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Home > Media Village > TV Shows > Private Practice > Private Practice: Fight for the Right

Private Practice: Fight for the Right

Published: December 7, 2007 at 08:14 PM GMT
Last Updated: December 7, 2007 at 08:14 PM GMT

By Sally Cohen-Cutler

I sympathize with fighting for what you want, even in the most trivial way. It’s why you keep tuning in week after week, even when your favorite show seems to get off-track. Or why you would keep watching a disappointing spin-off of that same show. But at the same time, it seems that when you fight for what you want, as ABC’s Private Practice told us this week, you can get what you want—though not always without consequences.

Everything is a little off when the doctors of Oceanside Wellness come into the office—offices smell funny, coffee is missing, papers are misplaced. Dell walks in late, distractedly apologizing, and requests a favor for his PawPaw, Wendell.

The humor used in this situation fell really flat, not just because it turned out that Dell was talking about suspicions of elder abuse, but also because Dell is so sweet. How come nobody was sincerely concerned, instead of just talking about how their trash wasn’t taken out? And…maybe my small crush on Dell is rearing its head right now.

Though Dell’s grandfather and his best friend are both covered in mysterious injuries, they insist that there is no abuse, and dismiss Dell’s worry. When Dell and Sam investigate further, they find that the elder home residents have started a boxing club. Of course, they find this boxing match during a “championship,” apparently in the middle of the night, at the very moment of the death blow that sends Wendell’s friend, Nate, into cardiac arrest. The entire thing is very contrived—a word I often end up using in my Private Practice reviews—but it allows for Wendell to impart words of wisdom from a world-weary perspective.

His advice to really go for something passionately has already been shown in a dirtier way by Cooper, who is still involved with Charlotte. But when Charlotte refuses to allow Cooper to be on top, in any way, Cooper goes ahead and steals her business plan, including her contacts for a new program the hospital is running. This is how Pete and Cooper end up running a class for expectant fathers, which is cute enough, but a totally irrelevant side plot. Moreover, the fact that this ends up turning on Charlotte is just…unbelievable. But for some reason, I love their completely unlikely pairing, mostly because it makes Charlotte less annoying. Plus, doesn’t Cooper deserve some romantic success and confidence?

Addison finally goes for her policeman, after the return of the same couple with the broken hooha. Cathleen and Geoffrey’s overwhelming devotion to making each other happy, regardless of their own personal discomfort, touches the same nerve it did in Addison when she was looking for magic a bunch of episodes back. Though the story of their struggle for fertility was resolved in about 30 minutes, it seemed, the idea still resonates.

Sort of. I mean, I’m rooting for Private Practice again, but when they solve a man’s sterility with false promises of pregnancy and an immediately successful procedure that is highly experimental and difficult--well, it makes it hard for me to get sucked in without eye-rolling again.

Nonetheless, Addison gets some version of the message about fighting for what she wants, so she makes the move on her cop. Meanwhile, both Dell and Sam return from their talk with Wendell to fight for Naomi, even though it appears that Sam is the immediate winner…for now. To pass the message yet another step, watching Naomi’s wooing—what a lucky, lucky woman—something finally gets through Pete’s thick skull. He sets off into the night to fight for Addison, hollering at her door. Too bad she’s already off getting what she wants, what she’s told him she needs over and over again.

This episode, while flawed, sucked me in. Storylines are developing at a quick but realistic pace, and the doctors are starting to be bigger players in their own lives than the often exaggerated patients. I really appreciated the presence of a returning patient, and it was fantastic to finally see some progress in the Addison-Pete storyline. Fighting generally has a negative connotation, but when Private Practice keeps fighting like this to keep my attention, I’ll keep standing by the ring.

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