Critic’s Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
4.5
They did it.
I was incredibly skeptical about Scrubs returning 15 years after it ended, but I’m thrilled to say I was wrong.
The Scrubs Season 10 premiere wasn’t perfect, but it had a lot of what made me fall hard for this show in the early 2000s, without losing sight of the fact that this is a different world than the one we left.
Dr. Cox Passing the Torch Was His Perfect Exit Story
One of my biggest concerns about the reboot was that after so much time had passed, it no longer made sense for JD to crave Cox’s approval.
And with Kelso long gone (that portrait of him in that area JD kept going to was a nice nod to his legacy, by the way), it made sense that Dr. Cox would end up Chief of Medicine and hate it.
It also makes sense that after one episode’s worth of Cox’s Classic Hits, Cox would nope out and leave JD to be the one in charge.
Cox never played well with authority figures, and that annoying sensitivity trainer or whoever she’s supposed to be was never going to change him.
Additionally, since JD has grown enough to call Cox by his first name, it wouldn’t make much sense for them to continue a semi-adversarial relationship in which Cox is condescending toward him.
We got just enough Cox to kick off the new season, although I wouldn’t mind if John C. McGinley popped back in for guest appearances once in a while.
After all these years, Cox has not changed one bit — except for admitting that JD would be a better mentor to the newest crop of interns than he can dream of being.
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And he really can’t relate to a generation of interns raised on TikTok (though of course there’s a lot more to them than that), so it was believable that he’d be looking for an exit ramp from this job.
I could do without Dr. Park’s attempt at being mini-Cox, but hopefully the series will tone down his obnoxiousness as it goes on.
The Interns Seemed to Lack Depth… Or Did They?
At first, the interns seemed like the weakest part of Scrubs Season 10.
The first episode seemed to confirm Cox’s complaints — we had stereotypical, shallow Generation Z interns who cared more about TikTok and YouTube than how to do medicine.
But by the end of the first half, we knew that DeShawna was looking for mentorship from someone who was not only a brilliant doctor but also shared her racial identity.
And by the end of Scrubs Season 10 Episode 2, we had a crop of interns that were mostly different from each other, though I still don’t know all of their names.
They’ll Need to Strike the Right Balance
It’s going to be tough to find the right balance with the interns.
The first eight seasons were from JD’s point of view as he went through the internship program, so it’s somewhat of a shock that the new interns are secondary characters.
They’ll need some stories of their own to make this work, but it’s important to keep the series in JD’s head (unless they do one-off episodes from someone else’s point of view, which they did about once a season in the past).
Do you want to know more about the Scrubs interns?
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The writers tried that in Scrubs Season 9, and it failed so hard I gave up — and I’d been obsessed with Scrubs for eight years!
Still, while we’re beginning to develop the two male interns’ characters, we still have a lot of stereotypes on the female side, especially for Tosh.
She doesn’t seem to be much more than a generic influencer, which is my least favorite younger generation trope, so I hope we get some more depth to her soon.
Still, the other interns are interesting enough, and some of JD’s interactions with them so far have been fascinating, considering he is teaching lessons he learned from Cox.
The Theme of the Newbies Becoming “Oldies” is Great
I loved that the Scrubs Season 10 premiere was about how life has changed for these characters, and that they are no longer the new kids on the block but mid-career professionals.
Carla calling JD “Bambi” when she saw him, followed by Turk realizing he can no longer do the Eagle maneuver with JD, and JD realizing that he needs reading glasses, was a sequence that was as funny as it was poignant.
I also enjoyed Turk’s mental health taking a nosedive because he’s overwhelmed with patients who keep coming back for more surgeries after refusing to listen to his advice. It dovetailed perfectly with JD’s patient, who couldn’t afford the necessary medication during Scrubs Season 10 Episode 2.
I could do without the JD/Elliot angst — I was never into this couple, so I don’t care that they’re divorced.
However, Scrubs‘ genius has always been its blend of absurd comedy with dramatic and serious subplots about medicine.
It never feels preachy or overly depressing.
It did that perfectly again, and I’m excited for more stories about our favorite doctors now that we know what they’ve been up to for the past 15 years.
It’s disappointing that there’s no Janitor-type character, though. I would trade that super-annoying sensitivity coach for Neil Flynn to return any time.
What did you think, Scrubs Fanatics?
Did Scrubs Season 10 live up to your expectations?
Hit the comments with your thoughts, and don’t forget to share this article with your Scrubs-loving friends so they can join in the conversation.
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If you enjoyed this article, check out our thoughts about the Scrubs Season 10 trailer. You might also enjoy our coverage of St. Denis Medical.
Scrubs airs on ABC on Wednesdays at 8/7c and streams on Hulu on Thursdays.
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Scrubs Season 10 premiered and it’s as good as it was when the series went off the air in 2010. Our review!
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The Scrubs reboot trailer is here, and along with it the first clues as to what the new series will focus on.
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Considering the Scrubs revival will be the second airing medical-themed sitcom, it seems like we might be seeing more of these shows.
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