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Home > Media Village > TV Shows > Private Practice > Private Practice: Giving Thanks

Private Practice: Giving Thanks

Published: December 7, 2007 at 02:21 AM GMT
Last Updated: December 7, 2007 at 02:21 AM GMT

By Sally Cohen-Cutler

After weeks of hating on it, and months of eye-rolling reviews, I’m thrilled to finally have to eat my words. ABC’s Private Practice was great last week, super this week and looks fantastic in two weeks.

Finally, the characters have begun to take shape with real, not contrived, background. The plot thickens for Naomi and Sam when their priest calls them to come to church—something Naomi can’t help but see as a sign. Though they are there to see a nun, Naomi immediately spills her guts to the priest—making for an awkward moment only topped by the conversation between the divorced couple about what they’re doing. I thought Sam might topple off the couch from his obvious physical discomfort alone, and the fantastically realistic awkward conversation was a great starting point for the episode.

The less successful matings of the previous week furthered the theme of awkwardness by dancing around each other and their issues. As Addison and Cooper tried to climb back on the horse with interesting consequences, Pete and Violet seemed afraid that there was even a horse in the first place. Of course, we had ridiculous ethical issues when Addison started seeing Violet’s patient, Carl, who has issues with putting things in orifices where they certainly don’t belong. However, their fleetingly chaste and misleadingly sweet date was a nice interlude to the slight overload of drama throughout the episode.

Pete and Addison were on call together for the Safe Surrender hotline, where mothers can drop off their unwanted babies with no consequences. It’s great that Private Practice is finally starting to incorporate its setting in more ways than just sunshine and beaches, as the Safe Surrender hotline is very much a proud part of California culture. The drama inherent in picking up discarded newborns is a little over-the-top, especially when the second one dies, but it reminds us that Addison is actually a capable doctor, not just a twisted up sitcom character. Her bonding with the first baby is also quite sweet (even if it is personally dangerous) in that it’s the first actual evidence we’ve seen of her wanting one of her own.

While Pete and Addison answer the calls, Cooper is supposed to check out the babies when they arrive at the clinic. However, Cooper is too busy picking up ladies on the internet—one who turns out to be Charlotte King. It’s the only time I’ve been happy to see her on an episode. Though she walks away from him at first, by the end, they’re having some of the raunchiest sex I’ve seen on network TV in a while. And though the pairing is unlikely, something about it is kooky enough to make me want to see what happens.

Back at the nunnery, it seems as though the one sick nun has caused an outbreak of an unidentifiable illness. When it turns out to be typhoid—Oregon Trail style—everyone moves to the hospital and the mystery origin must be identified. In short, though the nuns have been cloistered away for three months, someone must have been in or out of the nunnery in order to expose them to this strain. I’m not going to reveal what happens here, because I think the show does so in such a mature and respectful way, but I will admit that it maybe made me tear up a little bit.

The show closes with Addison, as it should—she should always be treated as the main character, she’s why I’m watching, and I’m glad they haven’t lose sight of that. Addison takes the award for capturing her sentiments and the mood of the day most accurately in a pert little quote: “I just don’t think I can be in this day anymore.” When Pete tells her she shouldn’t be alone, she snottily tells him she won’t be, and I know that I feared she was going to make some foolish choice. But when she turns to Sam, and then Naomi, I was reminded of the Cristina-Meredith relationship that makes Grey’s what it is—a family of friends, and a support network.

Bravo, Private Practice. Finally, with the Thanksgiving episode, I’m thankful that you’re on the air.

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