After months of speculation, with fans salivating over dropped hints on social media; we have it confirmed! The Scrubs reunion is definitely happening! Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence has been quoted as saying: “We’re gonna do it because people still care about it and we enjoy spending time with each other” (Independent.co.uk, 2024). 

Scrubs was a sitcom staple that ran from 2001 until 2010. Eight seasons with the original cast followed by a somewhat ill-fated ninth season with a mix of original and new characters.  Starring Zach Braff as John Dorian ‘JD’, a daydreaming young doctor and king of the non-sequitur due to his various bizarre fantasies. The series follows JD as he progresses from an intern to an accomplished resident under the tutelage and biting sarcasm of his reluctant mentor, senior doctor, and fan favorite; Dr Cox (played by John C McGinley). JD’s friendships, romances, and multiple embarrassments have been immortalized through reruns and thousands of diehard fans.

In recent years entertainment has been enriched with various reboots and reunions from 90’s – early 00’s TV shows (Friends, Sex and the City, and Frasier to name but a few). Fans have been teased with the possibility of a Scrubs reboot for years by the cast themselves. 

In  July 2023, Christa Miller who not only played series regular ‘Jordan’, is also married to Bill Lawrence, posted a picture on her Instagram. The picture includes Braff, McGinley, and Lawrence, Miller quips about a Scrubs reboot. Both Miller and McGinley simultaneously posted the same picture in April ‘24, when the majority of the cast met up for a ‘pizza party’. McGinley posted the photo on X (formerly Twitter) including his comment “…getting the band back together”.

McGinley has since confirmed exclusively to Thatsmye.com, not only that there will be a reboot but also his involvement:

“…we all were in agreement that: as long as Billy (Lawrence) is at the helm of this reboot? We would  all dive-in, with reckless abandon!”

This proclamation will surely send fans into a frenzy speculating just what a Scrubs reboot will look like.

Braff himself was asked during an interview with Screen Rant what he thought JD would be up to these days. Braff reminds the audience that JD is a “grown a** man now” (according to the show’s timelines JD would now be 50) and would probably be more in the Dr Cox position. Braff has an interesting pitch of present JD yearning to return to the “innocence of his youth”(Screen Rant, 2024). Over thirty years in medicine would wear anyone’s positivity down.  Braff would like to see a jaded JD trying to recapture some of the joy from his youth.

And what of JD’s snarky mentor? Dr Cox would now be 65, the average age US physicians retire. Would a character as committed to his job as Dr Cox be able to retire completely? It would be ironic if Dr Cox, after getting some distance from modern health care, becomes the positive one of the dynamic. Would Dr Cox return the favor of years previous and help JD find joy in helping people again? However, would this be staying true to the misanthropic, ranting attending that the fandom fell in love with?

Fans have also discussed the possibility of a reboot including the character’s canonical children in the original series run. Dr Cox’s and Jordan’s son, Jack, would now be 21. JD’s own son, Sammy, would be 17. Izzie, the daughter of JD’s best friend Turk (played by Donald Faison) and his wife Carla (played by Judy Reyes) would be 18. Will this new generation play a big part in the reboot? Some fans suggested Jack would be following his father’s dream of being an ice hockey player and that Izzie would be following in her parent’s footsteps into medicine. 

It’s all fun to speculate what the Scrubs gang would be doing with the backdrop of 2024/25. However, it cannot be denied that the cultural landscape has changed since the 00s. Shows such as Friends and Sex and the City have met a reckoning of sorts for their lack of diversity and their portrayal of certain minority groups. Past sitcoms look very different under the lens of the ‘20s, particularly after the historic events of recent years. 

Scrubs has faced its own share of criticism over its comedic use of blackface. In the context of the show, the use of blackface is when JD is imagining himself or other cast members as his African American best friend Turk. Scrubs episodes are punctuated by JD’s outlandish daydreams. In the wake of the BLM protests over the summer of 2020, Braff and Faison used an entire episode of their Scrubs rewatch podcast ‘Fake Doctors, Real Friends’ (available on Spotify) to discuss the use of blackface in the TV series. 

The podcast episode is titled; ‘Our Difficult Past: Blackface on Scrubs’ was originally aired on June 29^th 2020 and ran for around 42 minutes. The episode included Bill Lawrence and actress Sarah Chalke, who played ‘Elliot’. Three episodes of the TV show included blackface ‘gags’. 

Lawrence takes full responsibility for the content, although all four members took accountability and offered their sincere apologies. Lawrence didn’t want to make excuses but elucidated the reasoning of his past self. The showrunner blamed it on “the arrogance that comes with success” (Braff, 2020). He thought they had a “free pass” as they had created such a diverse show both in front of and behind the cameras. For the era, Scrubs was extremely progressive, with a diverse main cast, an interracial couple starring in the show, and a varied age range among the stars.

The episodes in question were immediately pulled from Disney+  under Lawrence’s instruction. At the time of this publication, the episodes are still removed from Hulu, and two of the three are from Amazon and iTunes. Lawrence has also received criticism from the other side of the cultural divide; that the situation is another example of PC culture ruining art. However, Lawrence is steadfast in his belief that art is better for it. When doors are opened for people of different backgrounds and experiences to tell their stories, it can only enrich and diversify storytelling. 

Being accepting of one’s own mistakes makes us more understanding and compassionate which ultimately makes us better storytellers. Lawrence and the rest of the cast will take these experiences and lessons when creating what is sure to be a fantastic reboot.  Unlike other reboots such as ‘Sex and the City’ which tried to course-correct after the criticisms that the original series wasn’t diverse enough in its casting. The reboot seems to overcompensate by quickly adding a plethora of new characters who are POC, disabled, and non-binary. Even with the best intentions, this comes across as tokenism. Scrubs already had a diverse cast for a mainstream show.

Lawrence told Joe.co.uk that we can expect a reboot in “six months to a year” (Joe.co.uk, 2024). Whatever a reboot will look like, fans will eagerly await it and speculate just what a ‘20s Scrubs will include. With Lawrence’s passion, Braff’s unique insight, and McGinley’s enthusiasm it will sure to be an exciting addition to a classic show. 

Frog Fathers: Lessons from the Normandy Surf” is a deeply moving documentary directed by Bob Whitney, narrated by John C McGinley, and presented by World of Warships and FORCE BLUE. It chronicles the journey of four Navy SEAL veterans revisiting the site of the D-Day landings to honor their forefathers and gain a deeper understanding of the sacrifices made during World War II.

The film’s strength lies in its raw emotional impact and historical significance. It blends personal narratives with archival footage, offering a poignant tribute to the bravery and resilience of those who fought on June 6, 1944. The veterans’ reflections and the cinematography effectively capture the solemnity and reverence of their pilgrimage.

While the documentary focuses primarily on the veterans’ experiences, it also serves as an educational tool, highlighting the strategic importance of the Normandy invasion and its pivotal role in shaping modern history. The film’s respectful approach and engaging storytelling make it a compelling watch for anyone interested in military history and the enduring legacy of the D-Day heroes.

Overall, “Frog Fathers” is a powerful and heartfelt documentary that honors the past while inspiring present and future generations to remember the sacrifices made for freedom 

As most of us are already aware, the 12^th Season of AHS has been fraught with all kinds of differences to the previous seasons, mainly in that this is the first one to be based entirely off a novel, ‘Delicate Condition’ by Danielle Valentine. The first half of the season aired in October 2023 to mediocre reviews, while the SAG-AFTRA strike caused production and airing delays for the latter half of the season, and the episodes of Part 2 were all cut to less than an hour long apiece. And none of that is even getting into the disjointed attempt at storytelling for Season 12, so let’s dive into this! 

Meet Anna Victoria Alcott (Emma Roberts), former young ling star of Hollywood now struggling to recapture fame as an adult, who wants a baby, very very badly. Bad enough to drive herself and her husband Dex (Matt Czuchry) through multiple unsuccessful rounds of IVF (in-vitro fertilization), bad enough to keep trying no matter how crushing each failure turns out to be, bad enough to involve her purported best friend and bougie publicist Siobhan Corbyn (Kim Kardashian) in her struggles, and maybe, just maybe, bad enough to give up on a burgeoning resurgence of her career after interest in her comeback role for The Auteur begins garnering her Oscar-worthy attention. 

So, Anna and Dex are going to go through yet another round of IVF, likely one of their last attempts at it, from a different doctor, Dr. Andrew Hill (Denis O’Hare), and clinic based on Siobhan’s recommendation. And already, strange things are beginning to happen to Anna – her appointments that she set herself begin springing up incorrectly, a doom saying woman called Preacher (Julia White) shows up spouting warnings about trusting no one, dire warnings appear in unlikely places, and BTW, it seems as though long-suffering but good-nurtured Dex has a side-piece too. It doesn’t help that Dex’s new partner at his art gallery, Sonia Shawcross (Annabelle Dexter-Jones), bears a striking resemblance to his dead ex-wife Adeline, either. Those spiked emerald heels start appearing weirdly too, and it seems as though no one will listen to Anna as she grows more and more suspicious that some sort of sinister cult has designs on her as-yet-unborn baby. At the same time, Anna tries to live the life of a successful returning actress, attending parties and gallery openings while draping her rapidly-expanding middle in shimmering fabrics and actively ‘campaigning’ for that little golden statue that most actors covet. Competition is fierce, even among her co-stars of The Auteur, and while Anna wants to be supportive of her fellow entertainers, she clearly appears to be incapable of doing both at the same time – wanting the baby and the little gold award at the same time is too much to ask, apparently. 

Elsewhere, mostly in the past, various women in states of desperation formed from one situation or another are visited by sinister-looking women in prim black dresses, headgear reminiscent of – to me anyway – an odd cross betwixt birds and bunnies, my guess is an ostensive nod to fertility in general, and a general feeling of blood-bound witchery about them at critical moments of crossroad choices. 

Though the second half of the season moves a good deal faster than the first, the attempts at callbacks and reminder flashes to Part 1 hit with all the impact of a dropped bag of garbage onto their friends Talia’s (Julia Canfield) borrowed bougie kitchen floor – splat, into incomprehensible silence, from all parties, both characters and audience, concerned. Even the reminders that, in Part 1 of Delicate Dex’s mother Virginia Harding (Debra Monk) did indeed have perfectly valid memories of abuse at the hands of a black cult and Dex’s own father Dex Sr. (Reed Birney), the revelation pales and peels away in the face of Dex’s true parentage. 

Which brings us back around full circle kinda sorta, to the only real character worth a damn in this entire miserable season of strange feminism and aspirations of world domination through a kind of idiotic Rosemary’s Baby nightmare scenario, we should have known she’d steal the show when Kardashian was cast for it, Siobhan Corbyn, leader of the blood cult her high and mighty (old) self. Throughout the whole show her character has remained exactly the same, and it’s a wonder Anna can stare at her all stupefied while Siobhan does her villain speech at the end of the last episode. Siobhan never masked her ambition or greed, her mysterious protective vibe and even deep love for Anna, and can always be counted on to have secret plans of her own, already in motion, bitch. 

The idea that Anna herself was used as a surrogate for Siobhan and her incestuous eugenicist plans, plus the sweet little demon baby she just birthed, has an ironic the-world-is-tilting-the-wrong-way kind of witchy madness to it. Sure, Anna really can have it all, the baby and the golden statue, if only she joins the patriarchy-crushing cabal of blood witches with world domination plans, got it. 

I have questions, or I would have, but things are moving on and Anna is being saved by … Dex’s dead ex, Adaline the former member of the coven right okay her, she’s going to show back up and offer Anna a simple chant to Hestia her patron Goddess, and that is somehow enough to deal with Siobhan entirely – poof. And finally, after all that rigamarole, decades of planning and scheming and witchy plotting finally settled, Anna really can have it all as a White Witch of Hollywood, heaven help us, with her perfectly human baby and that damned little golden statue, clutched in an only slightly desperate grip. 

As with any season of AHS there are a great deal of statements that could be implied just under the skin of the season – the canker way of ambition, the millenia-old pain of a woman giving birth, the savagery and bloodshed that comes with bringing forth life, pushback against both the patriarchy and ultra-feminism, the absolute desperation of humans wanting to have a child, and perhaps strangest and most open to interpretation of all, what it means to be feminine. The worlds population of women who can’t or don’t or simply won’t have children, for any reason or none, are relegated to servants, expendable servants at that, for this new world order that Siobhan is proposing, and that is far too close a comfort to things like outright slavery. A dictator is a dictator, no matter how great she looks in those emerald spiked heels. 

It’s not the really beautiful grotesquerie that Ryan Murphy and his AHS gang are often known for, nor is it utterly terrible and should be burned at the stake. What Delicate should be, is put back together with missing and cut footage, an hour long per episode again come on folks, fleshed some more of Siobhan’s baby-stealing adventures in the past and given us an actual reason to like anything about the whiny Anna, at least the Part 2 we as longtime AHS fans deserve. Toss in some more spidery hijinks! Give us the actual origin of those weird feather bunny-ear headdresses! 

American Horror Story Delicate the whole season can be seen on FX!