Private Practice: Season 5 Premiere

I should mention up front that I have never seen an episode of Private Practice before. In fact, it may be more accurate to say that I have gone out of my way to never see an episode of Private Practice. With the exception of ER in its heyday and a few episodes of House every now and then, the schematic of the hospital drama series has never quite appealed to me.

That being said, when I was watching the season 5 premiere of Private Practice, anticipating that the ridiculousness would become too much to bear, I found myself pleasantly surprised by the episode’s bright spots. Sure, there were some moments that perhaps weren’t the most realistic, either in the world of medicine or human interaction, and the dialogue does seem a bit stale, but the episode is structured in a way that makes the show move between the different stories in a fluid and engaging manner, a manner which some of the best shows on television don’t always achieve.  It’s only at the end where the story really begins to crumble and all of the drama that occurred in the previous scenes is severely diminished.

We begin with Dr. Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh), talking to her therapist about the unpredictability of life.

(It should be mentioned that between the first and last scenes of the episode there is about 10 seconds of screen time that is devoted to Addison’s discussion with her therapist and it is a crucial 10 seconds for the way in which it absolutely kills the rest of the episode with its insufferable dialogue and clichéd metaphors.)

Regardless, we find out that Dr. Pete Wilder (Tim Daly), has gone into cardiac arrest in his house with nobody there to witness it except his young son who can only look on with terror. Pete is eventually found by a friend and is rushed to the hospital where the majority of the episode’s plot revolves around everyone’s attempts to save his life.

The writer does a very nice job of keeping balance in how the stories are told. The side stories surrounding the main plot are often silly or overly obvious in the message they are trying to send, but they are nonetheless intriguing and provide a much-needed break from the action surrounding Pete.

Any good faith that the episode built up inside of me was quickly tarnished by the way in which the story concludes. Pete ends up being saved due to his friends performing the surgery, and this is a big sigh of relief after an hour of wondering if he will make it. This story would all be well and good if a scene in which Pete, high on medication, talks to his wife while in a drug daze didn’t follow it. I assume this scene was meant to provide some levity to the dramatic tone of the episode, but it was cheap and corny, and it felt out of touch with the rest of the episode.

The season 5 premiere of Private Practice could have been, despite all of its fundamental flaws, a solid start to a compelling season of drama, had it not run out of gas toward its conclusion.