I’m thrilled that Scrubs is back… but what was with the opening scenes?

Scrubs Season 11 offered back-to-back episodes that raised the stakes for Dr. Cox — and his former interns turned senior doctors.

They were brilliant, but I almost lost faith in the series during the first few minutes.

(Disney/Sergei Bachlakov) JD Having Sex Didn’t Need To Be The Focus

I’m not a fan of jokes about how much sex people have or don’t have. I don’t find them interesting or funny.

So when Scrubs Season 11 began with JD in bed with Charlie, followed by several minutes of his desire to share the news — including one scene where it wasn’t clear if it was fantasy or reality — I groaned aloud.

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Fortunately, the Scrubs Season 11 premiere quickly moved past that nonsense and offered two stories that were as emotional as they were funny.

The best part, of course, was its throughline: Dr. Cox.

(Disney/Sergei Bachlakov)

Cox’s struggle with his illness will probably be a season-long arc, and that’s fine with me.

Scrubs needs more Dr. Cox, period.

I loved that he still has those annoying mile-a-minute rants as well as moments where he dishes out the best advice anyone could ever ask for.

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He also brings as much drama to the table as comedy, especially now that he’s no longer the guy in charge, but a patient looking his own mortality in the eye.

My favorite scene, hands down, was when he explained to Carla what it felt like to be a patient whose every move was scrutinized by his doctors.

(Disney/Sergei Bachlakov)

Regardless of age, being a patient can be difficult, especially if you are used to living your life a certain way and can’t do it anymore.

But for a man like Cox, it’s even harder because he is the type of guy who is far more comfortable bossing other people around than being vulnerable and needing to follow others’ directions in order to prolong his life.

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The Scrubs Season 11 Premiere Always Followed This Kind of Stuff Up With Side-Splitting Comedy

Scrubs’ genius has always been that it doesn’t fit neatly into either the comic or dramatic side of television, and the Scrubs Season 11 premiere was no exception.

Dr. Cox’s joke about how trusting JD really meant trusting himself since he taught JJ was the perfect way to break the tension after JD finally decided on a course of treatment for him.

(Disney/Sergei Bachlakov)

As a huge Law & Order franchise fan, I also loved JD’s fantasy about being the whole team on one of those shows, complete with the theme song!

In fact, I thought that JD, Elliot, and Turk walking down the hall looked like the opening to Law & Order even before the joke.

But the best fantasy belonged to Elliot when she walked into the pediatrician’s area of the hospital and was freaked out by the Bambi on the shelf.

It’s been a long time since I’ve laughed that hard.

Elliot’s Arc Is Set For This Season, And I Love It (Disney/Sergei Bachlakov)

Elliot’s response to Jordan has been long overdue, and I applauded it — even if Carla was right that Jordan is also the terrified wife of a patient who needs empathy.

Jordan hides behind sarcasm and cruelty, and Elliot has been her target for way too long.

Elliot’s renewed confidence reminded me a little bit of Scrubs Season.3 Episode 1, especially because it came with a musical soundtrack.

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Of course, Elliot’s confidence didn’t last long, and in the second half of the premiere, she was pretty much unbearable.

I didn’t agree with Dr. Cox that her problem was feeling like she had missed out on doing what she really wanted to do, though.

(Disney/Sergei Bachlakov)

During Scrubs Season 5, Elliot’s father cut her off financially and otherwise because she refused to go into obstetrics, which is what he thought was appropriate for a female doctor.

So when Tosh started talking about being interested in a female-dominated field, that had to have triggered Elliot’s old feelings about how her dad had treated her and her determination not to go into that field.

A callback to that would have been nice, especially since it was such an obvious connection.

Still, I was glad that Tosh stood up to her. Elliot was trying to mold her into a mini-Elliot instead of helping her achieve her own goals as a doctor.

The Scrubs Season 11 premiere made it clear that they’re going with Elliot feeling like it’s too late for her to do what she really wants, so we have to go with it, but I’m curious as to what that actually is.

(Disney/Sergei Bachlakov)

The implication, of course, is that Elliot compromised too much to be with JD, and that relationship is gone now.

That doesn’t seem like Elliot; if anything, I’d expect her to clash with JD because she refused to compromise about anything at all!

But the coolest thing about the Scrubs revival is that all of the non-interns are forced every week to face that they’re not as young as they once were, and Elliot feeling like life has passed her by fits that theme perfectly.

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Grant Is A Better Adversary Than Park — But What Happened To His Complaint?

I liked JD choosing a guy to be his mentee who drove him up the wall — accidentally following Cox’s advice to do just that.

(Disney/Sergei Bachlakov)

I’m also thrilled beyond belief that Park is gone. He just didn’t work as JD’s foil and was nothing but annoying.

However, I felt like the real story disappeared during the commercial break.

Grant filed a complaint about JD ordering him to admit Cox to the hospital without a legitimate reason and then what happened? Nothing.

JD realized that his job was to teach Grant to be a great doctor, not to win him over personally or convince him that JD was right about everything and they kept working together, and the complaint wasn’t mentioned.

JD even went ahead with his plan to make an excuse to admit Cox to the hospital to force Cox’s insurance company to cover the treatment, so the complaint didn’t even have any real consequences.

Couldn’t Scrubs have found a way to make Grant a thorn in JD’s side without opening a giant workplace ethics and possible legal issue and then making it evaporate?

(Disney/Sergei Bachlakov)

Still, this was a strong opening for the revival’s second season, and I can’t wait to find out where it goes from here!

What about you, Scrubs fanatics? Did the Scrubs Season 11 premiere live up to your expectations?

Let us know in the comments, and don’t forget to share this article with your friends so that they can join the conversation.

Vote in our poll below to rank the premiere.

Can’t get enough conversation about your favorite doctors? Check out all of our reviews of previous seasons of Scrubs.

Scrubs airs on ABC on Wednesdays at 8/7c and streams on Hulu on Thursdays.

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