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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Stuart Heritage

Scrubs review – daft gags and volcanic fury bring the medical sitcom back from the dead

Elliot and JD look uncomfortable as they stand next to each other in a medical supply room
Doctors in the house … Sarah Chalke and Zach Braff reprise their roles in Scrubs. Photograph: Jeff Weddell/Disney

Bill Lawrence is on a tear. This is the man who gave us Ted Lasso and Shrinking, and who is days away from launching Rooster, the Steve Carell sitcom that HBO already sees as the anchor to its comedy output. At this stage in his career, Lawrence could blow his nose and the contents of his tissue would become a beloved heartwarming comedy series.

So it’s interesting that, of all his available options, Lawrence has instead decided to revive Scrubs. It’s a show with a big footprint – when Friends ended, you could argue that it became the biggest sitcom on Earth – but it still felt very much of its time. It was a medical comedy that not only derived a lot of its laughs from Family Guy-style cutaway skits, back when they counted as new and exciting, but also had more than one character who specialised in baroque cruelty, which doesn’t seem particularly on-brand for Lawrence any more. Ted Lasso would never.

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