Friday, August 3, 2012

What I’m Watching: Royal Pains


Royal Pains: Season 4, Episode 8 “Manimal” (B)

The widened HankMed staff means that there’s the potential for a whole lot to be going on in a given hour, and the most memorable HankMed staffer, Dr. Sacani, wasn’t even present in this episode. Truth be told, however, this installment was pretty over-the-top, with a diabetic dog, a rabbit-inspired drunken night, a scene involving doctors milking a cow to clean a tooth, and a final romantic scene not befitting Hank’s personality at all. It was jarring to see a facial hair-free Andy Milder, best known for playing Dean Hodes on “Weeds,” as the kind-hearted vet with a love for animals and a distaste for his ex-wife. The comparisons between his work and what Hank does were interesting, and decently accurate. Back at Shadow Pond, Hank managed the impossible – to get Dmitri to actually take care of himself, and it won him points with both Boris and Christina. After her forceful advances last week, he’s picked up some of that aggression and managed to give her one hell of a date on Boris’ tab. It will be intriguing to see what Evan and the rest of the staff thinks of that once it makes news. Dr. Van Dyke coming in drunk to work wasn’t entirely out of character, but crying over his dead rabbit didn’t exactly seem like him. Holding a rabbit funeral on the beach was an amusing if ridiculous ending to that strange saga, and I enjoyed watching everyone, especially concerned daughter Paige, scatter as the cop drove towards them.

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