Braff in brief

When I was at university, you couldn't trust medical students to lift a forkful of beans to their mouth, never mind administering dangerous quantities of drugs via a honking great needle. In tellyland, however, all doctors end up being dashing, uber-confident demigods - blessed with the power over life and death, delivered through the cunning use of a pencil and a stethoscope.

Except, that is, in Scrubs. Yes, the show's scripts are as weak as a dialysis pateint's piss, but the characters are flawed and human in a way that makes them more empathetic than their ER equivalents. That's if you can bear the programme's self-conciously zany plots and the fact that every scene ends with somebody gurning down the barrel of the camera like a hamster having an orgasm.

So, it came of something as a surprise that lead actor Zach Braff made one of my favourite films of 2004. Garden State, an indie-romcom with Natalie Portman, was Braff's debut as writer and director. And he shows a natural talent for subtle comedic storytelling - making a movie that's easily a peer to Lost In Translation or The Station Agent.

But what's Braff been up to since? Well, according to his blog it's this:

I am going to be Vesper Lind (the new Bond love interest). After the success of certain films this year, they have decided to "shake things up" this time around. And so Bond will be gay. I play Vesper Lind, a German spy who loves trip-hop and raves. I assassinate my victims by forcing them to drink the fluid inside of glow-sticks. James and I meet when our hands accidentally touch during a "Licensed to Kill" seminar in Dusseldorf. We were both reaching for an "Ain't Misbehavin" CD that kills an enemy after he/she listens to the Act One curtain closer. Not very effective as a means of assassination since the target would have to make it through some really mediocre numbers in the first act, and like I said, it only works on "he/she's" which aren't very common in the spy business outside of Thailand. Can't say much more it's all very hush-hush…

In summary, then: Rent Garden State, read the blog, avoid Scrubs like the plague.

Zach Braff Blog

Buy Garden State on Amazon

Scrubs official site (see just how cringeworthy it really is)

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