someofusarebrave
This was one of my favorite shows on television; top three, actually. I like it better than Grey's Anatomy--I laugh more, I relate to the characters more, and now that Meredith has gotten all "fixed," I find the conflicts more entertaining and more realistic. The show is thought-provoking and intelligent, the actors and actresses are AMAZING, the writing is fantastic, for once on prime-time television, and the plots are intriguing and amazingly well-organized. Y'all rock.I just spent the past twenty minutes talking with my mother about how your characterization of women makes us all out to be pathetic, spineless tramps. It's true. Most people don't behave like all y'all do. Naomi's the only one who has any dignity at all, and that's only because Audra Macdonald is such a formidable woman that Naomi seems powerful by proximity. You need new writers. Your characters have transformed only on surface levels over the course of the series. They all seem constantly ABOUT to change in some significant way without ever getting there. It's awfully disappointing, as a fan, to see.Please--get the show up to the level that Taye Diggs and Audra Macdonald and Amy Brenneman deserve it to be.Actress who plays Addison--you may eventually be at their level, but this is the first thing of note that you've done. So--prove yourself!This is a big-time, epic television show in a down-home, small-time, easy-to-relate-to package. It is as deceptively artful as Judging Amy was, a show that felt so much a seamless part of real life it was difficult to remember at times that the characters were not my next-door neighbor or my grandparent's sister. It is a shame that less flashy, perhaps smaller budget shows like these are so commonly passed over for the mega awards, Emmys and Golden Globes. They shouldn't be.Kate Walsh is fantastic, and makes her somewhat neurotic, easily hateable as truly beautiful women so often are character leap from the screen. Addison is graceful, a badass, and precisely the kind of woman we all wish we had as aunts. This woman is the kind of 'fabulous' Sex and the City's little girls only wish they could be. Taye Diggs rocks. Proving here once again he's not just a pretty face, his acting improves with every season. He's got the chops to match the extraordinary talent present in the women of this show, and that's saying a whole lot, considering who he's matched with.Amy Brenneman rocks my world. Thank you God for women capable of being gorgeous, sexy without needing to take off a stitch of clothing to do so, down-to-Earth, and emotionally present in absolutely every moment of every scene this show does. Amy is ridiculously underrated as an actress. She is the kind of woman Holly Hunter, for all her glamour and hamming for the camera and blatantly overt sexuality, has not yet discovered herself to be. I wish we lived in the kind of world where women like this got the credit they deserve. Amy is a truly professional actress, the kind of person who is a welcome addition to any team yet is rarely ranked as high as the 'starlets' whose self-destructive antics have misogynist's eyes glued to the screen and thereby increase rankings. Amy is the kind of ass-kicking superheroine capable of playing women in touch with their own issues, rather than avoiding them--she is in other words genuinely emotionally mature, and that is a rare but lucky find. Talk about a diamond in the rough.Speaking of credit where credit's due, Audra McDonald can ACT! The woman is one of the best singers currently alive, says I, AND she has excellent dramatic skills and comedic timing. WHOA! You make the rest of us look like underachievers, regardless what we are doing with our lives...you also inspire us to be better than ever we thought ourselves capable of before. Thou art amazing.The rest of the people on the show rock too. However, they are all white, and most are men. They affect my viewing experience less, and hence I will suffice it to say they do not get in the way of my enjoyment of the show. That's high praise in this company. This is better than most prime-time television shows, as much as it is also more enjoyable than most prime-time shows are. It is easily dismissable because it is headlined by female actresses, and I will say that gladly in the face of any "official" or "critic" who knocks it as being too 'emotional'. That's what life is about--our emotional experience of it. The show can be smart AND funny, snappy AND full of genuine catharsis. I for one absolutely adore it, and I'll go to bat for it any day.
cfbell3
I think the show is pretty, pretty, pretty good..... I mean the cast is great, plot is fairly interesting and fast paced, most of the times taking unpredictable turns which never fail to grab your attention. My only comment is about persistently fashionable cloths and hi heel sandals at the work place where one would think it is inappropriate, but.... as a woman I enjoy it! I suppose men wouldn't mind it either. Overall, I give it 8 points out of 10, which is quite reasonable in my view. Very strong 8. This show fills you with warmth and positive energy up to the very top thanks to the strong personalities of the main characters, Addison, Violet and the rest of the team are doing absolutely great job portraying highly professional team of medical doctors who happen to be also long term friends.
adevic
Private Practice is supposed to be a medical drama. So I guess my biggest complaint is the lack of originality in the medical story lines. Just by watching House, I "solved" two (out of nine) medical mysteries before the doctors did. Boooring. Seriously, if you are a lazy writer, why not copy some cases out of older ER episodes or some obscure Brazilian medical soap? House is recent and popular - recycling their ideas is hard to get away with...Second biggest complaint: these people are supposed to be forty-somethings, right? Then why do they have to behave with the emotional maturity of 15-year-olds? Is three weeks (ie. three whole damn episodes) of intense thinking really necessary to understand that if your best friend doesn't want to be your "friend with benefits", it's maybe not because he wants to hurt you, but because he doesn't want to risk your friendship? The character doing all the thinking is a psychiatrist by the way - the whole storyline is just so unrealistic that you can't really buy into the supposed "drama".And I won't even start complaining about what the show did to everyone's favorite Addison as we got to know her in Grey's Anatomy... On a sidenote, don't you think it's funny the way Addison ends up lusting after loser Pete (sorry, but everyone who tries to cure insomnia with Mozart's Requiem is a loser, PhD or not) and Derek ends up entangled in a relationship with whiny, irritating Meredith miles away in rainy Seattle? Apart from that little fling with Mark, they seemed to be perfect for each other. Sometimes I think Shonda Rhimes' subconscious is trying to tell us that in relationships, our first choice is often the right one...
