Wishlist for Season 11

This revival has done so much well. I genuinely love it. The new characters are great. The ‘oldies’ feel exactly like we remember them, yet still like they have grown. It’s funny, it’s heartfelt, it feels both old and new at once. The hospital set is gorgeous. I could go on forever. It’s easily a 9/10. But if we wanted to get the show perfect, there’s a few things I think could be done to bring it to 11/10 territory.

1. Give JD a challenge: it seems like the job is too easy for him. The old show spent so much time showing us the emotional impact of being the Chief of Medicine in America’s messed up medical system. We need to see the personal toll on JD. Balancing being a co-parent with having one of the most stressful jobs in the world shouldn’t be as easy as it seems to be for him.

2. Conflict: There just isn’t that much conflict on this show. Elliot and JD fought for 2 episodes and then they dropped that storyline. Park is an interesting rival but JD is his boss so there’s not that much tension. Cox and Kelso provided great ‘bad guys’ in the original show. It inherently created tension. We need some of that.

3. Making the hospital feel real: most episodes do not feature nearly enough background actors (extras). Maybe it’s the more zoomed out widescreen format that adds to it but the hospital just feels empty at times, compared to the original. I hope the budget next season allows for many more extras.

4. The kids: I’m fine with them not featuring heavily in the first 8 or 9 episodes, but I do think we need to eventually see their family lives properly. Where is Sam? And JD and Elliot’s child(ren?). I’m not even flat on the logistics of their family life. JD lived an hour away from the hospital but Elliot continued to work there? Did she commute or what? Some explanation of what’s going on in their outside-work lives would be good.