The Grey’s Anatomy spinoff series Private Practice was actually introduced last year during a two-hour special. During that episode, we saw Addison Montgomery (the Shepherd portion has been dropped) reconnect with her med school friend Naomi Bennett (played back then by Merrin Dungey, but now played by Audra McDonald), who, with her husband Sam (Taye Diggs) and several other partners, runs a private practice called Oceanside Wellness Center in L.A.
The preview special ended with Naomi offering Addison a job at Oceanside, but Addison didn’t give an answer right away — though it wasn’t exactly a cliffhanger as to what that answer would be! So now we kick off Addison’s new life in private practice with episode 1×01, which was burdened with the unwieldy title, “In Which We Meet Addison, A Nice Girl From Somewhere Else.”
Addison/Pete: First of all, let me say that I hope this pairing (Addison/Pete) doesn’t become permanent because I really can’t stand the Pete character thus far. I didn’t like him in the preview special, and I didn’t like him last night either.
At any rate, Addison’s first day on the job doesn’t start out very well. No one besides Naomi knew that she had been hired, and they’re all a bit miffed about that since there’s supposed to be a vote on such things. Nevertheless, Addison sticks around to help out the “one patient a day” that she can expect to see at the clinic.
This time it’s a young, unmarried woman who’s going into labor. Her father is with her, but offers zero support and doesn’t really seem to care what happens. (Turns out his attitude is like that because he lost his wife when she gave birth to his daughter.) The birth doesn’t go very smoothly, and Addison has to perform a C-section right there in the clinic, with Pete doing some hippie-dippy thing to the patient’s nerves so she wouldn’t feel pain during the operation.
Sam/Naomi: These two spent most of the episode bickering with each other. Naomi is still bitter because Sam left her, while Sam tries to explain his actions by saying he just wanted to see Naomi fight for him.
In between arguments about their recently dissolved marriage, they help out a woman whose boyfriend died of a heart attack just prior to donating sperm for an in vitro procedure. The woman wants to get the boyfriend’s sperm anyway, but the chief at the hospital they’re at refuses to give it up since the girlfriend has no legal claim to it.
Later on, the dead man’s wife shows up, which of course complicates the situation even more. Naomi ends up saving the day by talking to the wife and convincing her to let the girlfriend have the sperm. After all, that’s what her husband wanted and the wife just has to learn to “let him go.”
Cooper/ Violet: Cooper’s supposed to be a pediatrician, but he spends most of this hour helping Violet on a psych case. Violet gets called out to the mall because one of her patients is going through a crisis and is dealing with it by counting all the floor tiles in one of the stores. The store manager happens to be the woman’s brother, so he decided to call Violet before calling the cops.
Anyway, the woman doesn’t respond to anything Violet does, but Violet is able to figure out what triggered the woman’s episode. The woman lost her son to a brain tumor, and was reminded of him when she saw a commercial that featured a kid of her boy’s age. Violet and Cooper are able to talk to the woman, getting her to calm down enough to remove her from the store.
My Reaction: This episode felt very disjointed to me, and because of this, it was hard for me to get into it. There were parts that I enjoyed, but on the whole, I was pretty underwhelmed by what I saw.
First of all, Addison didn’t seem to be Addison outside the confines of Seattle Grace. I know it was her first day on the job and she felt like no one wanted her there, but her nervous Nelly act didn’t fly with me. She burst onto the scene at SG the same way, with Derek not wanting her there because of Meredith, but she was all about confidence and composure back then. What happened to that Addison? That’s the character I love.
Second, I hope the writers put the Sam/Naomi angst to rest soon. I don’t think I’m up for yet another will they/won’t they get together pairing right now. Please just show that two people can be mature adults and work well together even after a divorce.
The plot that I liked the most tonight was the one involving Violet and Cooper. Once they got to the bottom of what caused the woman’s freakout, the whole thing turned into a pretty touching story. I think these are the two strongest/most likable characters right now, so I wouldn’t mind seeing more of them.
Overall, this wasn’t a fantastic start to Private Practice, but it wasn’t horrible either. I’m still willing to give this show another 4-5 episodes before making a final decision as to whether I should keep watching or not.