Cinema News: ‘Scrubs’ returns for a checkup appointment

February 27, 2026 | View in browser

A male and female doctor lean on a partition beside a nurse in pink scrubs

By Yvonne Villarreal, Robert Lloyd and Maira Garcia

Welcome to Screen Gab, the newsletter for everyone who was worried there was nothing left to reboot.

It's been more than 15 years since viewers said goodbye to "Scrubs," but the crew from the hospital sitcom is hoping laughter is still the best medicine they can prescribe as it rides TV's nostalgia wave.

The comedy ran for nine seasons (or eight seasons and a spin-off, depending on whom you ask) from 2001 to 2010. Now most of the old guard have scrubbed back in for a nine-episode season, which premiered this week on ABC (next day on Hulu), that continues the story of the original characters while acquainting a new generation of interns and colleagues to their comedic chaos. Narrator J.D. (Zach Braff), his best friend Turk (Donald Faison) and on-again, off-again love interest Elliot (Sarah Chalke) are no longer interns at Sacred Heart Hospital. J.D. is now a concierge doctor, while Turk and Elliot are in leadership roles at Sacred Heart — and they're all serving as mentors to a new group of rookie docs. What could go wrong?

Braff, Faison, Chalke — as well as original show creator Bill Lawrence, who returns as a producer, and showrunner Aseem Batra — all spoke to Esther Zuckerman about revisiting the beloved comedy all these years later: "As we all know," Braff said, "especially when you reach 50 years old, a lot of things in life don't turn out the way you hope they would." TV critic Robert Lloyd, in his review, said: "There will undoubtedly be some who find nits to pick, but it's hard to imagine any less-than-obsessed fans unhappy with this lagniappe, apart from its comparative brevity. And references to the original run notwithstanding — appletinis, "Star Wars," a certain closet — it's intelligible and funny on its own terms, and as full of love as ever."

There are other familiar faces also making the return: John C. McGinley as J.D.'s begrudging mentor Dr. Cox and Judy Reyes as nurse Carla (and Turk's wife). The pair dropped by Guest Spot this week to discuss what it was like to reunite with the cast, how they relate to their characters at this stage in life and when we'll see them again this season.

Also in this week's Screen Gab, we recommend an adventure series with characters uncovering monsters and secrets of the world and a post-apocalyptic thriller that explores survival, political power and human nature.

Read on. Then press play and unwind. See you next week.

— Yvonne Villarreal

Turn on

Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times

"Monarch: Legend of Monsters" (Apple TV)

My favorite Godzilla will always be a man in a rubber suit, just as my preferred King Kong is a puppet animated by Willis O'Brien, but I'm very excited for the return of Apple TV's "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters," the television wing of the Toho-approved Monsterverse film franchise. The fancy special effects do not dispel the satisfying aroma of Saturday afternoon popcorn that hangs around the series, now in its second season. It can be confusing, set in different times, and in a place with different time — the Hollow Earth, where monsters live — and with its complicated family relations: Mari Yamamoto, who is 40, plays the mother of Takehiro Hira, who is 51; a bigamist, Hiroshi Randa (Hira) has a daughter and a son from two families. Less confusingly, real-life father and son Kurt and Wyatt Russell play the same character at different ages. Young, old and should-be-old join forces to save the world, or at least its coastal cities, from a new threat, a giant tentacled seagoing beastie dubbed Titan X, as a scientific agency and a tech company battle each other for supremacy. Kong, cute when he sleeps, makes an early appearance. — Robert Lloyd

"Paradise" (Hulu, Disney+)

The twist-filled post-apocalyptic drama created by Dan Fogelman returns for its second season and ventures beyond the confines of its vast underground city in the depths of Colorado to explore life outside and the tension between the two worlds. Much of its first season established how society functions in the picture-perfect bunker community — funded by a tech billionaire (Julianne Nicholson) — designed to help some 25,000 selected Americans after a massive catastrophe threatens the extinction of the human race. From the start, the second season is eager to show the frontier outside elaborate simulation. Characters we've come to know are absent from the season premiere. Instead, it takes us to Graceland (yes, as in Elvis Presley's former home) and introduces us to a tour guide named Annie (Shailene Woodley) to set the foundation for a story that will bridge the two worlds. It's an intriguing way to shake things up. But don't worry, the show's central hero, Secret Service agent Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown), last seen headed to Atlanta to find his wife, won't be gone for long as he continues his mission. Meanwhile, back in bunker town, chaos grows as the battle for control intensifies. And if slowed-down covers of pop music hits that score the tension is your thing, there's more of that too. — Y.V.

Guest spot

A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they're working on — and what they're watching

Everyone's favorite sardonic chief of medicine Dr. Perry Cox is back, and so is his emotional opposite, nurse Carla. For McGinley and Reyes, returning to "Scrubs" and inhabiting their characters once more was easy. After years of working together, they weren't just co-workers — they were friends, not unlike Cox and Carla.

"We spent all the time together, and you didn't have to make an effort at loving each other because we did," said McGinley in an interview with Reyes before the show's premiere.

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Both actors have remained busy in the time since the original series aired, with McGinley preparing for the release of "Rooster," another Lawrence comedy coming to HBO early next month, and Reyes working on ABC's hit crime dramedy "High Potential," currently in its second season. "I forget how draining it is, until my body decides you need to stop. But I feel so blessed," says Reyes about working on both shows. "This report came out … that [there are] 60% Latinas in this country, and only 6% … are working in front of the camera. I just feel like the gift that this is, affords me an opportunity to make a difference."

They took some time out of their busy schedules to talk more about how their characters have evolved, what it was like adding new characters to "Scrubs," and the shows they've binged recently. — Maira Garcia

It's been nearly 16 years since "Scrubs" ended. What was it like for you to reunite again? Did you have to get in a groove again, or did it feel natural?

Reyes: Completely natural ... it was not even an issue. We just kind of fell right back into it. We had a table read where everybody came in and we read for ABC, and it was easy. I wish we had a bigger story.

McGinley: [The] table read was over at Disney, at ABC, and it was populated by about 50 to 100 people. And it was tantamount to a smash Off Off Broadway opening night in a black box theater. It was thrilling. The energy was palpable. The script was rock-solid already.

Reyes: We were giddy when it was over. We didn't want to leave.

Dr. Cox always had this thorny mentor-mentee relationship with J.D.; Carla and Elliot didn't always get along, but in the season opener, we see that there's now a lot of mutual respect, even friendship. Dr. Cox offers J.D. the position of chief of medicine, and Carla offers Elliot support as she navigates her divorce from J.D. Did the evolution in the relationships feel right to you?

Reyes: It made complete sense because you grow up. I think Elliot and Carla in particular, they're grown women, they're parents. So it only stands to reason that in order to be able to work all these years, that they do get along. J.D. being Turk's best friend, you have to make space for that.

McGinley: For me, I think of the analogy to athletes who talk about leaving it all on the field, and it feels like by the time we catch back up with Cox, he has, in fact, left it all on the field, and that's legit. You're allowed to get tired and fatigued, and that's where he is. And so the writers let that be. I thought it was really brave not to try to squeeze water out of a rock. The guy's done, and that's really interesting.

Reyes: It's real life. You're aging and in the real world, you have to be confronted with how draining trying to help people in this environment is.

Did you connect with that on a personal level?

Reyes: For sure, it's hard to keep up with how fast things go up these days and young people using their devices to communicate everything from life to emotions. It's something more for Carla to witness than to participate in or to mock. … I think it's a brilliant move to bring in the five new interns to incorporate how the world has changed so dramatically between then and now, and how it affects the mentors versus the mentees.

McGinley: I checked out like Cox did about four years ago. I was like, "I'm not doing this anymore," and it was my prerogative. When I saw the trajectory that the writers had arrived at with Cox, it was wildly familiar to me.

I was heartened to see characters like Todd (Robert Maschio) and Hooch (Phill Lewis) return. But we see a lot of new faces as well, like Joel Kim Booster and Vanessa Bayer. What was it like to integrate them into the series?

Reyes: That's really fun because that's one of the things that "Scrubs" functions as, an ensemble for the most part, which makes our days really long and really hard to be truthful. But they're very diligent about incorporating what Zach likes to call "comedy assassins." You bring in people for a handful of lines and who end up making such an impact on the fans that they're looking forward to seeing them deliver one or two things. That's a blast for us, and it's a blast for them, and it's a blast for the viewer.

McGinley: What was so fascinating about Vanessa … she was written as a comedy assassin, [with] a finite number of syllables and get through frame, but she brilliantly took up so much oxygen and real estate in the frame that the writers had to cultivate what Vanessa was doing, and it has yielded profound dividends as the season's progressed.

Can you tease when we'll see Carla and Cox again, and what they might be up to as the season progresses?

Reyes: I will say that Carla confronts the same things that Cox confronts in the same episode, in terms of physically being able to do the job and what it takes.

McGinley: Here's the sound bite: You won't be bored.

What's something you both watched recently that you're recommending to everyone?

Reyes: "Hamnet" [VOD], "Sinners" [HBO Max] and "Sentimental Value" [VOD], in that order. I'm moved by all three films, I can't recommend any of them enough for different reasons.

McGinley: I'm in rewatch heaven right now. I rewatched Game of Thrones [HBO Max], and I couldn't believe the storytelling. What they plant in Season 1, and how it blossoms three or four seasons later is preposterous. And I moved on from that to "The Wire" [HBO Max].

Reyes: The character of Omar! Rest in peace.

McGinley: He's unbelievable.

Reyes: And "Heated Rivalry" [HBO Max]. You have got to see "Heated Rivalry" … it's so sexy, it's so well acted, they're so beautiful and it's so interesting. It's just an absolute fun binge watch. A must.