We'll miss you, Royal Pains! - TV-News - EZTV

Monday 28th of May 2012 23:28:10 EST

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We'll miss you, Royal Pains!	Royal Pains	Login to vote
After last night's chock-full-o'-cliffhangers finale, waiting 'til the show returns next summer will be tough. Dr. Hank Lawson is what Gregory House would be if House weren't a handicapped, drug-addicted, mentally ill misanthrope. Hank is a skilled doctor with a strong moral code who treats diagnoses like mysteries. But that's where the similarities between House and Hank, and House and Royal Pains, end. The latter, USA's ginormous summer hit, wrapped up its first season last night and remained true to form. It's a harmless, distracting summer confection that we can't help wanting more of. When Royal Pains premiered, critics wrote it off as completely ignorant to the current economic climate thanks to its depiction of the Hamptons as an even more ostentatious playground for rich people than it actually was before the recession. This may be true, but it doesn't matter. Royal Pains is about the Hamptons in the same way that Dallas was about the city. Even if, at times, the format can seem repetitive in a way that House rarely is, it's not nearly as heavy on the Serious Melodrama, which makes it a perfect summer show: light and quick, with a good-looking cast going about their business amidst a backdrop of impeccable landscaping. Though at times we found it kind of boring, when we saw, during the credits, that it won't be returning until next summer, we felt a stronger sense of loss than we are really prepared to admit. It might be a TV-based form of Stockholm Syndrome, but we are now invested in the various cliffhangers set up last night. And about those cliffhangers (spoiler alert, obviously): The one we knew was coming was the state of Divya's engagement to Raj. It was clear from the words "arranged marriage" -- not to mention Divya and Evan's season-long flirting by way of hating each other -- that Raj and Divya's forced engagement was not to be. So we weren't surprised when Divya stood up in front of all her friends and family and broke it off. But we were a little surprised when this turned out to be a dream sequence (daydream sequence?) and that Divya actually went through with the engagement. And it didn't stop there. Jill finally kicked Charlie to the curb -- but not before Charlie was able to give Hank the impression that he had moved back in with her. And Evan bankrupted the company by putting all of HankMed's money into an investment scam. Evan left the guesthouse -- presumably to try and get the money back -- and the episode ended with Hank discovering that the scammer was their father. Oh, and Boris still has that weird disease that needs to be cured by a shark. This is a lot to leave unresolved until next year. Who do they think they are, Lost? Royal Pains derives much of its charm from Mark Feuerstein, an actor whose face, if not name, you knew before this summer. We always liked him as Cliff Calley on The West Wing, and are happy to see him find success on Royal Pains. He seems to always get cast as a stoic moral paragon -- something about his manner and speaking voice just makes you want to be a better person -- and Hank is a perfect fit for him. Hank's a guy who always tries to do the right thing, and in the current TV landscape -- where every hero seems to have an obligatory vice -- it's sort of refreshing to see a protagonist whose primary flaw is his insistence on remaining ethical and righteous. And it is a flaw: the Hamptons of Royal Pains is not a place where people are generally interested in playing by the rules. The central theme of the show, which manifests itself in characters like Boris and Tucker's father, seems to be that if you want to be successful, you're probably going to have to be a little bit shady. And that is something Hank is incapable of. When he suffers for it, the show is at its best. Don't get us wrong, we love House and all his imperfections, but we're also going to miss Hank

Written by: latifa [28th Aug 09, 20:57]