Summer Week 16 Sitcom Ratings; Blog DVD Review: Private Practice - The Complete Second Season (9/15)

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Summer Week 16 Sitcom Ratings; Blog DVD Review: Private Practice - The Complete Second Season (9/15)

Summer is winding down with just 8 days left until the start of the 2009-2010 season on Sept. 21. We will be back with our normal weekly report two weeks from today with the first four nights numbers and analysis...but today we still have our regular how the sitcoms did for the remainder of the summer! Here are our summer sitcom ratings for this past week:

Last Sunday Sitcoms (counts for week of August 30-Sept. 6)

Til Death (Fox) - A repeat at 7pm did only 1.17 million...but it was Labor Day weekend.
The Simpsons (Fox) - preempted for a movie.
King of the Hill (Fox) - preempted for a movie...one-hour series finale airs tonight.
Family Guy (Fox) - preempted for a movie.
American Dad! (Fox) - preempted for a movie.

Summer Week 16 (September 7-13)

Monday Sitcoms

How I Met Your Mother (CBS) 2 episodes - 4.46 million for a repeat airing in its normal 8pm slot. A repeat at 8:30pm did 4.95 million...both were down from recent weeks, Labor Day I guess.
Two and a Half Men (CBS) - 9.02 million for a repeat on Labor Day, yet up from previous week I believe.
The Big Bang Theory (CBS) - 8.09 million for a repeat. 2.8 18-49 rating is excellent for repeats, and the best of the CBS sitcom block for this night.

Tuesday Sitcoms

None.

Wednesday Sitcoms

Old Christine (CBS) - preempted for Obama Address to Congress.
Gary Unmarried (CBS) - preempted for Obama Address to Congress.

Thursday Sitcoms

Parks & Recreation (NBC) - preempted for NFL Opening Night game.
The Office (NBC) 2 episodes - preempted for NFL Opening Night game.
30 Rock (NBC) - preempted for NFL Opening Night game.

Friday Sitcoms

None.

Saturday Sitcoms

None.

Tonight you can catch the series finale of Fox's King of the Hill immediately following the NFL game followed by repeat of animated comedies from 9-10pm. Elsewhere ABC has a new Shark Tank at 9pm and the season finale of drama Defying Gravity at 10pm. CBS has 60 Minutes & Big Brother followed by the two-hour finale of There Goes the Neighborhood at 9pm, while NBC will have NFL Football. The CW has third airings of Vampire Diaries and Melrose Place pilots.

It is time for a special Sunday edition of the "Blog DVD Review." This week we take a look at ABC Studios' Private Practice: The Complete Second Season. Private Practice is the hit spin-off series of Grey's Anatomy that has Addison (Kate Walsh) in Los Angeles to work at her best friend's 'private practice' instead of the big hospital surgeries. See my Blog DVD review of Private Practice: The Complete Second Season:

Private Practice: The Complete Second Season (ABC Studios, $39.99) brings the second season of the Grey's Anatomy spin-off starring Kate Walsh on DVD with all 22 episodes! This season we experience all the challenges, changes, and second chanced found in this sizzling hit. This year Oceanside Wellness will have a competitor, as neo-netal surgeon Dr. Addison Montgomery will face the challenge of bringing the practice back on its feet after a rough patch.
The series will return to its Thursdays at 10PM timeslot on ABC this coming season following Grey's Anatomy. The series stars Kate Walsh as Dr. Addison Forbes Montgomery (Obstetrics & Gynecology, Genetic Counseling), Tim Daly as Dr. Pete Wilder (Complementary Medicine), Audra McDonald as Dr. Naomi Bennett (Endocrinology & Fertility), Paul Adelstein as Dr. Cooper Freedman (Pediatrics), KaDee Strickland as Dr. Charolotte King (Chief of Staff at the nearby hospital), Chris Lowell as Dell Parker (Receptionist/Nurse), with Taye Diggs as Dr. Sam Bennett (Internal Medicine), and Amy Brenneman as Dr. Violet Turner (Psychiatry). Among the recurring stars are David Sutcliffe, Brian Benben, Grant Show, Jayne Brook, Josh Hopkins, and Jay Harrington. Among the special guests this year are Amy Acker, Ernie Hudson, Bill Dee Williams, Liz Torres, Patty McCormack, Amanda Detmer, Idina Menzel and the cast of Grey's Anatomy in a cross-over.

This second season was I believe a lot better than the first season when it was shortened by the strike and was trying to find itself. The series moved to Thursdays at 10pm in January after airing Wednesdays at 9pm prior to that. The third season premieres on October and I have seen the season premiere already and it leaves off where the second season leaves off. It is a great premiere you won't want to miss, for sure! Anyway, as for season two, some memorable episodes include the season premiere, "A Family Thing," where friendships are tested and secrets are revealed when Addison discovers that Naomi is concealing the practice's financial problems. In "Nothing to Talk About," Charlotte tries to woo Addison to St. Ambrose Hospital with promises of surgeries, as Addison and Kevin's relationship heats up. In "Tempting Faith," Addison receives a surprise visit from her brother and fellow surgeon, Archer (Grant Show), and his presence not only causes trouble for her, but for Naomi and Sam as well. In "Know When to Fold," Charlotte's rival practice, Pacific Wellcare, opens its doors and the competition with Oceanside Wellness begins, as Sam and Pete steal one of their clients, a favorite patient of Addison's goes to a Pacific Wellcare doctor for a second opinion. In "Homeward Bound," as Addison and Kevin struggle in their relationship, she finds herself attracted to Wyatt, the cocky doctor from rival Pacific Wellcare, while Violet seeks a way to carry on relationships with both Pete and Sheldon (Brian Benben), and Cooper grows closer to Charlotte when she experiences a family emergency. In "Acceptance," when Archer suffers a seizure, Addison and Naomi search for a cause and a cure and later call Derek for help. In "Ex-Life," Bailey (Chandra Wilson) and Naomi try to discover why Sam has a sudden asthma attack while Addison helps Derek (Patrick Dempsey) save the life of his pregnant patient, in a cross-over episode with Grey's Anatomy. In "Finishing," Addison is attracted to a colleague at St. Ambrose Hospital who turns out to be more than she bargained for, while Pete and Sheldon team up to persuade Violet to take a paternity test, but she firmly resists their effort. In the outstanding season finale "Yours, Mine, and Ours," as Violet chooses between Pete and Sheldon, Addison faces her feelings for Noah as Morgan goes into labor, while Dell has concerns for his daughter when a drugged-out Heather returns to town and Naomi must decide if it's in her best interest to stay with Oceanside Wellness or start anew at Pacific Wellcare. And in the cliff-hanger, a grief-stricken patient poses a danger to Violet.

The episodes run usually close to 43 minutes (unless it is an extended episode, which I will discuss a bit later)...unedited of course with all the great music intact. There are about 7 chapter stops per episode. The video is digitally mastered and is in widescreen and looks very good! The audio is great and sounds very good, as it is in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. This is from the 2008-09 season, so it had better be good. Now as I discussed in the Grey's Anatomy Season 5 DVD Review, only the crossover episodes that aired as its own episode are here. So on the Grey's DVD, if it was under a Grey's episode, it is on that DVD only and not on the Private Practice DVD. So we don't get the Grey's Anatomy episodes "Beat Your Heart Out" (in which we see Derek at the end of the episode receiving the phone call from Addison), "Before and After" (the first actual cross-over with the gang going to Seattle) and "An Honest Mistake" (as Addison hangs around in Seattle to help on a case). It would have been nice if we had those episodes as extras at least! "Before and After" at least should be here as that episode is really needed, as the Private episode "Ex-Life" needs that episode to make sense. Buy the Grey's Season 5 DVD, I guess.

Packaging has an outer box that you can remove from the right then you'll see the digipak case inside, as last time. The outer box's cover has a nice big photo of Addison's face (with long hair) in the middle, with the seven remaining stars below that. The show logo is on the top in white wording and blue background. The back of the box has that blue background with information on the set and has some episodic screen shots from episodes that feature all eight of our stars. There is also a section detailing the bonus features box with technical specifications also. On the case itself, we have a nice cast photo at the beach on the front with the show logo and a nice blue background. The back of the case has the same style, with a episodic photos of Charlotte & Violet and one of Cooper. Opening the case, on the left side we see a pocket that holds inserts and on the pocket itself we have a disc-by-disc breakdown with episode titles and bonus features. There are two inserts in the left side pocket. We don't get an episode booklet this time, which is strange...but seems to be the case for all ABC DVDs this fall. Then there is an insert for other ABC Studios products and an insert for Blu-ray. On the right side of the case, we see an episodic photo of Sam and Naomi. Then we open the case again, in the middle we see discs one & two (overlapping, ugh) and the right side we see an episodic photo of Addison and Pete with Dell & Violet in the background. Opening the case on final time, we have a panel for discs three & four and on the far right we have a panel for discs five & six. Each disc matches the set's color scheme, that blue background and has nice character artwork. Disc one has episodes 1-4 with artwork of Addison & Pete. Disc two has episodes 5-8 and has artwork of Sam & Naomi. Disc three has episodes 9-12 and has artwork of Cooper & Violet. Disc four has episodes 13-16 and has artwork of Dell & Charlotte. Disc five has episodes 17-20 and has artwork of the entire cast. And finally disc six has episodes 21-22 and the bonus features with artwork of palm trees. When you remove the discs, the panels have nice artwork of different characters.

The menu screen has clips in the background with background music from the series playing in the background audio wise. The options on the main menu are Play All, Episode Selection, Set Up, Bonus Features (disc six), and Sneak Peeks (disc six). But before the main menu screen comes on disc one, we get some auto sneak peeks of other DVDs: ABC on DVD, Grey's Anatomy Season 5, Desperate Housewives, The Proposal, and Blu-ray DVD. Sneak Peeks option is only found on disc six on the main menu and has previews of many titles like Ugly Betty, Life on Mars, Castle DVDs, and an ABC promo for Grey's Anatomy. Set Up section has the option of subtitles in English, French or Spanish and how you can register your DVD. The Episodes option gives us the episode number, title and a screenshot. Bonus Features option is only on disc six and it has all the extras listed. All of the sub-menus have different background music.

Moving on the bonus features. We get two extended episodes with never before scenes! The extended episodes are "Crime and Punishment" (53:17) and "Nothing to Fear" (60:04). Wow, those are song long episodes! We also have an ABC Starter Kit (4:41) that recaps what has happened so far. A nice little fresher! This is listed in the episodes section on disc one.
All of the other extras are on disc six! We have an interview featurette titled "Patient Confidentiality: Examining Season 2" (12:50). This is a very good detailed extra that gives us the inside scoop on season two. Interviewed are Shonda Rhimes & Betsy Beers, Amy Brenneman, Paul Adelstein, and Tim Daly. We have one more featurette titled "Life Through the Lens: The Pictures of Chris Lowell" (8:08). This shows us Chris' talent of photography and we also see some cool shots from his collection. He travels a lot as well. Interviewed are Chris Lowell, Tim Daly, KaDee Strickland, Paul Adelstein, Kate Walsh, and Taye Diggs.
Then we have "Deleted Scenes" that are better organized and handled on this set. They are listed with episode titles so you know where they are from! We also have optional audio commentary on these deleted scenes from Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers! So you'll know why they were removed from the actual airing. If my counting skills are correct, we have about 23 deleted scenes! They are from episodes "A Family Thing," "Equal & Opposite," "Nothing to Talk About," "Past Tense," "Let It Go," "Know When to Fold," World's Apart," "Contamination", "Homeward Bound," "Second Chances," "Wait and See," "Finishing," "What Women Want," and "What You Do for Love." Finally, we have some "Bloopers" (4:16)...yes, bloopers! See all the goofs and play on the set!

I recommend this series and set...it is an ABC Studios DVD, so it is good and filled with special features. I think this series broke out after the crossover episodes and now it will have a full season behind Grey's Anatomy on Thursday nights. This season is miles better than the shortened first season and the characters have personalities and great stories and you won't want to miss this. As I mentioned, I saw the third season premiere in advance already and it is a very well written episode and leaves off where we last left off. It focuses on the hospital, but it is intense. You'll want to tune in for sure on Oct. 1, but you need to refresh yourself, catch up with these 22 season two episodes first! You won't need to have an illness or injury to watch this season on DVD, so no excuses to click on the link below to order today!

-- Reviewed by Pavan