Grant Show

Private Practice is back and more intense than ever. The patients in this week's episode are actually more compelling to me than the doctors' lives — save for maybe Pete's little romance with Idina Menzel, and that's just because I like Idina so much.

Violet is now super-pregnant and nobody knows who the dad is, Addison is completely unable to avoid Noah and is once again paired with him on a medical case, and Naomi grapples with an offer that might be too good to refuse. Oh and there's a marriage proposal. Ready to talk about it? Just read more

You know what? I really enjoyed myself while watching this week's episode of Private Practice. There's good stuff going on, including Dell's self-destructive downward spiral into the world of ladies who wear ripped-up stretch pants, Violet and Charlotte's BFF relationship morphing into more of a frenemies situation, Idina Menzel, and a pregnant tween. Oh, and Addison and Noah are still working hard not to boink each other to save a baby. Ready to chat? Just read more

I feel really lukewarm about this week's episode of Private Practice. On the one hand, there are surprisingly cute moments, including the budding friendship between Charlotte and Violet. On the other hand, there's a lame, super-crazy patient who I stopped caring about halfway through the episode.

And then, somewhere in the middle, there is this flirtation between Addison and Noah, the doctor married to Addison's pregnant patient. Last week I was annoyed that Addison would enter into a cheating type of relationship again, given her history, but now I'm mostly weirded out by Noah. I'll tell you why if you read more

This week, Private Practice is back with a new love interest for Addison that I find really frustrating, but we'll get into more of that later.

On the other side of the spectrum is Naomi who is still coping with the fact that Archer broke her heart, and she dives headlong into meddling in Sam's relationship with Sonya (but kind of in a good way). Other than that, it's same old same old: Violet doesn't know who the father of her kid is, Cooper and Charlotte have a hard time loving each other, etc. To chat about it, read more

After a couple weeks of serious cross-over drama, Private Practice pretty much gets back to normal on this week's episode. Of course, there are issues with a patient's baby, plus a small cancer patient side story for Pete. The real drama, though, centers around Archer apparently feeling well enough to get up to no good with the ladies, just as Naomi assumes they're boyfriend and girlfriend. Oh — and a serious Charlotte/Cooper twist goes down that will likely alter their already tenuous relationship. Ready to talk about it? Just read more

With a special crossover event comes a special crossover recap! On this week's two-hour Grey's Anatomy/Private Practice combo, Addison and Naomi (and eventually Sam) take Archer to Seattle Grace in the hopes that Derek can treat the parasites in Archer's brain. The old med school friends reminisce about the lives they used to have, before divorces and children and those other complicated things.

Meanwhile, Cristina learns about Owen's mystery woman, Alex starts to suspect something is really wrong with Izzie, and — back in Santa Monica — Violet faces one of her biggest fears about motherhood. Ready to talk about it? Just read more

After this week's Grey's Anatomy ends with Addison making an urgent phone call to Derek, we slide right into Private Practice, which repeats that phone call from Addison's perspective. The rest of the episode then shifts into flashback, as we relive the 14 hours before Addison's panicked call. To talk about it, just read more

Tonight's TV landscape is filled with lots of reruns — seems like most networks are saving up their good stuff for February sweeps — but there's one bright spot on ABC with a new episode of Private Practice.

Last week's emotional episode nearly sent me over the edge after a night of weepy TV, but the first clips from tonight's episode are more sassy than sad. Addison's left wondering why on earth Archer would come back to Santa Monica (and take a job with a competitor, no less), and Violet contemplates her pregnancy while finding out that both potential fathers aren't too keen on children.

Also of note: It sounds like Wyatt's gone for good, which is kind of a bummer, even though I know Jay Harrington had another show to attend to. I was really starting to like his relationship with Addison. But I guess she's got brother issues to deal with right now — not to mention her forthcoming trip to Seattle Grace. Maybe a little singledom isn't so bad. To check out some clips from tonight's episode, just read more

Grant Show is one of those actors who's been a part of my life ever since I can remember having crushes. The Beverly Hills, 90210 episode where he waltzed in as Kelly Taylor's love interest/carpenter is clear as day to me, and it's also what launched the show's steamer, nuttier '90s spinoff, Melrose Place.

Well, the '90s moved on, and so did Show. Most recently, he played the big-hearted Tom on CBS's Swingtown, and tonight, he'll make his debut on Private Practice for the first installment of his multiepisode arc as Addison's brother Archer (how great are those sibling names?). He was gracious enough to let me chat him up about this new character, the fate of Swingtown, and his thoughts on the Melrose Place reboot. Here are highlights:

How did you get involved with Private Practice? Did you know Shonda Rhimes?
I do now! They were looking for someone to play Addison's brother. I just went in and met them — I had never met them before — just sat down . . . and as it turned out, the kind of character I was looking to play was what they wanted out of this guy, so it just kind of worked out. I've been playing Tom, who's this sexual character, he's a nice guy, he's a good guy . . . So I wanted to play that kind of character just the other side of the coin, not such a nice guy, and that's kind of what they were looking for in Archer.

Was it a relief to toss the mustache?
Yeah, as soon as they called wrap on the [last] episode of Swingtown, I went into the makeup trailer and shaved it off.

Oh, that was a real mustache?
Yeah, it was really mine. I wore it for a year and half.

To see the rest of our chat (caution: a couple of light spoilers), just read more

At last year's upfronts, I was surprised to see CBS attempting to step out of its crime-procedural-and-laugh-track- comedy box with a couple of shows that sounded distinctly different from anything the network had done in a while. The first was Viva Laughlin and, well, we know how that turned out. The other was Swingtown, set in the socially (and sexually) revolutionary '70s.

Swingtown is finally getting its premiere this Summer, and over the past couple of weeks, CBS has started to promote it — I caught one ad after How I Met Your Mother on Monday. The show centers on Susan and Bruce Miller, who move into a ritzy Chicago suburb and discover a seedy alluring side to life that they never knew existed. Watching the promo, I'm having trouble imagining CBS's typically older demographic reacting well to this — but I certainly want to see more. Banishing a series to the Summer typically means it isn't very good (unless it's on cable), but with more networks talking about programming year-round, maybe Swingtown can be an exception.

Besides its thematic resemblance to one of my favorite movies (The Ice Storm), Swingtown has at least one other cool thing going for it: Liz Phair is doing the soundtrack. Melrose Place fans also might get a kick out of seeing Grant Show in the ensemble. Does Swingtown intrigue you as much as it does me? To check out the trailer, just read more