I'm pretty excited about this show coming back. It started off slow, but the show was really starting to find its footing at the end of last season. Hopefully it will continue that way! It has all the makings of a great show if it can just pull it all together.

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This show is getting terrible reviews it got a D in EW. I am curious as to where this show is going and if it it lives up to this D or are they being overly harsh.

Definitely not a D. That's wayyyy overly harsh. This show is far from perfect, but I enjoy much more than many shows on tv now. The cast is a superb set of actors, and the cases are compelling enough. The dating subplots are tired and poorly written, but the actors rise above it.

Audra MacDonald ran away with this episode and Kate Walsh makes a great anchor.

I'd say B-.

I agree that the grade is too harsh, but there are still major things that aren't working on this show. I loved the opening...but then it started to lose it for me and I spent most of the hour trying to figure out what isn't working...cause it should work. I should care more. I should be more into it...but I'm not.

Here's what I think the issues are...
1. Yes, the romantic going-ons are boring and just lack any kind of depth. Addison and Pete don't have a ton of chemistry but have been in this tug-of-war since the pilot in Grey's Anatomy. I'm not sure what the way out of this is because they've firmly established that these 2 are gonna be together eventually, but I really have no interest in seeing them hook up.

2. All the actors are great actors in their own right, but some of them simply aren't working here. Chris Lowell, Audra MacDonald, Tim Daly, and Taye Diggs are just completely uninteresting and bland on this show. I have no desire to watch them.

3. The characters are too similar to each other. I was trying to compare these characters with the characters were introduced to in season 1 and 2 of "Grey's Anatomy". There was a lot of difference in those characters from Meredith to Christina to Bailey to Izzie to the Chief...these characters came from different backgrounds and they were suddenly put in the same situation together and it was interesting watching them interact. Here, I kinda feel everyone is smart, well-off, extremely goodlooking (but not an "interesting" goodlooking) and from similar backgrounds. There's not enough diversity between the characters and in the setting. (They also need to pull back on the fashions after tonight. Addison looked like she walked off the runaway in each outfit. It was too over-the-top.)

I say bring in some new characters, drop Chris Lowell, drop Taye Diggs, drop Tim Daly. I would say keep Audra MacDonald cause she's a necessary connection for Addison to have and if both of Naomi's supposed love interests took off then it would be something for her to deal with.

Kate Walsh is a great center for the show, Amy Brenneman proved to be a fantastic supporting character in season 1 and Paul Edelstein and her have a fun connection, and the medical cases are solid. There's just too much blandness around them.

I did like the ending here though. I'm interested to see what they do with that. My PVR cut off the whole ending though. What happened after Naomi walked out of the conference room?
C+

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I thought that this was a strong premiere with two very compelling medical cases (the HIV-positive teen that didn't know his diagnosis until it was too late, and the premature baby conceived to help cure a dying sibling). Those were probably the strongest cases that the show's had to date for Kate Walsh and Audra McDonald. The ensemble is an excellent one, and that's what keeping me onboard still. There was a good deal of setup here that will hopefully pan out in the coming weeks (Sam taking over the financial operations of the practice from Naomi, Dell quitting, Addison choosing the "SWAT" guy over Pete, Cooper and Charlotte's secret affair [the only part of the show that's tedious and annoying to me], and Violet piecing together the truth about Cooper and possibly making a play for him down the road). I do hope that the show either softens or does a character re-imagining for Kadee Strickland soon, or gets rid of Charlotte fast. This episode was nowhere near D-level though -- that was a ridiculous grade for EW to give it. I'll give the season premiere episode a B+.

Does no one else watch PP?

Private Practice does have potential. I feel that the show's medical cases were very compelling. Now, if only the characters' and their histories were as interesting. Right now, as it is, the characters do in fact appear to be too much alike and therefore, they are just the typical joe and jane. What this television show needs to do is show us who these people are and what makes them tick? It is very hard to get emotionally involved with any of these characters, for me, other than Addison. And that is because of my adoration for her from Greys. If the writers start to bring these characters into their own, then the emotional reaction to these medical cases and the choices the doctors make will be that much more compelling. However, to some extent, I feel the actors have risen above the material. Kate Walsh is fantastic and the actress that plays Naomi is doing a very decent job as well.
Overall, the season premiere of Private Practice: C+

I just finished watching. It was hard to get through. The medical cases are interesting, but it's really hard to care for these characters. The only one I am remotely interested in is Violet.

I didn't watch, but I'll try to catch up with repeats.

Two things that bugged me about last year: I am a huge fan of Chris Lowell, a likable and charming performer, and he was sorely underused. How is he fitting in now?

And I intensely disliked the dithery Addison who seemed to have been lobotomized during her move from Seattle. I wanted the Addision from her first couple of seasons of "GA," not a ditz flipping over every cute boy.

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I think the show has the greatest promise in the world, and the way things turned out in the end of the episode made it really interesting.

But I agree that some of these characters are uninteresting. I like Chris Lowell, but if you're gonna take a nice actor and turn him into this, then get rid of him, sort of like Samaire Armstrong on Dirty Sexy Money. They take these great kids and then underuse them and ruin the public's appreciation for them and make us hate the characters. Dell is boring and unnecessary.

To me the problem is that they wrote only one great character, and that was Cooper. They wrote a so-so character in Violet. And they had an old character that was created perfectly in Addison. They give wonderful oportunities to both Adelstein and Brenneman to show off. One is comic releif, but can do drama perfectly fine and the other is just a mess who sometimes is fun to watch.

But then there's Peter, Sam and Naomi. MY GOD! are they boring. And out of all of them, the way they want to take this show, this dramedy medical thing they're doing, only Taye Diggs can manage, and that's saying a lot. Audra McDonald is a fantastic actress but she's miles ahead of this show and she can't seem to be a "lesser" actress to accomodate herself to it the way Breneman, Walsh and Adelstein do. She just doesn't know how to and it's evident in every single episode, she doesn't fit. Peter is a horrible and unnecessary character, even if he's being setup for Addison in the future. Nothing wrong with Tim Daly, but Peter is the worst character here, completely unnecessary.

I think they need to tell us who these characters are and what it is they do. You watch Grey's Anatomy and nobody is useless and nobody needs to go, everybody has a story everybody is a defined character, everybody has something to give and they're fun. And when they take out Preston Burke it sucks because he's a great character with a fantastic actor who screwed up. And when they add Erica Hann or Callie Torres is fantastic and the actors are welcomed with open arms. They all come with something, these Private Practice characters have nothing.

I feel like Sam can give the practice to Addison, make her fire everybody and hire new people and we wouldn't even care. We would all be expecting and waiting for these new people to arrive with a smile on our faces.

And they do like to waste opportunities. Both cases were terrific, and they didn't capitalize on them. And they screwed up with Sam taking over the practice. They had a great chance at giving these actors a wonderful scene to share together and to act their asses off like the situation required and they decided to end the episode. Instead we get the conversation between Addison and Naomi and shoes and cakes, or the many encounters with Charlotte and Cooper.

I'll keep watching because for me the hour passes by quickly and I love Kate Walsh and Paul Adelstein and don't mind watching them...

Grade: C

"Nothing To Talk About"

Addison needs to move back to Seattle.

Amy Brenneman and the rest of the cast deserve better shows.

This episode could've been ok, but it was so ridiculous.

Addison falls off a treadmill and has to go to the hospital so Dell can put a bandaid on her knee????? WTF. Then she races through six surgeries without bothering to learn the names of her patients????

Pete's patient is a bra-wearing Firefighter??

I had hope's that Violet's case would be interesting, but the kid killed his dog to save his mother from paying to put it down. Why the hell was she so scared of him and sleeping with a hammer under her bed?

Bottom line. I think the actors and the characters are strong and that is why I keep watching. The writing is laughable and not in a good way.

This episode doesn't make any sense at all.

A mom is scared of her own child!? He only killed the dog because they can't afford to put him down.

Dell works at a hospital, why would he and Addison meet?

The characters are just plain obnoxious!!!

Please PLEASE PLEASE bring Kate Walsh to Grey's Anatomy!

Yeah this didn't work. Kate Walsh was great. Amy Brenneman is freakin fantastic. If you want a lesson in great acting, watch the scene where Violet walks into Naomi's office and confronts her towards the end of the episode. The dialouge is atrocious, but Brenneman is so freakin good, she makes it work.

The brief moments of Addison in a hospital gave me a glimpse of what this spinoff should have been. The private practice is just full of pretty people in a pretty office with nothing much happening.
C-

I liked this episode. I don't understand why people don't get why the mother was scared. It was a little bit exaggerated, but common, the dad died, he kills the dog, changes his personality completely and doesn't talk, doesn't laugh, doesn't smile, is weird and scary and yeah, he killed the dog, his dog of 10 years....

Did the mother really have to assume it was because they didn't have the money? The kid never said a word to her, she had reason to be scared.

The show is still incredibly flawed, but crazier and more stupid things have happened on Grey's Anatomy...

Violet is great and so is Brenneman. I also like Charlotte and Cooper for some reason.

Grade: B-

This was a little better. I saw a review of this episode that really praised it because we saw "old" Addison again: the tough as nails Addison. And I agree...she was great here in her intervention of Sam and Naomi, and I loved her scenes with a patient.
Jayne Brook (aka Scotty's Mom from Brothers & Sisters) was really great here. She brought an edge to the show that is sorely lacking...I'd like to see her stick around. Although I couldn't help but hope that Pete would take her up on her offer to go to Ghama, so he could leave the show and never be heard from again...but I'll live with Jayne Brook sticking around.

I still think they need to get rid of Sam, Pete, Charlotte...and the young blond guy. Sadly, I can't remember his character name. That tells you how valuable he is to the show when we are 2 seasons into this show and I can't even remember the character's name. And Charlotte has no point on this show. It was a tough character to fit into the show I thought when it first started (a workplace drama with 1 character who isn't part of the workplace)...but she's proven to be pointless.

B-

Hmmm, interesting...another uptick in quality this week. Addison in charge is fantastic and brings us back to the old Addison.
Amy Brenneman was great again (but that's not new) and she had good material.
Sam and Naomi were actually interesting to watch for the first time...EVER.
Pete has great chemistry with Jayne Brook. I guess she's gone now, but they'd be smart to bring her back. She brings great edge to the show.
They are finally bringing KaDee Strickland into play...and it sounds like that floor might have more surgerical procedures which would create more highstake cases.

It's not there yet, but this show is making progress.
B-

I watched the last 2 episodes today.
The first one had a few great moments. Addison following her boyfriend was hilarious, and the scene at the end with Addison talking about her lack of trust because of her past infidelities was wonderful. Amy Brenneman continues to be wonderful, and the show knows it, as they always give her a subplot.
But the rest is awful.
The last episode was particularly bad. The show is just so hallow. I notice that most of the scenes are like 30 seconds long. So the characters spit out what they need to say to move the story along, and then the scene ends. It means that the characters just feel hallow. Hell, I've been watching Dell, Naomi, Pete, Charlotte, and Sam for 20 episodes or so, and I still feel like I don't know them at all, and don't care about them at all.

I just wish Rhimes would wake up and realize that she has a show with potential but she's killing it with these meaningless characters. The show has no edge.
I find it interesting that the show so quickly brought back Jayne Brook because they must realize that this is a character with EDGE who is actually interesting to watch.

"Nothing To Fear"

I've been pretty hard on this show this year, but I actually thought this most recent episodes was one of their best.

Guest star Joel Grey was fantastic and worthy of a Guest Actor nomination and Amy Brenneman was great in dealing with Violet's pregnancy.

Hopefully this show can continue to improve.

Did anyone else catch this episode?

quote:

Originally posted by jdb1131978:
"Nothing To Fear"

I've been pretty hard on this show this year, but I actually thought this most recent episodes was one of their best.

Guest star Joel Grey was fantastic and worthy of a Guest Actor nomination and Amy Brenneman was great in dealing with Violet's pregnancy.

Hopefully this show can continue to improve.

Did anyone else catch this episode?

I agree. A lot of the supporting storylines seem to be working really well. I think they're getting better with every episode. They're at least on par with some of grey's earlier episodes this season.

Grey deserves an emmy nomination. He was great and seeing pete react to him was fantastic.

The addison relationship stuff felt really forced, but i enjoyed every moment with amy brennamen. She deserves awards for what she's doing on this show.

I also really like Pete's reaction to Charlotte's proposal(and him visiting her and big daddy in the previous episode). However, his character works best when he gets to hang out with Violet. Adelstein and Brennamen are the best things about this show.

Dell has to be one of the most frustrating characters on television right now. His actions are so annoying, even if they are well explained.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: G.Penn,

quote:

Originally posted by G.Penn:
Dell has to be one of the most frustrating characters on television right now. His actions are so annoying, even if they are well explained.

I totally agree. Dell is the most annoying character.