“Sacred Heart. Eight years of great memories. This place will live forever…”

Zach Braff opens the ninth season of Scrubs with a not-too-subtle metaphor, as a picture of the Sacred Heart Hospital we knew is trashed and the new building is clear for all to see.

In May, Scrubs was given that rarest of things for television: A fitting conclusion. With the characters and stories still bringing a smile to the faces of fans, seeing JD leave Sacred Heart for the last time was bittersweet, but it somehow felt right.

Though many would have been happy to see things end there Bill Lawrence had other ideas, wishing to keep the show alive for the sake of his 100-strong production team. “Legacy shmegacy,” he said and so comes season nine.

More spin-off than continuation (as the tacked on [Med School] sub-title in the revamped title sequence would suggest), the blending of old and new brings mixed results.

First up, the old. JD, Turk, Cox and Kelso have returned to Sacred Heart to teach a host of newbies. All have kept their respective quirks. JD and Turk are still embracing their guy love (occasionally in slow-motion), Dr Cox continues to be an entertaining jerk and the (very) recently-widowed Kelso is delivering yet more cracking one-liners.

They’re joined by three new faces as well as the semi-new Eliza Coupe who I am more than happy to see bringing Denise into a more central role.

Set to take over narration duties is Lucy (Kerry Bishé). Socially inept and prone to crying, she’s basically Elliot from season one. It will take a few more episodes to see if Bishé can take the character beyond that first impression.

Standing out more and drifting through his classes thanks to some family ties is the smug, sleazy and completely unlikeable Cole (Dave Franco). It’s a good thing though. Scrubs has been in need of a character we love to hate for a long time and Franco is clearly lapping up the chance to be as pervy as humanly possible.

Last up is mature student Drew (Michael Mosley). Desperately hoping to slip under the radar and get through classes on his second attempt, he naturally fails and becomes Dr Cox’s number one student (complete with a “#1″ label that JD would kill for). An unlikely (or maybe all-too-likely) relationship with the emotionally-dead Denise provided one of the premiere’s high points.

While there were highs, there were also a few low points – with some laughs feeling a bit cheap and making you wonder if perhaps ignoring the show’s DNR order was a bad idea. The second episode (Our Drunk Friend) in particular is tarnished by the appearance of two bumbling security guards who would make even the writers of Paul Blart: Mall Cop blush. Hopefully they’re just the result of some bad coffee in the writers’ room and won’t hang around.

The first two episodes show how much this new format needs time to grow on the audience. But time is what it will get. The new characters need room to develop – something which is to a degree being held back by Braff’s presence. As much as I appreciate the need for familiarty, hopefully with his departure in four episodes’ time we’ll see Scrubs 2.0 really kick off.

Our First Day of School and Our Drunk Friend were by no means disastrous and that’s all that matters. If the rest of season nine should drive the series to a new low, however, I can always treat it like that fourth Indiana Jones movie.

What fourth Indiana Jones movie? Exactly.