DVD Reviews

Private Practice: The Complete Fourth Season – DVD Review

By Patrick Luce Sep 28, 2011, 0:40 GMT

Experience every complex romance, medical crisis and moral dilemma of ABC\'s "Private Practice: The Complete Fourth Season". Don\'t miss a moment of TV\'s sexiest drama, from the creators of "Grey\'s Anatomy". Join the Oceanside Wellness Group family as they try to balance work, friendship and love while they lean on each other for the help and support they need. As Pete and Violet prepare for their wedding day, disagreements at ...more

The fourth season of Private Practice sees the series move out from Grey’s Anatomy’s shadow and actually surpass it on several levels. The season also sees the series become more than just a spotlight for Kate Walsh’s Dr. Addison Montgomery thanks to a powerful performance from KaDee Strickland and the horror her Dr. Charlotte King character endures and overcomes.

Even if it started with Walsh as the focus, the series has always been an ensemble drama, and the writers continue to make Addison the constant, but not the sole focus with each of the California’s Oceanside Wellness Group doctors getting plenty of screen-time. They also make sure the medicine never gets too much in the way of the doctors’ personal lives and romances.

From Shonda Rhimes, the new season picks up after Season Three’s emotional cliffhanger (something I won’t spoil in this review) and covers a wide range of storylines from Pete’s long lost family to Addison’s continued desire to have a baby.

Along with dealing with the doctor’s private lives, each episode sees the medical staff having to work together or arguing the care of the patient of the week (from the interesting case of the mom giving her Autistic son pot to help him to the bad make-up job of an overweight teen who eats to protect himself from abuse).

The season sees Drs. Naomi and Sam Bennett (Audra McDonald and Taye Diggs) trying to make a friendship work in the wake of their divorce and new relationships (Sam is with Addison who happens to be Naomi’s best friend).

Dr. Pete Wilder (Tim Daly) and therapist Violet Turner (Amy Brenneman) are married and raising their son Lucas while trying to find a balance between the demands of their career and their own personal past.

Pediatrics specialist Dr. Cooper Freedman (Paul Adelstein) is trying to get Charlotte to the chapel to be his bride and maybe even agree to kids, but those plans fall to the side after she is attacked in an episode that is truly hard to watch. 

Along for the ride, Dr. Sheldon Wallace (Brian Benben), my personal favorite character thanks to his everyman quality, becomes more important to the doctors as he seems to become everyone’s therapist at one point or another.

Benben plays Sheldon as the guy who just deserves the break, but always seems to come up short (surrounded by beautiful women, but stuck in the friend zone when they finally decide who they want to be with). It never seems to faze him, and Sheldon is always quick to have a sarcastic zinger ready – kind of like a smaller version of Dr. Gregory House but without all the Vicodin.

The cast also gets the addition of Dr. Amelia Shepherd (Caterina Scorsone) - who is a brain doctor and Addison's former sister-in-law. Scorsone takes the show by storm, and her character is a breath of fresh air to the series thanks to the way her style seems to clash with every single doctor on the show.

Once again, the DVD set comes loaded with bonus material that is sure to please fans. They range from fun to watch (such as bloopers) to behind the scenes features that take you into the show. They also include a feature with Strickland on how she researched for the "Did You Hear What Happened To Charlotte King?” episode.

The fourth season of Private Practice has a huge emotional punch thanks to Strickland’s performance and several of those episodes are extremely hard to get through, but worth watching. The ensemble cast rises to the emotional heaviness of the material and keep you wanting to watch what happens next.

At the same time, the show’s writers keep the season moving along so that the series continues to entertain, and keep each episode truly an ensemble show so that there is plenty to offer the fans. This is a series that is continuing to improve each season and I look forward to seeing what happens in Season Five.

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