When Scrubs first premiered, I was a teenager and largely missed the early seasons, though I caught it occasionally during its better years while it was still on traditional cable. I vaguely remember it winding down as the 2010s were just getting started. Nine seasons feels like a decent run in hindsight, even if the ending left something to be desired. Like a number of shows before it, Scrubs came back to life earlier this year in February, and we recently finished the new season through Hulu on our Disney+ merged app.

For anyone who did not follow the original series to its conclusion, it ended with JD leaving Sacred Heart to work elsewhere, settling into a relatively comfortable role making house calls. He eventually returns to visit and discovers that Perry Cox has taken over Bob Kelso’s old position as Chief of Medicine. What caught me completely off guard was Cox immediately retiring the moment JD walks through the door and essentially handing him the keys to the whole operation, like some kind of burned-out medical Willy Wonka passing the chocolate factory to his reluctant heir.

So JD ends up running Sacred Heart, which at times has the energy of the inmates running the the asylum. That said, seeing him back alongside Turk felt genuinely right in a way the original ending never quite did. The two of them being separated always felt like the show’s biggest loose thread. It is honestly more plausible to picture Turk walking away from Carla than being permanently apart from JD.

Not everything about the reunion is cheerful. The revival confirms that JD and Elliot did eventually get married, which the original series worked overtime to make happen, but by the time Season 10 picks up they are already divorced. They handle it better than most former couples would, but there is real emotional weight there, and the show does not shy away from it.

All the original interns are now solidly middle-aged, which is its own kind of unsettling reminder of how much time has passed. The new crop of twenty-something doctors are fresh faces, and I think that might end up being one of the revival’s weaker decisions. The original series put real effort into making you care about the new characters early on. This time around, the new interns have not landed with the same impact, and honestly I would not miss any of them if they disappeared between seasons.

The standout new addition is Dr. Kevin Park, introduced as a brilliant prodigy who had been positioned as the plausible successor to Perry Cox before that plan got upended. He is prickly and not particularly easy to like, which is probably intentional, but apparently he is not returning for the next season, so make of that what you will.

Season 10 is noticeably shorter than the original seasons used to be, which caught me off guard when the episodes simply ran out before I felt ready for them to. It makes a bit more sense knowing that Season 11 is expected later this same year rather than next, so there is a deliberate split happening. It was good to see the cast back in familiar territory regardless. We will be watching Season 11, though we will probably wait for the full season to be available before sitting down to watch it all at once.