Summary
Scrubs (2026) continues to meld comedy and drama well in “My Rom-Com”, honouring the old characters and their relationships while also finding smart ways to fit in the new interns.
The medical drama landscape has changed so much since Scrubs torpedoed its own reputation by trying to carry on past its sell-by date that it’s easy to imagine there’s no place for it in 2026. But if this reboot is proving anything, it’s that we perhaps shouldn’t be so hasty. In Episode 3, “My Rom-Com”, both the comedy and drama continue to work well; the interns are bedding in, the classic dynamics are evolving, the jokes are funny, and you know you’re never too far away from a tear-jerking moment. I’m not going to say this feels like Scrubs at its very best – not yet, anyway – but there’s at the very least a passing resemblance.
And it’s without returning to the same well, too. A crucial part of this episode was JD’s worsening relationship with Elliot, with their personal issues continuing to affect their professional lives. It isn’t just spiteful hand dryers, either. Elliot has a heart failure patient who is refusing life-saving treatment, and JD needs the bed. JD and Elliot both know you can’t save everyone, least of all the people who don’t want to be saved, but there’s a balance that needs to be achieved.
A fair amount of this works. The patient’s decision makes sense; she isn’t being recalcitrant for no reason, she just doesn’t want to spend her final days with severe heart failure carrying life-saving technology around in a backpack. And since she’s without a husband or children, she’s entitled to make that decision. Elliot believes she can convince her otherwise, but JD can’t give her the time she wants to find out. It’s a stalemate.
Elliot takes drastic action by shutting down all of the hospital’s electronic systems to buy her patient’s ex-husband time to make it to the hospital. He has a final message – presumably a romantic one – that Elliot thinks might change her mind about the treatment. It’s building to a funny subversion where he just wants to tell his ex-wife that he hates her, but in a touching way, he’s doing it so she decides to live out of spite. It succeeds – as Scrubs so often has in the past – by being both funny and heartwarming.
This isn’t what’s interesting, though. Elliot’s particular obsession with this patient stems from the fact that she’s alone, and given the breakdown of her marriage to JD, Elliot feels that she might be potentially looking at her own future. This is what she eventually confesses to JD in their inevitable but nonetheless welcome reconciliation. Are we building towards an official attempt at restarting their marriage by the end of the season? I think we might be, but if they just learn how to get along as friends like the good old days, that’ll work too.
Sacred Heart going analog is oddly reminiscent of this season of The Pitt, and you’d think that comparison wouldn’t do Scrubs Episode 3 any favours. But I don’t think it does much good to compare the two, since aside from the fact that they’re both set in hospitals, they have little in common. The Pitt, for instance, would never include a subplot like the one about Turk’s robot – although that does lead to a great moment of togetherness for the interns – and probably wouldn’t reveal his secret Dungeons & Dragons hobby either. There’s room for both.
On the subject of the interns, I do think they’re coming into their own, especially Amara and Dashana. The latter giving up her robot time to allow the home-schooled, unconfident Amara to find her feet is a nice moment, and leads to some effective comedy when Turk tries to teach Amara how to drive on the happy janitor’s swanky new floor cleaner. Tosh feels more one-note, still obsessed with her own online reputation above and beyond anything else, but it segues nicely into JD’s own obsession with feedback, and the – obvious – reveal that it was Elliot leaving him bad reviews.
Scrubs (2026) continues to feel – at the risk of repeating myself – like Scrubs, and while that shouldn’t be surprising enough to be worth reiterating, here we are. Long may it continue.
