by Nick Ferro, Editor
Rebooting a television show from twenty years ago is starting to become Hollywood’s own “village bicycle” and now it’s Bill Lawrence’s turn. One could argue that this man might be the busiest showrunner on streaming with Shrinking and Rooster currently on the air, the Ted Lasso sequel series coming later this year and now Scrubs making it’s triumphant return. Scrubs is an all-time favorite of mine, originally released in 2001, I watched it all through high school and into college. It was one of the first shows that I owned every season on DVD. Which I am grateful for, due to the series having its streaming version ruined due to expired music rights issues. Owning the first four seasons is the only way to see this show in its originally intended format. There were so many nights in college where I watched this show on repeat or had it playing in the background while immersing myself in the World of Warcraft until the sun came up… I mean until a normal hour of the night… After studying hard… and… Look over there
**Whooshing Noise** — Cut to exterior night, jungle, Nick is fleeing from the authorities for not taking college seriously. — **Whooshing Noise** Sorry… daydream, where was I?
After a very successful run of their podcast Fake Doctors, Real Friends, Zach Braff and Donald Faison were able to garner enough interest to convince Disney to let them return to Sacred Heart and allow audiences to catch up with some old friends, who still happen to be fake doctors. Picking up 16 years where they left off, JD (Braff), now in private medicine, returns to Sacred Heart to see one of his patients and while there, Doctor Cox (John C. McGinley) asks JD to replace him as Chief of Medicine. As you can expect from a reboot-qual, all of our beloved characters are in some state of “catch up” mode in the first couple episodes. We learn that JD and Elliot’s (Sarah Chalke) marriage didn’t work out (and I guess she got the hospital in the divorce), Turk (Faison) and Carla (Judy Reyes) are still happily married and have four grown daughters. Turk is Chief of Surgery and has interns of his own to mentor. Sadly, those are the only full-time returning characters (for now), outside of a few cameos or guest spots which I will leave you to be surprised by, but filling out the rest of the cast are the “newbies” of this generation.
I know what you’re thinking, Nick, Scrubs tried “passing the torch” once before and it was a disaster. Believe me, I know, but hear me out. While these new characters do pose my one and only gripe about the show, they themselves are not actually the problem. Surprisingly, they are all interesting characters that I came to really enjoy over the course of this first season. In fact, by episode six they had found their stride and were integrated quite well into the show. My issue is there are, unfortunately, just too many of them for a single 22-minute episode to handle effectively. My favorite of the new cast are the two new surgical interns, Dr. Amara Hadi (Layla Mohammadi) and Dr. Dashana Trainor (Amanda Morrow). These two after several episodes have, to me, solidified themselves as the “New JD & Turk.” They’re dynamic and character archetypes fit nicely into that mold and the show is helping that along by having Turk be their mentor. Dashana is more confident as a doctor and quite cool as a person, but she lacks personal skills which leaves plenty of teachable moments and comedy, while Amara is nerdy and clumsy at times, which puts her solidly in the “adorkable” category. However, she also develops feelings for Dr. Asher Green (Jacob Dudman) who is a medical intern from England and shares many similarities to Elliot, in terms of neuroticism and social awkwardness.
Rounding out the interns on the medical side are Dr. Sam Tosh (Ava Bun) and Dr. Blake Lewis (David Gridley). Both initially come off as the “hot doctor” stand-in, but the show goes out of its way very quickly to turn those tropes on their head. Dr. Tosh is an influencer who used her success online to pay for her medical degree. She is of all the new characters maybe the funniest addition. Her quick wit and chemistry with her fellow cast members is quite good, whether it be the interns or our original cast. In fact, her interactions with Elliot have been the highlight of the season for me, despite them tending to be the most underserved. They really do make a lot out of a little and their talent together is a big reason why. As for Blake, he has been given a mysterious past which causes him to be more closed off and allow a mystery for the audience and his colleagues to uncover. However, a story arc he gets that focuses on people not being honest with him about medical issues because of how dreamy he is was played pitch perfectly and helped open him up.
Let’s also not forget the hilarious head of HR played by Vanessa Bayer, who’s character felt like a stand-in for Ted the Lawyer, played by the late Sam Lloyd, who was taken from us way too soon. Two new nurses played by comedians Michael James Scott and X Mayo, and the maintenance guy played by influencer turned actor Darcy Michael. There’s also JD’s new catty rival for chief of medicine Dr. Park (Joel Kim Booster) and other returning characters like Hooch (Phill Lewis) and “The Todd” (Rob Maschio) plus many more. If you haven’t figured it out by now, the only problem I have with this new revival is the overabundance of characters, both old and new. When you only have nine, twenty-two minute, episodes to tell a story it can be hard to adequately give enough time to an ‘A’ story and a ‘B’ story. This show tries to also give time for a ‘C’ story and a ‘D’ story and one time even an ‘E’ story! But hear me when I say, all of these stories are either emotional, funny, quick, or meaningful. But never are they really enough to reach the level of the original series.
Scrubs was the kind of show that would take two full minutes to do a musical montage of Elliot (by all rights a secondary character at the time) struggling to learn, work hard, keep up with her peers, and impress Dr. Cox. Something that would endear her to audiences for the next two decades. Nothing in these first ten episodes have been able to do that for any of its returning characters, let alone it’s new ones. My biggest hope is that once the series is picked up for another season they can get more episodes to allow these characters to have more time to shine and give the writers more opportunities to let these new characters grow enough to rival the likes of JD, Turk, Elliot, and Carla.
Speaking of our beloved returning players, it cannot be emphasized enough that this is still, very much, their show. Save for Reyes who only appears in a few episodes due to contractual obligations with High Potential. However, JD, Turk, and Elliot are the leads of this ensemble and the three of them really did not miss a beat. They fell right back into their characters as if they continued to live their lives and the cameras just stopped filming them. Sure, they are fifteen years older and are now in the mentor role for a group of new interns, but unlike the previous attempt in, the less than successful season nine, they are finally in a position to truly embody the role of teacher and experts in their fields. Where this season also succeeds, where season nine failed, is the framing device of having JD narrating the episodes in his head. So much of what made Scrubs a success originally was seeing everything through his eyes. Having him return to be the focus helps ground the show in a way that felt familiar but never played out. By doing this there can also never really be a passing of the torch to the younger generation, but I would argue, maybe there isn’t a need. This reboot-qaul works because it rests on the shoulders of our original leads who are still just as funny and talented. The bond they share both on and off the screen is so apparent as I watched each episode and save for a few nitpicks I was so blown away at how it felt like they never left.
The writing, directing, and set design are also a huge reason why this show works as well as it does. I was a little thrown, at first, by the use of modern filming techniques for a show that originally was recorded on actual film in standard definition. But ultimately I got used to it, largely in part because of the recreated sets. They got the back entrance, admissions/giftshop, the nurses’ station, rounds sets, JD’s office, and break room almost identical to the original filming location. Sadly, the defunct hospital they used originally had since been torn down and converted into town homes, but they did their absolute best. Only longtime fans who did multiple repeat viewings will be able to clock that the hallways are too wide or that the dimensions are slightly off, but the Emmy for set design, next year, better go to this crew! As for the writing and directing, you can tell that experienced hands are behind the camera, so it didn’t surprise me when the list of directors were all long-time scrubs writers and directors including Zach Braff himself. And with some of the original writers returning along with Bill Lawrence there should never have been any doubt that this revival would be a success.
Scrubs is a show that, despite being slightly “of its time” has managed to always strive to deliver on a positive message. It is a show that has remained funny and relevant over the years and so too is its “reboot-qual.” Scrubs is to comedy what The Pitt is to drama when it comes to medical television. Only, instead of blood and gore coming out of people, it’s laughs. Both are A pluses in their fields and if you were at all hesitant about revisiting your friends at Sacred Heart, I implore you to go watch it right now. I need this series to keep getting renewed and nowadays it takes huge ratings to do that. I can’t do this all on my own, so I need you all to help out. After all, I’m no superman.
Rating: Loved It
Scrubs is currently streaming on Hulu and Disney+
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