Scrubs Revives the Original Series’ Charm with Surgical Precision: Review

When Scrubs began in 2001, best friends J.D. (Zach Braff) and Turk (Donald Faison) had just become interns at the Sacred Heart teaching hospital, thrown right into the chaos that accompanies saving lives. Over those first nine seasons, both men fell in love with colleagues Elliot (Sarah Chalke) and Carla (Judy Reyes), became more confident doctors, and grew up… a little bit. But you’re never really ever done growing up, an idea at the core of the show’s inevitable, but thankfully very successful return to ABC.

The revival or reboot is the fate that awaits pretty much any TV show from the past forty years, at this point, and the novelty of such endeavors has without question diminished as a result, if only because shows are coming back at an almost nonstop pace. King of the Hill fared well with last fall’s new episodes, and it’s at least going to be interesting to see what happens when the cast of Malcolm in the Middle reunites later this spring.

When we first began to see the resurgence of TV shows returning, TV critics came up with a pretty clear set of criteria to define the difference between a reboot versus a revival. A reboot meant a show with a classic premise but new cast, such as CBS’s Hawaii Five-0, while a revival did the same but featured the original cast coming back to do what they do best, as seen with Starz’s stellar Party Down Season 3. Similarly to Party Down, Scrubs confirms that the best strategy for revivals is knowing exactly what was special about the past, without getting bogged down in nostalgia for it.

Really, the best approach is to write like these characters’ lives have just continued on since the cameras stopped rolling, which is exactly what happens here. At the beginning of the season premiere, “My Return,” J.D. is enjoying a quiet enough life as a concierge doctor, treating the minor issues affecting his rich clients. However, a trip back to Sacred Heart leads to both awkward and joyful reunions with old friends, as well as the opportunity to return to his old stomping grounds — an opportunity J.D. of course accepts.

Scrubs actually has pretty great timing for its return, as there’s a reestablished thirst for medical shows with the remarkable success of HBO Max’s The Pitt. The season premiere even includes a subtle nod to the intense action of more serious doctor dramas — before snapping right back into comedy mode. Originally created by Bill Lawrence, this new Scrubs is being showrun by Aseem Batra, who wrote for Scrubs during its initial run, and the tone remains consistent with what came before.

The show’s comedy was always deeply rooted in its characters and their connections, which makes this a relief to report: All of those T-Mobile commercials and all of that podcasting have kept Zach Braff and Donald Faison’s chemistry as charming as it was from the beginning. The atomic power generated by their bromance would be enough to sustain a far less engaging series, and both Braff and Faison get a chance to reveal some nuance to their characters’ relationship and personal struggles.

Sarah Chalke, meanwhile, feels a little underserved here, though her awkward energy as Elliot remains relatable. It’s just that there’s also a young collective of student doctors to be introduced. While it feels a little early to have strong opinions about these half-dozen fresh characters, the first four episodes manage to start sketching out these new personalities in a way that has a lot of promise.

Vanessa Bayer stands out as the most significant addition to the cast, if only because she’s the best-known new face of the bunch — as the hospital’s somewhat unwell wellness consultant, her signature borderline-unhinged energy meshes well with the ensemble. And recurring guest star Joel Kim Booster (a past Consequence Comedian of the Year honoree) has an absolute blast leaning hard into the role of JD’s new nemesis, with some delicious line readings.

It’s still a very episodic series, with the emotional weight of each big story still largely carried by Braff, his fantasy sequences key to delivering quick bursts of comic relief. It’s always been his show, at the end of the day. One recurring theme that emerges is a very peculiar aspect of getting older and more accomplished as a professional — the moment when you realize that oh crap, you’re now the adult in the room, and you’re not at all ready for it. Until, that is, you are. Really, this was always J.D.’s arc from the start of the show — we’re just seeing more of it now.

Again, what’s so successful here is the way that the show genuinely feels like a continuation of the series. Something that helps in this regard is that the original show didn’t feature too fixed a status quo, its characters evolving at least a little bit over that nine season run. Storylines like J.D. and Elliot’s off-again/on-again romance were never the cornerstone of the action here. At its core, Scrubs has always been a comedy about doctors doing doctor things: saving lives, grappling with the cruelty of the American “health” “care” “system,” and trying to stay sane — with some help from each other.

This revival very much keeps that spirit alive, in ways past fans and newcomers should be able to appreciate, and it still has the ability to make a person cry. The opening credits sequence even remains largely the same: There have been some technological updates, but we’re still hearing Lazlo Bane’s memorable lyrics. Reminding us that we can’t do this all on our own.

Scrubs premieres Wednesday, February 25th on ABC, streaming next day on Hulu. Check out the newest trailer below.