So despite going downhill for the last couple of seasons, Scrubs is back with a new season. I'd given up on the show, but gave it another look because they have completely reset the series, now focusing on the med school side. Two episodes have aired so far, and I'm mixed about it. I love the Denise character, and it's great having Dr. Cox rant at all new insecure underlings; but so far no Ted and not much janitor. I'm definitely sick of the Turk/JD bromance, but it looks like they are going to put way too much focus on this yet again.
I wouldn't worry about it too much, Zach Braff and Sarah Chalke are only signed on for the first 6 episodes, and I think the JD torch is being passed to Gangly-Sticks (I forget her name). I enjoyed the first two episode, I don't think you'll be seeing Janitor, as he has his own show on ABC now as well. I'm more wondering where the hell Carla is, seeing as how when we left off she was queen of the nurses.
I remember reading somewhere that the producer didn't think Carla would be a good fit into the the whole Medical school scene. "Why would a nurse be at the medical school" or something like that. He tried to get her to do guest appearances but she said she wanted full time or nothing. No hard feelings but he hoped she would change her mind. While I didn't catch this last night I am planning on finding it later today to check it out.
I'm also mixed at this new season. I actually disliked Cox in these two episodes and I'm unsure of how his character is going to be once JD is gone, and there won't be much balance between one shitting all over the med students, and the other being too easy on them. There's only one new cast member I'm not keen on and that's Cole, even if he is James Franco's little brother. The whole 'my family are the biggest donors to this hospital, I'm untouchable' schtick was bad enough once to Turk, let alone again to Denise, and for neither of them to give him his comeuppance was unbelievable. They should ditch Cole as a main cast member and replace him with Nicky Whelan (the australian) Ted will apparently be in episode 4, but I believe he's leaving the show in that episode, along with Gooch.
Bill Lawrence has mixed feelings about Scrubs 1.5. He advised viewers to treat this continuation like an entirely new series (which I admit is going to be hard.) I saw the second episode and I'll say I'm not impressed but I'll see if it finds its legs later on this season. If not, we consider the finale to be the end of the series and whatever this is to be a hail-Mary attempt to keep a popular show going on the behalf of the network.
I thought the episodes were decent overall. The beginning of the first episode sucked pretty hard, but they recovered decently. I certainly thought the episodes were better than the last season that was on NBC, which was an embarrassment for Scrubs. My biggest issue with this iteration of Scrubs is that I thought the supposed series finale last year was perfectly done, and I hate to see them taint that ending with an inferior product. That said, I'll be watching because frankly until LOST is back, there's nothing on Tuesday nights as it is. Also, the more they show that Australian girl, the better.