia de Rossi) who tosses the animal back to Georgia and Georgia throws him back to Nelle but Richard (Greg Germann) opens the door to his stall and Stephan hits the door and falls to the floor. Soon there are a lot of people around the frog, when they hear the sound of a toilet being remotely flushed. Nelle stalls John (Peter MacNicol), who likes "a fresh bowl," from the entering the unisex bathroom to give Elaine (Jane Krakowski) time to sneak the frog out and over to a vet.
Why it doesn't quite make sense: Putting aside for a minute that we're supposed to believe that a frog could survive in septic plumbing for at least a couple of days, didn't John destroy his remote flusher in the previous episode?
Let's remember how Stephan came to be presumed dead in the previous episode, "Story of Love:" The frog was on the toilet seat of John's preferred stall, but when Richard tried to pick him up, he instead jumped into the bowl. At that very moment, John, about to enter the unisex, pushed the button on his remote flusher, causing Stephan to be flushed away. Later in the episode, Elaine collects the pieces of the remote flusher. It seems that John, angry at himself for pushing the button and causing Stephan's death, took his anger out on the device. Makes sense, given how much he loved that frog.
Now, in this episode, John is using the remote flusher again. I find it a little hard to believe that he'd go back to using it so casually. Even if he had a spare, wouldn't he be a little more judicious in its use, such as checking that the bowl contains only things he wants flushed? This also raises an issue of courtesy: if we're to believe that the most famous restroom in television history is the only restroom at the offices of Cage & Fish, where at least two dozen people are employed, wouldn't John be extremely rude in remotely flushing a toilet that might be in use by someone else?
Monday, February 15, 2010
Sad state of the Animation Domination
Yesterday I happened to catch a snippet of The Simpsons in the middle. Agnes was reminiscing how she participated in the Olympics long, long ago, while pregnant (weirdly paralleled in real life in Vancouver today), and baby Seymour's kick within her belly cost her the gold. Back in the present, Seymour says he remembers that. As big a grain of salt recollections from the womb would normally require, this one requires a huge monolith of salt. For one thing, "Seymour Skinner" is really Armin Tamzarian, who usurped the real Seymour's name and life after Vietnam. It's as if the show is begging to be nitpicked. One thing it's not begging for is laughs. Which reminded me why I had stopped watching the show. I turned off the TV, not to turn it on again until just before The Cleveland Show, in time to catch Homer dancing with a half-section of his face. Huh? Who cares.
On The Cleveland Show, Cleveland Jr. gets "pregnant" with Rollo's fish. You can just see the miscarriage coming from miles away. At least on TV they had to decency to describe it (likening it to Louisiana cuisine) rather than showing it; any sickos who would've actually liked to see that will probably be satisfied by the DVD. This is one episode I don't care to ever watch again, on any medium. Come to think of it, I should perhaps stop watching this show altogether.
Then on Family Guy, Chris is inexplicably enamored of a retarded girl who turns out to be Sarah Palin's daughter (Palin is not explicitly mentioned in that regard, but it's quite obvious that's who they were thinking of). Coming at the end of such a dreadful evening, American Dad! did not look so bad, and even had a few chuckles.
On The Cleveland Show, Cleveland Jr. gets "pregnant" with Rollo's fish. You can just see the miscarriage coming from miles away. At least on TV they had to decency to describe it (likening it to Louisiana cuisine) rather than showing it; any sickos who would've actually liked to see that will probably be satisfied by the DVD. This is one episode I don't care to ever watch again, on any medium. Come to think of it, I should perhaps stop watching this show altogether.
Then on Family Guy, Chris is inexplicably enamored of a retarded girl who turns out to be Sarah Palin's daughter (Palin is not explicitly mentioned in that regard, but it's quite obvious that's who they were thinking of). Coming at the end of such a dreadful evening, American Dad! did not look so bad, and even had a few chuckles.
What's in a title?
I think this is a first for this blog: I'm going to nitpick a title. The tenth season of JAG begins with an episode titled "Hail and Farewell, Part II." That makes sense given that the ninth season ended with an episode titled "Hail and Farewell," which felt a little bit like a cliffhanger, at least in that we were left not knowing who'd replace Admiral Chegwidden nor what Mac told Harm about her medical condition. (Notice that "Part 1" was not labeled "Part I" nor was there a "To Be Continued" title card at the end).
In the so-called "Part 2," we are told that Sturgis is the Acting JAG and that Captain Krennick is being considered as the permanent replacement. But most of the rest of the episode is occupied with a bunch of cloak-and-dagger stuff about Clayton Webb not really being dead. It seems that the writers ran out of cute puns on the spook's name (like "Webb of Lies" and "A Tangled Webb"). But would it have been that hard to come up with something more appropriate to the episode's plot than "Hail and Farewell, Part II," like "Laying Low" or "Mercenary" or "The Hawk"? It's a worse rip-off than the Star Trek: The Next Generation two-parter in which Part 2 completely ignored the Data dreaming storyline presented in Part 1 to focus completely on some boring Klingons.
In the so-called "Part 2," we are told that Sturgis is the Acting JAG and that Captain Krennick is being considered as the permanent replacement. But most of the rest of the episode is occupied with a bunch of cloak-and-dagger stuff about Clayton Webb not really being dead. It seems that the writers ran out of cute puns on the spook's name (like "Webb of Lies" and "A Tangled Webb"). But would it have been that hard to come up with something more appropriate to the episode's plot than "Hail and Farewell, Part II," like "Laying Low" or "Mercenary" or "The Hawk"? It's a worse rip-off than the Star Trek: The Next Generation two-parter in which Part 2 completely ignored the Data dreaming storyline presented in Part 1 to focus completely on some boring Klingons.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Call me Vucelich, Chip Vucelich
It's almost not worth mentioning, but in the end credits for "Retrial," the third episode of JAG's tenth season, co-producer Chip Vucelich's name is misspelled as "Chip Veucelich." He's also a unit production manager, and his name is correctly spelled a few screens later for his credit for that job. The IMDb does not notice this, but onscreen-credits.com does (see http://www.onscreen-credits.com/JAG/20041015g.html).
I don't think I noticed this the first time I saw the episode, when it aired, as the end credits were probably crunched to the left or the bottom of the screen to make room for a commercial. On the DVD (which came out just a couple of days ago), with the old-fashioned credits, the misspelled name sticks out like a sore thumb. But don't shed any tears for Chip, he gets plenty of correctly spelled credits on other JAG episodes, as well as Martial Law, Without a Trace and others.
I don't think I noticed this the first time I saw the episode, when it aired, as the end credits were probably crunched to the left or the bottom of the screen to make room for a commercial. On the DVD (which came out just a couple of days ago), with the old-fashioned credits, the misspelled name sticks out like a sore thumb. But don't shed any tears for Chip, he gets plenty of correctly spelled credits on other JAG episodes, as well as Martial Law, Without a Trace and others.
Of course Daddy's your Valentine
I'm already sick and tired of Hallmark's Valentine's Day commercial, I sure hope not to see it on any channel come February 15. The idea that children, who have some vague awareness that their existing owes something to Mom and Dad doing some thing or other, would think that Daddy is not Mommy's Valentine is quite ridiculous. Children are due more credit in the knowledge department than they're normally given.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Senior partner does HR stuff
In "Beauty and the Beast," the Season 4 opener for Boston Legal, Shirley Schmidt (Candice Bergen) sticks the new associate Katie Lloyd (Tara Summers) in Jerry Espenson's office, explaining that Jerry (Christian Clemenson) had volunteered to share his office with the newest hire on account of office space being in short supply. From the start it seemed to me like a plot contrivance to put these two characters in the same office, given that lawyers at big firms typically get their own offices all to themselves, even associates fresh out of law school.
Well, that being a contrivance was confirmed in the next episode, "The Innocent Man," in which Shirley hires Lorraine Weller (Saffron Burrows), the very lawyer who had opposed Alan Shore (James Spader) in the previous episode, trying to get Shirley to pay up the money she had pledged to Stanford University. Carl Sack (John Larroquette) goes to Lorraine's new office to drool at her as she works on her new office's decor. Maybe another lawyer got fired in between the two episodes and for some reason Shirley didn't want to mention it in telling Alan that Lorraine had been hired. Still, it seems to me like an important little detail got past the story editor and the producers.
Well, that being a contrivance was confirmed in the next episode, "The Innocent Man," in which Shirley hires Lorraine Weller (Saffron Burrows), the very lawyer who had opposed Alan Shore (James Spader) in the previous episode, trying to get Shirley to pay up the money she had pledged to Stanford University. Carl Sack (John Larroquette) goes to Lorraine's new office to drool at her as she works on her new office's decor. Maybe another lawyer got fired in between the two episodes and for some reason Shirley didn't want to mention it in telling Alan that Lorraine had been hired. Still, it seems to me like an important little detail got past the story editor and the producers.
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