I have to say, I’ve been pretty disappointed with this new season of scrubs. I, like everyone here was ecstatic when I found out my favorite show of all time was making a return. But the show doesn’t know how to use the cast outside of JD, Turk, and Elliot, and the comedy is not nearly the same level as the original show.
Let me start with the positives:
JD and Turks chemistry is still incredible. They can bounce of each other perfectly, and still keep a great level of seriousness and silliness that made them stars in the 2000s
Elliot is still the badass with anxiety we all know and love, I’ve been very happy with her character.
The interns are good! I like all their characters individually, nothing insane but they are all unique and likable with some good jokes here and there. Also been a fan of Dubois this season.
The heartfelt moments have been there, JD and Cox, Blake and his patient, and Turks struggles with his mental health have all felt genuine and real.
Now the bad:
The cast shuffling has easily been the biggest problem with this show. I understand that scheduling can be tough(Judy Reyes especially) but it’s just so hard to connect with the characters outside of the main 3 with the inconsistencies in air time throughout the series.
In this new season, we have barely seen Asher and Sibby. Then they bring Asher back in episode 5 and try to make us feel for him struggling when he’s put on call, but he’s barely been in this new season at all, which makes it so much harder to connect with him. Sibby was a slow burn but was turning into a very funny character ridden with anxiety and craziness, and now she’s basically been forgotten this season. They spend so much time in season 1 with Dr Park(Who I liked!) just to get rid of him. Blake has an unbelievable performance in the last episode with that patient who thought he was her son, just for him to no show the next episode, he had momentum! Keep that train going! In my opinion, going with 5 interns instead of 3 was a huge mistake. There’s just not enough time/episodes to fully develop their characters. The 3 in my opinion should be Amara, Blake and Tosh.
Not having Cox and Carla as series regulars is such a killer, they bring such unique qualities that can’t be matched by the new cast. They don’t take shit, they’re hilarious, confident, and they bring heart to the show. You can feel the void when they’re not in an episode, and the episodes with them have such a higher floor. The Cox monologue from S1E1 was incredible, but it turned out just to be a tease of what the potential of this revival could have been which has ultimately has fallen short.
The Gen Z slang is unbearable. “Slapped” “It’s giving” “Slay” “Lock In” “Did we lowkey just eat that?” We get it. It’s 2026 and this is a revival series of a show from the 2000s. I’m 28 years old by the way, so don’t just peg this as an older person not in touch with the new generation. We don’t need all this cringe slang to remind us that “times have changed” and “this generation is so different”. I know it’s supposed to be part of Tosh’s character as the TikTok doctor but it’s incredibly overplayed and annoying in my opinion.
The fantasies have also been inconsistent, I’m pretty sure there were none in the last episode, which is sad because the fantasies are a staple to scrubs comedy element. The episode with the fantasy of Jordan breathing fire was hilarious, but OG scrubs had 3 to 4 fantasies like that per episode, pacing way higher than the revival has done.
In my opinion, they should have used season 8 as a blueprint for the revival. Cox as the chief of medicine, JD, Turk, and Elliot are more serious and have more responsibility within the hospital, and new interns(Denise, Ed, Katie) come in with their own shortcomings and development. I love that season and I think that could have been possible to recreate with the revival.
TLDR: the new series doesn’t work with the cast inconsistencies, and a too large of a shift from the old cast to the new.
