Watching Private Practice is starting to wear me down.
Each week, characters that used to be quirky, interesting and funny are falling further and further down the rabbit hole of thoughtlessness and selfish acts that have turned the cast of medical professionals into a bunch of impulsive, self-centered teenagers.
While Addison was off mourning the death of her emotionally abusive mother, her boyfriend Sam — the one to whom she proposed and he didn’t answer, the one with whom she wants to have babies (though he doesn’t) — was kissing (and likely sleeping with) his ex-wife Naomi, Addison’s best friend. With friends like these …
Something’s been off with Naomi all season, particularly with her icy behavior toward Addison rooted in the fact that Naomi has been ticked off that Addison is dating Sam. Naomi’s wine-fueled interlude with Sam under the stars smacked of revenge, at least on Naomi’s part. As for Sam, it just proves he’s a jerk.
Cooper “had” to confess to Charlotte that while she was recovering from a viciously brutal rape, he was drunk and kissing the belly-shirt-wearing Amelia? No Cooper, you didn’t have to confess that and emotionally wound Charlotte any further. Cooper could’ve kept that nugget of information under his hat instead of making Charlotte feel badly while he unburdens his conscience. Oh, and his criticism that she wouldn’t wear the engagement ring … seriously, I’m so done with Cooper (who called Charlotte a “corpse” a few weeks ago) and all his whining that I don’t know how Charlotte can stand it.
And with Violet, please explain to me how a memoir about a woman who heroically overcomes not only a rape, but the savage removal of her baby from her uterus at the hands of a psychotic patient who wanted to steal her baby, has to also mention Sam and Naomi’s daughter’s teen pregnancy? How is it vital to the book to call Cooper a “man-child,” even though he is one? And why in the world would Amelia being depicted as someone who sleeps around have any bearing on Violet’s personal story of overcoming hardship?
I’m sorry, this makes no sense that the publishers would insist that Violet’s colleagues’ stories be told. Sure, trashing your friends and dishing juicy gossip might prove titillating, but I don’t buy that Violet had to include her colleagues’ personal stories, as she meanly mocks and embarrasses them, or the book wouldn’t be published. That storyline seemed about as authentic as the multiple personality disorder exhibited by one of Sheldon’s patients, the actress who played Paris Geller from the Gilmore Girls.
Again, Sheldon was the only one who I liked in this episode, as I pitied Charlotte for having such a lump for a fiance. Though Sheldon was initially duped by his patient, he, in the end, helped her and her family work it out and didn’t make it all about himself, unlike his colleagues who make everything about themselves.
Clacked by Meredith O'Brien 
on Feb 25, 2011 @ 15:00 EST5EDT
