Scrubs is Back! For Season 2 of the Reboot! Joy! They Still Can't Do It All On Their Own – And It's Still So Much Fun

 

For much of the last decade I just didn't get so much of the appeal of the reboot. Not the 'remake' such as the way NBC tried to reinvent Quantum Leap or ABC's version of The Wonder Years both shows whose cancellations I still mourn. No bringing back the casts of a 1990s or 2000s show, usually a comedy, twenty or thirty years later.

I didn't understand either the reason to bring back Roseanne, Murphy Brown or Will & Grace and I never understood the idea behind …And Just Like That. The fourth and fifth seasons of Arrested Development left me could and Live Another Day of 24 was false advertising. (There were only 12 episodes, for crying out loud!) I understand theoretically why these shows were brought back – Hollywood will always do safe properties when asked – but not the motivation.

Then Scrubs came back last February. And now I can't throw stones anymore.

I will say there's an argument behind the revival of Scrubs that really isn't there for so many of the other series I've mention in the second paragraph. Unlike all of them Scrubs was ahead of its time in the 2000s, being far closer to the dramedy model that has increasingly become popular on cable and streaming alike. There's no denying, unlike with shows like Orange is the New Black, Shameless and The Bear, what genre Scrubs has always belonged it. I've rarely laughed longer or harder at any comedy series then watching the antics that went on at Sacred Heart during the 2000s. But it was always closer to shows like MASH or Cheers then Seinfeld or Frasier; Bill Lawrence never let us forget for a moment that this was a hospital and I think they average a death per episode over the entire run.

So Scrubs came back to ABC just when we all needed. And it was hysterical to see that JD, Eliot and Turk are all twenty-five years older then when we first met them and yet somehow they still haven't grown up. JD and Turk are still absolutely in love. (Asked by their HR recruiter in the premiere of Season 2 if they're a secret couple JD is indignant. "You can't put a name on what we have!") JD is still talking to himself and unable to stop talking altogether. Turk is still as cocky as all get out. Eliot is still a hot mess, emphasis on mess (and hot, let's be honest.)

It's the smaller details that are different. JD and Eliot's marriage ended in divorce which honestly wasn't a shock if you saw how it played out during much of the original series. And even though they now run the hospital they're still dealing with all their insecurities. JD is now Chief of Medicine and is trying to deal with how the hospital works and how a new generation of residents is far more of a sticklers for rules and frequently less fun. Eliot is trying to find a way to be a mentor to Tosh (Ava Bunn is currently the first of the residents promoted to series regular) who is very much the same kind of mess she is both professionally and personally but wants her own independence. Turk is dealing with the fact that while he may still be the best surgeon in the hospital not even he can stop the sands of time.

And they're all reminded with the guest stars of the other changes. Carla (Judy Reyes) is still trying to dealing with being the Mama Bear as well as the fact she's also getting older. Perry Cox (please try to give us as much John C. McGinley as possible!) is dealing with the fact that he's now a patient and no longer in control of his destiny the way he was when he was in charge. And as joyful as it is to see the bosses wife (Christa Miller) still being capable of rage, we get to see her reluctant humanity so much. "I'll deny this if Perry says so but I love him very much," she tells Eliot in a moment of openness.

The nostalgia vibe is as strong as ever with Scrubs and hits the highpoints every time. We still have JD needed to tell Turk the moment he gets laid and how many times and overcorrected when it comes to romantic gestures and of course he still has rowdy. Turk is still very clear of just how handsome he is and how proud he is about who he is. "My keister failed sixth grade science because it doesn't know what gravity is!" he tells JD. And Eliot still gets terrified by so many small things like when she wanders into the pediatric ward and runs right into so many creepy children. It's wonderful to know that all of these masters – Zach Braff, Donald Faison and Sarah Chalke – have lost none of their power to drive me into hysterics in twenty years' time and of course every time McGinley goes full Perry he still has the ability to cause me to double over in laughter.

And every time JD goes into his head we are reminded that Scrubs basically invented meta. When it's time for a full medical team he flashes back to his crew as the Power Rangers. Given the ability to imagine there are four of them, the first thing they do is narrate the Law and Order voice over and do the theme song. And when JD imagines Father Time, of course its Flavor Flav and of course Turk immediately calls him on it. Even when he's given a chance to find a mentee he walks right past a guy doing a voiceover monologue in his head – and pushes him aside rudely.

And it's not like some of the new cast members haven't added a lot to the show. The new African-American nurses, both female and gay, are hysterical every time they do the work they need to and pushes back. When Eliot says how much she loves fall one says: "We get a month. You get a season."  Vanessa Bayer is hysterical as the head of HR in every single scene she's in where she's trying to get consent forms sign and time after time misreads every situation she's in.  And I love how Todd is still exactly the same twenty years later, and only slightly less randy and with his own mentee.

At this point many of the residents we met back in the first season of the reboot are beginning to become individual characters in their own right, though Tosh and Charlie are still the only ones who've basically formed a lot as having full arcs. Much of their reason to exist is still to bounce off the older staff, not that there's anything wrong with that. Hopefully as the show keeps going they'll continue to grow in their own rights.

And I still love how Scrubs is leaning on its history but not that hard. It's great to see Neil Flynn back having moved on as a Janitor but his own son working for them and I can't wait until Scott Foley makes his long awaited return later this season. (He really hasn't aged in twenty years either; does everyone on Scrubs spent more time in the cosmetic surgery ward at Sacred Heart?) And if anything the issues involve medical care that Scrubs has to deal with have actually helped the show improve with age.  Everything involving health care is worse than it was in the 2000s and everyone on staff has learned to roll with it, if not live with it.

All of this and so much more has made Scrubs just as sublime as it was when I was first watching in 25 years. And I get why so many people have felt the need for shows like Fuller House or That 90s Show. I don't want it with every TV show I watched growing up in the 1990s or 2000s but in small doses and done well, its absolutely everything I need. Hell when Season 2 of Dexter: Resurrection debuts in November I'm not going to bother stalling watching it like I did last time; I'm going to watch from the season premiere. Hey Michael C. Hall looks good too and he's just as good with a needle and a knife as the staff at Sacred Heart.

My Score: 5 STARS.