J.D. and Elliot being divorced genuinely ruined my mood and I need to talk about it

I know, I know, this has probably been discussed to death, but I genuinely need to get it off my chest to someone who might understand because God know, my boyfriend doesn’t.

I love Scrubs. It’s my favorite show of all time. It’s also one of two shows (Avatar the Last Airbender being the second) where I genuinely believe it aged phenomenally. No matter when or at what life stage I rewatch it, I fucking love the OG 8 seasons.

When I was a kid-teen, it made me want to be a doctor. When I was a young adult it made me respect doctors and when I became an adult it made me feel

okay about it all. I was suddenly about the same age as the characters and seeing them stumble and fall but always get back up felt so freeing, because it meant that it was okay for me to stumble and fall and not have it all figured out.

To me, scrubs is a masterpiece. It had the medical drama, the humour, the romance, the interpersonal drama, unbeatable soundtracks and so on. Absolute masterpiece of a show. My comfort show!

So imagine my delight when I heard there would be a revival?! I was shitting bricks. Due to the loss of my grandmother in the beginning of the year I couldn’t watch right away and my the time I got around to it, 5 episodes were already out. And honestly, thank God because if I’d had to wait an entire week for the second episode I might have flipped my shit entirely.

Those two being divorced and absolutely EVERYTHING around it genuinely ruined my mood. Like I was so excited to watch those five episodes and my boyfriend basically has to “force” me to continue after that bombshell. And there’s many reasons for it - some personal, some plot related.

1. why the fuck, after 8 years of will they won’t they and ALL the growth they went through together, after showing them married and pregnant in season 9 and after those two morons choosing one another again and again and again would they divorce?! When it’s so obvious they still love each other so deeply.

For one, it negates all the growth they did over those seasons. But on top of that, we got no clear explanation so far and even worse the “hints” we got were bullshit. J.D. damn well knows all of Elliot’s quirks and vice versa. Are you genuinely trying to convince me a 50 year old man and father of (at least) two could not handle his wife eating Hawaiian pizza? Which, mind you, I’m an avid hater off but still. Or that someone as smart as Elliot couldn’t learn to communicate with her dreamer husband?

2. The arguments of the show runners also piss me off. “Realism” my ass. Scrubs has never been about realism. That’s the whole point. Half the staff would have been fired in season 1 for their behavior if it were about “realism” and even the romantic department was never realistic. Not a single relationship.

Cox and Jordan, for example, were a toxic mess. They would never have worked in real life nor would anyone have rooted for such a dynamic to work but within scrubs, they were perfect for each other. Their toxic tendencies were a perfect match and they could not have found happiness with anyone but the other. They loved torturing each other and it worked for them but realistic? Come on.

Then we have Kelso and his wife Enid, whom we never see and he constantly cheats on. Also handled super realistically of course. How realistic of a Chief of Medicine, running a Hospital, to constantly boast about cheating on his wife, making jokes about abusing her and so on. Hilarious and of course over the top even within the show but realistic? I think tf not.

Then we of course have Carla and Turk. I love the two of them but let’s be soooooo for real: they would not have worked out in real life. Anyone who calls JD and Elliot toxic, should also take a cold hard look at this relationship, because both of them are toxic - as individuals but also as partners towards one another. In the show it’s portrayed as loyalty and overcoming the hard challenges together - which is beautiful! - but in real life that wouldn’t be a healthy dynamic either.

And don’t get me started on the Janitor and Lady as well as Ted and his singer lady. Neither of those had a smidge of realism about them, least of all in the pacing.

All this to say: realism is such a weak argument when it comes to JD and Elliot being divorced. If anything, I’d have given them the highest chance of staying together (next to cox and jordan) precisely BECAUSE they went through all that shit. They saw the ugliest sides of one another and still chose each other. They did their growing before their marriage and not during it and that should have been enough.

3. the second argument about the more interesting dynamics also pissed me off. Turk and Carla were together since season 1 and still had interesting storylines and similarly Jordan and Cox kept it fresh and always added something. Also, let’s not forget that it’s still a medical drama/comedy, Elliot and JDs relationship shouldn’t be the driving force of the show to begin with. It should be that little something something you add to spice things up. The focus has always been the hospital life and what comes with it. The patients, the drama but also the community and humour. There are so many interpersonal relationships to explore to keep it interesting, JD and Elliot being in the rocks again is on the bottom of that list.

4. Where are the goddamn kids?! If you want more interesting dynamics, you could have focused more on them instead. Other than seconds we haven’t seen much of Turks and Carla’s kids, JDs and Elliot’s daughter was mentioned once, Sammy is entirely forgotten and so are Jack and JD it seems.

Also, why tf was JD putting together a bed that looked almost like a bunk bed or a crib?? Why were him and Elliot talking about “when they don’t have Ollie” like she’s a small child? May I remind the writers that Sammy was born in 2007 and Ollie in 2009? Those two are 18/19 and 16/17 years old. Basically fucking adults. Never mind Issy who’s 19/20, Jack who should be about 23 years old and JD who would also be 18/19 years old. Like some of those “kids” could be in med school themselves. Hell, Jack could already be running around the hospital as an intern.

If they wanted to have more interesting dynamics, they could have used them! Especially since Jack, Issy and Sammy showed up multiple times during the original show without being directly involved with the hospital. Hell, the episode were Perry tells Jack that fairytale based on stuff that went on in the hospital was one of the most memorable episodes to me.

You think being 50, doctors and divorced is exciting? How about being 50, doctors and raising a rebellious teen? Not just Turk complaining about his kids asking for money, but an actual troublemaker. So much potential and all of it for nothing.

5. This is entirely personal, but the whole thing hit me on a very personal level as well. I’ve always related deeply to both JD and Elliot. Both their good characteristics but especially their worst. A dreamer without a clear path but also a neurotic control freak. That was me. So seeing them grow and be loved despite those flaws was incredibly comforting to me. I always felt out of place and like everything I said and did was wrong but those two made it, so I could too.

Even more so, when it came to their relationship. I always knew that I was different and what many men would probably classify as “difficult”. Much like Elliot I have some hiccups and habits that are weird and some people cannot understand or do not want to abide by. I got that back then and I still get it now. I’ve always felt undesirable because of it and incredibly lonely. I’d either die alone or have to change so drastically I’d be giving myself up. You cannot imagine how much it meant to me how fiercely JD loved Elliot. He saw her crazy and her weird and he matched it. He chose her over and over again not despite of it, but because of it. I felt so seen.

As it later turned out, I’m Autistic and have ADHD which explained the obsessiveness, the weird habits and the need for strict routine and sameness but still. Their relationship gave me hope that despite that shitty ass diagnosis I could find love. Lo and behold, I did. I’ve been with my partner for over 4 years now and he knows me in and out. He knows my quirks and he loves me despite them. Hell, sometimes I’d say he loves me BECAUSE of them. I never would have found and build this relationship without the bravery those two gave me during my teen years.

It was genuinely soul crushing to hear that they divorced. I get it, it’s only a show, but to so many people it’s more than that. For a young undiagnosed autistic girl this show was her world, something so extremely formative and important. However dramatic it may sound, God knows who I would have become without that show, as is genuinely shaped me.

The media we consume shapes us, that’s a reality, so with that in mind, was their divorce really the “realism hill” they had to die on? In a show where a janitor could work in a hospital for a decade without anyone knowing his name all while torturing half the staff and one of the best doctors regularly all because of a goddamn penny rolling into a door?

Anyway, I tried to explain to my boyfriend and while he did recently binge all the OG seasons with me and does enjoy the show he’s not nearly as emotionally

Invested as I am so I had to shout it into the void as well.