While New York City is reeling from the one-two punch from the loss of Ugly Betty and then Law and Order, New York theater actors grieving over all those small roles that were the staple of their diets, it is a comfort that there are still some television series filmed here. Royal Pains, the USA Network's comedy-drama about a concierge doctor to the Hamptons elite, is shot not only on location in and around the end of Long Island, but also films its set work in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. It's a long way west down the L.I. Expressway to industrial Greenpoint and the sleight of hand guest house of an oceanfront mansion, but isn't that the charm of television?
Off to a strong start last year, Royal Pains, described by USA Network as having "the best performing freshman year of a cable series ever," returns tonight for a 16-episode season two. When little changes in the story from week to week in its location (the Hamptons), its action (curing the disease of the week), and in time (just about now and always summer), the success of Royal Pains will rely on more nuanced character this season.
Last year, the series set up the unlikely story of Hank Lawson (the charismatic Mark Feuerstein), a disgraced physician who is sent into a luxurious exile to the Hamptons after making the heroic decision to save the life of a young hood rather than the millionaire benefactor of his employer hospital. Hank becomes a "concierge doctor to the rich, an on call doctor to the rest of us - a Robin Hood of medicine" in the words of sometime love interest and hospital administrator (Jill Flint as Jill Casey) because there always has to be a doctor to hospital administrator love line. Right, House?
Based on the real-life medical practices of independent doctors in a not-so-real life (at least to most of us) location, Royal Pains at times in the first season depended on the cliched comic foil of the hapless younger brother Evan (Paulo Costanzo) to the saintly older brother. Producer-writer Michael Rauch acknowledges the one-dimensional aspect of the Royal Pains lead - "he's perfection really." Perfection can be downright boring. With the introduction of Henry Winkler as the brothers' cad of a father, some messy imperfections will liven up this medical procedural. According to Raunch, Hank will be a more subtle character in light of the demands made by his father to confront both the Lawson family past and present.
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Article comments
1 - Concerned USA fan
Wish USA wouldn't come up with these half-cocked social comedies that lack substance. I agree, perfection IS boring, and the innocence of all the characters really really drags the show. The first few episodes made it all seem interesting, how many people in the Hamptons are "Goody goody" the majority of em are all messed up with drugs, or some kind of money issue, wish they would bring that more into the fray. I suppose not though.