Sunday, August 14, 2011

What I’m Watching: Royal Pains


Royal Pains: Season 3, Episode 7 “Ta Da For” (B+)

For all its Hamptons antics, this show hasn’t before actually directly involved a real celebrity, as far as I can remember. It’s fun to have Matt Lauer on board, but it’s important to remember that the well-known host isn’t an actor, and therefore having him deliver sexual innuendo after sexual innuendo when he runs into Evan in the supermarket is a decently painful experience. Similarly, having Hank completely combust on camera is an unfortunate reminder that Mark Feuerstein isn’t an extraordinarily gifted actor, and asking him to appear flustered doesn’t produce exceptional results. Tony Hale, on the other hand, is a far more qualified guest, and he was entirely amusing as a magician, and I like how he immediately approached Hank after learning he was a doctor but then refused to stop trying to pull off tricks and take care of himself. I’ll try not to forget his advice: “Never do ta-da, it speaks for the moment when the moment should speak for itself.” Evan’s search for Lauer was amusing, particularly when he broke the antique carousel horse and then ended up having to pay for it. I enjoyed seeing Jill cough to get rid of Divya at the hospital so that Hank didn’t see her. Divya’s stint at Hamptons Heritage is proving to be less wonderful than she might have hoped, though I’m impressed that she was able to suck it up and apologize to the rather young doctor played by Kyle Howard. It’s about time she had a new love interest, so I’m curious to see what becomes of that.

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