A lot has changed for Dr. Cox over the last week. He's now the new chief of medicine, and to boot, he and Dr. Kelso have become friends. Their newly discovered friendship is a great excuse to have the two character sharing screen time, riffing off of each other, but with an undertone of mutual respect that allows their banter to be playful, although no less barbed.
There's also a new intern this episode, Howie. He's kind of a Napoleon Dynamite-type, a mumbling dork, who is nonetheless intelligent and aware beyond the original perception.
There's not too much funny in this episode. Aside from Howie, the Kelso/Cox, a fantasy sequence, and the Janitor's scene, "My New Role" takes more of a serious tone. The two narratives follow 1) Dr. Cox as he adjusts to his new job, succumbing almost immediately to the pressure of the gig, and 2) Elliot learning to respect the nursing staff. The second tale feels similar to JD's thinking he is better than Carla in the Season One episode "My Nickname," but with both sides being more deliberately hateful, and with a predictable happy ending.
The first story wraps up with JD becoming the pain in the ass to Dr. Cox that Cox was to Kelso, although he only does this after being specifically instructed to by Kelso himself. While it is a great summation of the dynamic of Cox and Kelso's previous relationship, it is kind of bizarre to have a character so candidly, and so lengthily explain the themes of previous stories.
And, since I'm being really fussy, the mixing of the sound at the end seemed a bit unbalanced. While it's not often that scenes carried by Elliot are enjoyable to begin with, any chance of her jokes being funny is shot down by the over-bearing music, whose loud volume and triumphant tone drown out Elliot's speech to the nurses. Plus, it wasn't that funny to start with.
"My New Role" is an important episode for setting up the new direction of some of the characters, but the trip there isn't much to write home about.
Rating: 3.0 stars
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