{"id":502107,"date":"2026-02-25T01:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T01:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/502107\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T01:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T01:20:08","slug":"zach-braff-returns-to-an-unchanged-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/502107\/","title":{"rendered":"Zach Braff Returns to an Unchanged Show"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFine. I\u2019ll be the guy who defends the ninth season of ABC\u2019s Scrubs<\/a> (2009-2010).<\/p>\n

\n\tNo, it isn\u2019t a perfect season, but let\u2019s not pretend it\u2019s some reputation-destroying embarrassment, best ignored or discussed with sad-faced pity. It isn\u2019t the Netflix seasons of Arrested Development.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tScrubs\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tThe Bottom Line<\/p>\n

\tNothing has changed, if that’s what you crave.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAirdate: 8 p.m. Wednesday, February 25 (ABC)
Cast: Zach Braff, Donald Faison, Sarah Chalke, Judy Reyes
Creator: Bill Lawrence\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat it represented was an attempt for the Scrubs brand to move forward without (for the most part) Zach Braff<\/a>\u2018s J.D., an effort to mature and evolve and adapt. The writing didn\u2019t necessarily have a purposeful driving imperative, but the show\u2019s new cast was exceptional, and there were worse things to do than watch Kerry Bish\u00e9, Eliza Coupe, Dave Franco and Michael Mosley executing Bill Lawrence\u2019s dialogue and wild tonal shifts. It felt like a fresh start, even if it wound up being an end.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis, then, becomes the prism through which one must view the tenth season of Scrubs, or the first season of the reboot of Scrubs, premiering on ABC on Wednesday (February 25).<\/p>\n

\n\tIf you want Scrubs back, but want it back the way it existed through its first eight seasons \u2014 with acknowledgement of the passage of time, but no real maturation \u2014 then the first four episodes of the reboot deliver roughly what you want. Definitely not more. But probably not less.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf, however, you thought the way Scrubs concluded after eight seasons was close to ideal, and that the need for a major paradigm shift was the reason the ninth season remained valid, then the reboot feels like a regression \u2014 a creative step backwards.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd again, this revival isn\u2019t a Netflix-seasons-of-Arrested-Development-level embarrassment. It\u2019s just a museum piece: still funny in bursts, still boosted by the chemistry of the core cast, but hampered by all the elements that frequently tripped the show up in its closing seasons \u2014 or at least the biggest offending element, namely that J.D. keeps treading water and slowing down everybody and everything in the show that\u2019s trying to grow.<\/p>\n

\n\tABC wants critics to treat some silly plot points as secretive, which hardly matters in the long run. The only thing that matters is that through some set of circumstances, J.D. (Braff), Turk (Donald Faison<\/a>), Elliot (Sarah Chalke<\/a>) and Carla (Judy Reyes) are reunited at Sacred Heart; that Dr. Cox (John C. McGinley) is in the first of four episodes sent to critics; that Hooch (Phill Lewis) and The Todd (Robert Maschio) pop up occasionally; and that nobody acknowledges anything related to the ninth season. <\/p>\n

\n\tWe find out very early on the status of J.D. and Elliot\u2019s marriage, as well as the state of Turk and Carla\u2019s relationship. Some things have changed. Other things haven\u2019t. I\u2019m not going to pretend that the specifics matter.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere are some absent faces from the past, but plenty of new faces to give the impression that the practice of medicine goes on at Sacred Heart. Vanessa Bayer<\/a> plays Sibby, who is in HR or mental health or some amalgamation of elements that let her be a general wet blanket, restricting some of the same old behaviors \u2014 Todd\u2019s sexism, Cox\u2019s abuse, J.D.\u2019s everything \u2014 as if to suggest that society hasn\u2019t changed, but one smiling administrator has. <\/p>\n

\n\tJoel Kim Booster plays Dr. Eric Park, a surgeon who immediately becomes J.D.\u2019s adversary, even though Dr. Park is correct about absolutely everything and J.D. is wrong about absolutely everything. That\u2019s kinda the way Scrubs has always worked, and there\u2019s no evidence that the show is aware that Park is right about everything and J.D. is wrong about everything.<\/p>\n

\n\tThen there are a bunch of fresh-faced young doctors, including Asher (Jacob Dudman), who is so thoroughly a sitcom version of Whitaker from The Pitt<\/a> that my notes just call him \u201cHuckleberry\u201d throughout. Then we\u2019ve got Dr. Tosh (Ava Bunn), whom everybody makes fun of because she uses social media a lot; Blake (David Gridley), who\u2019s very attractive; and surgical interns Dashana (Amanda Morrow) and Amara (Layla Mohammadi).<\/p>\n

\n\tThe first episode hinges primarily on machinations to bring J.D. back into the fold at the hospital, a process that\u2019s bafflingly ill-considered. Scrubs is a show that needed barely any contrivances at all, and yet they\u2019ve chosen to lean into details that are frustratingly dumb and not in a \u201cI can let it go because it\u2019s a sitcom so there\u2019s no requirement that the medical stuff make sense\u201d kind of way. It\u2019s dumb in a \u201cThis makes no sense and everything that follows makes no sense, and I\u2019m now rooting for all the adversarial characters because they\u2019re clearly right (even if they aren\u2019t written well enough to be rooted for)\u201d kind of way. It isn\u2019t just Dr. Park who gets swiftly annoyed at J.D. for reasons that he\u2019s right about. Elliot, Turk and several other characters spend the four episodes I\u2019ve seen being exasperated at J.D.; they, like Dr. Park, are completely correct, and the show doesn\u2019t understand why.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd if you\u2019re saying, \u201cSo nu? Isn\u2019t that what the show has always been?\u201d Yes! But in giving the voiceover narration to Bish\u00e9\u2019s Lucy, the ninth season \u2014 whether you liked it or not \u2014 endeavored to explore what was universal about breaking into the medical profession, presenting a version of na\u00efvet\u00e9 that was recognizable, but not recognizably J.D. Restoring the narrative to J.D.\u2019s perspective, only limitedly matured over 25 years, is a bore. If J.D. was a man-child when the show started, back in 2001, what is he now if his privilege has allowed him to skate through live generally unweathered?<\/p>\n

\n\tFaison, Chalke and McGinley all have truly effective dramatic beats as we see the strain their lives have suffered over these three decades. Nothing impacting them adjusts the stakes in a way that is inappropriately melancholic or melodramatic. They\u2019re just grown-ups. I was so impressed, especially with Faison, that it became vaguely depressing watching the next three episodes and being reminded that, even if you can hope that a half-hour here or there will give the other cast members deserved opportunities, the show is not and never has been an ensemble. It\u2019s Braff\u2019s show. He even directs the pilot. The show\u2019s gravity pulls everything toward him and negates the necessity to follow through with anybody else.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe cutaway fantasy sequences are as amusingly whimsical as they\u2019ve always been, but they again show that J.D.\u2019s version of the fantastical remains exactly what it always was. The substance and execution of the fantasy sequences were both fairly innovative for a broadcast sitcom in 2001, and largely remain so. What has changed is that the rest of the Bill Lawrence sensibility, which he kept in the broadcast space for so long, has moved to Apple and Netflix and across the streaming landscape, capitalizing on expanded running time and loosened tonal restrictions to become the dominant voice of the half-hour (or more) comic format. Shows like Ted Lasso<\/a> and Shrinking<\/a> have proven how, with five to 10 extra minutes per episode, zaniness and seriousness can go hand-in-hand. In this new season of Scrubs, the seriousness goes back to being an occasional condiment.<\/p>\n

\n\tWas the medical material in Scrubs ever good? I would argue that it really was fine at the show\u2019s peak. I don\u2019t require all medical comedies to be somewhat pointed satires, but there\u2019s a newfound toothlessness when Scrubs tries to tackle the high cost of prescription drugs or \u2026 actually, nothing else. None of the medical plots stick.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhatever my complaints or disappointments, I still love Faison, Chalke and the little bit of McGinley we\u2019re treated to. The new stars are all fine, with Morrow, Mohammadi and Dudman the standouts. Bayer is always good at playing characters who are so chipper you assume there\u2019s something wrong with them, and these episodes are beginning to show the cracks in her cheery veneer.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd it isn\u2019t exactly Braff\u2019s fault that I don\u2019t find J.D.\u2019s hijinks as funny at 50 as they were at 25, because Braff is still participating gamely in the silliness.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the original series, Carla took to calling J.D. \u201cBambi,\u201d because he seemed so wide-eyed, wobbly and unformed. Sticking with the Disney references, J.D. has become more of a Peter Pan figure, and the show around him, which looked ready to move forward 15 years ago, is back to refusing to grow up.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf that\u2019s what you want from Scrubs, you\u2019ll be pleased.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fine. I\u2019ll be the guy who defends the ninth season of ABC\u2019s Scrubs (2009-2010). No, it isn\u2019t a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,252463,134,252464,104873,427,252465,104878],"class_list":{"0":"post-502107","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-donald-faison","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-sarah-chalke","13":"tag-scrubs","14":"tag-tv","15":"tag-vanessa-bayer","16":"tag-zach-braff"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}