Scrubs Is Back — The New Gold Standard for TV Revivals

"Eagle!" Sixteen years after we left Sacred Heart behind, the docs are back, the medicine looks different, and the interns definitely do, but JD and Turk slide right into that old rhythm like they never left.

So, where does this revival land?

We pick up with John Dorian (Zach Braff) living a cushy life as a concierge doctor in the suburbs. A quick stop at Sacred Heart to see a patient flips a switch: he remembers why he fell for medicine in the first place and decides to jump back in to teach the next wave of doctors. If that sounds familiar, season 9 pointed in that direction with Dave Franco, Eliza Coupe, and Kerry Bishe, but that detour never fully landed. This time, the show centers on JD, Turk (Donald Faison), Elliot (Sarah Chalke), and Carla (Judy Reyes) again, with a new crop of interns and a few fresh foils mixed in.

Who is back, who is new

• Returning favorites: The Todd (Robert Maschio), Hooch (Phill Lewis), and Dr. Cox (John C. McGinley). Absent this round: The Janitor (Neil Flynn), Dr. Kelso (Ken Jenkins), and Laverne (Aloma Wright). And with deep respect, the late Sam Lloyd, who gave us Ted Buckland.
• New faces on the floor: hospital admin Sibby (Vanessa Bayer) keeps everyone honest from an HR perch, while JD butts heads with rival Dr. Eric Park (Joel Kim Booster).
• Intern class: Serena (Ava Bunn), Asher (Jacob Dudman), Blake (David Gridley), plus surgical trainees Amara (Layla Mohammadi) and Dashana (Amanda Morrow).

The vibe is classic Scrubs, aged in oak

The revival wisely keeps Zach Braff’s narration. JD’s inner monologue now carries two decades of experience, and that extra weight turns the jokes sharper and the gut-punch moments richer. Relationships feel familiar but evolved; life has moved on, and the show embraces that. The episodes even poke fun at a few of the old signatures the trailer teases, the ones that hit differently in 2026 than they did in 2001.

The structure shifts in a good way: legacy characters teach and mentor, while the new class carries enough personality to matter. Across the four episodes screened for review, the cases stretch the interns and give the veterans smart, funny teaching beats. The rhythm hums along and avoids wheel-spinning, and the ensemble clicks without trying to xerox the original crew.

Behind the curtain

Bill Lawrence created Scrubs and is having a moment thanks to Ted Lasso and Shrinking, so a comeback always felt likely. Day-to-day duties now run through Aseem Batra (a vet of the original), who wrote the premiere with Tim Hobert. The premiere is directed by Zach Braff, who previously helmed six episodes back in the day and, yes, that Garden State. Subsequent episodes come from a deep bench: Amy Pocha, Seth Cohen, Mathew Harawitz, Michael Hobert, Aaron Lee, Mark Stegemann, Sophie Zucker, Aseem Batra, and Christopher Eddins & Brianna Porter.

The look and feel stay true: snappy cutaways, brisk visual gags, and a slightly tweaked opening to fit the 2026 setting. Lawrence doesn’t script or direct here, but you can feel the same emotional calibration that turned laughs into gut laughs and heavy moments into full-on lump-in-throat territory. Also worth noting: the Braff-Faison chemistry has been front and center in those T-Mobile duets the last few years, and that energy pays dividends here.

Does it work?

Short answer: yes. Longer answer: this could have been a lazy nostalgia play for Disney. Instead, the show hits like peak-era Scrubs. Comedy and heart run in parallel, the characters feel older in the best ways, and the mentorship angle gives the series new muscle. Plenty of recent revivals have felt stiff; this one breathes.

If the ratings gods shrug, this season still functions as the graceful encore the show deserved. But I suspect both longtime fans and first-timers are going to lock in fast. I smiled a lot. I laughed out loud more than once.

"The return to Sacred Heart feels earned, and it is genuinely funny."

Bottom line

Scrubs is back, and it is the good kind of back. Premiere date: February 25 on ABC.

Score: 9/10