‘Scrubs’ Season 2 is living up to high expectations
‘Scrubs’ Season 2 is living up to high expectations
The show’s first two episodes are already an improvement over the first season of the reboot, which was great in its own right.
Bill Lawrence has been on a heater of late. The writer, producer, and director has had his hand in a ton of hits in the last few years, including Apple TV titles like “Bad Monkey” and “Shrinking” to “Rooster” on HBO Max.
That’s one of the biggest reasons I had so few qualms when I first heard that Lawrence was getting the band back together for a reboot of “Scrubs,” the show that first taught me that male friendship can mean watching football, but also doing a highly choreographed song-and-dance routine about eating steak, complete with a hug if we do a good job. The second season of the rebooted “Scrubs” debuted on ABC on Wednesday, and it was my favorite stream of the week.
“Scrubs” returns to Sacred Heart Hospital, where J.D. has ascended to chief of medicine and his best friend Turk serves as chief of surgery. Elliot is a highly ranked attending at the hospital, and together, they must continue to help a group of new interns learn how to translate their raw skills into becoming real doctors.
The first two episodes of Season 2 are largely focused on “Scrubs” legacy characters, much to their benefit. That isn’t to say that the group of interns and other supporting characters at Sacred Heart in the rebooted show are uninteresting, but the show’s writers also realize they aren’t what keeps bringing me back to “Scrubs.”
The role swap of Dr. Cox from healer to patient in Season 2’s debut episodes is a reminder of where the show’s heart always came from: the interactions between the doctors and their patients when the chips are down. That’s where “Scrubs” has always transcended from good to genius in my eyes, and having one of the original characters become the patient became an extra emotional gut punch — though not without the usual velvet glove of humor to usher viewers through.
The interns are still a key part of the series, but it feels as if “Scrubs” will take turns highlighting their individual stories on a more thorough basis this season, as opposed to giving them all competing storylines in each episode. Personally, I think that will give me a chance to get to know them all a little better this season and create room for more emotional storytelling.
I still want to know more about the lives of J.D., Elliot, Turk, and Carla outside the hospital in Season 2, but I may have to face the fact that shorter TV seasons mean “Scrubs” won’t have time to explore those stories in as much detail. And that’s fine if it means the show continues to put on episodes of the quality it did this week.
Fans can watch new episodes of “Scrubs” on ABC at 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday evenings. The show streams the next day on Hulu, as well as on Disney+ for customers who bundle the two streamers together
Scrubs
J.D. & Turk scrub in together for the first time in a long time–medicine has changed, interns have changed, but their bromance has stood the test of time. Characters new and old navigate the waters of Sacred Heart with laughter, heart and some surprises along the way.