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Private Practice

Taye Diggs as Dr Sam Bennett in Private Practice
  • Posted at 11:38am
  • 22 July 2008
  • by AlisonGraham-RT
  • 2 comments

For several years Grey's Anatomy (Thursdays, Five) has been the most powerfully emetic series on television. But stand back, get out the hoses and prepare to sluice yourselves down, because Private Practice (Tuesdays Living) is here.

Private Practice is a Grey's Anatomy spin-off. Oh joy! Oh happy day! Just what the world needs, yet another thundering piece of soul-sucking tosh. Actually, I like Grey's Anatomy, but not in any way that makes me feel proud.

Grey's, centred on a group of trainee medics in a Seattle teaching hospital, has a certain admirable slickness that makes you just about forget the fact that its central character is terminally self-serving and lip-shreddingly tedious. The first Private Practice (15 July), on the other hand, looked cheap, like a US daytime soap. And not a very good one, either.

Its main character, "world-class neo-natal surgeon" Dr Addison Montgomery Shepherd (Kate Walsh), jumped ship from Seattle to join her friend's private medical practice in Los Angeles. I liked Addison in Grey's Anatomy; she had a bit of gumption. But the danger signs are already flashing for her in Private Practice. Yes, she may well be a "world-class neo-natal surgeon" (she told us this twice) but she's kinda fun and kinda cute because, look, she dances in the nude after showering!

Thus the way was being paved for Addison's brain to be sucked out of her lovely head as she becomes as needy and idiotic as her female colleagues - the practice's psychologist admitted to stalking her ex-boyfriend, while the boss was still in love with her ex-husband and colleague, a chunk of prime deciduous forest masquerading as an astonishingly handsome actor called Taye Diggs. Neither did the men escape Private Practice's dead hand. They were emotionally wizened, pathetic, demanding, sappy and selfish.

And oh, dear lord, the tears. Everyone cried because they had no professional detachment; everyone learned something, and they said things like "You have to make a choice".

Wouldn't you think, too, that a private practice is a doctors' surgery? It is a doctors' surgery but, said the practice boss, "It's not about surgery; it's about connecting." Would you mind holding that bucket steady for me, please?

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Comments

  • Posted on 26 August 2008
  • at 9:38pm
  • by Chloe

I enjoy this show far more than the dreary OTT Greys. And I have to agree with Hannah - it gets better as it progresses, which given it was rushed into production, is no surprise.

I adore Kate Walsh who plays Addison. She is a fabulous actress & far more endearing as a lead than the whiny Meredith on Greys.

In fact the only character I find a little grating is Charlotte (mainly due to the heavy Southern accent), which compared to the many irritants on Greys (Meredith, Izzie, the plank of wood that is Mark) is a surprise.

I think the writer's strike will have benefited the show & enabled them to tighten up on the writing & general direction.

Hospital dramas are too-a-penny (the best being House), & I'm glad to see this series take a lighter tone & in a setting outside the usual hospital. And there are no mushy cliched voiceovers which is always a big plus !

Can't wait for Living to show Season 2 next year. I might just have to watch at US pace in the meantime.

  • Posted on 29 July 2008
  • at 8:45pm
  • by Hannah

For God's sake its the first episode, give it a chance. I happen to know it gets a lot better... not that I care what you think anyway to be honest! I am surprised you didn't blame this one on us 'young people' too!

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