DVD Review: Private Practice Season Two

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The first season of Private Practice was panned, over looked by critics and, to an extent, audiences alike. Everybody – critics, audiences, Shonda, and even ABC itself – knew that Private Practice needed tweaking. The second season provides these tweaks and, in turn, creates one of the most compelling dramas on television.

The thing that makes Private Practice so fantastic, beyond its incredibly likeable cast, is that each episode deals with a tough ethical issue. The show is comprised of the grey areas of life – the areas where there are no rights and no wrongs, and this is what makes the show so utterly compelling. The group of Oceanside doctors feel like a family, but they take no issue in sparring with each other over the tough decisions they face, tearing the viewer between one side of the issue and the other. It’s this challenge to the audience that makes Private so much fun to watch, because the show lets you pick a side for each issue, but doesn’t make the ride there easy.

Private Practice‘s second season takes some honestly very shocking turns; there is a lot of story packed into these twenty-two episodes and not a single moment is boring. The writing is smart and the storylines are genuine, which is really a testament to the writing staff and the cast, who bring so much life to the characters they play.

Season Two provides so much joy, so much laughter, and so much drama that its hard to look away. And the season’s final episode packs such a punch – one that spins the show in a complete one-hundred and eighty degree direction, proving that Private Practice is far from over.

The DVD

This second season set for Private Practice is fantastic in that the packaging matches that of the first season’s set exactly. Although the places where the first set slipped up – that being the strange, awful orange color – is where the second set becomes wonderful. The blue theme for season two is really a beautiful color choice and it looks awesome. The inside packaging is just as great as the outside – great images are chosen for the flaps and be sure to take a peek behind where the discs are housed: there are some great images from the show behind them as well. I wasn’t a huge fan of the disc art design on season one’s set and unfortunately the same design is kept for season two’s set, although, again, the blue color choice makes the design look much better. The menus are similar to that of season one’s set, but I think that season two’s menu design looks much better – it’s a very pretty design and features some great moments from the show’s second season.

Audio & Video

Private Practice is shot in beautiful HD like sister show Grey’s Anatomy, but Private features a much more warmer color palette than that of Grey’s and that makes the show look really, really great. The audio is great as well, especially considering all of the layers of audio worked into a show such as Private Practice.

The Extras

The second season set of Private Practice features two extended episodes – and they are very heavily extended at that. The first one is episode 208 “Crime and Punishment,” which is extended by about ten minutes to a running time of 50 minutes. I’ll confess, it’s been so long since I’ve seen the episode that I really couldn’t tell what had been added because everything seemed so vital to the episode. The second episode that is extended is 213 “Nothing to Fear,” and it is extended by an astounding twenty minutes, so that the episode ends up clocking in at a full hour. Again, it’s an episode I haven’t seen in a long while so I’m not sure just what was added back into the episode, although I have a feeling that with twenty extra minutes of footage added, avid fans will easily find the new extensions.

A small collection of other features are housed on the set’s sixth disc. The first one is “Patient Confidentiality: Examining Season Two,” which I actually found to be pretty interesting. Through interviews with Shonda Rhimes, Betsy Beers, adorable Amy Brenneman, Paul Adelstein, and Tim Daly, we get a look at the idea behind what makes season two tick. I actually found it interesting some of the things the actors had to say about the storylines given to them, but they all seemed genuinely pleased with the direction of the show in the second season.

Next up is a blooper reel, which is a little on the short side, but shows how much fun this cast has on the set with each other. The cast of Private Practice really seems to get along and they really seem to be a family, and that comes across like no other in the blooper reel. The cast is so fantastic and utterly adorable!

There’s a bevy of deleted scenes from various episodes included on the set, all with optional commentary by Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers. It’s easy to understand why the scenes were cut while watching them, while others, of course, I can’t help but wish had actually been in the episode(s).

And finally, there is a feature entitled “Life Through the Lens: The Photos of Chris Lowell.” Most of you are going to want to skip this feature; that I’m sure of because I almost did because it sounded, well, stupid to me. But I decided to check it out nonetheless and I was so pleased I did. Chris Lowell is an AMAZING photographer and has such a great sense of humor, and this feature showcases both of these things. Among the photos shown are some rare, never-before-seen shots of the Private Practice cast that are so neat to see. There’s also a photo snuck in there of TR Knight and Justin Chambers – one that I’m pretty sure was taken at the Good Medicine benefit concert on Leap Day 2008, which is amazing to consider just because I was at that event. This feature is actually well worth watching, so be sure not to skip it.

Unfortunately, the set doesn’t feature any episodic commentaries and the set is also very Kate Walsh-light. She isn’t even interviewed on any of the features, which I know is something you were all wanting to know about.

Final Thoughts

The second season of Private Practice was an utterly amazing season for a show that is quickly earning a big spot in my heart. Though this DVD set is actually a bit light on the features side, the two heavily extended episodes and the Chris Lowell feature with the rare Private cast photos make the set well worth buying. There’s a lot of great stuff to offer coming from this set, so Private Practice: The Complete Second Season easily comes Highly Recommended. Click here to buy this DVD!

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