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Carla from Scrubs is important.
I know some of you may be thinking, "But Jon! (insert wrong opinion here)."
As a latinx millennial coming of age during the Scrubs run, Carla made my upbringing and place in America feel legitimate.
As a latinx millennial coming of age during the Scrubs run, Carla made my upbringing and place in America feel legitimate.
There are some weird stereotypes that rear their head once in a while, depending on a given writer handling Carla over those 8 seasons. But there's so much good content to outweigh it. Like how Carla gets a whole episode to deal with when you stop dreaming in Spanish.
Carla is a great case study in how to write ethnicity for a character who feels real and believable, not a token. I mean come on, she even gets a *musical number* about how she's Dominican, not Puerto Rican. This was on network television.
The show also never loses sight of Carla's working class background and how that informs her experiences and personality. Her conflict with JD over this in Season 1 is absolutely perfect. It distills the tension and similarities between class warfare and racism. Network TV!
She gets written off a lot by fans of the show because she's not always the most likable, goofy character. She's perceived as a buzzkill. And yet there's also a whole episode about this, too! "Dammit, I'm funny!" Carla says in Season (6?)
A few years ago, I had a heated debate with some fellow Scrubs fans about Carla. They considered her the worst character and it *crushed* me. I think it's because of how they dislike her dynamic with Turk in particular. But I thought it was spot on and hilarious. Also perfect.
