SitcomsOnline.com News Blog

Welcome to another edition of Digital Digest! Our normal Digital Digest blogger (skees53) as you know is off for the summer and is missed. We hope to have him back in the next few weeks! As always, we have the latest news, upcoming releases for Tuesday, and our DVD review this week is of ABC Studio's Private Practice - The Complete Third Season. Head on over to the Oceanside Wellness Group for everything that you need!

DIGITAL NEWS

It was a short week for news, due to the Labor Day holiday weekend. We have some sitcom DVD news for you. Shout! Factory has announced Leave it to Beaver - Season 5 for Dec. 14 at a $37.97 MSRP. View the packaging and a list of features. We already knew this, but Shout! Factory has now officially announced The Larry Sanders Show - The Complete Series for Nov. 2. View the official press release. We also get an official confirmation from ABC Studios for The Golden Girls - 25th Anniversary Complete Collection. Yes, we knew about this one, too, but now the official press release is out. View that release and the packaging art.

Punky Brewster and Blossom will be both getting single-disc releases from Mill Creek Home Entertainment. Punky Brewster - TV Flashbacks: Turn Your World Around is coming out Oct. 12 with 10 classic episodes for just $9.98 MSRP. Read more about this set and these Mill Creek single disc sets that they have done in the past as well. Now Punky has been complete on DVD already, but Blossom's first two seasons are only out as of now. So it is a bit strange Mill Creek is going to do a single-disc best-of set already. Blossom - TV Flashbacks: 10 Very Special Episodes. This set is also out on Oct. 12 with 10 special episodes from 1990-91 at a $9.98 MSRP. Read more about this set.

In cable comedy news, United States of Tara - The Second Season will be out on Dec. 28 from Showtime DVD. View the packaging and the bonus interviews included. And finally, TVShowsonDVD.com is reporting that Nurse Jackie - Season 2 will be out soon. No date is given, but read the story.

For more information on titles that we won't cover with full or blog DVD reviews, you can head on over to the news section of TVShowsOnDVD.com for all of the latest details.


UPCOMING WEEK PREVIEW

Tuesday (September 14) will have a lot of sitcom releases. Warner Home Video is releasing The Big Bang Theory - The Complete Third Season, and you can read our review of this nice set here. Shout! Factory is releasing Designing Women - The Complete Fourth Season and look for our review of this soon. Shout! Factory is also releasing Leave it to Beaver - Season Four and you can read our review of that hopefully soon, too! And finally Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is releasing Rules of Engagement - The Complete Third Season and we will have a review of that shortly, too.


BLOG FEATURE REVIEW



DVD Review: Private Practice - The Complete Third Season
by Pavan

Private Practice - The Complete Third Season (ABC Studios, $45.99) brings the third season of the Grey's Anatomy spin-off starring Kate Walsh on DVD with all 23 episodes! Relive every moment of the medical drama and the challenges that Dr. Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh) and her co-workers at Oceanside Wellness Group face every day have bonded them into a tight-knit family, but big changes may be just around the the corner.
The series will once again 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 Brian Benben, Geffri Maya, Hailey Sole, Michael Patrick Thornton, Agnes Bruckner, Caterina Scorsone, Christina Chang, Stephen Lunsford and James Morrison. Among the special guests this year are Amanda Detmer, JoBeth Williams, Stephen Collins, Amanda Foreman, and from Grey's Anatomy cross-overs Chandra Wilson & Eric Dane.

This third season was excellent and filled with lots of drama. I think it was probably their best season both with the medical cases and the personal stories. The season was very well written. The fourth season premieres on Sept. 23 and we cannot wait for that. Anyway, as for season three, some memorable episodes include the season premiere, "A Death in the Family," where after Pete discovers Violet dying on the floor of her home, having barely survived a violent attack from her patient, Katie, he rushes her to the hospital where Addison and Naomi fight to save her life, while the whereabouts and condition of Violet's stolen baby are unknown. In "Right Here, Right Now," Miranda Bailey (Grey's Anatomy's Chandra Wilson) brings a kidney transplant patient to Los Angeles, and Addison isn't the only Oceanside Wellness doctor pleased to see her. In "Strange Bedfellows," Katie Kent is apprehended and on trial and Violet is asked to testify against her attacker, but she struggles with whether or not she can face her attacker in court. In the classic episode, "The Hard Part," Addison and Sam go for a hike in Malibu, and must perform urgent field care when they stumble upon an expecting couple, trapped in their car after an accident. In the two-part episode "The Parent Trap/Blowups," Addison performs a complex in utero surgery, proving not only her talents to her father but also finally giving them some common ground and later a terrible explosion at Dell's house lands Betsey and Heather in the hospital, and everyone is pushed to the limit trying to save their lives. In "Another Second Chance," Desperate to help his pregnant daughter, Mark (Eric Dane) follows Addison back to Oceanside Wellness, Dell and Naomi struggle to raise their children under the same roof, and Violet and Cooper heatedly disagree on how to treat a patient. In "Til Death Do Us Part," as Violet continues to help Sam with Maya's wedding, Naomi refuses to take part as she works with Addison and Pete to save the life of a 25-week-old premature baby. In "Second Choices," after her open-ended escape to Costa Rica, Violet has finally returned home and to the practice and everyone treads a little lightly around her, especially Pete and Addison who have mixed feelings about Violet's desire to reconnect with Lucas. And in the thrilling season finale, "The End of a Beautiful Friendship," Maya and her unborn baby are fighting for their lives on the operating table, and Addison, Amelia and Fife try everything humanly possible to save them, while Sam operates on an incoming crash victim and later makes a grim discovery and then later an unexpected death occurs.

The episodes run usually close to 43 minutes, unedited of course with all the great music intact. There are about 7 chapter stops per episode. View the episode runtimes:

Disc 1
1. "A Death in the Family" 43:05
2. "The Way We Were" 43:00
3. "Right Here, Right Now" 43:01
4. "Pushing the Limits" 43:05

Disc 2
5. "Strange Bedfellows" 42:56
6. "Slip Slidin' Away" 43:07
7. "The Hard Part" 43:06
8. "Sins of the Father" 43:05
9. "The Parent Trap" 41:58

Disc 3
10. "Blowups" 44:08
11. "Another Second Chance" 43:07
12. "Best Laid Plans" 43:04
13. "Shotgun" 43:04
14. "Love Bites" 43:03

Disc 4
15. "'Til Death Do Us Part" 43:06
16. "Fear of Flying" 43:07
17. "Triangles" 43:04
18. "Pulling the Plug" 42:30
19. "Eyes Wide Open" 43:05


Disc 5
20. "Second Choices" 43:05
21. "War" 43:07
22. "In the Name of Love" 43:05
23. "The End of A Beautiful Friendship" 43:05

Packaging has an outer box that you can remove from the top or bottom then you'll see the keep case inside. We previously had a digipak, but now ABC Studios has changed it to a keep case. Both the outer box and keep case have the same cover, a cast photo of them on the beach with medical tools. The show logo is on the top in white wording in a purple background. The back of the box and keep case has that purple 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. 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 and nice promotional photos, as last time. There are two inserts in the left side pocket. We don't get an episode booklet again. There are inserts for other ABC Studios products and an insert for Blu-ray. We have two little plastic holders, that we can flip like a page on a book. The first holder holds disc one in the front, and disc two in the back. The second holder holds disc three in the front, and disc four in the back. Disc five is on the right panel itself. Each disc matches the set's color scheme, that purple background and has nice character artwork. Disc one has episodes 1-4 with artwork of Addison. Disc two has episodes 5-9 and has artwork of Cooper & Charlotte. Disc three has episodes 10-14 and has artwork of Violet & Pete. Disc four has episodes 15-19 and has artwork of Naomi & Sam. Disc five has episodes 20-23 plus bonus features and has artwork of Dell. When you remove the discs, the panels have nice artwork of different characters, as mentioned.

The menu screen has clips in the background with background music from the series playing in the background audio wise, similar to last time. The options on the main menu are Play All, Episode Selection, Set Up, Bonus Features (disc five), and Sneak Peeks (disc one). 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 6, Desperate Housewives Season 6, and Castle Season 2. Sneak Peeks option is only found on disc five on the main menu and has previews of many titles like Cougar Town, Prince of Persia, A Christmas Carol, Blu-ray titles, and ABC: Great Stories. 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 five and it has all the extras listed. All of the sub-menus have different background music once again.

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 2009-10 season, so it had better be good. Now as I discussed in the Grey's Anatomy Season 6 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 "Invasion" (in which we see Dr. Bailey at the end of the episode saying she is going to California), and "Blink" (with Addison in Seattle helping Mark). It would have been nice if we had those episodes as extras at least! Buy the Grey's Season 6 DVD, I guess.

Moving on the bonus features. Technically this isn't a bonus, but on disc one we have an ABC Starter Kit (4:44) that recaps what has happened so far. A nice little fresher! All of the other extras are on disc five! We have a featurette titled "Kate's Top 8" (12:15). This is a very good extra that has Kate Walsh giving the eight best things about season three. Interviewed are Kate Walsh, Brian Haynes (location manager), Audra McDonald, Taye Diggs, KaDee Strickland, Chris Lowell, Shonda Rhimes & Betsy Beers, Amy Brenneman, Paul Adelstein, Cynthia Bergstrom (costume designer) and Tim Daly.
Then we have "Deleted Scenes" listed with episode titles so you know where they are from! We do NOT have optional audio commentary on these deleted scenes from Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers like last time, though. Too bad. If my counting skills are correct, we have about 13 deleted scenes, down from the 23 the previous season. "The Way We Were" (1:49), "Pushing the Limits" (0:57), "Slip Slidin' Away" (0:58), "The Hard Part" (1:35), "Another Second Chance" (1:09), "Best Laid Plans" ((0:29, 1:19), "Shotgun" (1:17), "Triangles" (0:45), "Pulling the Plug" (0:42), "Eyes Wide Open" (1:11), "Second Chances" (1:23), and "War" (1:01). Finally, we have some "Bloopers" (4:25)...yes, bloopers! See all the goofs and play on the set! The timing is up a lick from the last set, too, but really on par.

I recommend this series and set...it is an ABC Studios DVD, so it is good and filled with special features. I think we don't get as many special features as last time, though, which is strange. The packaging changed from digipak to a keep case. Not sure if that is good, but at least overlapping discs are gone. This season was great and perhaps my favorite so far. You'll want to tune in for sure on Sept. 23 for the fourth season premiere, but you need to refresh yourself, catch up with these 23 season three episodes first! Lots of changes happened this season. Mostly sad stuff, but there are light moments that will have you smile. Check into Oceanside Wellness and you'll be treated well!

(4/5 stars)

To purchase the DVD, click below and help support SitcomsOnline.com:
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Related links:
SitcomsOnline.com Full DVD Reviews Page
Official Website
Private Practice TV.com Page

LOOKING AHEAD

Come on back right here next week for more news and reviews. Next week we will have another good blog review for you. And don't forget to read our full DVD reviews, as many sitcoms are coming fast now as we enter the fall season. So please stay with us! Stay healthy and keep it digital!