Private Practice

I was disappointed by the opening episode, which left me with the distinct impression that Taye Diggs (playing a newly divorced doctor in the practice) and Tim Daly (Walsh’s first love interest on the show, but I’m sure not the last) were simply working off their ABC contracts that began on other, now-canceled shows. The portrayals of alternative medicine were unfortunate and too much forced zaniness.

ABC's eagerly awaited spinoff of "Grey's Anatomy" initially qualifies as a disappointment -- hitting completely familiar medical-drama beats while pursuing a whimsical tone it never fully achieves.

Kate Walsh seemed like a guest star in what should be her show.

Even with Walsh's star sizzle and an attractive, talented supporting cast that includes Tim Daly, Amy Brenneman, Taye Diggs and Audra McDonald, Rhimes still hasn't found her spinoff's storytelling groove

The good news is that the show's first non-"Grey's" episode is a decided improvement and recaptures the sense of humor that the mothership seemed to lose last season. The bad news is that as a medical show, it's so predictable that anyone who's watched any David E. Kelley show in the past 15 years or so, from "Chicago Hope" to "Boston Legal," will see certain plot points coming a mile (or two) away.

Tonight's opening episode is somewhat better than the pilot, although it's clear there is still work to be done in defining the characters and setting an overall tone.

The premiere showcases seven different women, doctors and their patients, in various states of anger, insecurity and neediness. It’s like a Hogarth engraving of the seven stages of womanly despair, “A Surgeon’s Progress.”

The pleasure to be extracted from Private Practice--well, not so much pleasure as cringey curiosity--resides entirely in trying to figure out what's really going on inside the actors' heads as they skip through this latest Adults Are the New Spoiled Brats fantasy from "Grey's Anatomy" creator Shonda Rhimes.

The problem is that Private Practice attempts to drum up comedy from things that aren’t funny and to wring drama from situations that are melodramatic, predictable or reek of barely repressed anger.

Private Practice manages to turn the viewer off in an entirely different way from the moment it starts.

While the series created by Shonda Rhimes brings some outstanding performers like Amy Brenneman and Audra McDonald back to weekly TV, tonight's season opener is not very appealing.

Fans of Grey's Anatomy femme fatale Addison Montgomery may find her a little dull now that she doesn't have a husband or boyfriend or intern to cheat on or with in ABC's spin-off Private Practice.