PRIVATE PRACTICE: THE COMPLETE SIXTH AND FINAL SEASON
(not rated)
MOVIE: * (out of 5)
DVD EXPERIENCE: *1/2 (out of 5)
STARRING
Kate Walsh as ADDISON MONTGOMERY
Taye Diggs as SAM BENNETT
Amy Brenneman as VIOLET TURNER
Paul Adelstein as COOPER FREEDMAN
KaDee Strickland as CHARLOTTE KING
Brian Benben as SHELDON WALLACE
Caterina Scorsone as AMELIA SHEPHERD
Benjamin Bratt as JAKE REILLY
Created by: Shonda Rimes
Studio: ABC Studios
BY KEVIN CARR
Well, we made it through the entire series of “Private Practice” without the end of the world coming. That still doesn’t make this show great… or even good. But there is a sense of completion about coming to the end of a series, no matter how terrible I thought it was.
“Private Practice” took the most interesting character on “Grey’s Anatomy” and spun her off into a pretentious, preachy, out-of-touch and morally reprehensible prime time soap opera. That’s not to say that soap operas have ever been the standard by which we judge our morals (unless we were using inverse measurements). However, like Rimes other medical show, these characters are portrayed as heroes… yet they are as emotionally crippled, unfaithful, dishonest and downright awful as they come.
Season Six continues the trend of the most ridiculous and out-of-control medical issues hitting a small group of entitled, overly-wealthy people in Los Angeles who have no idea how to manage in the daily mundane world. Things kick off with the death of a main character, which seems to be the go-to position of a show like this.
Things complicate with the already complicated personal life of Cooper (Paul Adelstein) and Charlotte (KaDee Strickland), who are raising the orphaned child of Cooper’s one-night stand (who died last year, if you might recall). The child is written terribly, offering mild rebellion in threats only when this kid would be majorly screwed up from before he was thrust into their lives.
But the unrealistic and insulting developments in family lives pale in comparison to the borderline amoral love lives of these people. Addison (Kate Walsh) continues to waffle around with relationship, unable to put on her pants in the morning without a man in her life. Her on-again-off-again, taboo relatinoship with Sam (Taye Diggs) continues to go nowhere while Sam struggles to find his own love life. (Spoiler alert: he becomes an asshole in the process.)
As with previous seasons (including the overly rapey seasons three and four), social issues are ham-fisted into the story line. This year, we’re dealt a hand of cancer, heart disease and more death from the sister show “Grey’s Anatomy.” Painful spotlights on reality TV and bullying are thrown in. Oh, and there’s a cheerful story about a child molestor kidnapping a young teenage girl to be a sex slave, which seems overly crass and offensive as a ratings grab in the wake of stories like Elizabeth Smart and the more recent discovery of such a ring in Cleveland.
“Private Practice” was scraping the bottom of the misery barrel in this season, spreading it around to everyone involved. It’s a terrible show with a terrible ending, and I’m thrilled to see it gone.
The DVD set comes with all 13 episodes of season six on three discs. Bonus features include deleted scenes and bloopers.