Private Practice Starring Kate Walsh

At the end of last season's Grey's Anatomy, smart and sexy Dr. Addison Forbes Montgomery (played by Kate Walsh) checked out of Seattle Grace Hospital and headed for private medical co-op the Oceanside Wellness Group, telling a disgruntled Richard "I want a change, I need a change, and this is how I'm going to get it. In LA, at that practice, with those people."

As Addison said goodbye to gray Seattle skies and arrived in warm and sunny Los Angeles, her hopes were high and so were ours. Critics and viewers expected that the Grey's Anatomy spinoff starring Kate Walsh would be the smartest, most sophisticated, and satisfying new show of the fall TV season.

Instead, we got Private Practice, a disappointing show that so far has proved unworthy of the considerable talents of Kate Walsh, Tim Daly, and the other fine actors in the cast.

The first episode of Private Practice began on a shaky note. After a flashback to last season--when Addison resigned from Seattle Grace to change her life--we fast forward to Dr. Montgomery getting out of the shower. The gray, sad sack vibe of Seattle has been replaced by sunny skies, beaches, and pop music. An attractive redhead emerges from her shower, snapping her fingers and bopping around to the music, eventually dropping her towel to dance naked in front of a window. I rub my eyes in disbelief. Can this be the same sophisticated, sultry Addison of Grey's Anatomy? Perhaps she has a beautiful twin who is a free spirit and likes to boogie down?

That set the tone for the rest of the show, and it only goes downhill from here. We soon meet the rest of the doctors at the Oceanside Wellness Group, a group that on the outside, seems to have its act together. But on the inside, this is one dysfunctional staff.