"Private Practice": This One Takes the Cake

Published: October 11, 2007 at 08:00 AM GMT
Last Updated: October 16, 2007 at 08:00 AM GMT

By Sally Cohen-Cutler

I loved the cake. It's important that before I even get into any details about this week's Private Practice, I specify how great the cake plot line was. Every scene involving cake was a scene that I really enjoyed, and given that there were three large homemade cakes, I'm saying that this week was a more than decent episode of Private Practice.

We open up with Addison hating the rain in Los Angeles, getting locked out of her house as she tried to snatch all of her belongings out of the downpour. The whole scene hearkened back to Seattle Addison, and I'm glad she addressed it when she walked into work that morning. Her admitting that the magic she had felt in LA wasn't strong enough seemed to actually be the show's admission that maybe Private Practice isn't as good as Grey's, because the magic just isn't there. But that first step - admitting you have a problem - appears to be the best way down a path to improvement.

Firstly, Pete's character fleshing out served him a lot better than most of the others at Oceanside Wellness. His coldness at his wife's grave, the clear emotional insecurity behind his, "I'm here because Violet says I have to be. You were a bad wife," and his ensuing crankiness all throughout the episode actually make Pete into a person. As opposed to the hammering home of Violet's obsession with Alan (I'm refusing to comment on the message from him she saved and replayed through the episode), Pete's emotional explanation was touching and revealing. When he opens up to Addison, and then proceeds to really break down at his wife's grave - that's character. His snarky, "man meat" comments can serve as a contrast to this, but only if there is contrasting material.

The cases this week also had their own character - a woman unable to have sex, four girls who kept turning blue (yes, blue), and a man who wanted to stand up for himself in his marriage. Each situation was complex and relatively believable, even if a touch overly dramatic, and each had a common thread of learning to ask for what you want or learning how to coax it out. As Dell said throughout the episode, "Give them what they want," but even that doesn't always seem to work.

Even more so than the missing magic for which all the characters claim to be seeking, this week's episode was about getting you really want. Violet's patient told her to stop getting so personally involved in his life, which was nice for the viewing audience, who maybe have been feeling that way for weeks. While I wanted Doug to leave his wife, the fact that he stood up to Violet and basically called her out on her unethical behavior - I couldn't be happier that someone finally did. But Doug's plot line was obviously about standing up for what you want, as was the couple trying to have sex for the first time. The greater complexity was drawing the magic out of the other cases to see that it was just a matter of getting what you want.

Though Cooper claims that the sticker on the stethoscope is as far as his catering to the youngins goes, clearly he cares too much to leave it at just that. Instead of just referring the mysteriously blue girls to a specialist, he goes over with pink frilly fun to figure out what's going on. Thankfully he finds out that they're playing in fertilizer - by relating to them on their own level (which did, in fact, include fairy wings) he got what he wanted. I don't think it needs to be said how unbelievably sketchy it is that he played with three little girls in a shack behind their house. Or that I find it completely ludicrous that the mother might not watch her children when they play outside. But if that's the only absolutely unbelievable aspect, I'll take it.

I'm glad that Private Practice remembers the puppy love crush they set up with the pilot last year. Mostly because I think there needs to be a much larger Dell presence, and Naomi needs to stop being the biggest sad sack on TV. Naomi's admittance that she was actively shoving her feelings down under the cake was so genuine, especially as she fed the cake to Addison over a salad wielding fork. While I still find the whole interaction between Sam and Naomi to be foolish (on which note - why was Dr. King even remotely necessary in this episode? Why?), I thought her break down and subsequent anger at Dell for "baking cakes at her" was very genuine. And, also, more importantly, it was very very funny.

Private Practice still isn't great. However, this episode started to establish an overall feeling, a character, to the show. As long as there's more cake and non-hospitalized patients, that character can develop into someone I might like. And honestly, could Pete and Addison just get together already? And would you look at that - the first impatient fan question of Private Practice's short career. Let's hope there's many more to come. And more cake.

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