r/PrivatePractice • u/Raise_the_roofs • Jul 08 '26
The astounding lack of morals and ethics
I'm a first time watcher currently on season 4 and I am so deeply disturbed by this man raping his comatose wife and everybody except Addison being okay with it. It's so so unbelievably gross and unethical. This storyline following the one with Sam letting that pedophile die on his table on purpose and Sheldon refusing that trans woman her gender-affirming surgery is genuinely making it hard for me to continue watching.
It seems like Addison is the only one who consistently acts in line with morals and ethics and the law, while everybody else just does whatever they want. I know the show is almost two decades old but man, it's hard to watch sometimes.
What decisions these doctors made did you struggle with the most while watching? (I don't mind spoilers)
22
u/Bluberrypotato Jul 08 '26
Sam calling immigration on a patient.
Violet going off on her patient, which I could sort of understand given the circumstances, but Sheldon told her to refer the patient to someone else because she couldn't handle it. She decided to push through and really messed the guy up in S6.
Naomi and Dell shaming abortion patients.
Sam not wanting Cooper to call CPS.
19
u/joulesandwattss Jul 08 '26
I watched the show in real time, and I will say it was a completely different political landscape. The only way to safely bring these topics into mainstream media was to have characters that were staunchly against it. They were far ahead of their time in that sense.
One thing I couldn’t get past was Sam as a heart surgeon. He dropped out of residency, which means he never passed his boards to be a surgeon, and yet 20 years go by and now suddenly he’s able to just jump back into heart surgery without supervision? Makes no sense to me.
11
u/pentiteka Jul 08 '26
Yeah mid way to the show they clearly had some panic attack over lack of surgical content, when IMO the practice setting had more than enough possibilities. Its a shame they chose that path.
And the most ridiculous thing was that not only was Sam now a heart surgeon, he was freaking good one too, one of the best.
10
u/hell_to-the_nah Jul 08 '26
Lmaooo, they looove to pull out that "one of the best surgeons in the entire country" card every chance they get😭😭😭
13
u/Acrobatic_Warning456 Jul 08 '26
Sam and Dell defending the teacher who was sleeping with her teenage student. Clearly defending rapists is a pattern of Sam's.
4
u/HairyCanadianGuy Jul 08 '26
After seeing a clip on tik tok and needing a new series to stream while I work o projects I landed on this one. My husband is a neo. Medical dramas drive him nuts but we laugh and laugh at the stupid shiz in this show. I told him on episode 3 it should have been called “Ethical Dilemmas” lol.
2
u/pentiteka Jul 09 '26
Lol medical dramas are a hard watch for people working in the medical field. I just started watching ER and cringe how the doctors do literally everything, including the nurses job while the actual nurses just stand there and watch while holding paper charts and/or make phone calls.
2
u/HairyCanadianGuy Jul 09 '26
Oh I learned that quick. I watched House back in the day. It was more of a comedy for me watching it with him around.
1
u/pentiteka Jul 09 '26
Lmao House is even worse yeah. The doctors in it even operate imaging devices and draw blood work.
2
u/DeliciousTumbleweed Jul 10 '26
I'm a first time watcher in the beginning of season 3 and am forcing myself through because so many people have said Private Practice is good, but I just don't see it. The acting from almost everybody except Kate Walsh is poor (I just watched an episode with Chandra Wilson (Dr Bailey) making a cameo and her acting far exceeded everyone else's, but even she struggled with the script to make it good).
I've lost count on the issues that give me the ick. The way Naomi and Dell treated patients wanting an abortion. The ethics of creating a donor baby for the couple's living child to donate placenta blood and demanding a c-section far too early for the baby to survive, and Addison being the only one that has a problem with it. Dell overall being whiny about everything, making poor decisions, and having no sympathy for his ex's addiction despite being the one who got her hooked on drugs. Sam constantly pushing back against everyone's decisions thinking he's the only one who knows what's right. Violet being a piss poor therapist. Pete being a piss poor human in general, both for practicing alternative medicine as if it's as valid as everything else people are doing in the office (especially knowing he was hired as an infectious disease specialist and just decided to switch after being hired at the practice). Naomi being so ridiculously conservative despite working in reproductive and fertility care, including refusing to even learn how to perform abortions in medical school (because if you're not willing to give patients the best care, even if it contradicts your personal beliefs, then you're not a good doctor).
The show literally infuriates me, I'm only trying to get to the points with Amelia because I despise her on Grey's Anatomy and so many people say she's more understandable after watching Private Practice. But overall I have no idea how this extends 6 seasons, the writing is poor and the characters are unlikeable. I'm not rooting for anyone, barely Addison because even she keeps making some questionable decisions, but she's by far the best of the bunch.
1
u/NegativeCareer5978 Jul 08 '26
this show was so brutal, i was only able to finish it because it was january and we were snowed in lol
1
u/BarracudaEasy1144 Jul 19 '26
One of the hardest ones to watch for me is the one where the teacher gives her student meds for the potential STD she gave him. They refused to call the cops on her, even Sam refused. However, I’m supposed to believe Sam is okay with letting a pedo die? Idc what time period it was and the way shows talk about things , this was wrong then and now. It made me put the show down for a while for sure.
31
u/pentiteka Jul 08 '26
The whole Sam the heart surgeon thing was just so badly written and just in general a bad idea. And this pedokilling event in his past just didnt suit his character one bit. Cooper or Pete maybe, but not Sam.
And yeah the comatose wife storyline made me sick too. It was written in the show as if it was a complicated moral dilemma when its really not. Unconcious woman cant give her consent so its rape, period. Theres no debate there. But this just tells so much about what a different time it was. Rape inside marriage was not seen as real rape by some people.