Private Practice: In Which Sam Receives an Unexpected Visitor

(S01E02) Even if Private Practice had fair ratings for its premiere, the reviews for the first official installment of the Grey's Anatomy spin-off were not stellar. Actually, at the time I write these lines, out of the 733 readers who voted in our "Will Private Practice be part of your weekly watch list?" poll only 146 (19.9%) said they would definitely watch the series while 398 (54.2%) said they would give it a few more weeks but weren't sure about the show yet. The remainder, that's 25.7%, said they would not watch more episodes. I fall in the second category.

So did this week's episode of Practice delivered the goods to have some of the undecided stick with the show?

When compared to last week's episode, "In Which Sam Receives an Unexpected Visitor" was quite good. On its own though, it wasn't bad. I still see a few flaws in the series but at least it's getting more watchable and may stand a chance if it keeps improving.

This week's episode focused on three cases: the switch babies, the sick dad, and Ginger, the "entertainer."

The switched babies storyline was not that original (I think every medical show had at least one case like this) but it was touching and the ending (the fact that one of the father did the switch) was a tad original. It was somewhat predictable but at least it had us think and try to piece the puzzle together.

The actresses playing the mothers gave a heartfelt and touching performance. I was really feeling for them, especially when they made the switch. I cannot begin to imagine what those families, especially the mothers, went through.

What was also good about this storyline is that it had most of the doctors work as a team. Cooper, Naomi, Addison and Violet all had a part to play to help solve the case. Charlotte even had to cooperate and let her guards down for once.

Sam had a case of his own. When doing a house call, he found one of his patients unconscious on the floor. After doing some investigating and a blood test, and after seeing the son be as sick as his father, Sam discovered that Dave's mother was poisoning him so he would stop drinking. Sam was confronted with an ethics dilemma: should he turn Dave's mother in or not? The woman needs to be punished for what she did but Sam wanted to find a way to save the situation without resorting to cops. Luckily for all, he did. This may not have been a really compelling case, but it showed a side of Private Practice that most medical shows don't have: some doctors do make house calls! This feature of the clinic will surely help expand the storylines, especially since some of them will see one patient a day! Most medical shows keep all their cases inside the hospital, so it's nice to see them get out once in a while and practice medicine elsewhere.

And now we move to the filler storyline: Ginger. If last week's episode and this week's are an example of what all episodes will look like, it seems that each week we'll be treated to one case that has Naomi be pissed off at Sam. Ginger was it. Last week, I said "She did let go of Sam at the end, thanks to the "wacky" case of the episode, but somehow I don't think she will let him be so easily (and Sam will probably not help her either)." This week proved me right. The woman needs to accept that they are not together anymore. If Sam wants the next woman to be a stripper, so be it! It's HIS life! As you can see, I'm still not liking Naomi much because of her too-angry attitude and the fact that she can't smile. I know what she is going through is rough but we need her to lighten up a bit to enjoy the character. If she is always angry and makes the world know and feel it, fans won't get attached to her.

After watching the premiere, I thought that Violet was the weakest player. I still think that statement is accurate. Was she that useful tonight? Yes, she helped the mothers cope with what they were going through, but those scenes could have easily been removed (or at least feature another doctor) and the storyline wouldn't have been hurt much. The bike scenes continued to highlight the fact that she needs help as much as her own patients do. At least, the Cooper/Violet moments are cute. I wonder if they'll end up hooking up...

I really enjoyed the scenes where all the doctors were interacting together. They each have their own persona and know how to push each other's buttons. Those scenes could turn out to be really fun! Let's hope the writers see it too.

Thanks to a better episode, I'll tune again next week but I'm not 100% sold yet. Will you watch next week?