MsMojo Can Fix It: Rewriting the Final Season of Scrubs

MsMojo Can Fix It: The Final Season of Scrubs

Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re diagnosing what we believe are the biggest issues with the final season of the medical sitcom “Scrubs” and offering the treatment that we think would have set it on course for a full and satisfying recovery.

Season Nine in a Nutshell

Season eight of “Scrubs” delivered a fantastic, well-rounded finale. It brought back some key characters from the past eight seasons, gave us a glimpse into the future, and tied up any loose ends. Honestly, we couldn’t have asked for a better send-off. So, it was a bit surprising when they announced that “Scrubs” would be returning for another season—this time shifting the focus to med school with mostly new faces, plus a few familiar ones popping up here and there.

While the first eight seasons really understood how to level the playing field between humor and heart in a way that fit the hospital setting, in this final season, the show leaned a bit too much into the new med students’ antics and their stumbles as they tried to find their footing. It was a shaky walk on the tightrope between funny and dramatic, and the writing often lost its way. After just 13 episodes, the show was canceled, leaving a lot of the new storylines unresolved.

Where It Went Wrong

As we mentioned, this new season was packaged as “Scrubs: Med School” and indeed took the action from Sacred Heart, which we learn was torn down, to a new location at Winston University. Although ABC had ordered the new series, creator Bill Lawrence has said that they wouldn’t let him present it as a totally new series under the aforementioned name, so to most of us, this was just “Scrubs” continued but without most of our beloved cast, familiar setting or well thought through storylines. Ahead of its premiere, Lawrence asked fans to give it a chance but also warned that if it did “suck,” it would “suck in a giant ‘Oh my god’ kind of way’” since they were “swinging for the fences” and making some major changes.

Well, at least he was right about that! The final season was a significant departure from the original run. It focused on a new group of medical students and explored the challenges of medical school from a fresh perspective. Yet, honestly, you could’ve put them in any college setting, and the storylines wouldn’t have felt so out of place. Now instead of walking the fine line between laugh-out-loud moments and poignant emotional scenes, it was more an over-the-top exploration of how awkward being the new kid can feel, working to fit different stereotypes and just more about the characters’ personal lives than their journey into the world of medicine.

Lucy was the new J.D.—bright-eyed, eager to please, but often in over her head. She finds herself in a situationship with Cole, an arrogant rich kid who thinks he can coast through med school thanks to his family’s deep pockets and big donations to the hospital. A health scare eventually humbles him, but given how insufferable he’s been up to that point, it’s hard to suddenly like him or understand why Lucy starts to develop genuine feelings for him. That said, you can’t help but root for him a little when he discovers his passion for surgery. We kind of want Turk to take him under his wing—he’d be the perfect mentor for a guy like Cole, who needs a little guidance.

Then there’s Denise, now an RA, and Drew, a 30-year-old med school dropout, giving it another shot. Denise, a late but strong addition to the original cast, is still as entertaining as ever with her dry demeanor. Meanwhile, Drew becomes Dr. Cox’s new protégé, much to J.D.’s frustration. Drew mostly tries to keep a low profile, occasionally dropping tidbits about his mysterious past while wrestling with his growing feelings for Denise, who isn’t exactly steady in the romance department herself.

While we might have grown to like the new cast in a different context, it was hard to connect with them because the original characters were still inconsistently involved. Bringing back key members to share their wisdom with the new med students made sense, but it often felt like the show was stuck between focusing on the old and new groups. For instance, J.D. left Sacred Heart to be closer to his son—so why does he suddenly return? This move seems to undo a lot of his growth over the past eight seasons. Elliot, pregnant with her and J.D.’s first child, appears just enough to offer advice, but her storyline about navigating first-time parenthood is left hanging. And where’s Sam? J.D. barely seems to spend any time with the son he moved to be near. Plus, having Turk without Carla around felt odd, don’t you think? The biggest gap was the Janitor’s absence; he quits in the first episode and is never seen again. They seemed to try and replace his quirky presence with Drew’s various backstories, but it didn’t measure up. Ultimately, it was tough to focus on the new crew when the original cast’s presence still loomed large.

Introducing a brand-new cast meant the show had to build fresh comedic dynamics and new inside jokes—though it did fall back on a few old favorites. The tone felt more uneven than in earlier seasons, with a bigger focus on the grind of med school. The shift in tone required a different approach to humor, and it seemed like the writers struggled to balance the serious elements with the funny bits. We just couldn’t buy into the chemistry of this new group the way we did with the original cast. The OG gang may have had their own distinct personalities, but they always felt like they could be real friends. Even the mentor-mentee relationship between Dr. Cox and J.D. was believable. But Drew? It felt like he was brought in just to annoy J.D. This new crew lacked that same connection, and it was hard to believe that even the shared med school experience could make their relationships work. The forced attempts to create camaraderie really took a toll on the writing quality. The season tried to dig into the tough realities of med school—exams, clinical rotations, research projects—but even though it aimed for the same humanity and compassion, the new cast was too focused on their own drama to give it the heart it needed.

How Do We Fix It?

The short answer is probably to rebrand the season as a brand new series, but as we said earlier, ABC didn’t want to take that risk. So, we would probably start by making the new setting the Sacred Heart of the show. By that, we mean we’d take the outline of the original series and see how it would work in the realm of med school. Yeah, of course, it would be a big cosmic shift for the characters but rather than focus on that, we would go back to how the OG gang were able to interweave their personal stories with their work lives and come out stronger and more grounded every time. Sure, it’s a sitcom; we want it to be funny, but also, this is the medical world, and drama is bound to happen, and out of that drama come some hard-hitting life lessons. It was the medical setting that made “Scrubs” so beloved and unique after all. We don’t need to see a bunch of college students complaining about school, those storylines already exist in abundance.

We get that the ninth season was an unexpected curveball for everyone, but we think the core of the series was its essentially perfect balance of hitting you in every possible feel. We wish the writers had extracted all these beloved elements and then crafted their new season around it. At least that way, no matter what happens on campus, the heart and soul that drew the audience in to begin with would be forever present.

While we totally loved the idea of the original cast passing the baton to the next generation of doctors, their roles should have begun and ended there. Season eight wrapped up their stories so perfectly that we didn’t need any more closure on their personal lives. What is “Scrubs” without Dr. Cox crushing a newbie’s soul just to make them better? But did we really need that whole storyline about him writing his will? Probably not. For longtime fans, Turk was the perfect choice to mentor Cole; he learned to put his compassion before his ego, a path Cole likely would’ve followed had the series not been canceled. But Turk without Carla? That just felt off. Keeping Turk strictly in his teacher role could’ve patched that hole.

It was tough to connect with the new cast when they kept dangling the characters we already knew and loved in front of us. If they were going to give the new group “The Breakfast Club” treatment, they needed to show us why this bunch could become a tight-knit group—even if just for med school. Elliot and J.D. started out as rivals, with J.D. instantly attracted to Elliot’s intelligence, boldness, and, of course, her looks. We needed that kind of dynamic to develop between Lucy and Cole. Their relationship felt forced, with no real reason to root for them and none of that same spark. Drew and Denise might have been intended to mirror the push-and-pull of Turk and Carla’s early relationship, but it was just two people constantly hitting emotional walls and trying to crash through them. That could have worked as individual stories or even as a slow-burn romance if there had been more seasons.

Then there’s Lucy, who takes over J.D.’s inner monologue role. Her voiceover should have added depth to her character and connected her story to everyone else’s instead of focusing just on her personal dramas. J.D.’s monologues made him relatable—even if you weren’t a medical professional, they helped us feel like part of the gang. We needed that same feeling from Lucy to connect with the new crew.

The biggest mistake was probably the network not letting the creators start fresh. None of us tuned in for a college-based sitcom; that’s not what kept us hooked for eight seasons. You can tell the writers struggled to balance the realistic challenges of med school with capturing the show’s essence. Instead of weaving serious issues into the characters’ growth and relationships, they often turned them into mere plot devices.

The show should have focused on what made “Scrubs” great—keeping the humor sharp and relevant. New comedic elements are needed to fit naturally within the show’s established style. We also missed out on the emotional depth that the original cast had; meaningful voiceovers or inner monologues, like J.D.’s, were needed to give the new characters the same insight and empathy.

To be fair, with only 13 episodes to prove itself, the new season faced a tough challenge—essentially trying to do in one season what the original cast built over eight. Still, they could have planted seeds to make the new group’s stories compelling and leave us wanting more. Since they missed the mark, the series ultimately flatlined. If the creators had stayed true to the show’s heart, they might have revived it and kept it as strong as before.

What would you have prescribed for the final season to make it better? Let us know in the comments!