Scrubs<\/a> (Disney+, from Thursday 26 February), a show I once mainlined on E4. Scrubs was as comforting as tea and toast. Surprisingly malleable, too. In its bones, it was a coming-of-age workplace bromance between junior doctors JD and Turk, played by then newcomers Zach Braff and Donald Faison. Their chemistry was the show\u2019s anchor, balancing sassy racial harmony with irreverence and heart, as they bore witness to universal human drama. But is it healthy enough to survive resuscitation, more than 15 years after its last episode aired?<\/p>\nSensibly, the writers have shaken things up. JD has grown into complacent early middle age, working as a private doctor for the affluent and elderly. \u201cYou write scripts in the suburbs\u201d is Turk\u2019s withering appraisal. (For a hot second, I thought he was beefing with Braff\u2019s indie film-making.) Braff directs the first episode, in which a problem with one of JD\u2019s pampered patients takes him back to Sacred Heart, the training hospital where he earned\u00a0his wheels.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The move brings him face to face with old comrades, including old flame Elliot, cheerful chauvinist the\u00a0Todd and an emotional Turk, who is suffering from burnout. \u201cI\u00a0wish this guy would die all at once, instead of in tiny little pieces,\u201d the baby-faced chief surgeon shockingly exclaims in theatre. In\u00a0fairness, he\u2019s a father of four now. It\u2019s amazing he\u2019s standing.<\/p>\n
At least JD\u2019s irascible mentor can\u2019t call him \u201cNewbie\u201d any more, like he used to, right? \u201cWhat can I do for you there, Oldie?\u201d asks Dr Cox. John C McGinley is still electrifying, his character a methamphetamine Martin Sheen, given to virtuosic, rhetorical putdowns, delivered in sentences longer than those of a 19th-century novelist.<\/p>\n
Cox has a problem, though. Tough love is out, political correctness is in, as policed by the figure of Sibby, a wellness\/HR figure, who pops up genie-like at any impassioned outburst, with instructions to \u201ctake it down a few degrees\u201d or attend cultural sensitivity workshops.<\/p>\n
I was dismayed when she appeared, and by recurring jokes about the \u201cfeelings police\u201d. Scrubs isn\u2019t the only comedy that has to address a vigilant climate around banter and power dynamics. It\u2019s particularly an issue for returning series that made their name in the good ol\u2019 days. I sympathise \u2013 puritans haven\u2019t enjoyed this much cultural power since they closed the theatres. But it\u2019s a defensive stance for TV shows to take. The anxiety of being muzzled leads to an obsessive preoccupation with it, so you no longer talk about anything else. It\u2019s half of how the culture war perpetuates itself, and it\u2019s boring.<\/p>\n
\u2018Feelings police\u2019 \u2026 Vanessa Bayer as Sibby in Scrubs, season 10. Photograph: Jeff Weddell\/Disney<\/p>\n
Happily, after two episodes the show decides it can only be itself. \u201cWhy do you have the physique of a menopausal lesbian?\u201d an insolent younger character asks the older, not yet dignified JD. It\u2019s funnier for it, and the show clearly has affection for gay people, among other minorities. It begins to take on worthy subjects: the dehumanising US healthcare system; patient quotas doctors must meet to maximise hospital profits; TikTok diets that threaten health; orthorexia in gym bros. Speaking with conviction, and an open heart, matters more than speaking correctly. That\u2019s also something I believe.<\/p>\n
Will Scrubs Redux evolve, Gray\u2019s Anatomy-style, with generations of younger characters taking the torch? Scenes with the new newbies fall a little flat \u2013 but if Dr Cox taught me anything, it\u2019s that you have to give people time. The chemistry between the seasoned leads sparks enough to sustain things for now. Turk is soon moonwalking again, the writers are throwing out zingers you\u2019ll want to keep in your back pocket. I liked this far more than I expected. We all need a little TLC, more than ever, and it turns out I actually do want a scrub. It gets some love from me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is possible to believe contradictory things. For instance, I believe TV\u2019s reliance on reviving old shows is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[49,48,75,348],"class_list":["post-490507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}