What I'm Watching: Royal Pains

Royal Pains: Season 2, Episode 2 “Lovesick” (B+)

For a company that’s not doing well financially, HankMed still seems to be keeping up their caseload pretty impressively. It does help, of course, to have insanely wealthy clients willing to put their full trust in you. The return of the eccentric Ms. Newberg is supplemented by the introduction of her stepdaughter Blake, played by Mary Lynn Rajskub in what is likely her first semi-normal cinematic role. After spending five years playing Chloe, a character once described as having a “personality disorder,” on “24,” it’s refreshing to see Rajskub succeed at playing a yoga-obsessed but still more functional character. The predictable pattern of the elder Lawson’s behavior hasn’t gotten stale because he continues to be entertaining in his failure to keep to his word, and having him become the new muse of Ms. Newberg is definitely going to make for some hilarity in the coming episode(s). Evan ordering all of his HankMed bobbleheads and associated gear is very fun, and I especially enjoyed Jill’s delight at seeing them. An unexpected pleasure was the conversation between Jill and Divya which led to a nice step forward for Divya in her own subplot. I loved how Hank and Jill aren’t able to keep their hands off each other, but that closing garage door had to come right up when their rekindling of their romance had to be put on hold to deal with a medical emergency. The storyline involving the couple with similar rashes proved to be quite engaging and enjoyable, and the reactions from Divya to the wife and Evan to the husband were also great.