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If you’re anything like most of us at Man of Many, you’ve probably seen your fair share of Scrubs throughout your life, and you were likely nervous when you found out it was coming back for a new season. Whether you watched it during its original run back in 2001-2008, stayed for the questionable attempt to deliver a ‘new’ version of the show back in 2009, or have simply rewatched the eternally-bingeable series throughout the years – chances are pretty high you already have a good idea of both what Scrubs is, as well as what made it special.
While you can say a lot of positive things about a whole bunch of aspects of the original Scrubs – fresh writing, rapid-fire jokes, a deft balance between slapstick, dark comedy and absurdism – we all know it was the characters who made the show what it was.
Thankfully, new show runner Aseem Batra gets it. 2026’s attempt at a Scrubs reboot-revival-return has largely stuck the landing: delivering (most of) the characters you love, doing the things you love seeing them do, in a familiar-enough space to echo the long-dormant series at its best.
The series has landed an IMDb score of 8.4, alongside an impressive Tomatometer of 89 on Rotten Tomatoes – as well as a Popcornmeter of 94, signalling a strong critical and fan reaction. It’s not all golden, of course, but lovers of the series are almost certain to find something to love here.
But is there anything there for people who aren’t already enraptured by J.D. and Turk’s bromance? Here, we’ll dive into the critical response to 2026’s Scrubs revival and look at what the show does well, as well as the missed opportunities, in an effort to answer the question: Is Scrubs‘ return worth watching?
What Do the Critics Like?
Probably the biggest win of this entire season is that every core cast member is back, with only a few important side characters having not quite made the trek to our screens. And, somehow, after all these years, the relationships between the series’ core cast still manages to pop. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the chemistry of the cast was almost universally praised across reviews of the latest season.
“One can feel the love among the ensemble members, returning not just to get a pay check but because they truly adore these characters,” writes RogerEbert.com. “The 2026 version of Scrubs is a pretty solid piece of escapism, a return that feels almost like what the show would look like now if it had never left the air.”
While these are certainly the same characters we’ve known for the past 25 years, they’ve kept living and have changed past the ‘finale’. The impetus for this season may be J.D. returning to Sacred Heart hospital, effectively slotting back into the tried-and-true formula, but the challenges he, Turk, Elliot, Carla – and a whole new cast of interns – face aren’t the same as they were in the early 2000’s.
Scrubs was never a rosy-eyed look at the medical system, and this version of the show is more clear-eyed in its representation of what doctors and nurses go through on a day-to-day basis than ever before.
“The original show carried an air of exasperation about the US healthcare system; now this often tips into outright anger,” The Guardian said. “Doctors either have to scramble to bend the rules to help (patients), or play by the rules and ignore them. Neither approach works well.”
That’s not to say the series has become a full-blown drama—in fact, several reviews lauded Scrubs 2026‘s ability to thread the needle between the tension and loss involved in working a healthcare job, and the light-hearted comedy we expect from the series as a whole. While series creator Bill Lawrence is only involved in this revival as an executive producer (he’s busy with Ted Lasso, Shrinking, and Rooster), Batra has stayed true to the series’ deft balance of light and dark in a way that is honestly impressive.
“These two poles – deliberately silly comedy and volcanic fury – manage to blend into a show that’s just as watchable as Scrubs ever was,” The Guardian finished.
What Don’t the Critics Like?
Now, if you were reading the above and thinking, ‘if the characters are the same, and it’s kept the same tone and humour, how is this anything new?’, you wouldn’t be alone. Several critics noted the fact that, at its core, this revival is very much aimed at long-time fans of the series and isn’t overly interested in doing anything ambitiously new with the format. If that’s what you’re after, you’ll get it – for better or worse.
In fact, as Variety points out, Scrubs relaunching at the same time that The Pitt and St. Denis Medical are reinvigorating the medical procedural makes it pretty stark how safe this new season is.
“Against this dynamic backdrop, the revived Scrubs offers stasis: the same sentimentality (and) the same adorable platonic chemistry,” Variety writes. “This might be good enough for long time fans… (but) why watch a season that tries to stick as closely to the original as possible, apart from the inescapable effects of time, when you can just watch the original itself?”
Seattle Times said there is “little life” to be found in this new season: “Instead of bringing the same self-effacing humour and sharp joke-a-minute pacing that define the show decades ago, this reboot is trapped in the shadow of its better days.”
Granted, a reboot of an immensely popular sitcom being too similar to the series in its heyday isn’t exactly the worst problem to have. In fact, when the series initially tried to evolve beyond J.D. and co. back in 2009, kicking off a new season using (mostly) all new characters, the show cratered in popularity. It’s a good thing that J.D. is back in the lead here, but unfortunately, we’re also dealing with a slew of pretty forgettable interns who by-and-large fail to make an impact.
The Guardian said in its otherwise fairly positive review: “Scrubs is a show about teaching hospital, which means there needs to be an influx of newcomers for the oldies to teach. Here the show is slightly less successful.”
Along the same lines, Slate said the show suffers from the same problem as that ill-fated 9th season: “none of the current batch of interns rise above affable side-character status”.
Additionally, several key characters from the original series are absent. Scrubs was always an ensemble affair, bringing a slew of fantastic characters together to navigate the difficulties of balancing humour and hope with reality and death, and this new season feels focused on J.D., Turk, and Elliot, with core characters like Carla and Dr. Cox pushed to the side for episodes at a time. While there’s plenty of real-world reasons to explain this, that doesn’t mean the show doesn’t suffer for it.
Is the ‘Scrubs’ Reboot Worth Watching?
Ultimately, the Scrubs reboot is a fantastic example of what can be done when a 2026-style nostalgic-IP-retread is done with care and love, instead of a desire to tap into a well-known brand for some quick wins. The core cast are largely back in action, and delivering the same kind of storytelling you’d expect if you’re already familiar with the series, while the show manages to pick up decades after the initial finale and present a realistic idea of what these characters would actually be doing now.
In saying that, if you don’t already harbour some love for the series, or have largely engaged with it through endless reels and rant compilations on YouTube, it’s likely you’ll miss out on some of the pathos Scrubs evokes in its more somber moments—this really is a return to form for fans of the series, but newcomers are probably better off starting off at the beginning than the end.
Scrubs Season 10 is available to stream now on Disney+.
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