Private Practice (TV Series) (DVD)

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6) "Serving Two Masters." Okay, this one is just plain kinky. Addison treats two pregnant women who have the same husband, but don't know it.

7) "Tempting Faith." A patient who's accused of a violent crime causes trouble, and Addison's brother causes trouble for her when he visits unexpectedly. Call it the trouble episode.

8) "Crime and Punishment." A patient may have murdered his wife, and a pregnant woman is in a coma. Need anything more to fill 50 minutes?

9) "Know When to Fold." Pacific Wellcare opens up in the same building, and the rivalry begins. Given the health care debate, this episode just seems crass as hell.

10) "World Apart." Pete's girlfriend returns and decides that he and Violet have become a little more chummier than she's comfortable with. Meanwhile, Cooper encounters a diabetic boy whose past is more disturbing than the disease.

11) "Contamination." Measles force a quarantine.

12) "Homeward Bound." Addison gets wandering eyes for a doctor at the rival wellness center, and Violet double-dates . . . with two different guys, who have no idea she's doing that.

13) "Nothing to Fear." Violet is pregnant, and guess who's the father? Uh, that's pretty much the point of the episode.

14) "Second Chances." Cooper acts as go-between as he helps Violet figure out how to approach the two candidates for fatherhood.

15) "Acceptance." A patient is abandoned, Archie has a seizure, and Violet faces the music.

16) "Ex-Life." Sam has an asthma attack, Addison helps Derek save a pregnant patient, and a mother suffering from post-partum depression tries to kill her baby.

17) "Wait and See." Addison wonders whether Archer and Naomi's "thing" is real. He does, after all, have a history.

18) "Finishing." More relationships and flirting among the cast; meanwhile, the two maybe-dads try to get Violet to take a paternity test.

19) "What Women Want." Not anyone from this crowd, I'm guessing. But it's a misleading title. Women want to be loved and to live, and there are several this episode who are in jeopardy of neither.

20) "Do the Right Thing." Pete starts dating a single mother, and Violet (get this) gets jealous.

21) "What You Do for Love." A pregnant woman with heart problems gets some help, and the whole Pete-Violet thing gets more complicated.

22) "Yours, Mine and Ours." Violet has to choose between the two, while Naimi has to choose whether to stay at Oceanside.

As I said, if you like "Grey's Anatomy, " you'll like this show. But you have to be a fan of melodrama, and you can't be a stickler for verisimilitude. At best, this show is a guilty pleasure, and what makes it so is the likable ensemble.

Video:
"Private Practice" is presented in 1.78:1 widescreen and "enhanced" for 16x9 televisions. Colors are bright, there's no bleed on the edges--even with reds or oranges--and the level of detail is pretty good for a DVD. Shadows are murky, but then again, I don't know of too many standard def releases that offer more.

Audio:
The audio is also decent, with an English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround delivering a nice balanced soundtrack that deftly modulates the dialogue, effects, and background music. As with Season 1, the rear speakers don't get as much involvement as on most big-screen releases, but there's a nice wide spread along the front mains. Subtitles are in French and Spanish.

Extras:
In addition to extended episodes for "Crime and Punishment" and "Nothing to Fear," there are deleted scenes with optional commentary by creator Shonda Rhimes and executive producer Betsy Beers for "A Family Thing" (two scenes), "Equal and Opposite" (one), "Nothing to Talk About" (two), "Past Tense" (one), "Let It Go" (one), "Know When to Fold" (two), "Worlds Apart" (one), "Contamination" (two), "Homeward Bound" (four). "Second Chances" (one), "Wait and See" (one), "Finishing" (one), "What Women Want" (one), and "What You Do for Love" (three).

Then there's a blooper reel, a Season Two round-up ("Patient Confidentiality: Examining Season 2") that functions as a making-of bonus feature, and a curious but fascinating "Life through the Lens: The Pictures of Chris Lowell." Lowell is an actor, but he's also a great photographer, and this little bonus feature shows black-and-whites of his photography and testimonials from fellow cast members.

Bottom Line:
Engaging characters and warm performances--especially from Walsh and Daly--blunt the pain of familiarity and contrivance. But for my taste, "Private Practice" is a pill that's sometimes too hard to swallow. It remains so in Season 2.