The latest TV series Blu-ray release from Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment is Scrubs: The Complete Eighth Season, released November 17th 2009.

I have been a fan of Scrubs for years and was pleased to see it get picked up by ABC when NBC decided to pass after the seventh season.

One of the side effects of the move to ABC was that season eight was the first to be produced entirely in high definition, making a Blu-ray release reasonable.

The show is a hospital themed comedy that initially followed the interns around the Sacred Heart Hospital, who are now doctors in their own right and have interns of their own to look after.

The show has always been character oriented, with J.D., Turk and Elliot playing off their friends and nemeses, including Carla, Dr Cox, the Janitor and the Chief of Medicine Dr Bob Kelso.

Adding depth to the show are smaller characters like Ted the lawyer, Dr Cox’s partner Jordan and The Todd, who are all great characters in their own right.

The show has retained most of its characters over the years and has done well to keep the conflicts between the characters fresh, interesting and most importantly funny.

In season eight Bob Keslo has been replaced as Chief of Medicine by a younger and more attractive female doctor, though it soon becomes clear that she is as evil as Bob, if not more so.

It is great to see Courteney Cox back in a TV role, and the main cast - Zach Braff, Sarah Chalke, Donald Faison, Judy Reyes, John C. McGinley and Neil Flynn - has remained solid since the show started back in 2001.

The TV show is well liked and has an IMDb score of 9.2/10.

The video on the discs is AVC 1080p encoded at around 22 Mbps, and is presented at 1.78:1 aspect ratio, filling the HDTV screen.

As I understand it, the show continues to be shot on 16mm film, and as such image is not be expected to be reference quality.

Find full resolution PNG screen captures taken directly from the discs at the details page for Scrubs: The Complete Eighth Season.

The main audio is lossless DTS-HD Master Audio with 5.1 channels - 24 bits resolution at 48 kHz.

The discs are dual layer BD50, with around 47 GB used and coded for Region A.

The first 10 episodes are on the first disc and the remaining 9 episodes and special features are included on the second disc.

The supplemental features include selections of bloopers, deleted scenes and alternate takes that were not used in the final show.

The My Bahamas Vacation featurette is a behind the scenes making of documentary that covers the filming of the wedding episode for the janitor character.

The release also includes a series of Intern webisode shorts.

It’s All In The Name is the only special feature on the first disc, and covers some of the multitude of girls’ names that Dr Cox has used to refer to J.D. in a three minute montage.

The release also features SeasonPlay, which once activated allows you to stop and eject the disc, and it will pick up exactly from where you left off when you want to watch again.

This is an excellent feature for TV shows especially, and I hope to see other studios adopt a similar feature for their releases in the future.

Another nice touch is that the complete theme song plays behind the menus.

Scrubs is a fun TV comedy and the Scrubs: The Complete Eighth Season Blu-ray release from Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment is a great choice for fans of the show or fans of the genre who have never checked the show out.

The retail price is $54.99, or order it right now at Amazon for $32.99, saving 40%!

Extras:

• Bloopers
• Deleted Scenes
• Alternate Lines
• My Bahamas Vacation
• Intern Webisodes
• It’s All In The Name
• SeasonPlay

Synopsis:

Enjoy every surreal moment of Scrubs’ hilarious eighth season on Blu-ray High Definition. Television’s celebrated sitcom is a whole new experience on Blu-ray Disc with never-before-seen bonus features and the ultimate in picture and sound! It’s a different world for attending physicians JD, Turk and Elliot as they have their own interns to confuse and bewilder, and a major shakeup in the hospital staff might just be enough to finally unite Dr. Kelso and Dr. Cox. Get a big shot of comedy as your favorite characters, and some exciting guest stars (Courteney Cox) return for a hilarious new year at Sacred Heart. See your favorite characters in a brand-new way, and experience the show’s irresistible soundtrack in theater-quality sound. The laughs are even bigger on Blu-ray High Definition. It’s off-the-charts entertainment for every Scrubs fan.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 28th, 2009 at 4:42 pm and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.