Plot: J.D. enlists Turk and Elliot to help with Dr. Cox’s care. Meanwhile, Elliot finds an unexpected burst of confidence years in the making.
Review: The first season of the Scrubs revival was a welcome return to Sacred Heart Hospital and our favorite characters, JD, Elliot, and Turk. With some new faces in the cast as well as returning old ones, it was a massive improvement over the lackluster final seasons of the original run of Scrubs and ranked easily amongst the best revivals ever. It was not a foregone conclusion that there would be a second season of the Scrubs revival, but thankfully, it’s back for a new run of 10 episodes, one episode longer than the initial season. Having seen the first episodes of the new season, it feels like a natural continuation of where we were last season, which concluded just five months ago.
This new season of Scrubs brings back most of the characters introduced in season one, including Jacob Dudman as Asher, David Gridley as Blake, Layla Mohammadi as Amara, and Amanda Morrow as Dashana. Ava Bunn, who played Dr. Tosh, has been upped to series regular while her fellow interns remain in a recurring capacity. While Judy Reyes is back as Carla, she appears in a far more limited capacity, while John C. McGinley is a central figure as Dr. Cox’s medical diagnosis introduced last season becomes an ongoing subplot in this sophomore run. McGinley looks fitter and more energetic this season, with Christa Miller also getting more screen time as Dr. Cox’s partner, Jordan. We have yet to see the return of other legacy characters, notably The Janitor (Neil Flynn) and Elliott’s ex-boyfriend Sean Kelly (Scott Foley), both of whom are teased in the trailers for this season.
Over the first two episodes, we follow as he J.D. (Zach Braff) tries to figure out how to best treat Doctor Cox while also dealing with other issues in his new role as Chief of Medicine, including how to be a mentor. The thematic messaging that Scrubs has always balanced with its quirky sense of humor and fantasy cutaway sequences remains intact, but it has aged alongside the cast themselves. While last season dove into the main trio being decades older and dealing with middle age, this season tones that down a bit but still uses age for jokes throughout. The balance of passing the torch to the next generation of medical professionals is the main theme in these early episodes, but it also addresses contemporary issues Gen Z faces in the workplace. New cast member John Higgins (Please Don’t Destroy) makes for a good addition to the younger cohort of characters, while YouTuber Daniel Thrasher seems like he may become a bigger presence in subsequent episodes. The loss of cast members X Mayo as charge nurse, Pippa, and Joel Kim Booster as Dr. Kevin Park is minimal, as Rachel Bilson and Tamara Mowry round out the supporting cast nicely.
Something odd I noticed watching these first two episodes was the not-so-subtle marketing. Television has always been a medium for advertising, and in the era of streaming, networks and producers have to find a way to make a profit for the companies that finance these shows. There are multiple shout-outs to P.F. Chang’s restaurant franchise in these two episodes that I may have overlooked had I not watched them back-to-back. Hearing characters specifically name the Asian bistro chain in different contexts is more subtle than other shows like Chuck’s blatant references to Subway during the spy series’ final seasons, but it still feels a bit on the nose for a show that didn’t feature corporate call-outs during its initial run, at least not as overtly as this. I will have to go back and watch the episodes again to see if I missed any others, but I would venture to guess that the rest of the season may reference orange chicken, egg rolls, or other mainstays at P.F. Chang’s.
Showrunners Tim Hobert and Aseem Batra return alongside scribes Mathew Harawitz and Mark Stegemann for the new season. Zach Braff continues to stretch his directing skills this season, while original series creator Bill Lawrence remains an executive producer only rather than directly involved creatively. This season keeps the formula of the classic Scrubs in check with the network sitcom feel of the series, not coming across as stale as we saw in other revivals like Frasier and Murphy Brown. Maybe it is also a credit to the fact that Braff, Faison, and Chalke not only look close to the way they did twenty years ago but can still pull off the physical and energetic sides of their characters, which will still convincingly dive into the pitfalls of getting older in a profession that requires you at the height of your mental skills.
Scrubs thankfully erases the lackluster final seasons of its original run and completely redeems itself with a relaunch that feels as vibrant as the original series while keeping everything that we loved about the classic medical sitcom. At this pace, Scrubs could hang around for multiple years to come, and the transition can be stretched out over several seasons as long as Zach Braff, Donald Faison, and Sara Chalke are willing to do this show. I say let them. It’s always nice to have the comfort and familiarity of characters that you’ve grown up with come back and not feel dated or dragged out of retirement against their will. Scrubs continues to be one of the funniest shows on television and one of the most original and well-written, to boot. I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of the episodes while I wait for my P.F. Chang’s order to arrive via DoorDash.
Scrubs premieres on September 30th on ABC.
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