Private Practice – Are they trying to make all these people unlikeable?

What is it with Private Practice this season? Episode by episode, there’s been this winnowing away of the humanity of the chief cast of characters to the point where we’ve seen so much of their selfish and ugly sides that, when taken collectively, they comprise one big group of unlikeables.

Other than Charlotte King, who has heroically dealt with her sexual assault, and Sheldon Wallace, who has always been a solid, stand-up guy, I am developing an aversion to the rest of them.

Take Sam Bennett in this recent episode. He’s been dating Addison Montgomery for some time, after a long flirtation and many a sidelong, moony-eyed look. He knows, and has known for some time, that she wants a child. Yet he wants her to ditch her desire for a child, or “shelve” it temporarily, because he doesn’t feel like being a daddy to another kid right now, even though his one and only kid is now married, has her own kid, and no longer lives with him. Sam seems largely uninterested in discussing the subject with her.

So Addison, to demonstrate her commitment to Sam even after he’s repeatedly dashed her hopes to motherhood, proposed marriage to him. And what did Sam do? He didn’t answer. He asked Addison’s former sister-in-law if Addison is crazy and he started to panic. Later, he urged Addison to “take back” her proposal, which she did, graciously so. What the hell did he think was coming next in the relationship? They’re in their 40s. Addison wants to rebuild a life and settle down and he’s acting like a scared twentysomething who’s afraid that if he gets married, his mean new wife won’t let him play X-Box and eat Doritos in bed.

Then there’s Sam’s ex-wife Naomi, whose behavior during the early days of her daughter’s pregnancy was horrifically, emotionally harsh to the point that she became estranged from her daughter last season. In this episode, Naomi saw a doctor flirting with Addison and Addison gently turn him down with a smile. Naomi surmised from witnessing that exchange from afar that Addison wants to jump into bed with the guy.

When Addison told Naomi that she proposed to Sam, Naomi unleashed all sorts of unsupportive nastiness, none of which Addison deserved. “I am done being polite about this,” Naomi said angrily. “Addison, you suck at relationships!” Then she made a smarmy remark about Addison taking other people’s men and being “tempted” to cheat with the doctor who flirted with her. (Isn’t Naomi the one who had an affair with that guy Gabriel while she was supposedly with William?)

For Addison’s part, she just seems like a passive pinball being pinged around by all these people with whom she works, sleeps, drinks and is related to, unable to just stand up for herself and refuse to accept less. (I’m still annoyed with how the Pete-Addison thing worked out last season with Addison being cast aside when Violet returned and now everybody acts all happy, happy now.)

I can no longer warm up to Cooper Freedman after his appallingly selfish and calloused behavior in the wake of Charlotte’s rape. Amelia is an arrogant brat who walks around like she’s just back from clubbing all night and thinks it’s her job to tell you the “truth” about everything, whether you want to hear her brusque bloviating or not. Pete wasn’t that annoying in this episode, but in the previous one, he was an overbearing, sanctimonious punk who cared precious little about a patient’s wife’s feelings.

The only ones still clinging to their redeeming values are Charlotte, who’s still in recovery mode, and Sheldon, who exhibited courage, ethics and loyalty in dealing with his mentor who’d had a psychotic break and desperately needed his help in this episode.

I don’t know how much longer I can watch this show at the rate I’m souring on its characters. Anyone else find these characters becoming difficult to like?

Clacked by Meredith O'Brien
on Feb 04, 2011 @ 12:00 EST5EDT