Just finished watching the first two episodes of the new season of Scrubs on ABC.
I think that’ll be the last time I’ll be watching it for a while.
I’ve been a bit of a Scrubs fan since it first hit the airwaves. It was different, creative, and populated with solid actors playing horrendously quirky characters. More importantly, it was written and acted with heart.
It showed up right when we all needed some good human comedy, premiering on 2 October, 2001. All along the way, even when I wasn’t watching regularly, I could always count on the show for something worthwhile. More than once, I’ve found myself tearing up a little as an episode progressed. Always, though, the show would leave me feeling a little better and with a smile on my face.
Not so with the new season.
With such a solid finale at the end of last season, the convoluted explanation for how and why everyone is back pushed the limits, even the limits of such a wild show as Scrubs. The old hospital is gone, demolished. It’s been rebuilt attached to a college. So now everyone who’s back (which is a little over half the main and extended cast, it seems) is teaching and running rounds at the new hospital.
Oh, and there’s a new batch of med students. Half of whom seem to be clones of the original characters being groomed to replace them when they finally actually, really, leave the series (in another few episodes).
Kerry Bishé plays Lucy, who’s incessant internal monologuing would be great if it hadn’t already been JD’s shtick. Obviously, her character is going to be the main focus of the “new” show. Dave Franco’s pretty boy, self-important, womanizer (who also happens to be the son of the main money behind the college/hospital) Cole could be a gold-mine of crude humor. But he’s just a more cultured version of The Todd (who also shows up). And Michael Mosley’s Drew is the “bad boy with a heart of gold” who’s also serving as the love interest for returning character Dr. Denise Mahoney.
There is a lot of potential here. But the way things have been handled in these first two episodes obscures a lot of it. If anything, this season deserves to be treated as it’s own series. Until that happens–and that’s going to require JD, Dr. Cox, Turk, and Dr. Kelso to vanish–it’s not going to be anything other than a lackluster “extra” season to an otherwise great show.
Maybe when it’s given a chance to be it’s own show, I’ll tune back in. Until then, maybe I’ll watch if there’s nothing else on. (Of course, I do have about 40 hours of stuff on my DVR that I can watch instead…)
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