Today’s guest clacker is Kelly Bedard, who’s guest clacked for us once before.
If there’s one thing that I took away from last week’s Private Practice (other than the urge to vomit after that horrendous Violet/Pete hookup), it was a sense of nostalgia for the quality teen programming of yesteryear. Week after week, Chris Lowell’s Dell is the most charming and engaging character on the show; a surprisingly mature rock, if you will, surrounded by a sea of sex-crazed adolescents in the bodies of 40-year-olds.
And every week I can’t help but remember when Lowell was on shows that were actually about adolescents but were full of interesting, thoughtful and diverse characters. Veronica Mars, and even Life as We Know It, were miles ahead of Lowell’s current gig in terms of maturity, a sad fact when comparing a show about teenage boys to a show about grown-up doctors.
This week’s Private Practice also included guest appearances by Meredith Monroe (whom audiences may remember as Andie on Dawson’s Creek) and Sarah Drew (who played Hannah on Everwood), further proving my point. Dawson’s Creek and Everwood remind me of a time when teenage characters who didn’t carry Prada bags could hold the attention of an audience by having an actual conversation. Nowadays, even the shows that are about adults with jobs and interests and lives seem to be just hour-long odes to immaturity.
Last week I wrote on My TV Blog that all of Private Practice can be summed up with “moral grey area, moral grey area, sex break, moral grey area” and now, after another episode, I couldn’t agree more. And what really drove the point home? A trio of actors who were once surrounded by smart and interesting teens who are now surrounded by dumb and dull adults who think they’re still teens.
Am I all wet here, or am I onto something?
Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Dec 16, 2008 @ 11:30 EST5EDT
Well, Kelly, I won’t bit on the “am I all wet” comment (even though I really want to), but you do have a point.
(I should say at the onset, that while I am an unabashed Veronica Mars fan, holding up its third season as your ideal will work with me, but not most out there).
I like Private Practice, even though I haven’t really been able to figure out why. I love the dynamic between Charlotte and Cooper, and I still like Addison as a character (though I miss her GA confidence), but past that, not so much. I love Taye Diggs as an actor (and because we both worked for the same theme park entertainment department, though at much different times), but his character is rather bland. Likewise with Tim Daly, Amy Brennerman, and Lowell (Though not at all with Audra McDonald… I don’t like or dislike her, but I still don’t understand the casting change).
Your analysis (the “moral grey area, moral grey area, sex break, moral grey area” bit) is spot on. But week after week I tune in, and enjoy it. I wish I could explain why, but other than some “sum is greater than its parts” kind of synergy, I don’t really have an answer.
(I think, for what its worth, I could have posted exactly the same thing, with changing actor’s names, on a post on Grey’s).
I will say again though, that it was outstanding to see Meredith Monroe on television again. I thought her work on Dawson’s was outstanding, giving Joshua Jackson an incredible foil to work with. Watching how Pacey grew up was one of the best parts of that show (Watching characters experience change is my favorite part of any drama, tv/movie/literature/etc).
Thanks for the comment, I’m glad you agree with me. And, for the record, the “am I all wet” was an editorial decision, I had nothing to do with that!
I actually think that Grey’s does a much better job of being unpredictable. Every once in awhile they’ll have a great show like “In the Midnight Hour” where they make the best of the few truly interesting characters they have and combine stories that don’t all scream “moral dillemma”. I think Alex, Mark, Callie, Bailey, Christina and Owen are all infinitely more interesting then anyone on Private Practice, the show as a whole seems to have less of a political agenda in terms of ethics and the cases of the week vary from just interesting to reflecting the theme of the week to lovely character studies (like the fantastic couple played by the great Josh Malina and the hilarious Leslie Grossman in the aforementioned episode).
as for Meredith Monroe and Sarah Drew. Though each of them played some of my favourite characters of their old WB shows (Andie on Dawson’s Creek and Hannah on Everwood), who I think were crucial to the development of the shows and the other characters, I found their turns on Private Practice to be lackluster at best. Ms. Monroe pretty much was just there so Addison could whine about people not listening to her and Ms. Drew just got Dell into possible trouble- nothing challenging about that. In fact, all season Private Practice has been where fantastic actors of series past have gone to die in a pool of mediocrity. When I saw my beloved Alexis Denisof play the thankless role of that polygamist I almost shed a tear for Wesley Wyndam-Pryce.
Didn’t watch Everwood, so sorry there, and I completely agree with you about Denisof… WWP was one of my three most favorite characters in all of Buffy-dom, and he was wasted here completely.
However, I did like Monroe’s turn here. I think she overcame average writing to give a decent performance.
I suppose I wasn’t really judging her performance so much as judging the character, who fell incredibly short for me.
Top 3? Wes is my all-time favourite Whedon character. Last year I wrote an article listing my top 20- you can find it here: https://mytvblogandpodcast.blogspot.com/2008/04/top-20-characters-of-buffyangel-verse.html
and you should really watch everwood, especially if you liked the more intellectual aspects of dawson’s creek. it’s more family based (in terms of story, not content) but had wonderful characters. season 1 is available on dvd and the series is currently playing on thewb.com
It would be very, VERY hard for me to pick between Anya, Wesley, and Fred.
well done, 3 of my 5 favourites!