ABC’s Scrubs revival returned for a second season Wednesday with a two-episode premiere that lands Dr. Cox in a hospital bed and pushes J.D., Turk and Elliot into the harder work of running Sacred Heart.
The first season reintroduced the hospital and its characters. Showrunner Aseem Batra says season two shifts to how the three leads handle the weight of leadership. She also plans more room for the interns, including Tosh, to grow.
Cox’s autoimmune illness drives the opening hour. The premiere ends with him admitted for an extended stay, a workaround for insurance costs after J.D. tries to solve the problem. Batra says the writers spent time on his treatment to reassure viewers that Cox remains part of the family. She wanted to treat him, she says, instead of putting him in jeopardy. She concedes that characters die on Scrubs, and she leaves that possibility open. Ken Jenkins, who played Dr. Kelso, will not appear this season.
The season grows to 10 episodes from nine. A big cast complicates the math, Batra says. Last season, supporting players often drifted through with a line or two. This year she plans to keep most A-stories with the legacy cast while giving newcomers larger arcs, including Grant, J.D.’s new mentee, played by John Higgins.
Personal storylines continue. J.D. begins a relationship with Rachel Bilson’s character, Charlie. He and Elliot settle into a post-divorce friendship, and their child, Ollie, will appear. Turk’s emotional and mental health, set up in season one, returns as a thread. Scott Foley’s Sean comes back in episode three, and Johnny Kastl returns near the finale. Musical numbers also return, on a smaller scale than in the original run.
The stakes are real for ABC. The revival debuted February 25 as the network’s highest-rated comedy episode, and its strongest streaming launch for an ABC series in over a year. The network renewed it April 30. Batra and creator Bill Lawrence serve as co-showrunners of a show that originally ran for nine seasons from 2001 to 2010.
