Review: Royal Pains – Complete Collection
DVD: Royal Pains – Complete Collection (2009 – 16)
Hank (Mark Feurstein) is a young rising star within the New York medical community…until one of his patients dies. This puts both his career and his personal life into turmoil, and so his younger brother Evan (Paulo Costanzo) takes Hank on a trip to The Hamptons for a holiday weekend. While there they crash a party of a local billionaire and one of the guests falls ill. Hank steps in to save the day and is suddenly the hot new ‘concierge doctor’ in town. He decides to stay in the area with his brother and so begins 8 seasons of the life of Hank Lawson.
It has to be said that Royal Pains is beautifully shot, though the locations definitely help to put some visual gloss onto the screen, and the majority of the characters are of course ‘easy on the eyes’.
The characters throughout the entire series are well fleshed out with some great story arcs. Hank’s assistant (later changed to ‘associate’) Divya (Reshma Shetty) is the heartbeat of the medical practice, and her Indian heritage brings in many family orientated storylines.
I have to admit that it was a thrill to see Henry Winkler appear on my screen yet again. After being a huge fan of Happy Days back in the 70’s, I’ve recently seen him in Parks and Recreation and Arrested Development. Here he appears as the Father of Hank and Evan and is as wonderful as ever.
With more subplots than you can shake a stethoscope at, Royal Pains zips along from episode to episode, introducing characters, locations and storylines at a rate that keeps you glued to the screen, all the while keeping entirely invested into the main characters trials and tribulations.
Medical dramas seem to be ten a penny on television screens worldwide, but Royal Pains has its own individual charm that hooks you in and keeps you watching, and is also a pleasant change from the more violent television viewing that usually grabs me by the retinas.
Royal Pains isn’t just about the rich and beautiful though, it also shows how the not so affluent Americans can struggle to get medical attention when needed, and Hank and his team do their best to see them right too…leading to more intertwining stories and character interaction.
With a good balance of humour and drama, Royal Pains surprised me be keeping me interested throughout…which is more than can be said for a lot of other television series that I’ve tried to stick with. This fabulous boxset is made even better with the inclusion of entertaining commentary tracks, deleted scenes, gag reels and much more. Also watch out for a plethora of special guest star appearances.
If Royal Pains passed you by, then this is the ideal way to step into the glitzy world at The Hamiltons.
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Review by Dave (host of 60 Minutes With) from discs kindly supplied by Fabulous Films.
