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| Private Practice | | (And How It Might Have Gotten That Way!) | | 01 September 2008 | | As a computer programmer, we often find ourselves peeking at OTHER people's software and wondering how it works. Will study the URL of a web site for database keys and session identifiers; or step through a linked source file to see how a particular piece of JavaScript functionality operates. (We were particularly impressed recently by the way StudiVZ.de disables Firefox's disabling of JavaScript's ability to disable right click!) So we should not have been especially surprised when an actress-friend of ours mentioned that she does the exact same thing when she watches a television program. But we were...
The thing is, we had never consciously thought of a television program as something that COULD be deconstructed - "lighting angles" and "exposition dialog" meant just about as much to us as "recursive functions" do to Brad Pitt. But by now, the box was open - so when our friend went on to ask if we'd seen anything of Grey's Anatomy spin-off "Private Practice", we had the feeling we'd be watching it through a new pair of eyes.
The first thing we noticed (because... it WAS the first thing in the show) was a truly terrible piece of exposition dialogue in which Adison "introduces" her new colleagues at Surfer-Beach Wellness Clinic in sunny California - hot single man (check!); kooky, but quite attractive, single woman (check!); geeky single guy who fancies kooky woman (check!); good-looking young surfer dude with a heart of gold (check!)... We almost turned off at that point.
It quickly became apparent that the dialog wasn't the only thing that was cheap - the entire scenario is clearly designed with both eyes on the budget - the "action" takes place in a "wellness clinic" so there is no need for much in the way of expensive "things that go beep" - just a few desks and a maybe a couch or two. There are a minimal number of sets, and every hospital scene (there have to be SOME hospital scenes) is set in a corridor, and involves the SAME hospital doctor!
Although formally a Grey's Anatomy spin-off, the show really wants to be House - with more of a "mystery" than the Grey's "crisis" feel. But the writers obviously didn't back-themselves on this, because there seem to be THREE different story-lines in every episode - just in case one fails to fly. Which was, we have to admit, a good call, because they frequently don't!
And through it all, the one thing you are wondering is... what is Adison doing here? She is a surgeon! Is she even QUALIFIED to walk into a GP-type role? And then it hit us - the character isn't Adison. Sure, it is the same actress, and she has the same name, but the show clearly wasn't written FOR her Grey's character - they had the show and squeezed a willing actress into the part. We even have an inkling of what the ORIGINAL plan might have been - for Izzy to take up the change of career - which would have made a LOT more sense as a story-arc, until Katherine Heigl broke into Hollywood and found she had better (paid!) things to do!
All this being said, we have to admit that we are still watching it - if only because there isn't much else on after the writer's strike ruined our TV year. But once House and Grey's are back... it will be drifting towards the bottom of our list as surely as Adison is drifting into the arms of "hot single guy with a tragic past". |
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The point is we are all connected... through love... through loneliness... through one lamentable lapse in judgment!
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