Animal Practice

I had high hopes for this show because, well, there's a monkey on the regular cast! I loved Justin Kirk in Weeds and I think he's much more believable as a lovable F-Up than as a "Scrubs" Dr. Cox wanna-be.

I also think it's weird to cast Bobby Lee as Japanese- American - why couldn't he just be Korean-American? And the lead female character has no personality at all - no tension to hold the viewer's attention about a potential romance between her and the Justin Kirk character because she is so bland and uninteresting. More fun to imagine him with the freaky Angela....

The whole show is a cute concept but nothing rings true - very two-dimensional.

Laugh out loud commentary on human behavior. I agree with prior reviews that this is a smart comedy. I haven't laughed out loud from a TV show that much in a while. Every line and scene is well thought out and clever.

It almost seems like a guilty pleasure to be able to watch it. I tend to be a sarcastic person myself. Maybe that's part of the appeal to me. There are multitudes of such moments.

I should point out that this show has definitely grown on me with each episode. Each character adds depth and dimension.

I highly recommend this show!

I loved it myself and thought it was such a shame it got canceled... at last something different and funny on TV. It seems weird that a lot of good shows for me are getting off the air, when some of the ones that remain seem so boring but still get 2nd or 3rd season. Each one to their tastes I suppose... but shame for Animal Practice, I really wished it would have gone on...

I really liked Common Law also, different kind of humor for a police show, but again it didn't last when it has good ratings on websites. The Whole Truth was another one that I thought would have gone on, funny as it stopped mid-season in the US but was shown in full in France this year. I guess series that have not made it in the US are cheaper to buy for foreigners. They never tell you the series has already got canceled before they show it though !

The current average score for this show is 5.4 which seems somewhat unfair considering 'How I Met Your Mother' has a 8.5 average score and should have been put to rest a long time ago.

Animal Practice is showing on ITV2 in the UK and has a good time slot of 8pm and deservingly so. It arrived on this channel without much fanfare and I caught sight of it during a channel flick and was lucky to catch the pilot in a re-run slot.

I have not seen anything else of Justin Kirk's work but I like his performance in this. His timing and delivery tread a suitable caustic between the comedy and mild drama elements of the show. I particularly liked the episode where we got to visit his relationship with his mother.

Tyler Labine is a favourite comedy foil from other shows like Reaper and Invasion. His goofball approach is its useful sharp self here and he and Kirk play off each other well.

The lack of any hint of a laugh track also helps the watcher also make their own judgment on what works and what doesn't and I find myself laughing at the intended point with ease.

The final icing on the cake for me is the comedic use of 'Dr' Rizzo. Is this character what got the show cancelled? Is there too much reliance on Rizzo? Maybe, but I can't say that seven episodes in Rizzo grates on me. In fact I enjoy the Rizzo moments greatly.

I see that the show got canned after eight episodes in the US, ITV2 will at least be showing all thirteen and I will be watching until the end.

7/10.

Dr. George Coleman (Justin Kirk) is the top veterinarian at Crane Animal Hospital in New York. His ex Dorothy Crane (JoAnna Garcia) inherits the business and becomes his new boss. There's also a monkey.

I can't decide if this was way too stupid or not stupid enough. Maybe an over the top parody isn't expected to work on the networks and that's why they held back some. But if you put a monkey as a main character, you might as well go all the way. I love the actors here. If not for them, I'd probably never watch this. It didn't help that NBC advertised it so hard. It was never going to be a broad based hit.