Private Practice 1x01

When I heard about Private Practice, I didn't take it as good news. I thought it was going to be really disappointing and that I wouldn't watch after the second episode. I was hearing mixed reviews all over the place -- "critics" were panning it, while regular viewers thought it was quite all right.

I'm a regular viewer :) and while this faux-pilot (you can't call it a pilot after that horrible double-episode in season three Grey's) wasn't spectacular, it was decent enough to make a name for itself. Sure, they subversively tried to suck us in with a certain, um, scene during the hook, and sure, there's a lot of work to be done to make it really good like it should be, but I'm not complaining. The hook itself was incredibly long (ten minutes) before the title picture showed on screen; in that respect, it is very Grey's Anatomy.

That's about where the similarities end, with the exception of Addison, of course. Can I just re-affirm my complete and utter adoration for Kate Walsh here? *re-affirms complete and utter adoration for Kate Walsh* Thanks. What can I say. She was just... Addison. And a girl couldn't ask for more. Addison = awesome. She got some pretty sweet one-liners in there, too, which was nice.

I'm still not so keen on Sam (Taye Diggs) and Naomi (Audra McDonald), but Paul Adelstein and Amy Brenneman have excellent chemistry as Cooper and Violet respectively. There's one scene in particular during this episode that was a highlight for me, but I won't expand on it because I don't want to spoiler folks.

I liked it. It exceeded my expectations (sure, they weren't very high in the first place, but if I'd had any expectations, it would've surpassed them), and judging by the 14.24 million people who tuned in to watch it, plenty others were happy with it, too. It's not Grey's, but Private Practice is its own show, so if people want a carbon copy of the mothership -- they should just go watch that each week, instead of endlessly comparing the two. That's how spin-offs fail, and I never thought I'd say this, but I don't want PP to fail.

-------