TV-Reviewed

I’ve been eagerly awaiting the new season as soon as it was revealed Scrubs would be getting another season. With the revelation that this season would be taking a new direction, I was intrigued to see how different it would be, whether it would bring something new and good to the table or whether this direction would be so far left that I wouldn’t recognize the show anymore. After watching the first episode, I can say that things are still familiar, but there are a lot of new elements that come into play this season.

J.D., Dr. Cox, and Turk are back from the original cast; we get to see Elliot in a nice scene in the beginning and we do get an update on a couple of other characters by the end of the episode. Hopefully we’ll see more characters from the past later on in the season. Sacred Heart has now been turned into a medical school on a University. Denise is also back as a student advisor and it’s nice to have her back also.

The biggest clue that this won’t be the same Scrubs that we remember is when we hear J.D.’s thoughts and as he walks past Lucy, the newest student, it immediately switches to her. Actually, I’m not sure if Bill Lawrence purposely did it, but J.D.’s inner monologues were definitely short in this episode and also seemed to be interrupted throughout this episode. Lucy is the main focus out of all the students and she’s interesting; like a younger more innocent version of J.D. She does come off as being slightly annoying a little, but there’s other characters that round her off like Cole, the jerk whose dad owns the school, or guy who melted down the first time he went through Med School and is now hooking up with Denise. All these characters are different and they all sort of balance each other out, very much like the original cast did in the first eight seasons.

This episode served as an introduction and it was very easy to get sucked into this world again. Things are different, but the comedy style is very much still the same.  The world and the characters are the same, but there is a slight bit of maturity added to them. This episode was a good introduction and I look forward to seeing what’s to come in further episodes.

My biggest worry with this season of Scrubs is whether we’ll basically just be seeing a rehash of past episodes, like the same life lessons with different characters. For newcomers this won’t be such a big deal, but for fans of the show, it’s going to feel a bit repetitive. I’m hoping that Bill Lawrence can continue to make this show feel new while still making it familiar; so far though Scrubs has started off on a good foot.

Rating: 8.0